Tony S

Well, some quick thoughts. I don't see that CGC is recognizing Foom #2 as anything Wolverine. Nothing. Not mentioned. And that's not "Wolverine" like the Marvel character. It's a kid's sketch of the same name that looks nothing like Wolverine that people selling Foom #2 are hawking as some sort of Wolverine prototype. Anyone paying the asking prices by some sellers for this book are overpaying. Dumb money is still real money - but it is also still dumb money. If there was any legitimacy to this claim we'd have heard about the lawsuit and settlement. THAT is not Wolverine. FOOM 10 is basically legit and people are warming up to it. I personally am unconvinced FOOM 10 was distributed before GS X-Men 1 and more research ought to be done before Foom 10 is considered first. Grand Comic Book Database - noting Library of Congress info - indicates GSXM 1 was out first. However - all that said - even if Foom 10 came out first it is not a "first appearance". There is no "New" X-Men story here. Foom was Marvel's in house fan publication. There is a cover, a centerfold and an article. But there is no "story". So regardless of publication date, the first comic book appearance of the "new" X-Men is GS X-Men 1. Maybe in time these fan type publications and their previews of upcoming comics/characters and events will become highly sought after. There are actually quite a few such examples. Probably hundreds. Marvel Age is stuffed full of such. So to is Comic Interview. But there is a very real difference between an article with a few pictures of a new comic team/character/book coming out soon and the actual book that introduces the character(s) / tells the first story. Foom 15. What I said about #10. Except it does look to be first.

This is the answer..... Did someone else ask this same question a month ago??

The Perez signing was cancelled after the deadline for submitting books because of his failing health. Based on your experience I think it is obvious that most or all of the books received in slabs had been removed from their slabs by the time the signing was cancelled. You will need to get through to customer service to find out what they plan - if anything - to do about this situation of books be cracked out slabs in preparation for a signing that never took place. I can see both sides of the debate of if CGC is responsible. If you had gone to a show with your CGC graded books cracked out for a signature - and the artist or celebrity had to cancel at the last moment then you should not expect the show promoter or the celebrity guest to reslab your books. But then this was arranged as a CGC in house event and they are the ones that cracked the slabs. Either way, Perez's failing health was the real reason for the signing not taking place. I suggest calling and waiting on hold until you get through. Or wait a couple of weeks for whatever is driving the jam up in customer service to pass. Or maybe even write a letter and sending it old fashion snail mail. What I finally did with some accounting issues - sent a letter.

Stan was an unapologetic self-promoter. His greatest skill was not storytelling (and I grew up with and loved his story telling). It was his ability to promote and sell. To make you want his stuff. Stan would absolutely find it hilarious. Just like he would have had no objections to people selling comic books he had signed at inflated prices immediately after his death.

No, you really don't

Foxing can be mold, but it can also be iron oxides in paper oxidizing. Vintage comics were printed on cheap paper, they just basically ground up the tree. If the tree grew where there was plenty of minerals in the ground - like iron - then there is iron in the paper. Bottom line is foxing - mold or iron, it's all about storage conditions, especially humidity levels. No comic book slab ever - Generation 1 or Generation 2 - is airtight. So if slabbed books are stored in humid environments, staples can tarnish/rust, mold can grow, iron oxides in the paper can "rust".

I'll have to take your word for it (which I do) The pictures don't show anything. The CBCS is so pixilated I can count pixels.

CGC's stance on tape repairs is clear as far as grade goes. Since they modified their stance April 2013, tape can never improve the grade of a book. If the tape serves a purpose - like reattaching a cover or centerfold - then the book is graded as though the cover or centerfold is still detached. If the tape serves no purpose, then the tape is treated as a defect and graded accordingly. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/3327/CGC-Modifies-Stance-on-Grading-Submissions-with-Tape/#:~:text=After consideration of the expressed,book as if it was Archival tape is a bit less clear. It is listed as a material used in conservation repairs, but there are books out there with archival tape repairs that are blue labels. So not clear what that means. Could be as simple as the graders are not able to always tell if the tape they see on a book is archival. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/4083/

Silicone Release paper has no texture. Parchment paper does. That's because SRP is for pressing photographs and Parchment paper is for pressing T-Shirts or baking cookies. T-Shirts already have texture and no one cares what the bottom of a cookie looks like. This gets back to the right kind of press. The photo stores selling dry mount presses (D&K, formerly Seal) are not selling parchment paper to use with the presses. They are selling SRP. There is far too much effort put into trying to make the wrong - but less expensive - things work just as well as the right - but more expensive things. If you went to the dentist and he started to drill out your cavity with a Bauer cordless drill and a set of bits from Harbor Freight, what would you think? "Ahh, a hole is hole. It makes a hole. No reason to buy those overpriced dental drills and bits. This works fine. Just need to practice and tweak it...." You would find another dentist is what you would do. The photo stores that sell the right kind of press also sell nearly everything else you need. If learning, go through the list of what is for sale as press accessories and learn. The presses themselves you can watch for used on eBay or local. There are lots of amateur photographers over the years that decided it was too much trouble and they will just pay someone to mount and frame their photos.

That is not what Matt Nelson said. What he said is "Heat is not as effective as, say, moisture. ..if you throw a book in a dry mount press, there’s a higher chance of reversing in those cases" What Matt is referring to is those that press using heat only. Doing so because humidity is the hardest part of the process to get right. One might also note Matt says "a dry mount press". Not a T-Shirt press.

I don't mean to state the obvious, but "steps" are meaningless. Look at the estimated turn around time for the service you selected and submitted under. That is about how long it will take.

The obvious answer is that CGC, CBCS and third party retail pressing services have lots and lots of presses. If you want to press 50 books and only have it take a couple of days, you will need 25 presses. If you want to press 100 books a day, you need 50. On and on. If you are using a 10"x12" press, it's also near certain that you are not using the correct type of press. You are not putting graphics on T-Shirts. You are pressing comic books nice and flat and smooth. The correct press is one originally intended for photographs. The overall point is that you if made a small investment, you either are not doing it correctly OR you got an incredible good deal on the right equipment.

Well...actually it's not near so hard as you think. There are a number of data centric companies that make work flow management systems that do 98% of scheduling and progress tasks for a company. The other 2% is handled by managers or more often someone with the title of workflow manager. I experienced this first hand as mid level manager during our transition from an old assign jobs (cases in our case) to people to a modern, break the job down into specific tasks that progress along to completion. It is literally off the shelf software that is tweaked for the specific users needs. I - and virtually all field staff - were skeptical. There were ugly moments - a lot actually - but IBM and the contractors delivered on the workflow management software. So it's straightforward and it appears CGC is already doing something like this -- so they just need to improve. Books come in and get assigned a control number. Entered in at receiving with the received date and submission tier. From there the system can do all scheduling and tracking. The system knows the due date for completion. The system moves (schedules) the book(s) to each task based on timeframes. So workers should not be going into the vault and grabbing the first box they see. They have been handed - by the system - what exact books should be going that day. That same list tells them not just what books but exactly where they are at. As each worker does their part (task) the system tracking is updated and the next task for the book scheduled. Higher level managers and/or a work flow manager can view a color coded report at any time for any or all tiers and a work flow manager will be / should be viewing it several times a day. Green is good - books are within timeframes. Yellow is stuff due soon. Red is overdue. You don't want to see red and if you are seeing red for more than a couple of days in a tier then the advertised TAT's need to be adjusted to reality. The workflow manager or high level managers can also go in and override individual books, orders or tiers forcing the system to move those up in scheduling. So no - any grading company CAN do first in first out within the submitted tier. That should not even be hard. What will be hard is forecasting TAT's that are months later. Because at any moment, the estimated TAT can only - at best - be 99% accurate for AT THAT MOMENT. No one and no computer program can accurately predict today how many books at what tiers will come in next week, next month. This is why the fastest tiers are also the most accurate. Since books spend much less time in the system, there is much less time for things to happen that substantially affect the TAT. Plus the most expensive tiers have the highest priority. So if there is a big increase in submissions at the higher priced tiers, it will push back lower cost tiers. The workflow management system knows all this....TAT's are and can be updated on the fly. There is no good reason - with a modern work flow management system - for books that should take 135 days to be done in 20 days - while other books in the same tier wait the 135 days.

Nice graphic. Is there a reason CGC cannot or should not adhere to first in first out, based on submitted tiers? If there is a reason they should not, then why do they even publish estimated TAT? Why not just say "life isn't fair. We'll grade your books whenever we feel like it?"

Most of the books I submit are for other people. Some of my clients choose to vastly understate the value of their books. Most common are the various moderns that are $10-$20 raw and $200+ in professionally graded and encapsulated 9.8. But a few just greatly understate the value because.....whatever. It can save a few bucks on shipping.

Life isn't fair, that's true. But CGC isn't life. It's a business. There is no reason they cannot - nor should not - strive to have a "first in first out" standard - based on tiers and stated TAT - for their customers.

This happened with a lucky few's orders last November. People talked about it here and on FB. Calls to CGC were reported as being explained as "trying something new" to "routed to new facility" and maybe someone mentioned "golden ticket". But IDK if that was a CGC response or what some submitters were calling it. Obviously it is going on again, as I had a couple of submissions for clients get done way faster than expected. While others sit the length of time listed under CGC's published TAT's. It is a great thing for those that score it. Otherwise it's a bad thing for everyone else that waits the listed amount of time. Because it is unquestionably unfair to the great majority.

There is nothing wrong with double boxing for sure. For shipping 2-3 slabs I have often used the 1092 inside a 1095 double box method. But I would point out the return shipments from CGC/CBCS are not double boxed. Nor are shipments from ComicLink. A sturdy box is at least as good as a double box. A sturdy box that is substantially larger than the comics inside arguably better. It's really all about having extra space between the books and filling that extra space in the box with cushioning material. Along with the books not being able to move around inside the shipping box. So they are not never close to the sides of the shipping box. I would also mention that bubble wrap is far too often portrayed as the best thing possible. When in fact you can package just as securely with crumpled up newsprint. Newsprint being far more environmentally friendly - and newsprint often can be sourced at no cost. Not only is newsprint far easier to recycle - but even if you don't recycle it decomposes far more quickly than plastic. Not criticizing, just refining. Your advice is great If the OP follows your advice books will get there safely 99.99% of the time. The 0.10% of the time is "why" of the insurance you recommend.

You can always combine your submissions into one box and ship it to CGC. You can combine submissions by different people into one box and ship to CGC (comic book stores that are CGC dealers do this all the time) It is shipping of different submissions back from CGC back to the submitter that is NOT combined. So direct answer to your question, you can send in your six different signature series event books to CGC in one box. You will get back from CGC six different shipments, have six different shipping charges.

Welcome to the boards.... Shipping kits are unnecessary and border on silly. What do shipping kits include? Sturdy cardboard box, bubble wrap. you can purchase those things at an office supply store (say Office Depot) a moving store (say U-Haul) or even at Walmart and Home Depot/Lowes. If you have a recycling center in your town, you can probably get sturdy cardboard boxes and newspaper (crushed up a fine substitute for bubble wrap) for free. The principles are simple. Wrap your books up like say a Christmas or Birthday present. A nice sturdy rectangular stack. Use a sturdy box that is larger by at least two inches all around and stuff cushioning material all around your stack of books. The point is for the books not to be able to shift around and not be able to come in contact with the sides of the box. That way if the box does get impacted on the sides or corners the books still are undamaged. Bubble wrap can make it easy because you can wrap the books so that you have that couple of inches all around the books in bubble wrap. But as I said, newsprint can be crumpled. If really insecure this first time take it to a pack & ship place and watch them package it up.

This. I don't normally comment on this, but light bends and light spine stress lines seem to be some sort of go to cut and paste for graders. IDK, maybe they sometimes disappear after some time in the slab. But it is not unusual to see nothing of the sort when a book with these notes gets unslabbed.

Welcome to the boards! CGC has multiple service tiers. Generally speaking, the more your comic book(s) are worth, the more it costs to get them graded. The more you pay to get books graded, the faster they get done. So how long it takes depends on what service tier you selected - how much you paid. Comic books can take ten months or two weeks. The least expensive magazine tiers are one year. Below is a link to CGC's turn around times (TAT) based on the tier (that is, how much it costs) Look at how much you paid and you can see how long it is going to take. https://www.cgccomics.com/submit/services-fees/cgc-grading/

Kenny is great. Hero Restoration is great. This is not going to be inexpensive.

I suppose I'll be the contrarian voice here. And I do point out spots on clothes sent to the dry cleaners Not wrinkles though. A person good at their craft of pressing books probably does not need defects to be pointed out. But it doesn't hurt if the owner of the book does such. Some people like to feel more involved in the clean/press process - and pointing out the defects they see increases their confidence that those defects will be addressed. So IMHO pressing services should cheerfully say "thank you" for a post it note or brief description of the defects they see on a book. Occasionally it can lead to a discussion that helps educate as well. People will ask for things to be fixed that are not actually broken - like say fixing a spine roll that is actually a miss wrap, cleaning off dirt that is actually a stain, etc.

It would be qualified. Just as if the MVS was still cut out. CGC's stance on tape is that it can never improve a book. Say if the tape reattaches the cover or a piece, the comic book is graded as though the cover is still detached or the piece still missing. Link: https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/3327/CGC-Modifies-Stance-on-Grading-Submissions-with-Tape/#:~:text=After consideration of the expressed,book as if it was