The first CGC Grading Contest was held at the Wizard World Philadelphia convention Friday, June 19 – Sunday, June 21, 2009 and the results are in with noted high-grade collector Tom Brulato placied first with a score of 67.5 (2.25 per book), Heritage Auction Galleries’ Lon Allen placed second with a score of 70.5 (2.35 per book), and Bob Siman placed third with a score of 73.5 (2.45 per book).
Matt Nelson of
Classics Incorporated, which co-sponsored the contest along with Richard Evans of Bedrock City Comics, said that participants seemed to enjoy the event and they have plans to host similar events at Wizard World Chicago and other conventions.
There were 30 comic books in the contest, and they were certified by CGC as follows: Action Comics #216 5.5 cream to off-white, Amazing Spider-Man #72 8.5 off-white to white, Avengers #53 qualified 8.5 (or 6.5) cream to off-white, Batman #158 8.5 off-white , Battle #24 9.0 off-white, Boris Karloff #26 9.6 cream to off-white, Captain America #127 app 6.5 slight(A) off-white to white, Captain America #201 qualified 9.6 (or 7.0) white, Detective Comics #162 5.5 cream to off-white, Detective Comics #428 app 9.4 trimmed white, Don Winslow #59 8.5 off-white, Fantastic Four #20 app 9.0 slight(A) white, Fantastic Four #197 9.6 off-white to white, Hero for Hire #2 8.5 off-white to white, Incredible Hulk #136 8.5 off-white to white, Jumbo Comics #122 9.0 off-white to white, Justice League of America #53 app 9.4 trimmed off-white, Not Brand Echh #7 8.0 off-white to white, Planet Comics #47 qualified 5.5 replaced staples off-white, Police Comics #75 8.0 off-white to white, Sgt. Fury #29 9.0 off-white to white, Shadow Comics #8/10 7.5 off-white, Startling Comics #52 3.5 cream to off-white, Swamp Thing #10 9.4 off-white to white, Tales of Suspense #55 app 8.5 slight(A) white, Target Comics #3/5 6.5 cream to off-white, Super DC Giant #23 app 8.5 slight(P) off-white to white, Whiz Comics #51 7.0 cream to off-white, X-Men #100 app 9.4 slight(A) white, and X-Men #148 9.6 white.
“For the Qualified books in the batch, we accepted either the qualified grade or the universal grade in parenthesis. Also, if someone accidentally left a grade blank, there was a five-point penalty. If page quality was left blank the penalty was two points,” Nelson said. “People enjoyed participating in the contest, so we plan to do this again in Chicago, Baltimore and the New York Big Apple Con in October. We’d love to hear feedback from those that participated this weekend, and also any suggestions to improve the contest. The results were also posted in the CGC forum.”