There is a natural desire to celebrate owning (or offering for sale) the “Highest Graded” copy of a comic book, which can be determined by looking at the CGC Census.
There is also a difference between the “Single Highest Graded” copy of a comic book and owning one of the “Highest Graded” copies (are there 2 or 200?) graded (so far).
Here’s a breakdown of “Highest Graded” for Universal and Signature Series CGC graded comics, as of October 3, 2017 CGC Census:
172,631 different comic books on the CGC Census, 3,546,449 CGC graded comics, and 3,475,440 are Universal or Signature Series (about 71,000 are either Restored or Qualified grades).
There are 1,004,156 CGC graded comics which are technically “Highest Graded” – that is, 28.3% of ALL CGC graded comics, more than 1-in-4 CGC Graded comics are also “Highest Graded” copies.
There are 95,628 “Single Highest Graded” copies, and over half of them are also the “Only Graded Copy”… so 54,811 are single highest without any “competition”.
That leaves 40,817 “Single Highest Graded” copies which have at least one other lower graded copy on the CGC Census. That means 4% (about 1-in-25) of the 1,004,156 comics that can claim to be “Highest Graded” on the census are also “Single Highest Graded” with at least two copies graded.
Here is the breakdown of the 95,628 “Single Highest Graded” copies:
54,811 are “single highest” and “only graded copy”
13,101 are “single highest” and “one of two copies graded”
6,108 are “single highest” and “one of three copies graded”
3,668 are “single highest” and “one of four copies graded”
9,330 are “single highest” with 5 to 10 copies graded
4,165 are “single highest” with 11 to 20 copies graded
2,775 are “single highest” with 21 to 50 copies graded
797 are “single highest” with 51 to 100 copies graded
804 are “single highest” with 101 to 1,000 copies graded
69 are “single highest” with more than 1,000 copies graded
The “Single Highest Grade” in terms of highest total Universal and Signature Series copies graded are:
| Rank as of Oct. 3, 2017 | Universal and Signature CGC Submissions | Highest CGC Grade | Comic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13,301 | 10 | New Mutants 98 (1991) |
| 2 | 8,772 | 9.9 | Incredible Hulk 181 (1974) |
| 3 | 7,556 | 10 | Wolverine 1 (1988) |
| 4 | 4,026 | 10 | Web of Spider-Man 1 (1985) |
| 5 | 3,792 | 9.9 | X-Men 141 (1981) |
| 6 | 3,411 | 9.9 | Uncanny X-Men 142 (1981) |
| 7 | 3,067 | 9.9 | Avengers Annual 10 (1981) |
| 8 | 3,008 | 9.9 | New Teen Titans 2 (1980) |
| 9 | 2,577 | 9.9 | Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 1 (1986) |
| 10 | 2,573 | 9.8 | Amazing Spider-Man 1 (1963) |
| 11 | 2,541 | 9.9 | X-Force 2 (1991) |
| 12 | 2,516 | 9.8 | Amazing Spider-Man 14 (1964) |
| 13 | 2,222 | 9.9 | X-Factor 24 (1988) |
| 14 | 1,936 | 9.9 | Incredible Hulk 271 (1982) |
| 15 | 1,930 | 9.9 | The Marvels Project 1 Sketch Cover (2009) |
| 16 | 1,874 | 9.9 | Walking Dead 19 (2005) |
| 17 | 1,858 | 9.9 | Uncanny X-Men 244 (1989) |
| 18 | 1,842 | 9.9 | X-Men 140 (1980) |
| 19 | 1,815 | 10 | Amazing Spider-Man 363 (1992) |
| 20 | 1,781 | 10 | Amazing Spider-Man 316 (1989) |
| 21 | 1,770 | 10 | Deadpool 1 (1993) |
| 22 | 1,767 | 10 | Rai 0 (1992) |
| 23 | 1,767 | 9.9 | Shazam 1 (1973) |
| 24 | 1,752 | 9.9 | Iron Man and Sub-Mariner 1 (1968) |
| 25 | 1,699 | 9.9 | Batman 404 (1987) |