Beckett is now grading manga

Does the book slide around inside? It being off to the side would drive me crazy. I also saw your Naruto one as I was looking around eBay the other day. Both look great!

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Love it. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Yes, the manga is not centered in the slab. I don’t understand why. It’s completely stuck. The manga can’t move around so no future damage. It’s completely safe inside.
Already asked BGS why the manga are not centered but no answer for now.

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Well CGC should be releasing their manga grading program at the end of the year, or the beginning of next year :3

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nice news :heart_eyes:

Hmmm as someone who collects + reads manga and comics, im not rly sure id have any interest at all in grading manga. Similar to video games, i mainly collect what I enjoy playing/ reading.

Theres also various sizes of different manga like omnibus, viz sig, vizbig, and then the massive darkhorse deluxes, etc. I wonder how they would approach grading these vastly different size books.

Many people already struggle with space collecting manga, i feel like adding bulky slabs just makes that worse.

Im interested in first printings of like one piece, but i wouldnt want them graded. Idk, im not rly seeing the appeal of grading literally everything, tbh this whole thing kinda made me roll my eyes. And to be honest, this makes me feel like its just gonna further inflate the cost of collecting cool manga.

I collect comics too but i dont own any graded ones (although i think graded comics make more sense to me then manga; i agree with the significance of the covers that pfm said).

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Im not interested in it, but I do really love it because alot of people will speculate the market and that inevitably means that artists will make more money off of sales and theyll get more support even if by a little.

On the flip side, said artists are about to watch a bunch of the shittiest people come clamoring for autographs so they can resell their signed graded manga copies for thousands

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True, but if they charge between 50-100$ for what most autograph signings cost theyll probably be very happy. Makes me wonder if theyd be constricted to certain signings like pokemon artists of that happens.

Just looking at how this market is doing currently. There are roughly 300 listings live on ebay and 100 sold.

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There are 385 results for bgs manga but there’s a lot of contamination by One Piece graded cards. 250 results for bgs manga -"one piece". So let’s say about 300 current listings.

125 sold listings for bgs manga -"one piece" but I still counted 39 card slabs in those results.

4 manga broke $500. Top two sales would be the equivalent of ā€œhypermodernā€ in pokemon

BGS 9.8 - Frieren Vol. 1 :jp: - $1,054 USD

BGS 9.6 - Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1 :jp: - $800 USD (can’t verify on 130point)

BGS 9.8 - Dragon Ball Vol. 38 :jp: - $590 USD

BGS 9.6 - Dragon Ball Vol. 11 :jp: - $590 USD

BGS 9.6 - High School DXD Vol 3 :us: - $400 (it say $999 best offer so not actually over $500, also a pretty random item)


Other notable sales

  • BGS 9.6 -My Hero Academia Vol 1 :jp: - $250 USD

  • BGS 6.0 - Dragon Ball Z Vol 1 :us: - $200 USD

  • BGS 9.8 - Yu-Gi-Oh Vol 1 :jp: - $180, USD $150 USD

  • BGS 8.5 - Bleach Vol 1 :jp: - $175 USD, $100 USD

  • BGS 7.5 - Naruto Vol 1 :jp: - $150 USD, $100 USD, $120 USD (BGS 7.0)

  • BGS 9.8 - Chainsaw Man Vol 1 :jp: - $130 USD

  • BGS 9.4 - Pokemon #24 (has 3 gen 1 starters on it) :jp: - $100 USD

  • BGS 8.5 - Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1 :jp: - $100 USD

  • 22 more between $100-50

  • 10 more between $50-40 (mostly Pokemon, video game manga)

  • 22 more between $40-30 (mostly Pokemon)

  • 22 under $30 (someone took a bath on auctioning a lot of Pokemon manga)

Keep in mind, the cost of grading each book is $30USD. Plus shipping to BGS and return shipping, plus ebay fees (which may be higher than expected, because they include the shipping fee which also tends to be closer to $20 for these listings -$6 on a $30 sale with $20 shipping). Plus the cost of the actual book, which is probably low to be honest. The majority of sold listings were at a loss or barely breaking even just on grading fee alone.

It does seem if you have the correct set of things aligning right you can make money. Very high grade, 1st edition, Japanese, very modern and popular IP. Older popular shonen manga make up most of the supply on the market right now and are really overpriced. A lot of lower grade in the 8.5 range is available, so I don’t think people are being selective enough about what they send in. I also think people are misreading the market. It’s like they are targeting people who collect cards but I think if this market does develop more, it will be more similar to the waifu market in Pokemon. It’s not surprising to me that Frieren is on the top. If it was 2008 it would be Haruhi Suzumiya. In other words, IP with women > IP with men.

Currently I would say the market is just non-existent and there are a decent number of people jumping in to trying to sell these but not many buyers paying attention or interested.

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The list prices of most of them when I search ā€œBGS mangaā€ is pretty crazy. While it would be cool to have the Big 3 Vol 1, its just not something I think I would actively seek out.

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No offense to anyone who is into manga, just speaking to the market side, graded Manga lacks appeal. I’m not surprised there isn’t a ton of demand. Even graded video games have significantly cooled off.

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This is untrue but I know you are old.

Manga dwarfs western comics (especially superhero) in the west. In Japan alone it’s a 5 billion dollar industry.

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It’s also massively on the incline since covid.

But I also agree with your sentiment. It’s not that manga isn’t popular, there is just no mainstream manga collecting culture beyond ā€œbooks on a shelfā€. There are 300 BGS manga listings total and 19,000+ listings for cgc comic 2023. I’m sticking with the argument I made in this post: Beckett is now grading manga - #51 by pfm the thinner, taller, wider shape of a western comic lends itself better to grading. It makes it more like collecting small posters than graded books. The stories in western comics are WAY less linear too so there’s a lot more ā€œissue 1ā€ within the same IP. I think there will always be a market for a handful of 1st edition vol 1 manga but I really have a hard time seeing where the market is for something like My Hero Academia volume 39. The astronomical print numbers also don’t help from a collecting standpoint unless you can very narrowly define which books are the ā€œcollectibleā€ ones and separate them out

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I’m a huge huge huge fan of manga, anime, movies, K and J Drama, K and J Pop, Food etc … Love Asian culture in general, not Japanese and Korean only. I’m a collector of various things like sports cards, TCG, Art painting, Vinyls, Stamps etc … Love to have my 1st print vol 1 graded for my favorite manga because I have several prints for each volume. Volume for reading and volume to keep in good condition. I hope in the near future BGS or CGC will grade shonen jump, Monthly Animal House etc… I have all my favorite manga with the first issue in Jump. It will be the grail for me.

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The slab looks better than I expected but also pretty meh at the same time. For cards maybe I’m conditioned to think they look good graded but on a larger size scale it just feels like so much dead space.

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I meant graded manga. The comic collectible industry is so old and established. Regardless of how it’s described I’m just not surprised at all there aren’t people clamoring over each other to pay a ton of money for a manga in plastic.

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Possible future headline:

After exploding in popularity, graded manga community stunned to find out largest reseller was drawing a penis on page 69 of every book before submitting

ChatGPT article

In a twist that has left the graded manga community in shock, it has been revealed that the largest manga reseller was adding their own unique touch to every book submitted for grading. That’s right, folks, the culprit was sneakily drawing a **** on page 69 of every manga before sending it off to Beckett Grading Services (BGS).

The scandal came to light after a collector decided to crack open the protective plastic case of their newly graded manga. The collector, who wishes to remain anonymous, had purchased a highly sought-after, BGS-graded, mint condition copy of ā€œNaruto Volume 12.ā€ Upon receiving it, they were eager to inspect the book’s quality firsthand and decided to remove the plastic casing. To their astonishment, they found a comically detailed **** sketched onto page 69.

ā€œI was absolutely floored,ā€ said the collector. ā€œAt first, I thought it was a prank, but after checking five more graded books, it became clear that this was no coincidence. Every single one had the same **** on page 69. It’s bizarre, yet oddly consistent.ā€

BGS, which recently expanded into grading manga due to the booming popularity of the medium, has been thrown into a frenzy. The company issued a statement expressing their profound embarrassment and promising immediate action.

ā€œWe are deeply disappointed to learn of this breach of trust,ā€ said a BGS spokesperson. ā€œWe take the integrity of our grading process very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation. We assure the community that we will take all necessary steps to ensure that this does not happen again.ā€

The discovery has sparked outrage and amusement in equal measure across social media. Manga fans are expressing a mix of shock and humor, with hashtags like #DoodleGate and #Manga69 trending. Memes featuring famous manga characters reacting to the doodle have gone viral, turning the scandal into a bizarre cultural phenomenon.

ā€œThis is just… wow. I don’t even know what to say,ā€ tweeted one fan. ā€œBut seriously, a **** on page 69? You can’t make this stuff up!ā€

The largest reseller in question, who operates under the pseudonym ā€œMangaMaster69,ā€ has yet to make a public statement. However, sources close to the investigation reveal that the individual is a notorious prankster with a history of unconventional marketing tactics.

Collectors are now scrambling to check their graded manga for the notorious doodle, with some even hoping that their ā€œdefacedā€ books might become rare collectibles in their own right. Experts are divided on whether these altered books will decrease in value or become sought-after novelties.

In the meantime, BGS has promised to review and regrade all affected manga at no additional cost to collectors. They have also introduced new measures to prevent any future tampering, including more rigorous inspections and tighter security protocols.

As the community comes to terms with this unexpected twist, one thing is clear: the world of graded manga will never be the same. Who knew that a little sketch on page 69 could cause such a big scandal?

Stay tuned for more updates as this story unfolds. In the meantime, remember to always check page 69 of your manga—who knows what surprises you might find! hidden

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100%

Yea i mean manga is a massive industry no doubt. Im pretty sure one piece is the second best selling comic series of all time, just behind superman and surpassing batman a few years back.

But im just not sure there is that much interest in grading. Like ive never heard any of the large manga collectors i know say ā€œdamn i wish u could grade these.ā€ Either way, im kinda surprised Frieren is the one rn. I know the anime got popular recently but damn

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