oluckydayo

I thought of this too, and considered the low-end grading angle. I think you have to use a fairly neutral color or pick a defining color. Gray/Black might invoke those companies, but that's where the name of CGC/CSG matters in driving the quality of the brand recognition. Green was a bold but divisive choice, red is already used by PSA, and blue is used by CGC. There aren't a lot of other directions to go when designing in a 1" x 4" space (unless they want to basically commit brand suicide and become HGA). I think the label looks good all things considered and was a smart choice.

You don't have to request subs on a perfect 10, they will be included for free if the card gets four 10 subgrades.

To me, the appeal of the slab is the clarity and the feel of it in my hand. I didn't hate the green, but didn't love it. I like the look of the new slabs. A bit disappointed no more subs on lower than 10, but I understand the change. Overall I think it's a good move.

While it's not always the easiest thing to hear, even a card directly received from Topps isn't assured to be a perfect 10. Plenty of cards even sealed in their one-touch are shipped sub grade. Centering, surface, even corners can all have imperfections or even damage directly from Topps. You really just need to remove the cards from the One Touch and inspect closely yourself to determine what your expected results will be.

Well, neither of those guys have ever given a 10.

I don't say this at all to be contrarian to what you believe about your cards and burst a bubble, but I don't believe (judging by what I can tell in pics) either that Henderson or that Jordan will grade a 10. They are both still highly sought after and very valuable cards, and I wouldn't let that deter you from sending them in. I just want to temper your expectations a bit just in case those are two that you're thinking will gem mint. I will however echo other opinions in the thread and say you should definitely grade, and you'll be losing lots of money selling them raw.

That looks like pretty serious green to me, and is a very common issue with 90s Chrome cards. Not sure who you consulted who told you that should 9, but there's no way.

You get charged when they enter the actual grading process, not when they're delivered. I believe BGS does the same. It would be much more of a hassle for them to charge upon delivery, open the box to find out that the services you paid for or the cards are different than what was charged, then have to refund or collect the total due before grading. Charging when the cards have been entered into the system and are ready to grade assures you're billed the correct amount and that your order form was completed correctly.

They released the thick slabs months ago.

Their organization does, but you want this link here: https://www.cgccomics.com/grading/trading-cards/

This is the key right here. It is a huge mistake to list something with lesser brand recognition as an auction and expect it to fetch anywhere near what the leaders (PSA/BGS) are currently. People need to be listing CSG as auctions, with the value set for the CARD, not the grader. Dictate the market on these cards, and people will find them once they become more readily available.

Congrats on the 10. Nice looking card.

And to provide a little more context to what Ryan mentioned above, every grading company follows a similar process. There are rules that exist within the subgrades that set maximum overall grade that can be achieved. The lowest subgrade on the card typically affects the maximum rating the most, and the final is usually not more than about a point higher than the lowest sub (it can happen but it's less common).

You should, QC/Final phase usually only takes a few days in my experience.

A few thoughts: 1. The BBB is a completely worthless organization that has no bearing or effect on any business, so you're wasting your time. 2. Nothing you described is a "Bait and Switch" 3. The turnaround times have ALWAYS started at the moment the order is checked into their system and shows as 'Received' on the status. This is the case regardless of anything you've read here by both customers and staff, and is easy to verify if you look at all examples across these boards and from other customers. Your timer started on August 1st. You hit GEI on October 12, so it appears your turnaround is going to be fairly close to the estimate at the time your cards were received into the system.

Yeah, assuming you used Economy it should be about in line with what the current estimate shows on the service page. I had an economy that beat the estimate a couple of weeks, and have a standard in progress right now that looks like it's going to come in just a bit under the estimate (although it's not a large order).

I saw some very positive action for CSG cards in the past few days on PWCC auction. A few examples where CSG was competitive with every other company and that was good to see. I still believe these slabs are going to continue to rise and approach the levels of BGS in the relatively near future.

Yes you can, but the different levels will be treated as two separate submissions in their tracking system. So for example the cards submitted as express will start in line behind other express cards, and economy would start behind the others in the economy queue. I just recently submitted an order just like this, and the higher level service was put through, completed and shipped. The lower service is still in progress. If part of your order is bulk, it will still need to have the 50 card minimum for that bulk order to qualify for the pricing as well.

I'd be willing to be that's a misinformed message above and there are not 'two standards'. I think it's as simple as they already have fairly low prices among their competitors for most tiers, and it's a way to recoup some of that for cards that customers will want subgrades on.

My guess is a few reasons: 1. April/May were the largest submission months and the bulk of their backlog (prices raised at some point after this, and estimates went up which may have slowed submissions). 2. They hired a LOT more people, especially given the influx of cash their money got when new investors came in. 3. They started the policy of asking people to write the service type on the outside of the package around June. This probably helped them more efficiently sort packages received from that point. All of these led to the open dates increasing more quickly over the past month. For a while they were progressing only a week of openings each week in July (not catching up at all). In late August they started completing two weeks of openings per one week of time. Can also confirm my package was delivered in July and opened about a week ago, so they are truly caught up to around that point.

I would imagine they're being more careful about it right now while they're under investigation by the FBI for ignoring it.

I haven't received any altered/trimmed back, but those are the kind of cards I'd enter on TCDB.com and trade away.

My standard/economy order. Only 6 cards but I sent just before they noted to mark on the box ST/EC so it was just sitting with the bulk orders until checked in. Delivered 7/6 Received 9/14 Scheduled for Grading 9/15

This is great news if they've found it. I've had both Fedex and USPS go through similar troubles where I thought the package was lost for up to a month and it eventually turned up.

When I filled out my CSG submission on the old form, these limits were definitely stated when you selected the shipper, and is the reason I used USPS to return. Very crappy situation, but not CSG's fault here.