CGC Favoritism - Yes or No?

[icefires]

I've often wondered if certain people or dealers are more likely to get a better grade than others from CGC.

 

Is it possible that CGC gives the "benefit of the doubt" to friends and/or their best customers?

 

Just wondering....

 

[supapimp]

no they don't, PGCmint wrote an article about it on his site at www.pgcmint.com/

[BassGMan]

I've often wondered if certain people or dealers are more likely to get a better grade than others from CGC.

 

Is it possible that CGC gives the "benefit of the doubt" to friends and/or their best customers?

 

Just wondering....

 

 

Absolutely not. The graders at CGC (including top man Borock) have no idea who owns the book at the time of grading. People have speculated that CGC does have a bias for large dealers who it may appear that they must know who submitted them, but CGC claims that they are completely unbiased and impartial to all submitted comics. This was the whole problem with Wizard First as in that situation they would know who submitted the books. ----Sid

[RS]

http://www.pgcmint.com/Articles.php

[deathlok]

Forgive his trangression my brethren, he has yet to be converted. Soon he will see the light that is the almighty CGC. Then and only then will his doubts be erased. Let us pray.

[Rip]

I don't think so, but we know CGG won't check "certain" customer books for resto.

[PovertyRow]

I don't think so, but we know CGG won't check "certain" customer books for resto.

 

Is that won't check or won't notate? Or notate but in a blue label?

 

I can't believe they would just flat out ignore the resto check. It would be too potentially costly to their reputation.

[icefires]

deathlok, actually I have no opinion one way or the other, as I have submitted only 3 books in my entire life.

I felt those 3 books were graded fairly, but I have purchased a few CGC books graded 9.6 that seemed to contain more flaws than some of the CGC 9.4's I have purchased.

Are graders notes only available to those who submit?

[FFB]

I've often wondered if certain people or dealers are more likely to get a better grade than others from CGC.

 

Is it possible that CGC gives the "benefit of the doubt" to friends and/or their best customers?

 

Just wondering....

 

 

I don't believe it for a second. Steve says that he gets calls from his friends all the time for undergrading their high grade pedigree books, where he might know who owns it. There's too much money in it for CGC for them to ruin their virtual monopoly by screwing around with favoritism. Plus, there are three graders per book and if there is wild disagreement, it goes to all of the graders. I am sure that even for the rare book where Steve might know whose it is, he does not tell the other graders whose book it is when they are grading it.

 

If anything, the Wizard First debacle shows that CGC does not give favored grades even when they know who the submitter is AND they are getting paid extra for the grading!

[deathlok]

You can call about the grader's notes on any book, as long as you have the serial #.

[FFB]

I don't think so, but we know CGG won't check "certain" customer books for resto.

 

Is that won't check or won't notate? Or notate but in a blue label?

 

I can't believe they would just flat out ignore the resto check. It would be too potentially costly to their reputation.

 

He's talking about cgG, not cgC. Daniel from CGG tacitly admitted to either skipping the resto check entirely for TDComix, or at the very least relaxing it to the point where they couldn't pick up large hits of amateur color touch.

[rob_react]

deathlok, actually I have no opinion one way or the other, as I have submitted only 3 books in my entire life.

I felt those 3 books were graded fairly, but I have purchased a few CGC books graded 9.6 that seemed to contain more flaws than some of the CGC 9.4's I have purchased.

Are graders notes only available to those who submit?

 

No, simply call them up and get the notes. No secret handshake needed.

 

Out of curiosity, how many books are you talking about with your anecdote?

[PovertyRow]

I don't think so, but we know CGG won't check "certain" customer books for resto.

 

Is that won't check or won't notate? Or notate but in a blue label?

 

I can't believe they would just flat out ignore the resto check. It would be too potentially costly to their reputation.

 

He's talking about cgG, not cgC. Daniel from CGG tacitly admitted to either skipping the resto check entirely for TDComix, or at the very least relaxing it to the point where they couldn't pick up large hits of amateur color touch.

 

Thanks FF - I hate doing that.

 

No, not thanking you, mixing CGC and CGG up.

[FFB]

deathlok, actually I have no opinion one way or the other, as I have submitted only 3 books in my entire life.

I felt those 3 books were graded fairly, but I have purchased a few CGC books graded 9.6 that seemed to contain more flaws than some of the CGC 9.4's I have purchased.

Are graders notes only available to those who submit?

 

No, simply call them up and get the notes. No secret handshake needed.

 

Out of curiosity, how many books are you talking about with your anecdote?

 

I don't know about icefires, but I've got a Daredevil 200 CGC 9.8 with some non-9.8 wear and a Marvel Spotlight #32 CGC 9.6 with some non-9.6 wear. Here's the 9.8. I am assuming that at least some of the damage occurred post-slabbing, because I can't believe they'd give a 9.8 to a book with that bindery tear and blunted LRC and URC.

 

[BassGMan]

Yes, that lower corner bindery tear does not look 9.8ish at all. Also due to the nature of the damage it does not look like it could have been damaged after slabbing. Maybe they just missed it? Or the entire rest of the book is so perfect (including other two blunted corners) that it STILL registered as a 9.8?

[FFB]

Yes, that lower corner bindery tear does not look 9.8ish at all. Also due to the nature of the damage it does not look like it could have been damaged after slabbing. Maybe they just missed it? Or the entire rest of the book is so perfect (including other two blunted corners) that it STILL registered as a 9.8?

 

It's not a tear. It's a non-color-breaking bend in the overhang. There is no way that this book had these three flaws when they graded it a 9.8.

[icefires]

Well,

 

I pretty much collect DC 100 pagers exclusively. I have over 600 of these, but only about 35 that are CGC graded. Of those, there are two 9.4's that I think are in better condition than the 9.6's.

Maybe other factors might be what side of bed they got up on that morning? How much coffee they had? Whether they were in a good mood or bad mood that day?

Also, I have been wondering about a mass submission for pregrading. Say I send them 100 books and tell them "only 9.4 and above". They can reject all of them and get paid so much per book without slabbing costs, yes? Or do they make more money grading as many books as they can at 9.4 or above?

[Timely]

Even though I am not at CGC yet, I was there for 4 days and saw (and participated) in the grading process. You can be 100% assured none of the graders know who's books are who's.

 

Timely

[texasknight]

Also, I have been wondering about a mass submission for pregrading. Say I send them 100 books and tell them "only 9.4 and above". They can reject all of them and get paid so much per book without slabbing costs, yes? Or do they make more money grading as many books as they can at 9.4 or above?

They make more money grading as many books as they can at 9.4 and above. Its simple math. I think the pregrading costs 5$ a book and all those that are 9.4 and above will cost as much as the scale they are on (i.e. economy 29$, modern 16$ etc etc).

I still don't believe they would be biased in grading them however... If you sent in 100 books, and 30 of those had enough defects to warrant a 9.2 or lower, they would send these back to you ungraded and charge 150$ for the pregrading and charge you regular price for those that would grade at 9.4 and above.

[jimm94]

Of those, there are two 9.4's that I think are in better condition than the 9.6's.Maybe other factors might be what side of bed they got up on that morning? How much coffee they had? Whether they were in a good mood or bad mood that day?

 

Also, I have been wondering about a mass submission for pregrading. Say I send them 100 books and tell them "only 9.4 and above". They can reject all of them and get paid so much per book without slabbing costs, yes? Or do they make more money grading as many books as they can at 9.4 or above?

 

Texas already answered the second part of your question, but I'll tackle the first part(s).

 

You have to remember that grading is a subjective art form based on objective standards. Yes, people have bad days or too much coffee. We all do. That's why CGC has at least three graders look at every single comic . Even still, everyone mistakes and nobody is perfect. Another thing to keep in mind is that ocassionally damage can occur to a book inside the well if it is severely mishandled. You can resubmit books that you feel are undergraded (or overgraded for that matter).

 

However, if you are genuinely concerned that the CGC graders interests are pecuniary in nature, I would advise that you not use their service until you learn more about the company's policies and feel comfortable with continuing to submit books.