JJ-4

Clean photo, nice background, crisp (newish) bag and board, but I wonder, what are those guys looking at?

that's what she said . . .

Asking for a friend.

Is there a set amount of time we have until we need to talk about comics or can this thread just keeping going with gif's and such?

Nose ring is cool.

Oh No!!!!!

Or he's a trust fund kid. Same result.

It's not going to get any cheaper in the short term either.

100%

Nice book!

If they double their costs they may increase profits in the short term. But graded comics are by no means a necessity. The higher price point will drive some customers to spend their money on something else (food, drink, entertainment, more raw comics perhaps?). But the real danger will be in off the reaming paying clients, they may pay the higher costs but submit less volume and CGC will have really opened the doors to new competition since they've already make a business case that their are real profits to be made at the current price structure. How much business will they forfeit when what's left of their customers will just jump ship as soon as they perceived a way to cut ties with a company that screwed them over with long TAT's and ever increasing rate structure just because they could. History is littered with companies that failed like this.

I agree with you up to here 100%

Love the clean look, fantastic!

Do you think they were bought out because they are losing money? They just raised their rates and are swimming in submissions. The question is do they A) screw the customer over for even bigger short term profits (by keeping things the same) or B) hire a few more people and fix all the QC problems. The second option will change their short term profitability (more or less profit, I'm not convinced they would make less with all the additional volume), but with B) they would make EVERYONE happier with better TATs which is the key to the long game (happy customers are repeat customers and this will help them if there is ever serious competition).

Great observation, and it's probably more likely to happen if the TAT are long and they have books stacked everywhere as they continue to fall farther behind.

Yes, makes sense and I agree. I would add that just because a market is hot there is no guarantee that it will remain that way as you need to add as many interested people to the market as you lose over time and that doesn't always happen. Great observations.

Looks fantastic!

Haha!

I also find it interesting that CGC is hiring and has 14 open positions in the Grading Department. Careers - Grading Department Coin Grading Vintage World Coin Grader Coin Cataloger and Verifier Ancient Coin Grader Vintage US Coin Grader Modern US Coin Grader Modern World Coin Grader Comic Grading Vintage Comic Grader Paper Money Grading Paper Money Grader Sport Card Grading Outside Sales Representative Sports Card Grader Stamp Grading Stamp Grader Trading Card Grading Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Grader Trading Cards Grader Video Game Grading Video Game Grader Only 1 Comic grader needed (Vintage Comic Grader), apparently the TAT's for all the modern submissions are right where CGC wants them!

"Liking the characters does not automatically mean an interest in collecting comics" I agree 100%

Agree on the fact that there are tons of super hero fans in the younger demographics. I just don't see enough younger people that actually reading and collecting the comics. They enjoy the movies and all the ancillary products (from t-shirts to video games) but how many new fans will we need to maintain the collectable aspect of this industry as the older generations start to sell off or leave their collections to family when they get that "celestial discharge".

I would agree. That said, how much older is the average comics collector compared to the general population?

Interesting post btw. The comics market could certainly crash, there really isn't anything to stop it from happening and if it starts a rapid decline the heard mentality could compound the adjustment. On the upside, cheap comics.

Did the reduction in value happen gradually over the course of many decades or was their a black Monday type selloff in the stamp world?

Great suggestions and I agree with many of them. The launch of the New 52 titles while successful perhaps in the short term seemed to be a natural jumping off point for others. Sad.