skybolt

The thing is that slow track grading only went up from $20 to $22 for modern books. It's not like they're making twice as much now. Plus, I was billed the first day my June submissions were marked as received. One question I have for the people that are receiving expedited grading (again, good for you). Do you have other books still stuck in the pipe line? If so, I get the feeling CGC is using this new "policy" to appease customers who are stuck in limbo with their earlier submissions. Grading the newly opened packages is likely a much easier task than going through the tens of thousands of submissions opened back in June to find books of return customers. With that being said, I really don't understand what would constitute the expedited grading for some submissions. It's not like CGC all of a sudden developed an automated system to bypass the existing grading methodology. For instance, once books reach the grading room, they'll all be graded the same way, which shouldn't take too long if they're next in the pipeline. Same goes for encapsulation and imaging.

My gut tells me that all the books that arrived at CGC after the price change in late April are all sitting on top of each other in one gigantic room, while the less cluttered room has all the recent submissions. CGC graders are likely avoiding Room A like the plague at this point.

Moving forward, I can see CGC changing their TAT's for slow track modern submissions as follows: Submissions received after August 15th - 40 business Days. Submissions received prior to August 15th - Infinity and Beyond.

They're likely thinking that customers with older submissions will be unhappy no matter what at this point, so might as well keep customers with recent submissions content. I'm sure they'll change that approach as soon as my four 9/14 delivered submissions are received.

I haven't gotten anything back in months, but typically, CGC expedites the grading process once books are received back from CCS. It's typically a few weeks of wait time instead of months.

Congrats. it's interesting that CGC has decided to take this route with some submissions, while others that are months old are still sitting in limbo.

Good point. I think adding something like "Just checked, your books are sitting nice and comfy" between "SFG" and "Grading" would be really appreciated.

I think CGC has realized that people tend to get excited/content when there appears to be some movement in the system. I wouldn't be surprised if they added a few more tiers to the grading process to show progress: Here's an example: "Delivered" "Received" "Entered into the System" "Scheduled for Grading" "Currently being Graded" "Graded" "Encapsulation/Imaging" "QA/QC" "Packaged for Shipping" "Shipped" "Shipped for Real" "Okay, we really mean it this time, just saw the box go out the door"

I get the feeling that the biggest influx of books arrived at CGC sometime in early May. If these books are now at the encapsulation stage, I could see the reason for the logjam. Hopefully this is the last hurdle before we get back to normalcy.

I feel like about a year or 2 ago, scheduled for grading meant something, but unfortunately all it means in today's world is that the books have been received. Now I get the sense the same is happening with grading/encapsulation. Were your moderns fast tracked or not. I have 2 modern slow track submissions that were delivered on 5/3 and received/SFG on 6/23 and 6/24. Still no movement.

That's awesome. With 15 separate submissions sitting at CGC right now, the last screen change occurred on 6/24/2021 for me.

Yeah, I'm definitely somewhere feeling lonely right now without my books.

My 6/23 and 6/24 are still sitting at SFG. Looks like a lot submissions went into grading around 6/15/21, which is likely stalling the process.

The CCS turnaround times (189 business day now) keep going up. You have to believe they'll plateau at some point with the higher pressing fees introduced several months back.

Some covers that haven't been posted yet.

Thanks for the update. Looks like my four 4/11 CCS submissions will start moving as well.

From my experience, this is completely up to the submitter regarding how much you want the books insured for. CGC will not check the FMV on books unless there's a massive difference in price change. It has never happened to me.

One advice I have for part time sellers whom aren't dependent on comic book revenue to make ends meet, is to keep a good sized inventory of graded books to take advantage of the next hot market. The worst decision would be to sell for a loss heading into the winter season and then scramble to get more books graded next spring (with everyone else) if the market gets semi hot again.

I haven't received any books back from CGC in a couple of months, but have been submitting consistently over the past 6 years. The whole thing is a roller coaster ride, where I'll get hammered for 5 or 6 straight submissions and then get surprisingly favorable grades for the next 3 or 4. This is purely only based on my experience, but I seem to get better grades between late September and mid February where the TAT's are shorter. Again, this is only based on a small sample size of approximately 25-30 submissions over the past 6 years. I'm sure other factors are in play, but it does seem like CGC switches from being super picky to a bit lenient from time to time.

I agree with your thought process. I would also factor in the sizzling hot comic book market, which began around February and started tapering down around mid August this year. I would assume sellers were likely still sending in their books in droves well into August. I think your late October timeline for TAT's makes sense.

Not sure how this can be remedied. CGC is basically in a win-win situation. Either people try and bypass the system by going fast track, which means more money for CGC, or CGC just sits on this high inventory and take their time. With that being said, I do think CCS will suffer long term. Longer wait times plus a minimum 25% cost increase will likely drive customers to other pressing companies. I know I'm in that boat right now.

I know at least one or 2 people on these boards have seen the Edgar Church Action #1 in person. However, this was likely at least 20 years ago.

I just wish I can see a high resolution scan of some of the dentist's key books (Allentown TEC 27, Church AC #1 and Sup 1, etc. before I leave this earth.

It is worrisome that turnaround times keep going up (111 business days for MST). I was hoping that once CGC started opening packages past the 6/30 delivered deadline we'd start seeing some improvement. Looks like this is the new norm.

I would definitely call and check.