skybolt

On 8/31/2021 at 12:59 PM, X_Phile said:

Delivered mid  April, marked received in June.

That's crazy. The current turnaround times for MFT is 66 days from delivery date. You're like 6 weeks past that point.

On a side note, since the CGC deadline for packages delivered was June 30th (to take advantage of old pricing), you'd think things will start moving a lot quicker now (since they're currently opening the last packages from that week).

On 8/31/2021 at 12:44 PM, greggy said:

I have 5 received from June 3-5 (probably all the same date but it was a rush) get sent back 3 weeks ago but 7 other subs received at the same time not move so it's all over the place now.

I don't know if it was too fast 3 weeks ago or it's too slow now.

 

It sort of makes sense. About 3 weeks ago I was seeing a lot more movement on modern slow track, but nothing since. 

On 8/31/2021 at 11:42 AM, X_Phile said:

I have MFT books received in June that have not gone to grading yet, if that helps.

Thanks. Looks like I won't be holding my breath. Were these delivered in June or marked received in June? What I mean is that since it takes about 2 months for CGC to mark slow track books as being received, the turnaround times for when they're marked received may be similar between fast track and slow track.

Has anyone had any modern slow track books (received in June) go into grading yet?

On 8/25/2021 at 7:41 AM, Petroman said:

I really don't understand why pre-screens would take any longer than normal grading.  Just grade is as normal, and when it gets to encapsulation just skip the encapsulation.  Heck, the grader doesn't really even need to know they are doing a pre-screen.  It should actually even be a bit faster than regular grading for books that screen out as they only need to pop it in a bag versus doing the encapsulation.

WRT eating the cost of the non-9.8's that's what I do.  The 9.6's I normally dump on Ebay at a small profit, and the 9.4's or below (hopefully of which there would be few) I sell at cost or even less.  Still, I think it ends up being cheaper than paying the pre-screen fees, especially the new $8 per book ones.

100%. I do the same thing and get similar results on EBay. For example, I sent CGC 3 copies of Uncanny X-Men #317 and received grades of 9.8, 9.6 and 9.4. Kept the 9.8 copy and sold the other 2 on EBay for a $20 profit. That's a $36 swing from the alternative, not to mention the extra wait time for screening.

These current turnaround times are demoralizing. I feel like I'm standing on a ship sailing the entire Atlantic ocean during the 16th century.

On 6/3/2021 at 10:20 AM, skybolt said:

As an update, I did talk to a CGC representative today and they were very receptive. They asked me to send in photos, which will be shared with CCS. They did note that they won't likely get back to me until next week, which is understandable.

Got a response from CGC today that quick press does not guarantee removing all the bends / creases. I can resend the books in and pay for the difference between regular and quick press, and they'll attempt to remove the bends. CGC will pay for regrading the books, but I'll pay for shipping back and forth and go back in line, since it's not considered a mechanical error. At this point I don't think it's worth the extra hassle and cost to get this issue resolved. I have 9 more press submissions at CCS, but will use other options moving forward. Hopefully this was just a one time thing and the pressing will be better next time. Also, it appears that quick press is not the best option for thicker books, even though I've had good results in the past. The worst of the lot was my Thor #433, which received a 9.4 grade. I was really surprised that the quick press wasn't able to remove to creases (see below). Oh well, it' a lesson learned.

On 6/2/2021 at 8:26 AM, skybolt said:

My 12/21 Quick press submission was shipped on Friday and received yesterday. Only 10 of 25 books received a 9.8 grade, which was very disappointing. As usual, I typically check the books to see what I did wrong to receive a lower grade. Unfortunately, upon close inspection I noticed at least 6-7 books with the same indentations in them as before. I'm not sure what happened. In the past if a book was not deemed pressable, CCS would notify me and provide reimbursement. Some books were pressed and pressed very well, while others looked the same as before. I sent CGC a complaint to see what happened. 

As an update, I did talk to a CGC representative today and they were very receptive. They asked me to send in photos, which will be shared with CCS. They did note that they won't likely get back to me until next week, which is understandable.

My 12/21 Quick press submission was shipped on Friday and received yesterday. Only 10 of 25 books received a 9.8 grade, which was very disappointing. As usual, I typically check the books to see what I did wrong to receive a lower grade. Unfortunately, upon close inspection I noticed at least 6-7 books with the same indentations in them as before. I'm not sure what happened. In the past if a book was not deemed pressable, CCS would notify me and provide reimbursement. Some books were pressed and pressed very well, while others looked the same as before. I sent CGC a complaint to see what happened. 

Just now, sfcityduck said:

Yes.

Ugh. Sorry to heat that. 

1 minute ago, sfcityduck said:

Not for my sfg fast track economy and standard.

Were those pressed?

On 5/25/2021 at 8:07 AM, skybolt said:

These books just went to SFG this morning. I'm hoping they get graded a lot sooner, similar to my other batch (took 7 business days after SFG). As I've noted before, it appears that CGC expedites grading for books with long CCS wait times. I also think it takes a couple of weeks for books to get officially received by CGC after getting pressed. This is likely included with the total TAT.

This is moving briskly now. My 12/21 quick press submission was received by CGC on 5/24, scheduled for grading on 5/25 and is now in Grading/QC as of today. This is a modern slow track submission.

13 hours ago, Rezin1234 said:

Has anyone tried calling customer service when their books are at qc to be told they are no longer releasing grades until you can see it as shipped?

in the past once it’s been slabbed and at qc they would be willing to give me the grades. 

I didn't even know this option existed before. 

4 minutes ago, comicginger1789 said:

I mean would it be that hard to hold off on new things (and maybe even hold off on ANY new submissions for like a month) while you get caught up to a semi reasonable timeframe?

I think CGC/CCS know they have us by the *****. At this point they have about 6 months of inventory, even if everyone stopped sending in their books starting today. They also know that once they catch up everyone and their grandmother will start submitting their books again. Heck, they may lower the the TAT times to 20 days for MST, have about 5 thousand submissions sent to them within a week, and then revert back to 60 day TAT's when the inventory gets high again.

16 hours ago, skybolt said:

Finally some movement. My 12/21 quick press submission has been received by CGC. It took about 106 business days.

These books just went to SFG this morning. I'm hoping they get graded a lot sooner, similar to my other batch (took 7 business days after SFG). As I've noted before, it appears that CGC expedites grading for books with long CCS wait times. I also think it takes a couple of weeks for books to get officially received by CGC after getting pressed. This is likely included with the total TAT.

4 minutes ago, SeanYork said:

I think they should change the times to something broader.  It would set more realistic expectations and eliminate the confusion about working days.

 

I generally agree, but since I've had no updates on my submissions for a very long time, the TAT changes show me that there's someone with a pulse on the other side.

55 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Modern slow 

3/26

still received, which I assume is normal, although it was delivered 3/4.......

so that was before cgc had this package delivery tracker and before the TAT was updated to include the delivery date......

so  it's either be 40 days, or around 55 idk and have no idea  

It's unchartered territory at this point. We're in no-man's land. It's so odd going a full 1.5 months without one single update, even though I have 14 separate submissions at CGC. CGC is still opening packages from the week of April 12th. Can you imagine how much worse it'll get after they start opening packages from after their price increase announcement?  I have a feeling it'll be 2.5 months before my May 3rd delivered package is marked as received.

16 hours ago, rsouxlja7 said:

Anyone get any books imaged by CGC recently? How long after shipping did it take for you to receive the images? 

When I asked this same question about 8 months ago the answer was exactly 1 week after books are shipped. It held true in my case, but I assume these days it'll be delayed more.

25 minutes ago, wombat said:

Yeah, it seems like this one would be an easy "fix". Buy more machines and hire people to run them. I can't imagine it would be hard to train someone to do this. 

Same with opening and receiving boxes.

23 minutes ago, Ron C. said:

Still at SFG. That's over a month already graded and waiting for encapsulation? 

I understand books recently submitted being backed up, but am surprised with how everything from opening boxes to pressing books to grading to encapsulating, seem to be backed-up so much. Either A.) they're diverting staff / resources to put out other fires or B.) any additional staff they've hired has gone to increasing their in-house signings.

Pretty soon CGC will refuse to grade books unless you get them signed first.

2 minutes ago, SeanYork said:

I talked to customer service about a month after they were received when I noticed the times increasing about possibly changing them over to regular pressing since the times were shorter.  She told me it wasn't possible since they were already in the room to be pressed, but if I wanted to upgrade to fast track pressing and fast track grading they could manage to do that.  I passed on that because I think it would have been a $500-$600 cost to upgrade.

Agree with your decision. If I was sending books in the $150 to $200 range, the fast track may make sense. For $65-$75 books (if they come back 9.8's), it's not worth it.

Just now, SeanYork said:

No I haven't been charged for those yet.  When I called about them charging the new rate on some fast track pressing I asked about this order and they couldn't give me any update, but I was on the phone with accounting for what it's worth.

My 11/16 quick press submission was charged on 3/23/21 and went to SFG on 4/08. The books were actually shipped by 4/16, even though they were modern slow track. My gut tells me that there's a 2 week wait period between when CCS is done pressing books and when they get marked received/SFG by CGC. That being said, I think I got lucky with the 11/16 submission and now they're completely backed up.

11 hours ago, SeanYork said:

I have 18 moderns that got marked as received on 1/15/21.  They were submitted for a quick press also.  When I submitted them I think I calculated that they would be back to me end of May/early June.  The last TAT I remember seeing on quick press was 99 days.  There is no telling what it would be now since they have removed that service.  I can only hope that doesn't mean they went to the end of the modern slow line.

Was your credit card charged for the 1/15/21 submission? My 12/21 quick press submission was charged about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but still shows up as received on 12/21.