Petroman

It's probably not worth wasting your time trying to contact them as they will likely just give you canned responses. Them telling you that your "submissions is in line" is probably correct, albeit somewhat misleading. From scouring this forum it seems that there is no "one line" per tier where things get graded on a first in, first out basis. Honestly, I don't think anyone but people at CGC know how books progress through the grading cycle. I've got a MFT submission that was delivered on 5/9 that has been SFG ever since. But I've seen others post that their MFT books received as recent as 5/27 have already been shipped back. Trying to rationalize it, or worrying too much about it will only aggravate you further. Just keep checking periodically and one magical day it will move to G/E/I and beyond.

Good to know. So one way to delay the charge is to go the PRESCREEN route. This makes sense to me since I'm sure its easier for them to do a single charge up front for the entire potential order cost and then a subsequent refund for books that got screened out. Although I surmise that the reason they have started to do the upfront charge is to slow the tide of submissions as I think for many, myself included, having too much riding on ungraded books at CGC is not financially desirable. So if everyone starts submitting order with PRESCREEN set to low values just to avoid the upfront charge they may move to a charge/refund model.

I'm curious to know if others are seeing delays like this on their MFT submissions. My prior one went from received to shipped in 8 calendar days. My current one has been sitting there in SFG for over a month now and is now beyond the estimated TAT for MFT. Worst of all is they have already charged me for that one and the MODERN sent in a week later. Are they charging everyone earlier in the process now or am I just one of the "lucky" ones?

Oops, my bad, my original response was 100% wrong! Yes, agree, this guy is certainly a half full type. Having been burned too many times in life I normally take the half empty approach when trusting others to do things right.

Seems pretty risky to me. What if CGC says they just lost/wrecked your books and then pay you the declared values of your books as compensation? I always put a reasonable value down. From what I can tell the declared value is also used when adding insurance to your books that get shipped back USPS. So if USPS loses or damages your books you'd also only get the insured value back. For FEDEX/UPS I don't think it matters and I know that FEDEX only insures for something pretty low like $100 per shipment. I think that if you really are trying to cut down on shipping costs use FEDEX or UPS, but I'd still add in a reasonable value per book for the case where there are issues with the books while under CGC's control.

That's a really good question considering they are sometimes now charging you when they receive books (happened with my last 2 subs an MFT and MST both still SFG but fully paid). I Would doubt they would go the route of issuing refunds as its an extra processing step so they would probably just charge you post prescreen. If so its a good way to avoid being charged so far in advance of getting your books back.

My last MFT was received on 5/9 and has been SFG ever since. If this means I get the experienced grader then I'm happy to wait as my prior MFT was shipped a week after being received and the grades sucked.

That's crazy. My MFT took about a week after to delivery to be entered and hasn't moved from SFG since. Really defies any reason as to why they would have such a disparity of processing speeds within the same tier. Maybe it has to do with the types of books in the submission (this sub was all Marvel from 1985-1993), maybe its just random, or maybe its something else. Something tells me we'll never know.

I do wonder if they have started charging much earlier in the process as a way to stop people from submitting too many books at once and thereby reducing their backlogs and TATs. For those looking to grade and sell this would be a pretty effective strategy IMHO. Heck, throw in the fact that you may get horrible grades on some of your submissions, and thus effectively waste a large percent of the grading cost, and it really looks pretty risky to have paid for lots of submissions up front not knowing what kind of grades you'll get. This would be especially true for MODERN subs where books graded less than 9.6 may be pretty much un-sellable (well at least at a profit or even cost). Reminder to self: start using PRESCREEN!

There really just seems to be no rhyme or reason to how they prioritize any of the tiers. Your MFT books got through in a week and mine have been sitting there for 3. If it means my grades will be more accurate I'm all for it. Guess we'll see. The only thing that really sux is that they have already charged me for both of the above submissions so I'm out $900 as I wait for my books.

Yes agreed. Too bad they didn't tell you this 9 months ago.

Some pretty significant decreases today. Well for Fast Track and the more expensive tiers anyway. Sorry ECONOMY, still no love. I'm wondering if CGC is feeling the pressure from CBC's new guaranteed turn around times for the EXPRESS and above services.

I wonder if they will send a Happy Anniversary card on the 11th. Maybe even one with a discount voucher for your next CCS/CGC submission.

Utterly ridiculous. This has been become a bad joke and we are all the stooges. How can that book be an 8.5? How? And no notes? According to their website: "Grading is a team effort, with multiple CGC professionals examining every collectible to ensure accuracy and consistency. CGC's graders enter a grade for each collectible into CGC's computer system. A consensus is then reached on the final grade of the collectible." We need accountability here. Who were the graders and what were the individual grades entered from which a consensus was reached. I will posit there is a 0.0% chance that multiple graders are looking at each book and coming up with the same horrible grades. If they are not using multiple graders per book then they are guilty of false advertising as we have paid for this service.

Wow, that is really scary. I don't really see how that could be possible across an entire submission of CPR'ed books. Have you compared the grader notes before and after? Would be curious to see how they differ. So far we've heard of lots of folks having issues with MODERN tier books and undergrading. This is the first I've seen for STANDARD tier. Scary as it could imply that inexperienced graders are now grading these more valuable books. Or maybe its just that CGC has moved the goal posts and you can no longer trust grades to be pretty consistent over time. That would be really, really bad.

I really hope that for all of you guys waiting 9 months for ECONOMY books that they do not switch things up and allow the new graders to grade your books. I shudder to think what kinds of grades they would give on ECONOMY books. My guess would be nothing higher than a 5.0.

Its really a complete mess. These grading inconsistencies have effectively bifurcated the recently graded MODERN market into two camps: approximately 2/3 are properly graded and the remaining 1/3 is under graded. I guess it does create some buying opportunities if you know what to look for: certification numbers starting with 39 or 40 (maybe even 38 or earlier, haven't done enough research) grader notes that indicate things like light bends, polybag bends/creases, i.e. completely pressable defects. The absence of notes on books graded 9.2 or less is probably also indicative of a new grader giving harsh grades. Now at least with the free CGC lookup you can get the grader notes, if any, for free. You can also see all of the other books in the submission by just tweaking the final one or two number. This definitely gives you insight into whether it was a harshly graded submission.

You obviously have not had a book with this "defect". The so-called crease is non-color breaking and only visible if you hold the book at a certain angle. If you did not know the book was a poly bagged book you would never even look for this "crease". Personally I think a crease is something that is something that breaks color and cannot be pressed out. These "creases" are at best bends. And yeah, I know that these new graders are hammering books for bends too. I will reiterate my stance that pressable defects should not be treated the same as color breaking defects. As other have posited its possible that CGC has started treating these pressable defects as more severe than they are to sell more CCS services, although with their 1+ year backlog I find it hard to believe they want more CCS business.

Yes, I got the dreaded polybag crease on 3 books from my last MFT submission. Took what should have been a 9.8, 9.6 at worst, and dropped them into the 8.5 to 9.0 range, for a "defect" that you can't even see through the slab. So basically rendered a book with a resale value of $150-$300 into something pretty much worthless. Of course the only course of action is to try to sell the book for maybe what it cost to grade, $45 all in or so, or CPR it. I'll probably do the latter, but its very disappointing as now I've already wasted $135 on these books.

2 months soup to nuts -- not bad at all. Hopefully you fared well on the grading front!

Hopefully someone at CGC is taking notice of this board. The fact that so many people are complaining about inconsistent grading is a sign of a very big problem. Maybe there is some pecking order based on volume of submissions where higher volume guys get the good graders and the little guys get screwed. Maybe they don't want that business, who knows. I have been looking over at the CBCS boards too. Their TATs were always worse, but now they have a guaranteed express service which is currently running at 14 business days and $36/book for books from 1975-present...

Most tiers moving in the right direction. The only ones that went up were Express and WalkThrough, and those only by 3 days.

These are the ones that the most frustrating. Books that should grade 9.6 or at a stretch 9.4 that are coming back as 8.5 or 9.0. When I compare some of these books vs some of my Silver and Bronze age books that graded out 9.0 - 9.4 it just doesn't add up. Heck, if they want to go this insanely strict route then I would posit that there are no books pre-1970 that would even grade 9.0. Maybe even pre-1980. But then again, its not every submission that gets graded so harshly, which just adds to the confusion. I know that when I get one of these harsh graders then I've effectively thrown away around 2/3's of the money spent for that submission as I'll either need to CPR the books or just sell them at a loss.

I can see this happening in the age of slabbed books. Interior defects will effectively be hidden away forever so I can see the condition of the covers becoming the driving force behind the value of the book.

I don't think mailing it 2 weeks out would be a problem. I vaguely remember that when they raised prices just over a year ago they gave you something like a month to get orders orders created before the price increase mailed into them. Really as long as there is no price increase between the time the order was created and received by CGC there should be no problems.