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2 hours ago, CardHero said:

This is a new rule, enacted after a lot of people sent in submissions that are still waiting to be opened.  Previously you could submit changes to orders once they were received...so if you're acting like this rule always existed or something, you're wrong.

Definitely not acting like anything there bud, just stating the facts.✌

On 5/10/2021 at 7:56 PM, pdizzlenizzle said:

I sent in two shipment's about three months ago. My first shipment was (75) 2020 Bowman Luis Robert Paper Rookies, a very easy card to grade. I have been getting cards graded for over 5 years with PSA and typically get about 50-60% PSA 10s back, so I have some knowledge and experience with this. They sent me back under 30% 9.5s of this card In which I hand picked the 75 I sent in from about 300 of the same card. The rest of the Robert's I got back were either 9's or 8.5's. My second order has not even been put in the system yet, I called them and politely told them I was unhappy with the grades that came back and simply wanted to have my second order sent back to me (I SAID I WOULD PAY FOR RETURN SHIPPING). They told me they cannot do that and refused to send my second order back prior to grading. In short I am basically being forced to move forward with over $700 worth of grading, this just seems like bad customer service to me.  

Sorry to break it to you but if your cards fall under this category...

16 hours ago, RKgant said:

Yeah... we are all waiting for a population report.  Super important for this to be released, as it will at some level provide clarity to "how does a CSG 8 compare to PSA?" With the volume they are experiencing, hopefully they will have enough info to release a population report soon.  We would all love a general timeline for this to be released/expected.

I'm definitely waiting for a pop report. I can imagine they have a decent size team of people working on that as we speak, hopefully.

On 5/11/2021 at 9:56 AM, C. Yeager said:

I may be totally wrong here, and I'm curious to hear directly from CSG too, but it appears their grading scale is basically the same as BGS. And my understanding is, the overall grade can only be .5 higher than the lowest subgrade on the card. I had a terribly off-center 1986 Fleer Barkley, but the card was fairly NM overall. So I assume the centering was a 6, meaning the highest overall grade possible would be a 6.5. (Assuming the centering is the lowest subgrade for the card.) I've attached some images of the card for comparison. 

Actually the left to right centering is very severe... their grading scale states that the final grade cannot be more than 1 point higher than the lowest subgrade, which might have even been a 5.5 in your case. This is where subgrades would have definitely come in handy. Personally I get them all the time, the label looks so much cleaner. Until they format it differently in the future, subgrades is the way for me. 

22 minutes ago, Yeahiwasder4dat said:

In this case I think I overestimated their ability to have situational awareness. If you look at HGA, regardless of their grading they only take subs equal to what they can pump out. Quick turnaround. SGC jacked price up, and is actively playing with the price with a current turnaround of 20-25 days according to the sub I did yesterday. 

CSG? They watched what happened to every other company, didn't take notes and buried themselves in cards. Now they're months behind on opening mail, turn around is through the roof, they're holding cards hostage, and people are getting mad.

Seems like a cash grab to me. Get as many subs as possible in while the market is hot regardless of it taking a year or more to do them. Screw the customer, just lock in that money.

I'm not saying you're wrong or I'm right, but no one saw the big PSA shutdown coming which created the perfect storm and played a huge role in where the world of card grading is right now. All I know for myself personally, is that I never have and most likely never will make any submissions to PSA. They have been in the grading world since the early 90's and have grown so big but at the same time got too greedy, have failed customers in so many ways and their customer service is basically non-existent. 

10 hours ago, robotur said:

With the current state of sportcards grading and the backlogs at all companies, I have decided to wait patiently for my orders at CSG and PSA. Currently I have about 600 cards at CSG all delivered in late March and none entered in the system.  While my 100 cards at PSA were delivered in early April and they have been entered by PSA. Nevertheless, I have accepted the fact turnaround times at both companies will be 8 months are more. So I should get a nice Christmas package from both companies at the end of the year.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah well all we can do is wait. The number of people constantly complaining won't do a thing to help in any positive or constructive way. Like  the old axiom goes "Patience is a virtue. "

2 hours ago, Yeahiwasder4dat said:

This. Their selling point was speed. The resell isn't there, no registry, etc. With that gone, no reason to use the service. Wait as long or longer for a lower resell when you're sending them in expecting faster turnaround to compensate for lower price with volume.

To be fair, CSG just started grading sports cards in February. Those looking for speed in this circus market right now along with some greed mixed in got a rude awakening.

7 hours ago, Shockmaster said:

Can we just have a board topic where people can put down when their package was delivered, entered as received, grading status and etc without complaining?

It's the state of the hobby right now. Everyone is backed up now and short-handed. If anyone wants to go back to the other companies, please go quietly. There are some of here that like CSG's product and don't need to hear the negativity. 

Agreed!

16 minutes ago, redfoxdutchman said:

There is room for PSA, SGC, BGS, and CSG in collecting and all do a great job IMO. You just have to be aware of their grading scales and each company tries their hardest to stay within those standards. I don't trust HGA because they don't have a rubric that shows you how they grade. The issue I have with CSG is that they tend to be very lenient with cards graded below CSG 8, but as a consumer I know that going into a purchase. Their rubric allows wear on corners much more than other grading companies, but as long as they are consistent it doesn't bother me.

The problem I have with CSG at the moment is they are not being fully transparent about how many cards they have in backlog. I personally know people that submitted over a thousand cards for bulk. People are already getting upset and they haven't even gotten into the April 1st submissions when PSA closed. CSG took on too many cards and are not prepared for this. This happened to SGC last year on a smaller scale and people are still holding a grudge against them. Unless CSG stops submissions and catches up, they will never become a trusted grader. I want them to succeed, but it may be already too late. People won't accept 1 year turnaround times for bulk when they though it was 60 days when they submitted.

I disagree, since PSA had monumental submissions and an equivalent backlog, there are still diehards who are still waiting to grade with them when they reopen... that says a lot so I believe CSG can and will be a trusted grader as well despite the backlog and all that comes along with it. 

34 minutes ago, Yeahiwasder4dat said:

I'm not sure that the prices were high enough. There's a sweet spot in terms of card prices that once you get above $20 cards are fewer and father between. If the minimum was $20-25 a card I could see where it would cut a lot of the bulk out. A lot of sub $20 cards get graded with a resell of $40-50. If they could eliminate those with a price point where the return was the near the same as the raw value + grading fee I think it would go a long way towards really cutting back on some of the stuff that's sent in. Could be wishful thinking but that's just what I've noticed from prices in terms of selling, from the cards I deal with and a lot of the listings I see from other sellers.

I think you're onto something with the price points. I think CSG was very generous with their initial pricing. Now that they are starting to get more of a feel of the market and how much of a demand they are getting, they definitely had to adjust accordingly. 

2 hours ago, MDBLAW said:

Obviously they have to start with the higher priced categories because that’s where they make their best profit, but I think that since the vast majority of their business must come from bulk submissions, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to examine their prioritization of grading categories.

Actually since they never wanted to halt submissions, I believe the price hike and the extensions in estimated turnaround times were necessary to slow submissions and make consumers really think twice about what they would submit.

3 hours ago, MDBLAW said:

I sent 99 cards to CSG for grading, and only one was an express category card. The shipment was received by CSG on March 23, 2021, but they didn’t actually receive the shipment on their online progress report until May 1 2021.  As if that weren’t disappointing enough they finally graded my first card, a 1992 tops finest Michael Jordan refractor at a 7.5. I examined this card very closely, at 30x lighted magnification before sending it and had a friend who is a card grader look at it as well. We both agreed it was no worse than an 8.5 and possibly as good as a 9.5. This downgrade by CSG is costing me quite a bit of money. I hope the rest of my submissions won’t be as disappointing.

That bites... did you get subgrades for the MJ? At least that way you'll see what you got dinged on.

9 hours ago, Benjamin Brown said:

My expectations are pretty reasonable knowing just how wild grading companies have been this past year but it is impressive it only took a few months for TATs to jump so much and just getting your package received take now what? close to two months? 

With lessons learned across all companies and the CGC TCG backlog (Bulk is solidly 1-year TAT) you would have hoped CSG would over prepare for opening up a new grading division. 

Im not "over" CSG as they are my first and only grading experience. I know TAT would be long wherever I sent my cards. From an outside perspective though its just strange that they weren't more than ready to deal with a huge wave of subs. From the oversized cases being delayed to not having a pop report ready to go....CGC has also been touting having one for a year with nothing materializing.

My first and overall grading experience with any company as well and as a whole, I've been satisfied. I definitely expected the growing pains along with the craziness connected to the hobby market madness these days. I really would choose CSG over any competitor at this point. 

6 hours ago, jdmtdcollector said:

6.5, ouch on the surface! BGS did that to me on my Tim Duncan rookie credentials,, what hurt was 9.5, 9.5, 9, 6.5 surface ughhhhhh

Yeah this particular set seems to be condition sensitive from what I've seen online...the base cards overall are silver and have a refractor like finish, the particular surface issues you'll find are white spots where the silver should be... it's disappointing since this was considered a "high end" product 😅 I'm just fortunate enough to have pulled a LeBron from a box back in the day

6 hours ago, jdmtdcollector said:

Ive bought semi rigids from their sister company and it will arrive just that its not amazon, be patient, it will come. I wonder though if they clean the ones we send with our submissions and repack them *grin* , it's not that I care as other companies wont return either

I've gotten a couple submissions back, the only semi-rigid I got back was with my card that came back ungraded.

3 hours ago, ne1seenmykeys said:

Can you point me to where it says that please? I am looking for it and have not been able to find it. 

Under the news tab, it is a very recent article. 

delete 

1 hour ago, ne1seenmykeys said:

I mean, that's just not true. 

If anything, toploaders provide a greater area for movement during travel than CardSavers. 

Agreed, that's why semi-rigids are the standard...nobody wants their cards ending up damaged 😅

3 hours ago, Matt Macaluso said:

The 60-days will start once they are marked as received. Were they delivered on the 26th or marked as received in the system?

-Matt

Actually CSG clarified it on their website, turnaround times are based on when marked as delivered to their facility.

8 hours ago, PokerPro2020 said:

I joined as a member paid and my cards had been setting there for over a month and still in the mail room. Not what was advertised.

Is your order express or faster? Just a guess, but the express and above orders delivered before yours will definitely have priority and the others which are not. That's the big picture in processing delays you have to look at.

1 hour ago, Steven M Volden said:

So I had an express order on 6 cards. They were a mix of PC and cards I'm going to sell. All 6 received 9.5 Gem Mint with varying Sub-Grades. The express took 8 days from delivery to ship out. I'm very satisfied with the process for express and the grading. They grade tough and I feel it's good for the grading industry. To the naked eye, these look like they would be PSA 10's, but the high resolution images provided show surface defects that are probably from the manufacturing/printing process as there were no scratches/fingerprints, but I could make out various marks that dropped surface grades. I like SCG and plan to have more cards graded with them.

Awesome but we know you meant CSG not SCG 

8 minutes ago, JohnMM said:

So what are the estimated turnaround times based on?  Receipt of the cards at the post office?  Delivery of the cards to the CSG facility?  Logging of cards into the system?  Initiation of the grading process?  Could someone clarify?

When the delivery is confirmed at their facility. It was just recently confirmed on their website. 

11 hours ago, newbielover said:

I wonder if $10 for sub-grades is really the right price point.  Doesn't the grader essentially determine the four sub-grades anyway?  Why not make it a reasonable $2 or 3 bucks... I would've added it to each card in my 125 card bulk order.  Curious if others feel the same...

I feel $3-5 would have been a good price point... but personally I always get the subgrades, especially with how the label looks without them. 

Service level: express 

Delivery date: 4/27

Received date: 5/5

Scheduled for grading: 5/7

Grading / quality control: 5/10

Finalized / Imaged / Shipped: 5/14

2 hours ago, Jason Royon said:

We’re any of you guys sent invoices and charged yet? 

FYI, your CC is charged when your cards enter the grading phase under the submissions tab