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Toy Shed: CGC Frames

Written by Zechs on Wednesday, June 13 2012 and posted in Columns
Toy Shed

So you got yourself a CGC comic that's either rare or a blank cover that has art on it and you so want to display it. What's the best frame for them? Well Zechs takes a peek at two brands of CGC frames!

cgcrightBeing a fan of blank covers and getting artists to go to town on them, I was running into a problem. I wanted to showcase these lovely pieces and had no outlet. There were only two choices I had: either do what a friend of mine did and personally build my own frame or buy one. At the moment, I don't have the collection or room to build one. A local LCS of mine had fwhat suited my needs, but their CGC frames were overpriced (going for $50 to over a $200 a pop). I could go online, but how am I supposed to know what are the good and what are the bad without looking at these things in person? With no other options, I waited until C2E2 2012.

Why wait until then? Because I recalled a dealer selling just those types of frames for half the cost of what the LCS was selling them for and I could get a better vantage of just who had the best frames for CGC comics. Boy did I ever find out! I learned who the preferred maker of the brand was and who was not. So during C2E2 2012 I hunted out that dealer again.

Said dealer I stumbled across last year, is in truth called Collectors Resource. The dealer was VERY kind and assisted me with just the frame I needed. He gave me a detailed account how the frames were made and painted stating how these were made. He even told me the one sort of flaw the frames had, with the pins, and how much difficulty it is to put a CGC comic into it. But he reassured me that the frames would hold the CGC comic and no damage would result in it.


Not soon after I ran into another distributor of CGC frames. I can't recall his name, but here's a link to his stuff. Unlike the other, he had no booth and was going around artists' alley tempting people with the frames he had. He saw what I had purchased and told me I could do better than that with what he had. He then showed me a nicely colored black frame with the Batman symbol on it. The same pins were on the back so naturally I assumed both had the same qualities and bought it since it was cheaper of the two. Plus it had a Bat symbol on it, making it a perfect companion for a certain CGC comic of mine.

However, two little negatives surfaced: one during the actual convention and one later with fitting the comic into the frame itself. First off, the black paint on the frame began to bleed against my sweaty hand. This sort of worried me that this sort of thing would bleed against my wall. The other slight negative against it was upon clipping the comic into the frame the fit was snugger and unlike the Collectors Resource frame, the pin didn't really hold the comic in as much and was loose. Both were easy to hang on the wall though (with both I also had multiple options on how to hang it either straightforward or diagonal).



Fast-forward two months later. Suffice to say that Batman symbol that wooed me to getting the frame wasn't as nice a decal as I thought. It turned out to be just a sticker and a poor one at that. A little super glue and the "decal" is fully stuck back on the frame. The bleed effect that I was so worried about happened, but I don't really care at all since next year I'll be repainting my room and the fact I'm not taking it down or replacing it on my wall. As for the Collectors Resource three pack frame? Well I'm having no trouble at all with it. The frame is doing perfect. It continues to hold my CGCed comics and not cause any sort of harm.

In the end, if I were to buy more frames I'd probably go with the Collector's Resource. They're made with better quality; they hold up more, the paint on them isn't much of an issue and the sheer number of various ways to showcase your CGC collection (they have a Bat Frame!!). The other guy well, it was cheaper (I paid about eleven dollars for it), but the quality showed in the poor paint job and the little extra feature of the decal wasn't so hot in the long run. If you truly want a frame for your CGC and it be a bargin, then this is the guy to go too. However, if you want the top of the line brand, Collector's Resource would be way to go. It truly is a MUST BUY for those who want to display their CGC'd comics. Though I'd deal with them directly or go by them at a convention. Their prices are so much cheaper that way than buying at a store that just sells them for triple the price. I have to admit I'm very pleased with their three tier frame and I'm really tempted to get that Bat Frame or tri-fold display.

Written or Contributed by: Zechs


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