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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.

On 8/28/2024 at 12:58 PM, Skytripa said:

Not sure if anyone else has done this. When comparing the damage to my books I looked at the online photos that CGC took after encapsulation. I noticed on the book with multiple spine stress their photo does not show anything. So sometime after they took the picture to me getting the book in the mail the damage is there.

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.

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.

On 8/27/2024 at 5:11 PM, Stefan_W said:

As I mentioned earlier, I did this before and saw that the dimensions were unchanged so I did not include it in the video. The question is fair though and I am kicking myself for not just doing it again while the camera was one. 

I pulled three recent cases that housed books with bent inner wells and one that was graded about a year ago and thus was straight with no issues. The dimensions on the inside where the inner well is house are about 27.5 cm by 19.5 cm. I lined them up for a photo to show the ledges all line up. The cracks in the cases are because I opened them up and they do not impact on the measurements.

 

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.  =(

On 8/26/2024 at 7:14 PM, Stefan_W said:

Yes, that is me. Thanks for sharing! 

 

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?

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?

On 6/9/2024 at 10:27 AM, Lightning55 said:

It's called a maverick, and is typically ignored. 

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.