LordRahl

Yup, Roy's grading is top notch. Bought 2 silver age books from him. One he graded a 9.6 the other an 8.0, came back 9.6 and 8.5

Their encapsulation phase has slowed wayyyyy down. Probably with good reason given all of the problems with the new case but it seems the days of getting your MFT done in a couple of weeks are now long gone.

They are. In today's society of instant gratification on almost every level, individual's expectations have become unreasonable. Which is why proper expectation setting by a business on what it can deliver and when it can deliver it is even more important. You are now combating a societal norm of I want it my way and I want it now. CGC and other businesses aren't doing themselves any favors by setting and failing to meet their own set expectations. Agreed. If CGC said MFT was 30 business days and you get it in 25 you are however when they set it at 10 and you get it in 15 you are . I still don't understand why they have "estimated" and "current" turn around times. They haven't hit Modern, econ or value slow tracks TAT's for years now. Exactly. I don't know why this is such a difficult concept for CGC to grasp

They are. In today's society of instant gratification on almost every level, individual's expectations have become unreasonable. Which is why proper expectation setting by a business on what it can deliver and when it can deliver it is even more important. You are now combating a societal norm of I want it my way and I want it now. CGC and other businesses aren't doing themselves any favors by setting and failing to meet their own set expectations.

Proper expectation setting. It's something most people and businesses suck at. Set a lower expectation and beat it even if the initial expectation is a disappointment because all people will remember is that you beat it. Set a high initial expectation and fail to meet it because people get excited by the initial expectation will just result in negative sentiment because again... all people will remember is that you failed to meet your set expectation.

Hmmm... this is inconsistent with what people are actually experiencing based on dates in this thread. Seems that 2-3 weeks is what people have been posting unless of course they have slowed down again. Hell, John had a MFT get graded and shipped in 3 days and it was a prescreen. Although I'm having doubts about that one unless he's paying someone off to prioritize his books.

Nice I swear the grades on the new slabs look photo shopped Was thinking the same thing. Yes, they do. New labels aren't my favorite from I've seen so far. I'd go so far as to say that they suck but I want to see one in person first.

Wait hold on... is this accurate? Modern prescreen went from received to shipped in 3 days That's insanely fast

Come on Bosco. These tickets were presold. The opening weekend was critic proof, tickets were already sold before the first review came out. The important question is what the fall off is next week. 50% you have a winner (and yes, critic reviews don't matter) 80% and it might be a tremendous bomb. Next Sunday will be what matters (we were all expecting it to hit 160-180 before the reviews came out.) It won't drop 80%. Probably drop somewhere in the 60% range give or take a couple of points. Which is to be expected given how big it opened, the negative reviews scare off a few people and the fact that it is not a holiday weekend and last weekend was (kind of). It will still be considered a hit by any monetary measure once all is said and done. As I said earlier, doesn't matter what the critics have to say, this is a critic proof type of movie.

I think it's hilarious that you guys are putting so much weight on what the critics have to say and also correlating rotten tomatoes to box office performance. The last 2 Transformers movies received 35% and 17% on rotten tomatoes, yet they both made over $1B in WW box office. It really doesn't matter what the critics have to say.

Yeah, there has to be something going on with that My Love that isn't apparent in the scan for it to get an 8.0 because from what I can see in the scan there is no way that book is an 8.0 The main thing is lower right corner. There's a bend that breaks color just to the right of the exclamation mark. It's hard to see in the scan of the slab. And there's some light tanning on the inside covers. (That's hard to see in the slab!) I don't disagree with the grade thoughI wish I would have subbed the book last year. CGC's notes: Interior Cover Tanning Right Bottom Front Cover Bend Breaks Color Spine Multiple Bend Breaks Color You can see more in the raw scan: Ah yes, I did not notice that vertical crease in the slabbed scan but it's much clearer in the raw scan. Still a sharp copy though

NICE

Yeah, there has to be something going on with that My Love that isn't apparent in the scan for it to get an 8.0 because from what I can see in the scan there is no way that book is an 8.0

Oh, just to add... why shouldn't we want both faster TAT's and consistency in how they grade? We are paying them money for this service are we not? I don't think it's "feeling entitled" to want what you are paying for.

That's the problem? Really? I get it, you don't do that and you look at those that do with disdain that they are "ruining" your hobby. I understand that point of view, I really do, even though I don't share it. But it's the people submitting with the intent to flip that are keeping CGC in business. Not the collectors that lock up books in their private collection for years. If it wasn't for the people that buy raw and submit for a flip "counting on the 9.8" how many people would be submitting? The entire concept of third party grading is centered on selling those graded books. How many people do you really think slab just so the books will look pretty in their shiny new cases to sit in the closet for the next 20 years?

The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional gets paid for their work. How about when a book is resubmitted and it comes back in a lower grade with no new defects introduced? Where does that stand in your opinion? According to cgc customer service it's impossible to resubmit a book without it being damaged while opening the slab. Also, you're exaggerating. Wait... I'm sorry what? When did they say this? Hi, I'm sorry do you know who you would have spoken to you that told you that? I'm the customer service manager here and I know for a fact that we can crack out books without their being any damage. Maybe there was some confusion in the conversation I had a feeling that it wasn't exactly policy to say that... mainly because it isn't true

Part of my conversation yesterday when inquiring about new grading standards. This was in response to my question about down graded re-subs. I have a feeling that was just some guy in customer service talking out of his arse because he couldn't give you a better answer.

The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional gets paid for their work. How about when a book is resubmitted and it comes back in a lower grade with no new defects introduced? Where does that stand in your opinion? According to cgc customer service it's impossible to resubmit a book without it being damaged while opening the slab. Also, you're exaggerating. Wait... I'm sorry what? When did they say this?

Because I'm a decent 'amateur' grader. Do you consider yourself a professional grader? I am not being a d ick. Curious on your own opinion about yourself. How much do you get paid to grade comic books and who is paying you?

You were fortunate. Imho, this last year has been the tightest CGC has ever been on Moderns - I do a ton of SS books where I crack out 9.8s and I've never experienced this many grade drops upon resubmission. I like tight grading as much as the next guy, but I feel they've moved the needle way too far in the other direction now. Much, much too far. My latest sub was 280 SS books. Got a fair number of 9.8s....but I SUB 9.8s...and the rest was all over the map. 9.4 80's, 9.0 70's. Things that didn't use to be a problem...like production corner chips, which are as common as anything in 1980's books...are now being taken into account. Also, printer's creases, which used to be taken into account wayyyy back in the early days, and then no longer taken into account (which is as it should be) are now apparently being taken into account. The issue is that I knew what CGC graded 9.8, and what they did not. Now, I'm back to second guessing, and looking for total perfection before submitting (and still not getting above 9.8, either.) I cannot waste my time submitting a Web of Spiderman #31 and getting a 9.4. That slab is worth much less than it cost to get done. That's not acceptable. Also, I'm getting grading notes like "top front cover rippling/warping, bottom front cover rippling/warping"...on books like Silver Surfer #44 (1991). Every single copy of that book has that issue, as do most Marvels of that time frame (which is partly why Marvel went to offset printing and abandoned newsprint in 1992, and DC did the same.) That's something that Shawn Caffrey knows, because he's done this for so long. It's not something that the "new graders" seem to know, and it seems to be having an effect on grades. CGC cannot change its standards at halftime. We shall see how this turns out. This I know, and this I hope everybody at CGC understands: if a book is in a 9.8 slab, and it hasn't been damaged in the process...and there are enough ultra, ultra, ultra anal SS guys who don't let anything happen to the book in the process...and it comes back in a 9.6 or 9.4 slab....it's not going to be conducive to business. It's high time for a "guaranteed grade" program...and it's certainly possible to implement, if the will is there. I could be wrong, but my personal theory (based on only observations and nothing to do with anything CGC has said) is that some (or many) of the new recruits may not be long time collectors so they view the books as paper artifacts rather than comics. So many defects that a long time collector would view as inconsequential and not even be on our radar as collectors and may not worth deducting much for (as CGC has done over the last decade and a half) may be viewed as a defect to the paper now and is deducted for more than previously. The new grader is typically also the 1st person to see the book (called the pregrader) and so they would not only be responsible for counting the pages and inspecting the book first, they would also list all the defects they see - hence the grading notes being much more extensive than they used to be. They would then assign a grade to the book and pass the book onto the next grader. The next grader now sees the book and the pregrader's notes. The pregrader would influence the 2ndary grader and the finalizer with their notes and their initial grade. Having different teams would explain different grading standards. Yes, I think that's absolutely correct. They are looking for "artifact perfection", rather than "comic book perfection." I know that there are things...like printer's creases, which I take for granted, or corner chips, or misaligned staples, or "miscut", that I don't, and have never, considered as flaws, because they are PRODUCTION flaws....and which CGC hasn't considered as flaws, for the most part, either. I've gotten something in the neighborhood of 3,000 9.8s that I've subbed myself over the past 8 years or so...not super high volume, but certainly a goodly chunk...you develop a real handle for how CGC grades. However...CBCS has taken a very strong line stance against production flaws of post-1980 books, and you can have a flawless book with a slightly off-center spine...say, with a bad-ish wrap, white showing, etc...and it will grade no better than 9.6. Same with all other production type flaws. I truly hope that CGC hasn't adopted this same type stance, because it will radically change a lot of things. Great post, Roy. PS. Only (at least) two people are looking at books now, according to CGC's guarantee page: "CGC guarantees that Collectibles encapsulated in a CGC holder are authentic and have been inspected by at least two professionals. " https://www.cgccomics.com/grading/cgc-comics-guarantee.asp (Emphasis added.) Professional whats? Yes it would change a lot of things and I hope this isn't the case. But IF it is, CGC needs to let its customers know. If their stance on how much they deduct for typical production flaws like production creases has changed, they need to make that change public as it will greatly affect what is being submitted.

When you care enough about minor details to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation...trivial, insignificant details that should be easy to master by a perfectionist, right...?...then you can dismiss everyone else as "amateur graders." Until then, you have no room to talk. Truly. You are an amateur grader. However if you want a FREE grading lesson I will be more than willing to show you at the next convention you attend. Can you please define a "professional grader" and an "amateur grader"?

As others have said Bob, it's not a matter of tighter grading... it's a matter of the grading now does not match the grading previously. If you are going to change how you grade, you need to let people know. I know what a CGC 9.8 used to look like. Now I don't. That impacts what I should be submitting but right now, I have no idea. In my most recent sub, one book in particular is a dead nuts 9.8. The only reason it isn't a 9.9/10 is because they artificially hold back those grades (fine whatever, I never expect anything above 9.8). There is nothing wrong with the book, not even 1 spine stress. Yet somehow it came back a 9.6. Another book which is similarly sharp but had an obvious stress mark, came back a 9.8. It makes no sense.

THAT was a $90 BIN? Nice score Andy

No dmg while opening the slab? I'm worried about the consistency lately, to say the least. I've never said this in 12 years of submissions but they are brutal the last few weeks. They aren't being inconsistent however, they are being consistently brutal.