Announced for December but officially available now.
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Is anyone actually interested in this? The grade everything mentality is getting wild. Maybe it would make sense if there were particularly rare manga but I seriously doubt there’s a larger market for this
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The labels look pretty cool even with the inferior updated logo. They should also include a plain monochrome label imo
*I’m not interested in grading manga tho lol
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The labels look surprisingly good.
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As someone who loves manga and reads a decent amount, I think this is a silly idea… I’ve got physical copies of manga, which I can open up and read. I keep them in good condition on a shelf - I see no need to encapsulate them. The only time I could maybe be interested in this is if I wanted to have the first volume of One Piece (name your favorite manga) or perhaps all copies of One Piece (oh boy that would be a lot) on display.
Edit
I guess this is maybe supposed to be similar to grading comics - I know manga and comics are similar, but I feel like a normal manga book is way less likely to get damaged than a comic book. That being said, I don’t collect comics at all…
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This seems pretty crazy as I’ve never felt like manga has a collectability factor like comics do. I mean, maybe if you had like Berserk Vol 1 from the late 80s or early 90s in pristine condition or some other popular one? I guess there could be a market for it.
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I’m more surprised that it isn’t CGC since they were known for comics. As a manga collector, I’m not interested. My shelf space is limited as it is, there is no room for books that I can’t open and read lol.
However, I can see this being nice for something more rare like the limited edition prints of Volume 1 of One Piece and Yugioh. Each have a limited release of 5000, a stamp at the bottom indicating which volume out of 5000 it is and a holographic cover. As far as I know the inside of the volumes aren’t different than the normal print so I would definitely look into grading for one of these just to preserve the cover… If I had one.
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Frieren is absolutely my favorite anime, ngl maybe I will buya a BGS volume 1 of Frieren
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I could see the appeal of older manga from the 60s-80s. Stuff from early pioneers of serialized manga such as Osamu Tezuka, Riyoko Ikeda, or Leiji Matsumoto. Unfortunately, this would be pretty niche in comparison to some of the titles people are mentioning in this thread.
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I can see the novelty in getting the 1st volume of your favorite series in a high grade or something, but nothing more than that… 
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For how silly it could appear, I know at least 3 people that would love something like that.
A lot of manga enthusiasts read online scans or only watch the anime, and many of them are just fan of some characters or love the artworks.
I can’t imagine people hoarding or investing in modern manga, but having a couple of your favorite covers slabbed as a novelty item could work in establishing a small market.
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BGS should focus on improving their inter-rater reliability rather than expanding to a niche market.
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So hundreds of pages of beautiful art and story just locked inside a plastic container. Cool.
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It feels like an extension of graded comics no? Thats how I read it (pun intended) at least.
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It would have made tons of sense but they are way behind on everything. We’ve been waiting for them to launch Pulp grading (amazing pre-comic magazines) and that’s been a 2 year waiting game lol
BGS owns CBCS, who is the #2 player in comics, so this does make sense for them, but odd to use bgs instead of cbcs on the labels
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I think that’s the naive logic, yeah. But I don’t think it’s that easy. Are Western comic enthusiasts similar to manga fans? That’s a more relevant question.
With comic books, they lend themselves well to grading. I think the shape is super important. Comics are taller and far thinner. They can’t really stand up without support unlike a manga book. Even ungraded books are still put in plastic with support - otherwise the comics will get damaged. So right off the bat, there’s a practical reason to slab them.
The cover of comics is very important in a way that is not true for manga. For example, cover variants are a very important thing and adds to collectability. Comics also have shorter issues, meaning you can capture more of what’s happening in the comic on the cover. Whereas manga is much more of a complete story and the covers tend to be very generic relatively speaking.
The other problem is bulky collectibles don’t tend to do as well. Imagine what 1000 graded comics looks like compared to 1000 graded manga. This has consequences on the reseller market too, since you can’t physically scale graded book inventory in the same way we can scale graded card or even comic inventory.
The history of comics is also much older. That makes them generally more valuable due to supply attrition and also it makes condition become relevant. I don’t know many manga people who truly care about condition, maybe outside of avoiding straight up damaged books.
Another difference is comic books have a limited release window. You can’t go to the book store and buy a comic from 1953 or 1993 or whatever outside of the secondary market. It generally a one-and-done thing, and only really relevant in English. Manga have both English and Japanese (of which, the average person in the tartget market demographic for this will not be able to read). And they are books that can and are reprinted over and over.
I can go on but these are just the first few things that popped into my head. I think people in general tend to oversimplify what makes something collectible at the level of mass appeal. It takes a really specific set of conditions and the details matter a lot.
Overall I think this is Beckett trying to create a market that doesn’t exist instead of tapping into some organic demand. Not easy to do but not impossible either.
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Oh man, time to buy Japanese Mangas. Need to grade Inital D mangas (im into cars lmao)
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A lot of good points with regards to manga as a collectible here. There are probably dedicated collectors all around the world, but compared to the Western comic market, the market cap and sales volume just isn’t there to sustain demand for graded copies.
Could you clarify what you mean by “generic” with regards to manga covers in comparison to Western comics? Like comic books, the artstyle of manga covers can vary greatly depending on the demographic (ie. shounen vs shoujo, josei etc.). This isn’t even counting the evolution in art style that can be observed over each decade (compare 90s art styles to 2010s). Plenty of dynamic, surreal and colorful art there that I wouldn’t describe as “generic” (but I could be misinterpreting your message).
A quick correction, manga (and the concept of panel comics) in Japan dates back to the 1800s (where the term was first coined). There were some early examples of published manga pre WWII but it was only during the post-war period (in large part to the influence of American comics then) that manga really became known as a widely distributed commercial product. This short article gives a quick rundown of some key points.
The history of manga is really fascinating if you look into the influences from classical Japanese art, its origins as a commercial product and the pioneering of varied art styles. I know you’re more looking at it from the perspective of a graded collectible (which I agree with that it wouldn’t have the same collector base as Western comics), but there is absolutely merit in manga as an artform and collectible (just not one right now that would gain any value from being graded).
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I can totally imagine the “The Electric Tales of Pikachu!” being graded!
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In regards to your point, when I say “manga” I am referring to what that article calls “Modern Manga”. I’m sure you can also trace the history of comic books back to some kind of proto-comic thing too. The reality is people are going to be grading manga from IPs that were predominately from the 80s on, outside of probably a handful of exceptions.
When I say “generic”, I don’t mean the art style. I’m referring to the context of what’s happening in the art. In my experience, almost all manga covers are going to be the main character(s) standing, sitting, doing nothing in particular. Whereas because comics operate on an issue-level, the cover tells you what’s happening inside that comic book. Comics also have what is basically a “chase” issue, ex. first appearance of some character, something that happens that’s historically significant. Whereas manga are like multiple chapters of a story and have a lot more content per book.
Compare these for example.
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