Tony S

Lot of jokers here... The correct type of press is a dry mount heat press. These presses are manufactured for and used by photographers/frame shops to mount printed photos to backing material for framing/display. Seal or Seal/Bienfang (now manufactured by D&K) is the most common and best known brand. New these are a couple of grand and sold at photography stores. So good used ones are your friend. As for used, they remind a lot of used motorcycles as far quality goes. Used motorcycles seem to mostly come in two flavors. Rode to death or barely rode. Dry mount presses are the same. What you want is one used very little by an amateur photographer that thought they would start mounting and framing his own photos. And either got bored and stopped or discovered it was worth having a framing shop do it for them. If the pad is not in good shape, you'll need to purchase a replacement (again, photography stores that sell the presses new) These have gotten a lot more expensive used the past several years, but you can still save a bunch of money buying used. That they are expensive is why people persist in buying T-shirt presses. T-Shirt presses are not the right kind of press. The proper replacement pad for a dry mount heat press costs more than many T-Shirt presses. Picture three items laying on a table. A photograph, a comic book and a T-Shirt. Which two items are most similar?

Has to arrive before the deadline. Does not have to be checked in (that is, showing on your dashboard as received)

10% off of the non existent stock at the CGC store.

I agree with others about the grade. 6.5- 7.0. Tears at staples are always something to be concerned with when getting pressed, but from the picture I believe this book can be safely pressed.

Superman - during this era in comic books - could squeeze lumps of coal into diamonds and visit metorites/asteroids in space, drag them to earth and mine them for gold. He'll have no problem paying the tax bill. Just saying

Pretty much any backing board is acid free at the time of manufacture. The difference between "archival" boards and the "acid free" boards is the amount of buffering agent added. The more added, the longer the backing board will stay acid free since any acid that migrates gets neutralized. I like the thickness of the full backs, but I think it's more practical to just by regular backing boards and regular bags and plan on switching out every five years or so. Gives one an excuse to go through and look at all your comic books

I believe what you are thinking of is CGC's policy that it will not encapsulate LOOSE items that came with a comic. Say a factory bagged comic that included a loose poster or trading card. Posters and trading cards that are attached to the book are graded. If those cards or posters are missing, they would get green label grade if nothing else was problematic with the books (say restoration)

Wow! 42K for a 2.5?

THIS is really well said and to the point. Thank you.

Given the fact the topic is about a new for the first time in 22 years dealer membership fee, I would not be surprised if there are more dealer account holders in this thread than the norm. In the past, CGC's perspective is that dealer accounts "paid" for their membership by driving a lot of business to CGC. Lots of people on the boards here actually have a free membership just so as to participate in the forums and send in books at shows and signing events.

I'm not sure how to say this. MOST COLLECTORS don't want their books slabbed. It's not a matter of most people need an incentive to buy raw - most people need an incentive to buy slabbed. I cannot count the number of slabbed books I've sold where I was asked to break it out of the slab for the buyer. I do agree that people are often times paying similar to graded prices for their raw books. But that they are says volumes. MOST COLLECTIONS have no graded books. MOST COLLECTORS want to be able to read or at least page through their comics.

Well - allow me to take a stab at what you are missing. Dealer accounts have been free for 22 years and the dealer discount 20% for 21 years. Dealers were valued partners and influencers. If people walk into a comic book store or go to a convention and see CGC slabbed books for sale, that influences them. If they ask about getting their books slabbed and the dealer says "I can send them in to CGC for you" - that influences them. I remember talking to Steve Borock back around 2003-2004 about a submission. His words were "if dealers make money we make money" It's not that in the scheme of things $199 is a huge amount of money (though I might mention the new CGC seems intent on regular price increases). But they could have another 50 cents or buck a book and left relationships that go back 22 years stay the same.

Not to take this thread off the rails - but eBay's ONLY APPEAL is getting paid quickly. Or being able to offer very low value books for sale. . Nearly every other venue actually charges lower fees and might not generate a 1099 at the end of the year. My Comic Shop, Comic Link, Comic Connect, Pedigree. Fees all less than eBay. And these places do most of the work and are responsible for shipping. MCS even has good sales results for raw books and lists your consigned slabs on eBay. The only downside is time. Takes longer to get a check

Makes sense where you got the information from. I believe - at least up to this point - have to ask that your store/business be placed on the Dealer Listing page. I had to request it. Not everyone that has a dealer account is interested in sending in books for other people. Some may not have brick and mortar stores. And some I know for sure because they have told me so have no interest in sending in books for others. The previously 20% and now 15% mark up is not near enough for the time, trouble, responsibility and potential liability.

eBay is another relationship that has gotten worse over time and needs reevaluation by many. People stay in relationships that have soured because they are afraid of change.

Back when Matt Nelson ran his own pressing/restoration business and wasn't President of CGC, he had a detailed article on his website showing that there ought to be far more 9.9's and 10's coming out of CGC. It was a thing of beauty complete with graph charts and mathematical modeling. I wish I had printed it out. It went the way of the Dodo bird when CCG bought his business, moved him to Sarasota and started their own in house pressing/restoration service. So IDK if the number of 9.9's coming out of the outfit in Texas is "ridiculous" because I have no idea how many that actually is. But there was a time when the now President of CGC believed CGC should have been grading far more 9.9's and 10's. One those truths some people might want to forget....

I do not know how many ACTIVE, routinely submitting dealer accounts there are, but there are far, FAR more than 200 authorized dealers. I have several dealers as clients - they submit using their own account - and the highest dealer number is near 2000. And this is not a "new" dealer. Owns several stores and has for years.

You do realize the vast, overwhelming hobby is raw, right? Go to any comic book store or comic convention. What's the ratio of raw to graded? 10,000 to 1? There are three comic book stores in my town and one - the largest and oldest - has not one single slabbed comic book for sale. I have customers that go back to the 1980's. Dealers shouldn't be put on any sort of pedestal, but neither should CGC. The relationship between CGC and dealers is and has been mutually beneficial. Emotions can be unproductive, but it FEELS like one side is trying to take advantage of what has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

I don't believe there was any doubt at this point, but I did call CGC and confirm that dealer accounts now have an annual cost of $199 This stands in such contrast to how CGC started. Dealers were actively recruited and treated more like influencers. For instance all of the Overstreet Advisors when CGC opened were given 10 free grading coupons. But first the discount for dealers was reduced to 15% from 20% and now there is a charge for a dealer account. I send in thousands of books every year and have for a lot of years. And I'll just mention that I am sending in books almost entirely for other people. One of the things dealer accounts were likely to be doing/CGC hoped for. A lot of people ask me which grading company they should use. Thus my "influencer" comment.

Yes, I see it now. Thanks for the link. It does rather look like it is going to be a requirement to pay. But I'll still call.

Yes, that is interesting because I'm not seeing a deadline on the screen that pops up for me. Had a dealer friend check and he has no deadline showing either

I was going to call tomorrow before I posted anything about this. I have a dealer account with CGC. The $199 dealer membership that pops up when I log in says it is for CCG and allows submission across all the CCG companies. Coins, sportscards, paper money. Those things have no value to me since I don't collect or serve customers in those fields of collectibles. Perhaps it would have value to some stores and dealers that also cater to sports cards crowd. So MAYBE those of us with CGC (only) dealer accounts will maintain such at no cost. Because the idea is that dealers send in lots and lots of books. But if they are now "selling" dealer accounts at a $199 annual fee, they might end up catching some consequences. They already torqued us a bit with the discount cut. Now a yearly fee? There's a place that used to be across the street that still views dealers as.....influencers.... and worth catering a bit more to.

German Shepherds shed like no other. LA gets an unfair rap. OAKland and Stockton are the crime capitals of California with double the rate of LA. Indianapolis Indiana has more crime per 100,000 people than every city in CA except Stockton. Comic book thieves are universally despised and dealers do not want to buy stolen comics. Others have said it and I'll repeat. The OP needs a list ASAP and the list needs to go to the places the thieves would try to sell the books at as well as the police.

I'm sure they paid more $$$