CGC (Certified Guaranty Company) is the dominant third-party grading service for comic books, founded in 2000. CGC grades comics on a 0.5–10.0 scale (0.5 to 10.0 with 0.5 increments) using a four-tiered label system: blue (universal — unrestored), purple (restored — qualified), green (qualified, e.g., missing pages), and yellow (signature series — signed by creator). CGC launched CGC Cards in 2020 for trading card grading and rapidly grew its market share.

CGC, formally Certified Guaranty Company, is a third-party grading service originally established for comic books in 2000 and now operating across collectables including trading cards, video games, magazines and concert posters. CGC grades each item against a published condition scale, encapsulates it inside a tamper-evident slab, and issues a certification number that can be verified through the company’s online database.

For Pokémon and sports cards, CGC has gained meaningful market share since launching its trading card service, particularly with collectors who appreciate its slab design and competitive turnaround times. CGC graded cards generally trade at a small discount to PSA-graded equivalents but at parity or above for certain modern issues. CGC also offers a comic-grading service that remains the dominant grader in that hobby. See our grading guide for the full submission process across major graders.