Making the grade: Southwest Florida's News-Press examines the "secret world" of Comics Guaranty, the Sarasota-based company that has set the standard by which the condition of comics is graded:

Until CGC, opinions on a comic-book’s condition were always subjective. One person’s 'near mint' was another person’s 'very fine.' And when you’re talking about extremely rare and valuable books from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, a slight discrepancy in grade can mean a difference of thousands of dollars."