current turn around rates at CGC 80 80

[Callaway29]

Feel like extended TAT’s should make graded books even more valuable. Represents a year of wait time now. I’m curious if this widens the spread between raw and graded…

[Petroman]

8 minutes ago, ChrispyC66 said:

The problem is systemic and I don’t think they would stop all submissions unless they were certain they could get TATs back to an “acceptable and manageable” level fairly quickly; say 60 days?

But CGC doesn’t seem to have any Customer or QoS Standards and they clearly aren’t being measured by any independent auditor for service delivery. So they don’t seem to fear accountability. Certainly they don’t fear losing customers. We’ve all seen that and have continued to send in submissions hoping it will get better.

Well I don’t think this makes it any better…CGC announced yesterday that they are going to Torpedo Con for several SS events as well as collecting regular submissions to bring back to Sarasota to be put into their HUGE receiving funnel.

There are three things that might help reverse this untenable path CGC is on;

• External: An organized group of respected CGC Members and Dealers get together to sign a petition and pen an open letter to Blackstone and CCG to solve the numerous issues before irreparable damage is done to this hobby, businesses, and their reputation.
• External: The artists, writers, inkers, etc., stop agreeing to do SS events until CGC solves their delivery, quality and customer service problems solved.
• Internal: The CGC employees that are having to feel the FULL weight of theses problems get it through to Blackstone that the business they just spent $500MM on, is busted.

I know this is a soapbox rant. But I needed to vent.

It was a very good soapbox rant, and I think many of us share your feelings, especially those of us who collected or sold books in the early 1990's and watched the industry implode.  They obviously have a massive capacity issue, so they need to look at ways to fix that.  Hiring local employees is one way, but I have no idea if the talent pool in Sarasota is sufficient, and in terms of Florida, that is one of the more expensive areas to live.  So opening a new location (or locations) should really be something they are looking at.  They may have some competition however, as both CGC and CBCS websites proclaim they are hiring.  IMHO, this is a huge opportunity for the smaller CBCS to gain substantial market share if they can solve their capacity issues (which don't seem as bad) faster.  Temporarily halting submissions of the cheaper tiers may also be an option, especially Slow Modern and Slow Economy.  They desperately need to halt the growth of the backlog or they run the risk of never being able to catch up.  I sure hope the people at Blackstone are smart enough to solve these problems.  Its really hard to know with these investment companies as their primary focus will just be on profitability, and often they look to either dismantle companies and sell the parts or try to restructure the business and then sell them off or take them public.  

[Petroman]

5 minutes ago, Callaway29 said:

Feel like extended TAT’s should make graded books even more valuable. Represents a year of wait time now. I’m curious if this widens the spread between raw and graded…

Its a very good question.  I know I've taken down a bunch of my newer CGC books on Ebay as the markups I used to get for them are  no longer sufficient when you factor in the extremely long grading times.  Guess I could have raised the prices instead, but I'm happy enough to hold them for a bit to see if they appreciate before relisting.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

They do not seem as though they will be pausing submissions.  In fact the opposite.  On top of in house signings they are now looking to launch.  CGC Games.

[Chaz G.]

31 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

They do not seem as though they will be pausing submissions.  In fact the opposite.  On top of in house signings they are now looking to launch.  CGC Games.

1. I feel that Video Games & Trading Cards should each go under their CCS banner, like coins (NGC) & stamps (ASG). Each of these has operated on its own for years with no effect of comics submissions (CGC).

2. I understood In House signings when Cons were closed last year, but now that Cons are opening back up, they should wind down the In House events and get back to Cons. There's no way they're going to get the amount of creators "In House" that they would in 3 days at NYCC, C2E2, SDCC or any of the magor cons. Period. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by Chazgee

[ChrispyC66]

29 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

They do not seem as though they will be pausing submissions.  In fact the opposite.  On top of in house signings they are now looking to launch.  CGC Games.

Yea. Saw this too. Is this really worth the investment? When will they add the CGC carded action figures grading, CGC beanie babies grading, and CGC Lunchbox grading?

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

32 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

They do not seem as though they will be pausing submissions.  In fact the opposite.  On top of in house signings they are now looking to launch.  CGC Games.

Of all the mess they could be doing with their resources, this is the most nonsense wildly_fanciful_statement possible thing to with. Instead of doing something about busted tat, they want to grade video games  

[NewWorldOrder]

21 minutes ago, Chazgee said:

1. I feel that Video Games & Trading Cards should each go under their CCS banner, like coins (NGC) & stamps (ASG). Each of these has operated on its own for years with no effect of comics submissions (CGC).

2. I understood In House signings when Cons were closed last year, but now that Cons are opening back up, they should wind down the In House events and get back to Cons. There's no way they're going to get the amount of creators "In House" that they would in 3 days at NYCC, C2E2, SDCC or any of the magor cons. Period. 

They will have local CGC witnesses at shows in 2021, but two big factors why we prob wont see them traveling at a show anytime soon (at least rest of 2021)

1. They dont have the resources right now to go, it will put them even more behind.  Plus they dont need to go since they have all the orders they need and then some.

2. Workers liability- Still in the middle of a pandemic, tough to convince/require employees to get on an airplane (potential high risk) and then go to large gathering of people (potenially even more high risk).  I am sure families of those employees wouldn't be keen for that idea as well. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by NewWorldOrder

[Chaz G.]

3 minutes ago, NewWorldOrder said:

2. Workers liability- Still in the middle of a pandemic, tough to convince/require employees to get on an airplane (high risk) and then go to large gathering of people (even more high risk).  I am sure families of those workers wouldn't be keen for it as well.  Literately the worst thing you can do to an employee right now is having them coming back to cons.

Not if they're vaccinated.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

23 minutes ago, ChrispyC66 said:

Yea. Saw this too. Is this really worth the investment? When will they add the CGC carded action figures grading, CGC beanie babies grading, and CGC Lunchbox grading?

This will all be added shortly.  Soon to follow.  Vintage Food Packaging.  ( your old Spider Cereal,  Superman Peanut Butter, etc) as well as stamps , cups, and vintage Flintstone Vitamins. 

[Iconic1s]

32 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

This will all be added shortly.  Soon to follow.  Vintage Food Packaging.  ( your old Spider Cereal,  Superman Peanut Butter, etc) as well as stamps , cups, and vintage Flintstone Vitamins. 

Don’t forget old Avon packaging/collectibles.  I hear that market is about to blow up!  And, if you send them in for any of the in-house signings you are almost guaranteed a 9.8 too!

[NewWorldOrder]

55 minutes ago, Chazgee said:

Not if they're vaccinated.

That still doesn't matter.  

Legal can of worms.   

[NewWorldOrder]

1 hour ago, Yeahiwasder4dat said:

Of all the mess they could be doing with their resources, this is the most nonsense wildly_fanciful_statement possible thing to with. Instead of doing something about busted tat, they want to grade video games  

They want to make more money.  The only reason they opened their doors ever in general.

Want to help CGC fix TaT's?

Then everyone stop submitting comics. They will get caught up real quick. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by NewWorldOrder

[SeanYork]

Even if they stopped accepting comics today it would take until the end of the year for them to reasonably catch up.  They are still opening packages from the first week of May.  That means there are two months of deliveries from everyone that sent in stuff to beat the price increases sitting in the waiting to be checked in que.  At the rate the opening delay is increasing anything not in the building now will probably not even get opened until after Halloween. 

[Mijael.Levy]

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

6 hours ago, NewWorldOrder said:

They want to make more money.  The only reason they opened their doors ever in general.

Want to help CGC fix TaT's?

Then everyone stop submitting comics. They will get caught up real quick. 

So what? They want to sit on a backlog of video games as well?

[Drummy]

Video games, please.  I'm waiting for those bastards to grade 7-11 Slurpee cups from the '70's.  Every time I call, they say they're "still working on the holder."

Dan

[Chaz G.]

1 hour ago, Drummy said:

Video games, please.  I'm waiting for those bastards to grade 7-11 Slurpee cups from the '70's.  Every time I call, they say they're "still working on the holder."

Dan

[ChrispyC66]

7 hours ago, NewWorldOrder said:

They want to make more money.  The only reason they opened their doors ever in general.

Want to help CGC fix TaT's?

Then everyone stop submitting comics. They will get caught up real quick. 

Thanks @NewWorldOrder for your response! I’ve heard it before on these boards and I’m sure some consumers have done that. Here’s my opinion on that answer.

Yes they want to make money hand over fist. But I’d guess 20 years ago the reason the new third party grading business was created and considered sustainable, was because they could offer a service to hobbyists and LCS business owners who wanted and needed this service if offered for a reasonable price and was consistent and reliable. I believe “consistent and reliable” are broken right now.

I’ve seen many responses on these boards saying to stop sending in submissions will help CGC solve the TAT problem. I think when thoroughly considered, we all believe that plan is D.O.A.

Like it or not, CGC is the only third party grading service for comics that provides the ROI most LCS’s, online resellers and consumers desire to use . So in that sense, CGC has become a necessary value-added-service for a lot of businesses that they don’t want to stop using because of the impact it has on those businesses bottom line, 

Most importantly, IMHO, it’s not the consumer’s responsibility to fix a broken business service that they expect, need, and want or use. It’s the business’ responsibility to fix their broken process and services or risk failing because of them.

[ChrispyC66]

1 hour ago, Drummy said:

Video games, please.  I'm waiting for those bastards to grade 7-11 Slurpee cups from the '70's.  Every time I call, they say they're "still working on the holder."

Dan

Let’s just expand this to the Collectable Beverage holder grading.  I’d like to get my 1999 Star Wars Episode 1 Pepsi cans professionally graded!