0r0d

I'm communicating with CGC at the moment about my books, and so far they've commented that the issues on the photos I sent them look like they're all acceptable for 9.8 comics. (I'll post the ones I sent below for reference) However, one thing that occurred to me is that it's hard to capture these bends and ticks adequately on photos and they tend to look worse when you're actually holding the book in hand. But I'm not sure what else to do since photos is basically all I can actually provide as evidence, plus my assurance that these were not there originally. But if they say "these are ok for 9.8"... there's just no way I can refute that in any way since it's their opinion based on photos that dont really convey how the book looks in person. =(

Considering that the general angle of bend of the inner wells are pretty small, I'm starting to think that maybe the bent wells are more a result of what caused the damage and not what is causing the damage to the books. I mean, imagine that the encapsulation process when the book is placed into the inner well results in the well being bent like 20 or 30 degrees (or whatever, something severe enough to cause ticks). This could a) create the ticks and b) leave the inner well at the small angle that we're seeing. If this is the case, it should be easy for CGC to find the problem and it's not related to the fitment of the inner well in the case, temperature of sealing process, or whatever. Also, it would mean that there's no ongoing damage being done to books because there's no significant pressure from the small bend angle. Anyway, just wondering. We all assume the bend causes the problem, but that might be a red hearing.

I'm waiting on a response from CGC to my query about my bent/damaged books. No reply yet, so I decided to check my spam folder to make sure there wasnt something there. Found this right at the top...

I just compared my book with the most serious spine tick to the online CGC photo and it DOES show the same spine tick. So, it was definitely created by that point soon after encapsulation. It could still just be a matter of mishandling before the slabbing process, but given so many people have the same issue it doesnt look like mere mishandling is the problem. This also suggests that the damage will manifest right away (in most cases I'd imagine) and that CGC should have little trouble reproducing it in house.

Problem for CGC is they have already admitted that their process bends books. They have claimed that this bending is a "normal" part of that process. So, whether they admit to all the damages or not, and IANAL, this might well open them up for a class action lawsuit.

A book could still get a 9.8 with color-breaking spine ticks, they just have to be very small. So they might press it and it could still get that 9.8 back. Or maybe not. Or it does, but it now has that color-break that was never there. If one of my books that has this gets "fixed" by them and comes back at a lower grade, I'd want them to pay me for a replacement of that 9.8 book that they damaged. I dont want a 9.6. It was 9.8, they graded it 9.8, and because of their process it was damaged and is now 9.6. I'd want the full replacement cost.

CGC really needs to get their house in order and quick. The longer this goes on, the less trust people will have in CGC slabs. And... graded slabbed comics are only valuable because people have faith that if you buy X grade, you're going to get an X-worthy book. I'm already hesitant to buy any recently slabbed high grade book because I might just be buying a banana boat instead. So if people stop submitting books for CGC grading, and they stop buying CGC books because there's no faith in the quality of the encapsulated book (and not to mention that their competition is quickly increasing), then CGC will be out of business very quickly.

It'd be interesting to do some tests like taking a new inner well and seeing how it fits inside the old cases, and an old inner well and fit it inside a new slab. There's something going on there and it's probably too small and/or subtle to measure unless you actually try to fit the inner part into the outer slab and see where it actually gets bent.

Probably just redundant at this point, but here's a couple more photos of the more "minor" bends/ticks on books I sent in for 9.8 prescreen and I know were flawless at that point. I'm pretty sure these can be pressed out and the book will look ok, but it's just annoying that this can happen and CGC will say it's "normal". Keeping the books flat in the slab is like the bare minimum job of the slab. This is not technology we havent figured out.

Here is the damage that was done to one of my books that I submitted in May. I know this was not there when I sent this in for the pre-screen. I have other books that show some bending (from that same submission), but those are much more minor... luckily. But this one... well, I was planning to sell this book. However now I cant really do that because I'm pretty sure someone would be really pissed to buy a 9.8 and see this on it. =(

If the inner well is the same size, did you check the slab dimensions to see if those changed? I mean, inside where the inner well sits. How about inner well material type and stiffness?

My guess is that the lawyers have told CGC execs and community managers to not admit to any knowledge of a problem or damages because if they do they open themselves up to lawsuits. I'd imagine that right now they're trying to figure out how to roll out a fix without admitting the severity of the problem, when it started, how much damage has been done, that they ever even knew about it, etc, etc. And yes, I think a fix is coming because this is now clearly causing people to not submit books to them, and that's a direct impact on their bottom line. The longer it goes the more people stop submitting and the more damage to their reputation. And while the reputational impact might be slow, it means that alternatives become more and more attractive regardless of any perceived greater value to CGC books on the market. At some point there's a tipping point, and if they're smart they want to stay as far away from that as possible.

I submitted 10 comics for 9.8 pre-screen in May and 9 of them got the 9.8 grade. I just decided to check them for bending since I really didnt inspect them too much when I got them back. 3 of them have minor "acceptable" bends, and 3 have what I'd call "unacceptable" larger bends. But, when I was inspecting them I noticed that 2 of them had pretty noticeable front-cover spine ticks (non color-breaking) that absolutely were NOT there when I submitted them. In one of those cases, the tick/bend is so severe that there really no way the book would have gotten a 9.8 in the first place. I'm kind of upset now both with CGC and with myself for not thoroughly checking the books when they came back. Do I have any recourse with those 2 books, or do I just accept that I now have a 9.8 book with a very noticeable tick/bend in the front cover?

Great, thank you.

I'm looking at a book on eBay. This is not a high-priced book, but still I'm curious how this type of defect is viewed for grading purposes.