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MGsimba77

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Posts posted by MGsimba77

    Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC???

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 11/18/2022 at 6:19 PM, Qalyar said:

    The case scuffing doesn't seem likely to be a supply-side problem (I'm sure they're not getting pre-scuffed cases), so there's probably some point in the process -- either somewhere in the actual encapsulation equipment, or in the physical transit from logistics supply to encapsulation to shipping -- where physically moving the slabs has a risk of rubbing against a surface and creating scuffs. It's clearly not something that happens all the time. I've never had a visibly scuffed slab. But it does seem to happen in batches since we see people with a whole boxes of scuffy plastic. That suggests that it's not random and makes me think encapsulation is the likely culprit. I would have whoever is in charge of encapsulation see whether there's a potential for a tech to do something a little bit wrong (moving slab components or the completed slab in or out of a machine too quickly, for example) that might result in these scratches.

    I suppose I'd lean a bit more on the physical transit theory as the main cause of scuffing. Maybe these were scuffs already present on the slabs before encapsulating when they're more likely to be moved in larger stacks? Without knowing the process of transiting these slabs of plastic followed by the entire handling/encapsulation process once in CGC posession.... we could only make logical speculation the best we can. I've had a few re - holders come back with a very small scuff mark on the edge of the slab. No biggie doesn't bother at all.

    On 11/18/2022 at 6:19 PM, Qalyar said:

    The one that really baffles me is the plastic shards that get encapsulated from time to time. Hairs and random bits of dust or whatnot, sure. Those suck, and are going back for mechanical error reslabs, but I don't think anyone really expects the CGC encapsulation floor to be operated like a chip-fab clean room. But there shouldn't be random bits of broken plastic just hanging around. Those have to have broken off something, and it feels like that should be extremely easy to identify. We don't see lots and lots and lots of them, but they've been going on for a long time, and it's very strange to me, from an Operations Excellence standpoint, that they still happen.

    In these cases where small debris manage to fall in the wrong place occasionally during a process of mass production I'd be more understanding. How many books do they encapsulate on a typical day? The numbers they have to pump out are probably mind blowing! I don't think these small shards or other debris are avoidable 100% of the time. The encapsulation experiments like you mentioned above might have been something they've done at least for the Newton ring problems. I'm thinking the label mishaps like the Mcfarlane label being obscured for example - are much more avoidable. It's not like they don't know where the cgc hologram is to be located. Thankfully they're on top of that situation👍

    I should note the pieces of debris that get into the slab (but not in the vaccum seal) are removable. If it's in the vaccum seal there's no way. So It takes some doing but there is a way to get minor stuff like hairs or whatever out without cracking out the slab. I've done it a couple of times. 

    Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC???

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 11/18/2022 at 8:26 AM, CGC Mike said:

    I have notified the QC manager and someone else about this.  I made the trip to CGC yesterday, and spoke for about half of the duration of the QC meeting.  Had I known about this problem, I would have certainly brought it up then.  

    Thank you! Hopefully there could be a correction before the bulk of the subs get encapsulated. Otherwise I suspect the possibility of a massive inflow of resubs coming to CGC. That "Mcfarlane" scroll is a great idea for a label but the "Mcfarlan" version is👎

    Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC???

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 11/17/2022 at 1:26 PM, Iceman399 said:

    Almost like this is the first custom label they've done where the hologram covers the stupid custom label lol

    received_809531276794767.jpeg

    I figured someone would've mentioned this. Honestly this took me by surprise seeing as how they already butchered the FF label before the correction. I didn't think they could flub it again. 

    Screenshot_20221117-212517_Instagram.jpg.6b77f891d3907f4c484e275e1f28e9f0.jpg

    Oh well....I shall send mine back if and when they decide to correct this latest label fail. 

    Amazing spider-man #s 128, 145 both CGC 9.8 for sale on Myslabs Ebay (145 SOLD)

    in Comics Market - Sales Advertising (Ebay, Dealers, etc)

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    Hurricane Ian

    in Comics General

    Posted

    Hoping all the folks at CGC are okay and got through this terrible disaster!!! Hurricanes really suck! I've been thrue several myself since Andrew. The sound (even through the shutters) is like an ominously constant whistling sound of varying intensities or a freight train right outside your window. If the gust is strong enough you can almost feel the roof of your house being shaken. It forces your heart to skip several beats. It's tough to really convey the anxiety that creates over several hours. It is scary as hell. In 2005 (Katrina or the other cant remember) driving to work saw a metal railing that was next to a sidewalk completely wrapped around a tree like a snake....cars crushed under trees etc etc etc. One day I'll be able to move out of this place. 

    Praying for all those folks suffering real life changing damage through no fault of their own 🙏🙏🙏! God bless them!

    Hurricane Ian

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 9/29/2022 at 9:18 AM, joeypost said:

    As long as you are OK, Mike. I never understood why power line’s  are not buried in this state. I have seen one tree take out power to thousand in certain neighborhoods. Our area, which was built between 2-5 years ago had all the lines buried. We all have power despite down trees everywhere. 

    They are building fiberoptics underground in certain localities to replace those old networks. I'm in south east Florida and I pass by construction sites all the time where underground piping is being installed. We get power outages at the first hints of strong winds here anyway. It's really a thing they do here & there locally in places where they think they'll need it like Miami. The Ft. Myers Tampa area hasn't seen a serious hurricane in 100 years so perhaps they've done it maybe not?

    I agree with you. There should be an effort to refit these networks on a large scale in Florida. It would cost a lot of money though and people wouldn't want to pay for it. So that's not something that's going to happen here anytime soon unfortunately. 

    Are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit???

    in Comics General

    Posted

    On 9/27/2022 at 9:05 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

    I agree that some of these macro observations, while they have value, can also grossly oversimplify.

    Let me toss out another oversimplification that at least has one more degree of nuance.  From the start of the pandemic there was a lot of talk about a "K-shaped recovery" -- the idea being that for people in certain jobs (generally white-collar jobs that allow telecommuting, as opposed to jobs in the service industry that don't for obvious reasons), economic fortunes actually improved while things got much worse for so many others.  On the extreme end of the lucky ones, of course, were the extremely wealthy who generally saw their wealth (and their separation from regular folks) grow to previously unseen levels.

    Mapping this to the collectibles market, it seems to me that no amount of broad economic downturn is ever going to really eliminate the lucky few who have the ability to go hard for the most expensive items available.  So even if there is a broad and deep correction in the overall market, I expect the bluest of the blue chips to be fairly resistant to it.

    Sure the wealth trends you refer to go without saying. I'd assume there's overlap between these white collar telecommuters and the rise of crypto. But anyway, that insanely wide wealth disparity has been established for decades now so not sure that in itself explains alot. It didn't seem to impact the collectibles market to the recent extremes I'm referring to in such a relatively short burst. 2020 actually saw a decrease in wealth disparity. 

    What I'm theorizing is there's a strong connection between market forces that both supercharged then precipitously devalued crypto between ~mid 2020 and early 2022 and the collectibles market. The idea behind crypto is a hedge against centrally controlled fiat currency as are most intrinsically valued risk assets as you probably know. Debatable whether crypto has intrinsic value but that's another subject. Between 2020, end of 21 bitcoin (not sure about crypto as a whole) increased ~500%. It then began a precipitous decline similar to collectibles. So at the risk of oversimplifying, I think the massive wealth created from the pandemic induced crypto boom (largely by millenials) greatly influenced collectibles by creating more of those "lucky few". Maybe these new millionaires decided for whatever reasons to diversify away from crypto for some tangible assets like collectibles or they simply liked baseball cards and comics? Or maybe both. 

    So since then in last nine or so months, the dollar started kicking the rest of the world's arse (federal reserve action)....crypto, risk assets reacted accordingly....collectibles followed down 🙂

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    Are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit???

    in Comics General

    Posted · Edited by MGsimba77

    On 9/27/2022 at 7:26 PM, mjoeyoung said:

    There was just so much money available from so many places.  Crypto was up, stocks were up, you didn't have to pay rent, you didn't have to pay student loans, you were paid for not going to work.  A daughter of one of my friends worked at Tuesday Morning over summer break from college during the pandemic.  When the local store went out of business (or the entire company, can't remember) she was paid by the Federal government for the rest of the summer.  She went back to college with thousands of dollars (I believe the number was close to something over $10k) after barely working her summer job.  If the government is going to give you free money, you would be a fool not to take it.  Eventually the party has to end.

    Yes the stimulus could explain away some of it. I'm getting at the sustained hyper increases in the upper five and six figure books through all or most of 2021. That's not attributable to a few thousand stimulus dollars in the hands of non needy people. That began to cool off substantially ~ early 2022 following a similar trend in crypto. 

    Btw not everyone receiving funds from uncle Sam were college kids in part time jobs. Some were like my next door neighbor in hotel industry who couldn't work for over a year with three young kids to feed and wife barely having work. But that's another debate for another forum 🙂

    Todd Mcfarlane Private Signing?

    in The Signature Room

    Posted · Edited by MGsimba77

    On 9/7/2022 at 11:32 AM, StillOnly25Cents said:

    inflation, the price of ink has skyrocketed :flipbait:

     

    in all seriousness, I know Todd's time is worth money and that he spends full days at CGC's facility signing but I'm sure he is treated pretty well 

    $120 up from $89 from the 2020 CGC private signing seems a bit much

    someone will be making bank on this

    My memory is a bit fuzzy but If I'm not mistaken, the last signing was very limited to just certain Spawn books. If this was the case then it makes sense to charge more for it this time. I actually thought they'd be charging more than 120.

    Anyone know when he starts signing? They said they're expecting this to last at least a few months. Crazy to think how many signatures they squeeze out of this guy!