CGC Comics Refuses To Grade A Book Featuring A Positive Cover Image Of President Trump Deeming It "Political Offensive"
CGC, the comic book grading service, has been under fire over the last year for its business practices. Now, it is facing scrutiny again because of political discrimination, refusing to grade a comic book because of an image of President Donald Trump.
The comic book grading industry is shady by itself. Alleged experts go through and make value judgments on books to say whether something is in better condition, creating a speculator market of comic books encased in plastic, which can’t even be read.
There’s been numerous debates on the grading system over the years, and it was amplified earlier this year when it was discovered an obscure variant of an Amazing Spider-Man issue could be swapped into the shell without being the correct book because of their processes, upending the collector’s market.
Now, a comic book fan submitted a book with an image of Donald Trump, and CGC refused to grade the book because of “political offense,” according to their response on a sticker that says, “do not encapsulate.”
According to a video from Sticky Goose Comics, the company charged the customer for the service and did not refund him after refusing the book.
Sticky Goose showed a text from someone he claims is one of his friends elaborating, saying, “Yes. They put it as a reject. The reason for reject is offensive politically.”
The person continued, “I gave it to an actual CGC representative at Spokala. The book has been graded before but with other covers. So it can’t be the interior. I had called them to make sure they had the right date for the book, and they took the information. They never communicated at the show, on the phone or email that it was rejected.”
Sticky Goose then confirmed they had charged him for the service. He then showed a video of his friend holding up the book and showing a cover of Donald Trump on the book Covid: A global Pandemic Saga Unfolds #1.
The man in the video points out that Savage Dragon #119, which features a violent image of Erik Larsen’s character punching President George W. Bush is on eBay graded by CGC. Fandom Pulse confirmed this is the case, and there seems to have been no problem with the grading company finding “political offense” with several copies of this book listed.
The variant cover of the Global Pandemic is a reference to a 50 Cent rap album cover in homage form featuring the president after he was shot.
The Global Pandemic comic book has several different variant covers, many of which have President Trump on the cover, and others featuring different political figures like Bernie Sanders.
Some of these are CGC Graded and on Ebay already, showing that the company is not consistent with their policies. The Bernie Sanders comic was graded.
Sticky Goose also points out other President Trump covers have been graded, but the ones he saw present President Trump in disparaging manner, whereas the one which was rejected showed Trump to be “triumphant.”
CGC seems to have a real problem on its hand as collectors are getting discriminated against over politics, which, at the very least, they should give the man in question a refund as they are not clear on their policies.
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