If you've ever visited this site to stare in amazement at a nice high grade copy of Wonder Woman #1 or Superman #2 and wondered how they became known as the best-graded copies, or wondered exactly what the difference was between this particular copy of Action Comics #1 and this other copy of Action Comics #1, you're not alone. Learning how to grade a comic book takes years of experience, and even then, debating the difference between a 9.0 and a 9.2 is a favorite topic of conversation in some parts of the internet. And even when CGC has graded a comic for you, it's important to know what that means. Nobody should pay $3,207,852.00 for a comic, or even $32.00, without having a sense of what the info on the CGC label means, and how it was determined.

That's something that has typically been difficult to explain, even on those aforementioned parts of the internet that talk about it a lot. It's the picture worth a thousand words predicament multiplied by nuances of paper quality, tiny defects, difficult-to-spot restoration, and more. Even lots of photos and lots of text sometimes doesn't get the point across.

Which brings us to the launch of an exciting video series today, CGC Insider. You'll note that today's episode focuses on one very specific issue: spine stress. Yes, it's going to be that detailed, all throughout this ongoing series.

If you're already a collector of vintage comics, I suspect I needn't say much more to get you hooked on this. If you're not already a collector, you may be wondering if that level of detailed focus will hold your attention for the length of the series, and on that front I'd say you have no worries. Having watched the first several of these, I can tell you that CGC Primary Graders Matt Nelson, and upcoming Paul Litch and Shawn Caffrey, really know their stuff so well that it's second nature to them, which makes it entertaining to watch the explanation unfold.

This installment of CGC Insider is the first of many, tune in here next week around this time for episode #2, and visit the CGC Insider archives to catch up or revisit the entire series.