NumminzAK

Not my experience with credit card companies...I personally disputed a charge once and it took almost nothing for them to side with me. I actually was expecting to have to fight much harder during the dispute and the credit card company didn't insist on that at all. I was very surprised.

I am going to be a vendor at my first con at the end of this month and I'm hesitant to accept a credit card. I worry that someone will contest the charge after the show and scam me out of an expensive book. It might cost me some potential customers but I just don't want to risk it. I also assume if you're coming to a con, you should expect to bring cash.

The OP happens to work a day job and doesn't have the books with him at this time to post scans. Somebody has to work a day job around these chat boards versus spending all day posting memes. :P

I have no problem looking at books I send and seeing grades that make sense and acknowledging that I sent something in that shouldn't have gone. That's not what's happening here. As I mentioned...if you're interested in seeing the trend...check out several of the frequent submitters on youtube who are experiencing as similar shift. There is clearly a change happening and it should be a concern for everyone...CGC is supposed to be the gold standard and demand premium pricing...if this continues...there will be no point.

The first post was when I saw the grades online, this post is with updated status of having them in my hands to actually see for myself. And instead of the books being damaged by CGC...it's now clear they really just tossed grades at books that are not remotely 9.0. But hey, thanks for the trolling. I'm by far not the only one experiencing this...there are many, many youtube video's of long time CGC submitters experiencing the same results and posting them. I will definitely get some scans up soon. As I said...even within this single bunch...there are books that are 9.0 that are cleaner than some that got 9.6.

Exactly...every 9.0 I just got back are far cleaner than that book.

Most have no grader notes...the ones that do...I seriously do not see anything they note. Even within this batch I have several 9.0 that look far better than some that got 9.4. Again...I'm fine with grades that make sense and that you can see what they dinged them for...that's not what this order is...it just isn't. I have owned 9.8 that had worse spines than any of these...lol.

All of my latest interactions with CGC have resulted in them basically saying "It wasn't us...nothing you can do." This company has become a joke and people should stop using them.

Sent in 75 books for modern grading. All books were in great condition before being sent in...used a high profile professional pressing company that is certified by CGC. Went 10/75 9.8....which is about 60% lower than I have ever had. After reviewing the books in hand...easily 30 of them were severely under-graded. I now have some of the nicest, most pristine, spine tick free...flat....sharp cornered 9.0 books you have ever seen. I've asked CGC what can be done...they reply "we will look into it" or "nothing can be done...trust us...we do not make mistakes." I want to be clear...I'm not upset that everything wasn't magically a 9.8...but something went severely wrong with this order and CGC simply doesn't care whatsoever about retaining customers. This is a money grab...they are pushing books through and I believe either guessing at grades or maybe even diluting the 9.8 pool at this point. If you get really cynical...you could say it's a win win for them right? The majority of people will crack these cases and re-submit the books...doubling CGC profits. I'm done with this company...the books I have in my hands simply do not match what CGC is trying to sell on this order. If there are grader notes...which most do not have...what they state I am not seeing. It's a money grab with no process for the customer to dispute the results.

This hasn't happened to me yet fortunately, but if you end up with damaged slabs coming to you from CGC or other quality control issues that lead to them reholdering them free of charge, do they regrade the book or just slap it in a slab and send it back?

I'm considering breaking them out and re-submitting...but it all depends on what I can see on the books myself. Pretty expensive in the end to submit things 2-3 times.

I'm convinced it's 100% luck of the draw...one submission I went 16/18 9.8....the latest I went 10/75.....using the same pressing company and my eye as the person selecting what to submit for both. It just doesn't ring true to me that I can go 16/18 down to 10 for 75 for moderns. I'm out thousands of dollars in profits and have nothing I can do about it because CGC has spoken. One of the 25 book submissions went 0/25....I mean come on. I never expect 100% 9.8...but I do expect at least some level of consistency when you're talking moderns that have been professionally pressed and look absolutely perfect. I'm convinced CGC is rushing order through to improve turn around times and just throwing random grades on things to get them pushed through and the new graders are hedging themselves on the conservative side.

I’ve sent orders in the past that got a decent amount of cgc 9.8 for modern books. I paid for a third party presser for books that looked perfect in the first place...my latest order didn’t have a single 9.8 out of 25 books...and several got hit down to 8.5 for « light finger prints » with no other issues. My presser wears gloves and does great work and was responsible for a 24/25 9.8 submission in the past...there is just no way this is correct. My take is cgc has a bunch of untrained staff doing sloppy work. Here I sit with no recourse...cgc takes no blame. I’m done with this company.

A thought comes to mind is does this company even really care about the quality control? Many of these examples simply never should have left the factory floor in the first place. I think most would agree that CGC's approach to these concerns is that "who else are you going to use?" and that's very frustrating when you're paying for a service and level of quality control that you simply don't get.

How quickly have you guys been seeing the Grading / Quality Control step take you? I just had a 3 book submission take maybe 48hours, but I have another batch that has now hit 72hours....feels very random indeed. I can't help myself as I've been waiting on this order for a year now for CCS pressing and I find myself checking status every 30 minutes in hopes of finally seeing the outcome of waiting that long.

Yes

I understand that clause....but this is a modern book that was in excellent overall condition. I'm not talking a golden age 2.0 book with major issues already. If a private presser had caused this much damage during the pressing process, they are bonded and insured and would compensate the customer. I suspect CGC is just going to shrug their shoulders and tell me to pound sand...which by itself is poor customer service. Let's say they did just toast the book....okay...do some kind of gesture and don't charge me the grading / pressing fee for atleast that one book....you're talking about customers spending $1000 per order with you at a time....mistakes can happen, but acknowledge it and make a gesture is all I'm saying. We shall see.

My very first submission of 25 books is starting to trickle back in after a year with CCS. I had different things done, so they are coming in batches...So in this batch, I had three copies of Wolverine 1 ongoing series from 1988. I personally bought all three books at a vendor new, never read them and put them in bags and boards....they all looked very sharp and I wasn't even sure I needed to waste money on pressing to be honest. I know this is a tough book in high grade...and what I have coming back are two 9.4 and a random 8.5??? The grader notes stated creases to cover, spine creases, and foreign substance on book? Waiting on shipping...but I can tell you there is no way the 8.5 was correct unless CCS damaged my book over having it for the last year. I'm realistic with my expectations of grades...and had several "reader" copies in this order I put at 8.0 if I was lucky....but this one just isn't correct. There were zero spine ticks, no major visible creases...the books were never read...and definitely no "foreign substance" on the book. Very curious what it looks like when I get it in my hands and if CGC will own whatever they did to my book or if I'm just completely out of luck? I am still waiting on 14 more to be graded and very worried I will get more of the same.

Well...three of the books are on their way back after a year and I'm not pleased with one of the results. I sent in three near identical copies of Wolverine 1 from 1988 that I bought personally back in 1988. They were never read and were stored properly with bags and boards in a long box. I pulled them out last year and inspected them and thought after CCS pressing, they were all possibly 9.6-9.8, but I know that book is solid black and tough for the higher grades. Two copies got a 9.4....that's fine....but one of them was suddenly a 8.5? With creases, spine creases, and even foreign substance on book??? Nope....that just was not the case....something occurred to this book while in CCS's care. I'm now trying to figure out what CGC is willing to acknowledge or if they are willing to do anything at all or if they will just say "Meh....wasn't us....prove it." I'm not complaining about the 8.5 if the book was within that realm....I would never have sent that book if I thought that was remotely possible...and honestly almost didn't even go for the press because the books were all that clean....no ticks...definitely no Foreign substance.

In general...have you been satisfied with the results from CCS after such a long wait time or have you found that the book could have been pressed better? I've only sent one submission in for CCS pressing and am waiting for them to get back, but I'm already preparing myself to examine them closely and perhaps even resubmit using a private presser if needed. I've seen too many Youtube video's about CCS not doing a thorough job. Curious if that tends to be the exception and not the rule from your own experiences with them? Some of the books I have there currently could mean a $1800 price difference from a 9.6 to a 9.8....here's hoping everything comes back as good as it can be.

I suspect one of two things...someone damaged the book in handling during the signing or possibly you got someone else's book back. I saw a recent youtube video of someone receiving back two copies of a Wolverine 1 that he only sent in one copy of....clearly he got someone else's book back as well as his own.

Customer service is just the worst....books have sat at CGC pending CCS for a year now....can't see status anymore...just says "received". They just billed for the pressing and assure me they are finally pressing them, but I can't tell because it just says "received". We're actually going backwards....it used to say "@ CCS for pressing" for eight months. I no longer use CCS for my pressing services....why would I? Private presser takes 1-2 months at most and costs the same and does a higher quality job. NOTHING should take over a year for a paid service and they have now billed my credit card for a service that has not been completed at this time. I feel like a hostage at this point....they have my books, I tried to request they cancel the service out of frustration at one point and they refuse to do that. I've lost value on the majority of the books because the market has cooled off. They should just stop offering CCS as a service if they can't figure this out.

I will say this...I now use a private presser who hand carries the orders to CGC....those orders have been pressed and graded and are back to me in roughly 4-5 months at most....and my guess is they are doing a better job than I will see from CCS. No additional cost to me...so again, CGC/CCS is leaving money on the table by frustrating customers and it's leading to us going to private pressers.

Just got a reply from CGC customer service....in short, yes...my books sat on a shelf at CCS doing nothing for roughly one year. They have now moved to "pressing" status on 6/27/22....but because my status on the order is over eight months old at this point...it still just states "received"....which customer service called a glitch and shouldn't be. I am still amazed that this company is so short staffed or back logged that things literally sit on a shelf doing nothing for a full year. The company needs to hire / train more staff and expand to meet the need. It's basic economics....processing your inventory within 2-3 months and being able to bill that service at that time versus a year out would pay for all of it. They are leaving money on the table and frustrating their customers.

Awesome, thanks...I agree that it's ridiculous that I could check status for up to eight months, but then it reverts to "received" status only when you type in the request number. It's like even CGC is admitting that eight months is too long of a time frame for them to have to deal with lol.