CBCS Services - My Final Experience

Early March 2026, I decided to send off my latest copy of Swamp Thing #37 to CBCS comics to get graded as this is an important key issue in my collection. I have been using CBCS services for years, and they have twice even supported my non-profit, Comic Book Covers 4 Cancer. I have always been appreciative of their service and support for each order I have placed. While there were some comics that I submitted that I'm not sure I agree with the grade they received, those were few and far between.

For me, I greatly appreciated the fact that they authenticated un-witnessed autographs. When they ran promotions on discounted fees for authentication, I would ways take advantage of the opportunity. I have a decent sized collection of autographed comics that I would like to preserve. It's not just about getting a higher value for the comic for me. Not currently at least. I know that these will eventually be passed on when I shuffle off this mortal coil, and I would like to have the person who will be receiving my collection get a fair benefit from it since they do not collect comic books themselves.

On March 17, 2026, I received an email stating that my comic had been received for grading.

I then received a follow-up stating that my comic had progressed on to the pressing stage.

Then on March 24, 2026, CBCS publicly announced that they were ending their grading services effective April 17, 2026.

At this time, based on the announcement, I felt like my order was still going to progress through their system normally. I was not about to start to worry about it since I had placed my trust in this company so many times before. I remained patient... for the time being.

In May 2026, I started to ask about progress of my order. This was the first response received on May 19, 2026.

Then, on May 22, 2026, I received the following email.

This was concerning because I had already been informed that my comic had already gone through the pressing stage. Based on this email, I opted for them to continue the grading process without the pressing. I figured that perhaps the previous email had been an error and I accepted that. In July, I submitted another request for a status update. This is the response I received on July 5, 2026.

After this response, I followed up to try and get some better information because of a trip I had planned for the end of July. I didn't want them to ship my comic back to me when I was not going to be available to receive it since they require a signature upon delivery. I was tole they still had no ETA, but if I received word while I was away that the package was shipping that I should contact FedEx to have them hold the package. Unfortunately, I was also going to be out of the country without internet service, so this made me nervous. Fortunately, it was not shipped while I was away.

Then, on August 25, 2026, I receive the following email.

This was very upsetting since I had previously been informed that my comic had progressed through the various stages and should have been pressed and graded. A little over a week after I received this email, I confirmed that I did receive a refund and that my comic would be returned within 5-10 business days from September 2, 2026.

On September 29, 2026, I got my comic back. There was obviously nothing done to it at all. No pressing and no grading. I am so disappointed on how this last interaction with CBCS Comics went.