Or should I say the additional Cost of fast track.

At Megacon, I turned over a few invoices for onsite grading. One invoice was for comics signed by J. Scott Campbell. This was done for a friend. I was hoping to have them done onsite but that wasn't the case. I waited for three hours in the line, which only moved because they relocated the table that Mr. Campbell was signing at. The good part about this was that it was closer to Bill Sienkiewicz, where Bagofleas and my friend were waiting. After my three hour wait I decided to give up, but that was because I knew CGC had it set up for a private signing. If that wasn't the case I would have continued to wait for ThePastorofMuppets.

Eventually, I broke down and purchased a few Superior Spider-Man #29 variants. I decided to turn them over on a separate invoice. The comic books I turned over needed to be pressed and are currently at CCS.

Out of everything I submitted between the two conventions, my first Megacon invoice was received on March 28th and verified on April 21st. A week after Megacon I was in ECCC, which had me bring a few more for J Scott Campbell. Two of them were waiting at my Father's, delivered fresh from Mexico. I had two more Superior Spider-Man #29's. These were nicer than the two copies I turned over at Megacon. I could get these signed and not be worried about getting anything less than a 9.8.

At ECCC I turned over three invoices, which were all marked received on April 2nd. It was April 8th when my fast track invoice with four comics changed from received to verified. I was one step closer to getting my books back.

I turned over a Ms. Marvel variant by Art Adams. I had it signed by him and G. Willow Wilson. I vowed I would give this away if achieving a 9.8. This was submitted with cover variants by J. Scott Campbell of Uncanny X-Men #19 and those 2 copies of Superior Spider-Man #29.

I was going to turn them over to CGC as I did the week before, but after meeting the amazing Art Adams, who I have one major thing in common with, the witness I was with had to stop by and pick someone else up at J. Scott Campbell's table. I still had my three comic books with me for him to sign and figured I would ask the guy already in line. Once in a while a person might say yes.

He knew what I already knew. It was ten dollars per signature for Campbell to sign books to be graded by CGC. After he said yes, I gave him forty dollars for my three books and told him to keep the remaining ten to pay for one of his books, after all he was doing me a favor.

After turning it over and being marked received on April 2nd, it changed to Scheduled for Grading on April 12th. This was one day after two other invoices I turned over at Megacon for CCS was billed to me.

On April 15th, tax day, my comic books were marked graded. Six days later they moved forward into Grading/Quality Control. I predicted by Friday, my invoice would move to Shipped/Safe. By noon I thought I was wrong, but finally at a little before two I checked again. Those lovely two words used in tandem appeared. I was hesitant. I was actually going to pull a Surfer99 and wait...ten seconds later I knew the grades.

It took 18 business day for this invoice to change from received to shipped safe, 24 days total. CGC has it noted for modern age books that its estimated turnaround time is twenty days. Fortunately they added current turn around times as well. I like this small change. However, this is marked at 36 days. And then there is fast track, estimated at ten days, and currently at 18 days, exactly the amount of time it took.

I have five invoices at CGC/CCS with only one at verified. Would they all be making their way back if I added the extra money? For one invoice, the ten extra dollars a book was money well spent, but imagine a hundred books, all under the fast track tier!

What remains to be seen is this. Is fast track worth it? Getting books graded adds up. Adding signatures even more so. Having books fast tracked is an added expense that I can control, but I can control the other costs of CGC as well. I just have to quit collecting... yea right.

Thanks for Reading

Tnerb

Ps. I'm realizing that if I got all my books back as quick as my fast track, I would be submitting more to CGC.

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