{"id":286814,"date":"2025-06-11T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T00:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/average-grade-for-comic-books-over-the-years\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T00:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T00:01:02","slug":"average-grade-for-comic-books-over-the-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=286814","title":{"rendered":"Average Grade for Comic Books Over the Years"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Since the beginning of Comics Price Guide in the mid-90s we set the default comic grade at 9.4.\u00a0 The thought process was that the average comic purchased off the shelf would be a 9.4.\u00a0 Industry leaders, comic shop owners, and staff agreed with this assessment.\u00a0 At the time we thought this was a good starting point for collectors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Over the years we have learned that a majority of members use our default grade when entering their collection.\u00a0 We have given collectors the ability to change the grade of their comic to the specific grade they own, but they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 If you only collect 90s to current, your collection value is close to the default grade.\u00a0 No problem.\u00a0 If your collection includes older books, this greatly skews the value as the book gets older.\u00a0 A Golden Age Captain America in 9.4 is shockingly rare and rightfully expensive.\u00a0 A Modern Age Captain America in 9.4 is easy to find and most likely cover price.\u00a0 That disparity sparked the changes that you will soon see.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, we know that the average grade for older books needs to change but to what grade?\u00a0 What is the average grade for a comic from 1954?\u00a0 Or any other year?\u00a0 It was clear, that our mission was to determine the default grade for every year dating back to the beginning.\u00a0 We enlisted industry experts, online comic shop\u00a0sales, and eBay averages by year to determine default grades.\u00a0 For eBay, we only used their data back to 1957 since their sales dropped significantly for Golden Age books.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As expected, the default grades do not follow the comic ages.\u00a0 In the late 60\u2019s and early 70\u2019s, the perception of comic books changed from disposable entertainment to a collectible.\u00a0 This mindset shift caused the average grade to improve from 5.5 to 7.5.\u00a0 There were paper and ink changes in the \u201980s which dramatically changed comic book quality.\u00a0 (We still miss you newsprint comics)\u00a0 In that timeframe, you see major quality improvements and the default grade rises again.\u00a0 When comic production ramped up in late 1990 and early 1991 you see another major jump in quality.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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After looking at 3.4 million data points we have determined what best represents the average comic grade from 1930 to the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Start Year<\/th>\nEnd Year<\/th>\nDefault Grade<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1930<\/td>\n1939<\/td>\n3.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1940<\/td>\n1945<\/td>\n4.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1946<\/td>\n1964<\/td>\n4.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1965<\/td>\n1967<\/td>\n5.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1968<\/td>\n1972<\/td>\n6.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1973<\/td>\n1976<\/td>\n7.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1977<\/td>\n1981<\/td>\n8.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1982<\/td>\n1990<\/td>\n8.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1991<\/td>\n2024<\/td>\n9.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Please join CPG today<\/a> to enjoy the benefits of our research.\u00a0<\/p>\n

by Ron Cloer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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