CGC used to be a truly pleasant experience. While they always had long lead times, that was a great problem for them to have since that meant business was doing well and thriving, it was totally understandable. I never once worried about how they would handle a pre-existing book that was graded by them.
Now, it’s like waiting for a report card you have no control over, filled with anxiety and then heartache.
To be fair, yes, things can happen, we're all human, but as of late it has been happening consistently to a point where more and more followers are no longer re-submitting their books again to CGC for things such as signing events, etc.
Which brings me to two questions: Are they actually damaging our books?? Or are they just inconsistent with their grading?
I truly hope it’s the latter because they can recover from that.
While we are seeing that there is an inherent issue with their re-grading of books consistently coming back with a lower grade than before with no notes or nothing wrong with them since users who invest in these books have been taking hi-res images BEFORE they were re-submitted, then what about the ones that do come back with flaws that were NOT present before? Are they then consistently ruining our books??
A close friend of mine submitted a rare book not too long ago, only to receive an email months later stating and showing that the front cover was ripped from the bottom up (a few inches) till the middle of the page, asking him if he still wanted to grade it because they though he missed this flaw – implying that they had nothing to do with it... Seriously??
They have a disclaimer when going through the submission process which, with every passing, seems to get stronger and stronger with their explanation and wording, but let's be honest: This is their profession. We are entrusting our investments with professionals who are taught and trained to handle things CAREFULLY and METICULOUSLY.
During this pandemic, their pivot and the incredible growth and the acquisition that followed thereafter, have made them flounder on the core level of service that they had always stood by. Also, regarding that their impenetrable cases that are so great, do not justify the price nor supposed protection that they offer; especially when they do not have things such as air tight seals, UV protection, etc.. We even have had a bunch of them come back with issues with seals and imperfections that need to be sent back to have re-cased again.
Going even further, what if I only wanted to resubmit a book for a case (as mentioned above) or a label change? They have to "crack" it again. Does that then not mess up our books but not change the grade but does so for any future re-submission possibilities? It's all ludicrous.
I could go on, but there are too many contradictions between what was done before that made them, versus what is said now and how it’s all being handled (#acetategate etc..).
I wish they would go back to their roots of a trustworthy grading company and rebuild that faith and trust that we had in them again, letting us know that they are going to do better as they had done before.
At the end of the day, no company would exist without their clients and followers if that trust is lost, then everything else is downhill from there. Either a competitor will come up or raise the bar from another company’s shortcomings and that’s the end of that.
That being said, it has been a while since I personally have re-submitted so I will be giving them one more shot and sending in a few books in to see what happens – I'll be sure to update you all on it once they arrive back to see how it all pans out.
