Collectors Holdings bought CBCS and killed it.
The comic book grading company that launched in 2015 as an alternative to CGC is gone. No transition period. No legacy plan. No attempt to keep the brand alive. PSA's parent company acquired CBCS and absorbed it into PSA's operations. All future comic grading will go through PSA.
The comic book grading market just became a two-player game. CGC on one side. PSA on the other. No third option. No independent alternative. And one company now controls grading across cards, comics, video games, and memorabilia.
What Collectors Holdings Now Owns
Let's be clear about the scope.
Collectors Holdings owns PSA. The card grading company with 67% market share that graded 19.26 million cards in 2025.
It owns Beckett, acquired in December 2025. That's BGS for cards and BVG for video games.
It owns SGC, another major card grader.
And now it owns CBCS. Or owned it. Past tense. Because CBCS no longer exists as a separate entity.
Between PSA, Beckett, and SGC, Collectors Holdings controlled roughly 79% of all cards graded in the United States before this acquisition. That number drew congressional attention in December when Congressman Pat Ryan demanded an FTC investigation.
Now add comics to the monopoly.
Why CBCS Mattered
CBCS was founded by Steve Borock in 2014. Borock was CGC's former president and grading finalizer. He left to build what he called a grader-first alternative. Lower fees. Faster turnaround. A focus on customer service that CGC had outgrown.
It never overtook CGC. CGC is the 800-pound gorilla in comic grading. But CBCS carved out a niche. Collectors who wanted an alternative to CGC's pricing. Dealers who wanted competitive turnaround times. Vintage collectors who trusted Borock's eye.
CBCS slabs traded at a discount to CGC. That was always true. A CGC 9.8 on a modern key would sell for 20-30% more than a CBCS 9.8 on the same book. But for collectors grading mid-tier books or building reading sets, that discount was acceptable. CBCS was cheaper to grade and the slab premium gap didn't matter on $50 books.
The market worked because there were options. CGC was the premium choice. CBCS was the value play. Collectors could choose based on their budget and goals.
That choice is gone.
PSA's Comic Grading Wasn't Working
PSA launched comic grading in 2022. It was an expansion play. PSA dominated cards. It wanted to dominate everything collectible.
The hobby didn't bite.
PSA's comic slabs used the same numeric scale as cards. 1 to 10. No half grades. That's fine for cards. For comics, where condition nuances matter and where CGC's 9.8 versus 9.6 versus 9.4 distinctions carry real market value, the lack of precision was a problem.
PSA tried to build credibility by hiring known graders. It tried to undercut CGC on price. It tried to leverage its card grading reputation to cross-sell comic collectors.
None of it worked. Comic collectors stuck with CGC. CBCS kept its niche. PSA's comic grading operation remained a footnote in its business.
Acquiring and absorbing CBCS changes that math. Collectors Holdings didn't buy CBCS to compete with itself. It bought CBCS to eliminate the third option and consolidate the market.
What This Means for Existing CBCS Slabs
If you own CBCS slabs, they're not worthless. But they're frozen in time.
CBCS is not regrading books. It's not issuing new certs. It's not updating population reports. The company is gone. The infrastructure is absorbed. Your CBCS 9.8 will always be a CBCS 9.8.
The market will decide what that means. In the short term, expect CBCS slabs to trade at a wider discount to CGC than they did before. Buyers don't like dead grading companies. The lack of ongoing population data and cert verification support makes CBCS slabs harder to trust for newer collectors.
Long term, some CBCS slabs could become collectible in their own right. Defunct grader slabs have a niche market among vintage collectors. But that's speculation. For most books, the practical move is to crack the slab and regrade with CGC or PSA if you want to maximize resale value.
CGC Is the Last Independent Comic Grader
CGC is owned by Certified Collectibles Group. CCG also owns PMG (paper money), CCS (comic pressing and cleaning), and CSG (card grading).
CSG is CGC's card grading arm. It grew 95% year over year in 2025 and graded 4.92 million cards. That makes CCG the only major grading company that isn't owned by Collectors Holdings.
For comic collectors, that matters. CGC is the only grader left that isn't part of the Collectors Holdings monopoly. It's the only option that doesn't route pricing and policy decisions through the same parent company that controls PSA.
CGC's market dominance in comics is now structural. It was always the biggest. Now it's the biggest and the only independent option. That's a different kind of power.
The Consolidation Pattern Is Clear
Collectors Holdings has spent the last two years buying competitors and eliminating alternatives.
It acquired SGC. Card collectors lost an independent grader.
It acquired Beckett. Card and video game collectors lost another one.
It raised PSA prices twice in six months. Killed the cheapest tier. Stretched turnaround times. Drew congressional scrutiny.
And now it acquired and shut down CBCS. Comic collectors lost their third option.
The pattern is not subtle. This is monopoly building in real time. Buy the competitors. Absorb the infrastructure. Consolidate the market. Raise prices. Repeat.
Congressman Pat Ryan's December 2025 letter to the FTC laid it out. Owning PSA, SGC, and Beckett gave Collectors Holdings control of 79% of all cards graded in the United States. That was before CBCS. That was before comics entered the equation.
If the FTC was paying attention in December, the CBCS acquisition should set off alarms.
What Comic Collectors Should Do Now
If you're sitting on raw books you planned to grade with CBCS, you have two options. CGC or PSA.
CGC is the safer bet. It's the established standard in comics. The grading scale is trusted. The population reports are comprehensive. The secondary market recognizes CGC labels. If you're grading keys, vintage, or high-dollar books, CGC is the move.
PSA is the gamble. The company has the infrastructure and the resources. It has CBCS's former operations to integrate. It could build a legitimate competitor to CGC. Or it could half-commit and leave comic grading as a secondary business. The market hasn't decided yet.
For modern books and mid-tier grading, the calculation is different. PSA could undercut CGC on price the same way it did with cards. If PSA's comic grading tier comes in at $20 per book and CGC stays at $30, collectors grading stacks of recent keys will do the math.
But price only matters if the market accepts the label. Right now, PSA's comic grading track record is thin. CBCS gave it an acquisition shortcut. Whether that translates to market trust is an open question.
The Bigger Picture
The grading industry is becoming a monopoly.
Collectors Holdings controls card grading through PSA, Beckett, and SGC. It now controls a chunk of comic grading through its CBCS acquisition. It owns stakes in memorabilia authentication and autograph verification.
The only major independent grader left across cards and comics is CCG, which owns CGC and CSG.
Two companies. One market. That's not competition. That's duopoly with a power imbalance.
For collectors, the risk is pricing power. When one company controls the majority of grading infrastructure, it can raise prices without losing significant market share. PSA already proved this in cards. It killed the $18.99 bulk tier, raised the floor to $24.99, and collectors kept submitting because the alternatives were limited.
Now apply that dynamic to comics. If PSA absorbs CBCS's customer base and builds out comic grading at scale, it can pressure CGC on price and turnaround. If CGC responds by raising its own prices to protect margins, collectors lose. If CGC holds prices steady and PSA undercuts, the market splits and label premiums fragment.
Either way, the CBCS shutdown removed the pressure valve. There's no third option to absorb frustrated collectors anymore. It's CGC or PSA. Pick one.
Congress Is Still Watching
Congressman Ryan's letter is still on the record. The FTC has not announced a formal investigation. But the consolidation continues.
The CBCS acquisition is smaller than Beckett. Fewer submissions. Smaller revenue. Less market share. But it's the same pattern. Acquire. Absorb. Eliminate.
If the FTC was concerned about Collectors Holdings controlling 79% of card grading, it should be concerned about the company expanding that playbook into comics, video games, and memorabilia.
The grading industry needs regulatory scrutiny. It needed it in December. It needs it more now.
CBCS is dead. CGC is the last independent comic grader. And Collectors Holdings just proved it's willing to buy competitors and shut them down to consolidate the market.
The grading monopoly isn't coming. It's here.
