skybolt

On 3/3/2022 at 8:34 PM, MAR1979 said:

My numbers over the years are pretty consistent since my first sub in 2000. I keep a record of my estimated grades and grades received from CGC.  I am correct approx 70% of the time, receive higher than estimated approx 20%, receive lower than estimated approx 10%.

I will say virtually all my subs are high grade where I feel it's easier to be accurate.  Mid grade presents a challenge for me to estimate. BTW most of the time I receive 9.8's for books that I estimate are 9.6 are on Bronze.  My guess is the difference resides in the negative value I place on certain defects compared to CGC's standards.

For typical submissions I agree with you. Experienced graders realize that books manufactured in the 70's and 80's did not have perfectly crisp corners and weren't always as flat as pancakes. What my fear is going forward is that some of the new graders are grading 70's and 80's books like they were manufactured yesterday, meaning that you have no choice but to get them all pressed (I may do that from now on). For instance, as I was scrolling down my 2 recent submissions and seeing all the 9.6's, I told myself I bet the only book that will receive a 9.8 grade is the one from 2020. Of course I was correct. 

Also, when my two 10/19 submissions went from SFG to G/E/I to Grading/QC and then shipped in literally 2 hours, I had a feeling the grades were going to be bad.

On 3/3/2022 at 3:00 PM, Stefan_W said:

9 of my last 13 CGC submissions had grades I was roughly expecting, and the other 4 were totally hosed by the grader. For one of the hosed shipments I re-subbed 6 books that were originally graded with four 9.2s and two 9.4s, and with no addition press or anything the second time through there were three 9.6s and three 9.8s. 

So about a quarter of the shipments were destroyed by impossibly tough grading. I figure maybe it was new graders trying to show they are tough or something like that. 

This is the reason why 3 graders are required for each book, with the last one being an experienced person. I don't mind new graders being too harsh or too loose on certain books, but this should be corrected by the experienced grader when checking the books for consistency against other copies previously graded.

I don't profess to be a top notch grader, but I have submitted close to 2,000 modern books over the past 18-19 years. When CGC grading is a bit a loose, 90-95% of the books I send in come back with the exact grade predicted or a grade higher. When CGC tightens grading a bit, I'm usually batting around 50-60%. However, these 2 recent submissions were completely out of whack. There is no way I miss-graded 40 out of 43 books. It's literally like someone was only giving out 9.8's if the books were borderline 9.9's. Also, when I'm confident about 9.8's, I'm usually 90-95% right. With these 2 submissions, I would say I only got about 15% of those correct. Bonkers.

Looking at my 2 recent slow modern submissions I'm actually shocked at the grades received. I typically on average get 60 to 70% 9.8's, but only 3 out of 43 books came back as 9.8's. Either I'm losing it or grading has gotten super tough. Anyone else experience anything similar? Even the 2 batches graded last week that were sent it at the same time came back at 50% efficiency. There's no way my grading fell of the cliff like that. Whomever was grading these was looking for perfection.

On 3/2/2022 at 5:05 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

CGC slow track modern is up to grading these dates.

Yup. My two 10/19 received submissions also went to G/E/I yesterday.

3 out of my 4 submissions received by CCS on 4/11 went to SFG in early February and have already shipped. The last submission still hasn't moved to SFG. I want to call, but realize it's still within the 249 business day window.

On 3/1/2022 at 8:30 PM, Petroman said:

Agree that high value books should be slabbed, both for the protection it provides and the bump it gives to resale prices.  But google CBCS and their raw grade service.  I'm not sure they still offer it, but it is basically a way to get an impartial grade supplied to your books and have them returned in Mylar and sealed with tamper resistant stickers.  Obviously the protection factor isn't there, and there is more of chance of someone tampering with the book, but I would be willing to pay for such a service it the turn around times were much faster and the cost say maybe 50%.  Likewise, I'd be willing to buy books with such a raw grade, but only up to a certain amount, maybe $200 or so.  I see this type of service being very valuable for people that often sell/buy on platforms such as Ebay as it would give an assurance that the book they are buying is of a certain quality.  Granted, this assurance wouldn't be as good as that of a slabbed book, but for a lesser valued book I would be okay with this given the cheaper grading cost and faster turnaround time.

How long does this process take CBCS? 

On 2/28/2022 at 10:28 AM, JJ-4 said:

I agree with you to a degree.

 

They are running at capacity but had they hired more staff they would be able to have happier customers, more business (more profit from a volume standpoint), and greater efficiency (more profit per book).

Full disclosure, with these issues and all the problems they have with re-work (wrong holders, damaged books, etc.) I've been sitting on the sidelines for months.  Came on here hoping to learn about getting some of my collection graded but I've still never submitted a book to date and probably never will. 

 

They need to open a west coast office and have half the country ship their books there. 

On 2/28/2022 at 7:57 AM, J RANDALL said:

And more good news, looks like TATs have been extended again.

Slow track modern pressing is also up to 249 business days. This will likely go up to 300+ business days as CCS starts catching up with the late April submissions to beat the price hike.

Has anyone ran into a situation where CGC initially only enters a portion of the books pressed by a 3rd party? What I mean is thus far 3 of the 20+ submissions have been received by CGC so far, but one submission only has 6 of the 25 books entered. Hopefully the rest of the books will be entered soon or this submission.

On 2/24/2022 at 5:15 AM, gregwynn said:

My last 1 shipped the day after

I agree, my last 3 submissions took 2 days to ship after going into Grading/QC.

One of my 2 slow modern submissions received on 10/14 just shipped. The other one went to Grading/QC.

Grading continues to be tough these days. Only 10 books (out of 23) came back as 9.8's (was expecting 15 to 16).

For slow modern grading I know that SFG and G/E/I doesn't mean much these days. However, I was wondering on average, how long does it take to ship the books after they go into Grading/QC?

On 2/21/2022 at 8:21 AM, thingsofstuff said:

Mine just left this weekend.  The last status was "CCS in Process."  Does anyone know if there is an update beyond that while they are still at CCS? 

Or has everyone just had them switch to 'received' at CGC for Grading and back on the My Submissions page?

Two of my four 4/11 "Received by CCS" submissions went straight to SFG, then G/E/I, Grading/QC and then shipped. Another one went to SFG, then G/E/I, while the last one disappeared from my tracking page several months ago, while sill "Received by CCS".

On 2/21/2022 at 5:15 AM, qlow said:

same thing happened to me. i can't even search for my sub since it's still at CCS. contacted customer support and said they wont announce if they fix being able to search for orders that drop off and won't appear in search and that i gotta keep trying. kinda frustrating. orders dropping off shouldn't even be a thing in the first place.

Yup, I have 5 more submissions that will disappear by end of the week.

One of my 10/14 slow modern submissions just went from G/E/I to Grading/QC.

On 2/18/2022 at 10:46 PM, batmiesta said:

Have they been opening packages received the week Jan 17 for two weeks now? Or does it just feel that way?  

Same with turnaround times. No changes in 3 weeks.

On 2/18/2022 at 10:07 AM, Wheresmymarvelvaluestamp said:

Sorry to hear that, I truly believe since the wait times are so awful they should only charge when they go to G/QC. Otherwise, they are basically collecting interest on our money. Bad business model in my opinion.

I honestly don't mind getting charged at any point once CGC receives my packages. I just don't want to go through what greggy had to go through with over-charges or CGC billing me at the new rate (even though the submission was received before the rate change). Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with that issue yet.

On another note, does anyone have any experience with certain books being rejected by CCS (e.g. embossed or chromium covers) and receiving a refund as credit for these books? For instance, CCS charged me the full amount for books received early last year, and graded/shipped back in June. However, when they billed my most recent press submittals, they gave me credit for 2 books that weren't pressed as part of the June shipped package. Is this typical? Do we only see the credit applied if we submit more books for pressing?

On 2/17/2022 at 2:48 PM, dman1234 said:

They just hit me for $3500 yesterday as well (for Nov-Jan submissions) - maybe their 1st Quarter revenue is looking a little light.

Pretty soon CGC will start charging our credit cards before opening the boxes. "Let's see, this package from greggy weighs a ton. Put him down for $5k. Next!"

Dang, CGC just charged my credit card for over $3k all at once.  It's for 4 modern submissions received in mid October and 2 more in mid December. No movement on the tracking page though.

On 2/16/2022 at 10:10 AM, zupaphly said:

2 more of my 4/7 CCS/CGC submissions shipped today... ooofff... talk about some tough grading 😬 I'll be anxious to look at these. Out of the 4 that have been graded so far 1 sat in GEI for 2 1/2 months (great grades)... the other 3 were at CCS 2 1/2 months longer, but when transferred over flew through all of GEI, QC, shipped in a 2-3 day time period (not the best grades)... did these go to the new grading unit and expidited? These new graders need to ease up a bit... sheeeesh... or maybe I'm just old and need to invest in some glasses lol... 1 submission left to be finished, and now I'm nervous 😬

The problem is that it's very hard to remember why we submitted certain books for pressing almost a year ago. When I got back my two 4/11 submissions this weekend, there were several books that had noticeable color breaking pressed out creases. For the life of me I can't remember if I saw these before and just took a chance submitting them anyway, or completely missed the defects. Heck, after 1 year I can't even remember submitting certain books. I will say that when I went back and inspected the 29 books that did receive 9.8 grades it wasn't like all of them were absolutely flawless. I would say that CGC grading was consistent with previous submissions. Once you go over a couple of tiny defects, the book will receive a 9.6 or 9.4 grade.

One thing I wanted to add. You are more likely to receive a 9.8 grade on a book with only 1 somewhat noticeable defect than another book that has 4 or 5 microscopic defects. 

On 2/15/2022 at 10:54 AM, NewWorldOrder said:

Random question.

How many of you use USPS registered mail as your return shipping method from CGC all the time no matter what you submit?

The reason I ask this is honestly most of the time it makes no sense to use that service when the book or books isnt worth that kind of service, especially on one book.

I see so many people complaining about costs, but I tell them why are you using that kind of service for a $100-200 book.  

As you noted above, I typically use FedEx these days due to the lower cost. Also, whenever I ship books costing more than $200 I use FedEx instead of USPS.

On 2/15/2022 at 10:14 AM, NewWorldOrder said:

I thought you meant a CGC package either way coming back from CGC was delivered by USPS without a signature. So your friends package was coming via CGC then?  Since CGC only uses USPS reg. mail service etc.

My FedEx guy typically just leaves my package outside without any signatures. One time I panicked when I checked my phone and it had a different name signing for the package. When I got home the package was on my porch. Apparently he signed it under his name or something.

On 2/14/2022 at 11:15 AM, eastriver31400 said:

 

Were they FT grading?

Nope, just regular. CGC seems to expedite grading for books sitting at CCS for long periods of time.

It's interesting how the system is currently working. I had 4 CCS submissions received in the same box on 4/11. One submission went to G/E/I on 2/1, but nothing since then. Two other submissions went to G/E/I on 2/4 and were shipped on 2/10. Unfortunately, there are still no updates on the last submission..