Start with market demand
Check completed sales for the exact issue, printing and variant in comparable grades. A rare comic without active buyers may still be difficult to sell.
Confirm that a high sale was not caused by a signature, newsstand edition, pedigree, error or variant your copy lacks.
Condition changes the calculation
Inspect the spine, corners, cover gloss, staples, centre pages and back cover. Estimate conservatively; small defects matter greatly at the top of the scale.
A lower-grade major key can still be worthwhile, while a common modern book may need a very high grade to cover costs.
A practical shortlist
Prioritise first appearances, major story events, scarce Golden and Silver Age books, genuinely limited variants and significant signed comics. Then compare the likely net value increase with every submission cost.
If the financial case works only at 9.8, treat that as a warning rather than a forecast.
What to do next
Use this guidance to shortlist suitable comics, then use the Fantasy Road submission form for current prices and service eligibility. CGC assigns the final grade and its published turnaround times are estimates, not guarantees.
