Grading & Grader's Notes

At C and M Merchandise, we do our best to describe every comic book as honestly and accurately as possible. However, it’s important to understand that our grades are opinions, not guarantees, and we are not professional third-party graders.

How Our Grading Works

1. Visual Inspection: Each book is inspected by eye for spine stress, corner wear, edge dings, color breaks, staple condition, surface gloss, interior page quality, and other visible defects.
2. Reference to Industry Guides: We compare what we see to commonly used grading guides and examples from professional grading companies such as CGC and others for general reference.
3. Conservative Grading: When in doubt, we try to grade on the conservative side so that buyers are more likely to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed.

Use of AI Assistance

To help support our grading, we sometimes use an AI assistant (an artificial intelligence system with no gender or personal identity) to review scans or photos of our books and to compare them with publicly available grading references.

The AI may:

• Help identify visible defects on the front and back covers.
• Compare our impressions against common grading standards and examples.
• Suggest an estimated grade range based on what it can see in the images.

However, the AI:

• Cannot see or judge everything that a book might have in person (such as certain interior issues or subtle defects).
• Does not replace human judgment or professional grading services like CGC.
• Is not 100% accurate and should be treated as a tool, not an authority.

Important Grading Disclaimer

Please read these points carefully before purchasing:

• All grades listed on this site are subjective estimates based on our best effort at the time of evaluation.
• We are not affiliated with, certified by, or acting on behalf of any third-party grading company.
• The AI assistance we use relies on available reference material and visual scans, and it is not 100% accurate.
• Any raw (un-slabbed) book you purchase here is not guaranteed to receive the same numerical grade if submitted to CGC or any other grading company.
• Actual professional grades may come back slightly higher or lower than our estimate; this is normal and expected.
• By purchasing from this site, you acknowledge that grading is an opinion and accept a reasonable margin of variation.

Handling & Storage

We treat our comics with care throughout the evaluation and listing process. Books are handled carefully to minimize additional wear, and after photographs or scans are taken, they are placed into protective bags and boards (or kept in whatever protective storage they arrived in if it provides equal or better protection).

Our goal is that the condition of the book you receive will match or be better than what you see in the images and description at the time of purchase.

What Our Grader's Notes Include

When grader's notes are provided on a listing, they are meant to give you a more detailed look at the comic's condition. These notes may include:

• Spine condition (ticks, color breaks, stress lines, roll, etc.).
• Corner and edge wear (soft corners, blunting, tiny chips, etc.).
• Cover surface issues (scratches, fingerprints, scuffing, gloss loss, impressions, writing, stickers, etc.).
• Staple condition (rust, pulling, misalignment, tears at staples, etc.).
• Interior page notes (visible tanning, brittleness, staining, tears, or other problems, when observed).
• Overall eye appeal and any notable defects that might affect the grade.

These grader's notes are provided to help you make an informed decision. They are not exhaustive and may not list every microscopic defect, but they are written in good faith to highlight the most relevant issues.

In Summary

Between careful visual inspection, reference to industry guides, and optional AI assistance, we do everything we reasonably can to describe our comics accurately. Still, every grade is ultimately an opinion, and no grade shown on this site can be guaranteed to match any future third-party grading result.

If you ever feel that a book you receive is significantly different from how it was described, please check the photos, grader's notes, and description, and then reach out using the contact information provided elsewhere on this site so we can review your concern.