Cracking a graded slab looks counterintuitive at first — why break open something you paid to have certified? But it's a well-established, deliberate step in comic collecting, always tied to a specific goal. Here's what it actually involves.
Cracking is not random, and it's not a reveal
A slab only gets cracked open with a plan already in place. The two most common reasons:
- Re-grading for a higher score. If a collector believes a book would grade higher today — often after a professional press removes non-structural defects — the slab is cracked, the book is pressed, and it's resubmitted to CGC from scratch.
- Adding a Signature Series signature. A Universal (blue label) book can be cracked, taken to a signing, witnessed, and resubmitted as Signature Series.
Less common but still legitimate: crossing a book over from another grading company's slab to CGC's, or having an old "Restored" (purple label) book re-evaluated under CGC's current Conserved-vs-Restored standards.
What pressing actually does
Pressing is a professional service applied to the raw book after cracking and before resubmission. Per CGC's own guidance, it can address defects like bends, finger waves, and spine roll — but it cannot fix anything color-breaking: a crease where the ink itself has cracked, a tear, a hole, water damage, or missing material. CGC is explicit that pressing is not restoration (a properly pressed book does not receive a Restored label), but also that it comes with no guarantee: a book can come back the same grade, or even lower, after pressing and resubmission.
Pursuing a higher grade: cracking, pressing, and resubmitting
This is the main event for most collectors who crack a slab — chasing a real grade bump on a book they believe is undervalued at its current certification. The process, start to finish:
- Crack the case to remove the book, voiding the existing certified grade immediately — it's raw again from this point on.
- Have the book professionally pressed to address any non-color-breaking defects (bends, finger waves, spine roll).
- Resubmit to CGC as a fresh submission, at whichever grading tier fits your timeline and budget.
Costs stack up fast: pressing runs roughly $25–$75 per book, then CGC's grading fee applies again at full price, plus two-way insured shipping to the presser and to CGC. Turnaround follows CGC's standard cycle for whichever tier you choose. Because of that combined cost — and the real risk of a flat or even lower result — this tends to make the most financial sense on books where the gap between the current grade and a realistic higher grade meaningfully moves the book's market value, not on lower-value commons.
We're a CGC dealer and can facilitate the full crack-press-resubmit process for customers here at Superhero Empire. Contact us if you've got a book you think is worth chasing a higher grade on — we can walk through whether the math makes sense for that specific book before anything gets sent in.
A cracked case doesn't always mean a re-grade: the Reholder option
It's worth separating a genuinely common situation from everything above: a case that's chipped, scratched, or cracked in shipping, while the book inside and its certified grade are completely fine. That's exactly what CGC's Reholder service is for. It replaces the damaged physical case with a new one and keeps the existing certification number and grade intact — it is not a re-grade, and the book does not re-enter the general grading queue.
The cost reflects that: Reholder service runs a small fraction of a full grading submission, rather than paying grading fees again from scratch. It's the right call whenever the problem is the plastic, not the book or its certification.
We can facilitate Reholder submissions for customers here at Superhero Empire too — if a case arrives damaged or just doesn't meet your standard for display, contact us and we can help get it sent in through us rather than you navigating the submission process solo.
The bottom line
Cracking a CGC slab is a deliberate, goal-driven move by an owner pursuing a specific outcome — a higher grade, a signature, or a label change — not a surprise or a spectacle. And if the only problem is a damaged case rather than the grade itself, that's a separate, cheaper fix: Reholder, not a re-grade. Either way, the math comes down to the same question: does the realistic upside clear the actual cost of the service you need? If you're not sure which applies to your book, reach out and we can help figure it out.
Technical details sourced from CGC's official Pressing service page and CGC's own collector forums.