The UK Collector's Guide to Sending Comics to CGC, PGX and CBCS

The moment a key issue goes into a submission box headed for a grading company is both exciting and quietly nerve-wracking. You have spent months, maybe years, hunting that book. Now it is wrapped in a comic mailer, tucked inside a rigid outer box, and about to make a journey that takes it out of your hands entirely. Most collectors assume it will be fine but some find out it was not. This guide covers how the CGC, CBCS and PGX submission process actually works for UK collectors, what it costs, and what happens to your collection's protection while books are in transit.

The Three Main Grading Companies: A Quick Comparison

Before getting into the submission process itself, it is worth understanding the differences between the three main grading companies that UK collectors use.

	CGC	CBCS	PGX
Full name	Certified Guaranty Company	Comic Book Certification Service	Professional Grading eXperts
Founded	2000	2014	2003
Market position	Industry standard, highest resale value	Strong alternative, growing reputation	Budget option, lower collector demand
UK submission	Via CGCcomics.com or UK dealer	Via CBCScomics.com	Via PGXcomics.com
Typical turnaround	3 to 12 months depending on tier	3 to 9 months	4 to 10 months
Grading scale	0.5 to 10.0	0.5 to 10.0	0.5 to 10.0

For most UK collectors, CGC remains the default choice simply because CGC-graded books command the strongest resale prices and are the most widely recognised in the hobby. CBCS is a credible alternative and has grown significantly since its founding, particularly for collectors who want faster turnaround times on more affordable tiers. PGX is generally considered a budget option and graded books do not carry the same weight in the market, so it is worth researching carefully before choosing it for anything valuable.

How the CGC Submission Process Works from the UK

Submitting to CGC from the UK involves a few more steps than it does for US collectors, but the process is well established and manageable once you understand it.

Step 1: Create an Account and Choose Your Tier

Register at cgccomics.com and select a submission tier. CGC grading cost UK collectors need to factor in is not just the per-book fee but shipping, customs and any applicable import duties on the return. Tier pricing starts at around $30 per book for the Economy tier (with longer wait times) and rises to $150 or more for Modern tier submissions. Pressing, which involves using heat and humidity to remove non-structural defects before grading, is available as an add-on and is worth considering for books where condition makes a meaningful difference to value.

Step 2: Pack Your Books Correctly

Each book should be bagged and boarded individually, then placed in a rigid toploader or semi-rigid for additional protection. Books should not be able to move inside the toploader. The toploaders then go into a comic mailer or between two pieces of rigid cardboard, and the whole package goes into a sturdy outer box. Bubble wrap or packing paper should fill any gaps so nothing can shift in transit. CGC provides detailed packing guidance on their website and it is worth following it exactly.

Step 3: Ship to CGC

UK collectors ship to CGC's Florida facility. Use a tracked and signed-for service. Royal Mail International Tracked is a common choice for lower-value submissions. For higher-value books, many collectors use DHL or FedEx because their tracking is more granular and their compensation limits are higher. Whichever carrier you use, declare the contents accurately on the customs form and keep your proof of postage.

Step 4: Wait

CGC turnaround times have improved since the backlog peaks of 2021 and 2022, but waits are still measured in months rather than weeks for standard tiers. CGC provides a submission tracking tool on their website so you can follow your books through the grading process.

Step 5: Return Shipment

Once graded, CGC ships books back to UK collectors via tracked international courier. Import duties may apply on the return, calculated on the declared value of the graded items. This is an area that catches some UK collectors off guard, so it is worth budgeting for it in advance.

The Risks Most Collectors Do Not Think About

The submission journey introduces risks at every stage, and most of them are not covered by standard home insurance.

Packing Damage

A book that is not adequately protected can arrive with spine ticks, corner dings or pressure creases that were not there when it left. These defects can drop a grade, and on a key issue a single grade drop can represent a significant loss of value.

Transit Loss or Damage

International couriers do lose packages, and when they do, their standard compensation is based on declared value rather than collector market value. A CGC 9.6 Amazing Spider-Man key is not worth what you declared on the customs form to a courier. It is worth what the market says it is worth, and those two numbers can be very far apart.

Damage During the Grading Process

Books can be mishandled, cases can crack, and errors do occur. CGC has a claims process for this, but it is worth understanding before you submit rather than after.

The Return Journey

The return journey carries the same transit risks as the outbound leg, with the added complexity that the books are now encased in plastic slabs, which are more fragile than they look. Throughout all of this, standard home contents insurance is of limited help. Most policies exclude items in the post, apply strict conditions to items temporarily away from home, and have no mechanism for recognising the collector market value of a graded book. If something goes wrong in transit, you are likely to find that your existing cover falls well short of what the loss actually costs you.

This is precisely the gap that specialist collections insurance is built to address, and it is one of the reasons we are building Comicsure from the ground up around how collectors actually use their books rather than how a generalist insurer assumes they do.

What Good Transit Cover Looks Like

When you are evaluating any specialist collections insurance for your submission, there are a few specific questions worth asking:

Does the policy cover items from the point they leave your home, or only while they are stored there?
Is transit cover included as standard or is it an optional add-on?
Does the policy recognise graded values, or does it default to replacement cost for a raw equivalent?
What are the conditions around packing? Some policies void transit cover if the insurer decides packing was inadequate.
Is international transit covered, or only domestic?

These are not abstract questions. They are the difference between a policy that actually protects a CGC submission and one that looks like it does until you need it.

A Note on Pressing

Pressing is worth a brief mention because it is a common part of the submission process and raises its own questions. Pressing uses controlled heat and humidity to remove non-structural defects such as bends, spine rolls and light creases. It is widely accepted in the hobby and CGC does not penalise pressed books as long as the defects removed were not structural. From an insurance perspective, pressing introduces a brief period where your book is in someone else's hands in an altered state. It is worth being aware of this when thinking about how your cover applies during a submission that includes a pressing service.

Building Your Submission Into Your Inventory

One of the most useful things you can do before a submission is photograph your books thoroughly beforehand. Front cover, back cover, spine, any existing defects. This creates a clear record of condition at the point of dispatch, which is useful evidence if anything changes during transit or grading.

Note the submission in your inventory too, including:

The date sent
The grading tier chosen
Existing cert numbers (if applicable)
The declared value on shipping documentation

When the books come back, update your records with the new grades and current market values.

Getting Involved With Comicsure

Comicsure is building specialist insurance designed around the realities of collecting, including the submission journey that takes your books out of your hands and halfway around the world. We are not yet live, but we are actively gathering information from collectors about how they use their collections so that the cover we build reflects the way people actually collect.

If you regularly submit books for grading, or if you are planning your first submission and want to understand what proper protection looks like, we would like to hear from you.