PickleRick1216

I recently had success winning a cracked slab case with USPS for a priority mail box so I thought I would share with the group. I had been reading for months about everyone saying you should just give up or try to get $15 from the seller but I thought I would give it a shot via a USPS damage claim. Maybe I got lucky but it took 4 days for them to settle it once I uploaded the claim and I got enough $ to ship it both ways and re-slab the book. You can file a claim on the USPS website. I always take a video of me opening the package so I was able to take a good picture from the video of the cracked slab in the box, took a picture of the impact crunch to the box on the same side as the cracked slab, included a PDF of the gocollect fair market value of the book by grade and the CGC packing slip for reslabbing it which showed the re-slab and shipping costs. Again, maybe I got lucky with the right insurance claim agent at USPS but I was getting tired of eating the shipping and reslab costs every time I got a cracked slab that the seller said was caused by USPS. I think the key is to include pictures and documentation that tell a complete story and leave little doubt with USPS that it was caused by shipping. IT CAN BE DONE!

REHOLDER COMICS x 3 (Mechanical Error) Received- 5/19/20 Grading/Quality Control- 5/27/20 (8 days, 5 business days) Finalized/Imaged/Shipped- 5/28/20 (1 day, 1 business day) MODERN COMICS x 19 W/ CCS SERVICES Received- 3/5/20 CCS Payment Acknowledgement Email- 4/30/20 (56 days, 40 business days) CGC Submission Acknowledgement Email- ? VALUE COMICS x 13 W/ CCS SERVICES Received- 3/5/20 CCS Payment Acknowledgement Email- 4/30/20 (56 days, 40 business days) CGC Submission Acknowledgement Email- ?

2-3 business days for me over three orders

Q: Once you get the payment acknowledgment does that mean they are now starting work with the books? A: My understanding is yes. Once you get payment acknowledgement they put hands on the books and start working with them. In a previous economy tier submission they were received on 1/14/20, I got the CCS payment email on 4/6/20 (83 days, 56 business days) and the CGC submission acknowledgement email on 4/28/20 (22 days, 16 business days). At the time I think the CCS estimate for economy services was 90 business days and it took 72 business days. When I received the CGC submission email I concluded that was the point when CCS services were finished and they had changed hands to CGC for slabbing. The tier is determined by whatever FMV you assign to the books for CGC and CCS services. You can choose to move them up to a higher tier or fast track them if you want but turnaround times are pretty quick right now so I wouldn't do that.

Rick I can't speak to buying private insurance. The first time I sent books in to CGC I spent an extra $10 to buy additional USPS priority mail insurance for a bundle of war books I estimated to be worth $1200. But then I thought about it... To file an insurance claim with USPS (or any insurance company in the world perhaps) you would need to prove the value of the raw books and document the extent of the damage and who was responsible for the damage. Even if you submitted pictures of your raw ungraded books with your insurance claim you, I or even a professional comic grader probably wouldn't be able to prove the condition, grade or value to an insurance company let alone who was responsible for an additional tear, crease, water stain, etc. In my opinion, USPS or a private insurance company will happily sell you the insurance for raw books but if it ever came to filing a claim I think we would lose. I currently have a insurance claim pending with USPS for a damaged slab that I received and I am expecting that to be a fist fight even though I can prove the grade of the book, value from a trusted comic fair market value website and plenty of pictures and videos of me opening the damaged box. I would be happy to listen to others who have successfully won an insurance claim on raw books damaged in the mail...

REHOLDER COMICS x 3 (Mechanical Error) Received- 5/19/20 Grading/Quality Control- 5/27/20 (8 days, 5 business days) MODERN COMICS x 19 W/ CCS SERVICES Received- 3/5/20 CCS Payment Acknowledgement Email- 4/30/20 (56 days, 40 business days) CGC Submission Acknowledgement Email- ? VALUE COMICS x 13 W/ CCS SERVICES Received- 3/5/20 CCS Payment Acknowledgement Email- 4/30/20 (56 days, 40 business days) CGC Submission Acknowledgement Email- ? Come on CCS! Keep rowing.

You should be able to select the shipping method for return (UPS, FEDex or USPS). I believe that UPS or FEDex will only insure up to $100 and you can't purchase additional insurance. You will notice that USPS will be more expensive because the shipment will be insured up to the declared value on your packing slip.

I sent in three mechanical error re-holders and they were received on 5/19. Hopefully I get the grading/QC or shipped update tomorrow and they come back centered and smudge free this time.

That seems reasonable. Did you only get $15 or did they sufficiently cover $50 for the whole reholdering process.

How long did the claim take from start to finish? Do you recall what documentation was required?

Battle stations!

Has anyone had success with filing an insurance claim with USPS for a cracked case? If so, did you recover the $5 handling fee, $15 reholdering fee and the $15 each way to ship a book to CGC for reholdering for a total of $50? From the posts I have read it seemed like the claim required an overwhelming amount of pictures and documentation and took many weeks for a USPS claims adjuster to decide on a partial refund of $15. That wont cover the actual cost of $50 to reholder the book. Does anyone have tips or a success story they can share?

That is ridiculous. Did you have an option to select USPS priority? When preparing a CGC order packing slip and selecting shipping the FEDEX and UPS rates were in some cases 3-5 times as much as USPS priority rates but you obviously get to select which shipping method you want.

Jason Your credit card wont be charged until CGC receives the package and moves it into the CGC queue. The $150 credit is applied to the CGC grading services only (not CCS pressing or shipping charges). When you print the packing slip it will show the grading fees but your $150 credit will be applied before your card is charged. My $150 credit was applied over three different shipments. With regard to shipping, they will ship different tiers back separately and you will have to pay shipping on each. When you prepare the packing slip it will show the different shipments and shipping charges. For example if you send in a box of 30 books with 20 moderns and 10 values they will ship the 20 moderns and 10 values back separately. It is more cost effective to try to send in bundles of 25 in each tier to get the most cost effective shipping rates.

Gocollect also has a feature where you can create a list of your comics, enter purchase price, upload front and back pictures and other data. You can also enter the CGC serial number and it will automatically link to the CGC registry data. You can also run a value report where it tells you the current fair market value of all your comics compared to the total purchase prices. Not sure if GPA does that.

Free CGC members still have a few days to get submissions to CGC without a paid membership. Books have to be received at CGC by May 31st https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/8171/

Calliekins23 they also separate them out by tier so keep that in mind. For example, if you sent in 19 moderns and 6 values they would still split them into two orders and charge you shipping for each tier even though you sent "25 books." So the best strategy is to bundle them into 25 of each tier.

Have you ever had a book bumped up into a higher tier and had to pay more for the service and a separate shipping fee?

Agreed. I recently received two modern 9.6s that I have had raw since a kid with no grader's notes. Would have been nice to see what minor defects have accumulated over 25 years and 6 military permanent changes of station. Also, I recently bought two slabs from a CGC board member and the slab serial number did not register in the CGC census registry. I emailed CGC customer service and they said they must have "fallen off of the census." I sent them a ransom photo with the two slabs next to a current newspaper and they are going to add them back in and send me the graders notes if there are any. Anybody else ever had their slabbed book or a purchase "fall off" of the registry?

Also, graders notes may not be available for books 9.0 or higher. I recently got two Moderns graded at 9.6 with no graders notes. I combed through the forums and saw that graders notes availability is hit or miss among 9.0 or higher books.

Also, the credit will only be applied to CGC grading and not CCS pressing or shipping as Matt G stated. My $150 credit was spread out over three different orders.

I'm curious what the benefit of these venues are if it takes roughly 2-5 weeks to get your books. If you have to pay origin based sales tax and shipping fees on top of your winning bid what is the benefit over eBay? Is is better inventory? More user friendly auction house? I'm also interested from a seller's perspective as well because I believe most of them take a 10% cut just like eBay but you have to pay to ship your books there and wait for them to inventory and list them from what I have read. What do you see as the strengths to buyers and sellers?

In case of ladle...