Beckett Collectibles Now Offers Grading And Slabbing Services For Manga Volumes
In officially bringing one of the Western comic book industry’s worst trends to the world of manga, Beckett Collectibles has announced that their grading and slabbing services are now available for Japanese comics.
Applied to any number of collectibles ranging from trading cards, to VHS tapes, to of course comic books, the act of grading sees a licensed entity review a given item and ‘grade’ it on a scale of one to ten (with decimal points allowing for five additional levels between nine and ten) based on the quality of its physical condition.
While grading can be done on its own, it is usually followed by its sister act of ‘slabbing’, wherein the now-graded collectible is subsequently encased within a protective, often permanently-sealed display case in order to preserve its rating.
Admittedly, these practices are not inherently bad in and of themselves. After all, individuals are free to do what they please with their possessions, and slabbed comics do make for a very stylish way for someone to both display a genuine relic from days past and protect it from the further ravages of time.
However, their dark side can be seen in their results, as often times the introduction of grading and slabbing into a given hobby brings with it a whole new speculative market wherein items are treated not as something to be enjoyed, but rather hoarded and hidden in the hopes of profiting from their eventual sale.
(For a prime example, look no further than the fact that is near impossible to find an original Black Lotus Magic: The Gathering card on the secondary market that hasn’t been subject to these practices, which has thus resulted in the very useful card being rendered practically absent from actual play.)
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And now, thanks to Beckett, manga fans can finally experience this phenomena for themselves!
Per their website, grading services for standard sized, individual manga volumes (or tankobons in their native Japanese) begins at a standard $30 per book, each item coming with an expected turnaround time of no more than 30 business days.
For those looking to speed things up, Beckett also offers a $50 ‘express’ option, wherein the given item will be graded and sent back within 10 business days.
As for the ‘slabbing’ of manga titles, the act will run customers $20 per book.
Notably, unlike those used for Western comic books, these protective, hard plastic shells can actually be opened following their sealing, thus allowing its owner the opportunity to enjoy its contents.
However, doing so will not only “render the certified grade invalid“, but also require customers to pay a $15 ‘re-encapsulation’ fee in order to restore its slabbed status.
[Editor’s Note: Following this article’s publication, Beckett Collectibles reached out to BIC to offer a clarification regarding the above assessment of their protective shells:
“These plastic shells which make up the slab, ARE nearly identical to those we use for Western comics, ESPECIALLY when it comes to how they are opened. The slabs are very difficult to crack, by design, to be tamper evident. While they are able to be opened if one decides they would like to read the book, they are not then able to be re-inserted into the slab, as the slab and grade would be compromised. Additionally, while an opened slab would ‘render the certified grade invalid’, the customer would actually be required to pay the grading fee again, not the re-encapsulation fee, to restore it to a slabbed state.” ]
In a statement provided to ICv2 alongside the announcement, Head of Beckett Manga Bill Sutherland said of the company’s latest endeavor, “Beckett is continuing its heritage in Manga that started with the Beckett Anime & Manga magazine. Its entry into the world of Manga grading is set to revolutionize the way Manga collectors interact with their cherished collections.”
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