current turn around rates at CGC 79 79

[Ken Carter]

2 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

For me, the one's that hurt are the Standard and Fast Track Economy books that made it through CCS, got received (second time) by CGC, and have been languishing on "Scheduled for Grading" for weeks.  I'm used to getting books out of "Schedule for Grading" a few days later.  

As for unpacking my books, I've got 5 books that were delivered to CGC in late April that are not yet even showing "received."   They include a couple of really high grade GA books, and my GS X-Men 1 I've owned for over 40 years and finally decided to encapsulate, so I'm anxious to see them get in the process.  

 

I asked about the “Scheduled for grading” status. I had two orders both go from not even received( but signed for) straight to “Scheduled for grading”. They’ve been in that state for weeks. I think they’re skipping received on orders now and going straight to scheduled. It’d be nice if that “scheduled” status came with a countdown to know where you were in line. 
 

I also have an Eastman sig series last ronin that’s been in “grading” for over 2 weeks. 1 book. Never been read. 2 weeks of grading. I’m hoping it’s an internal argument over 9.9 vs. 10. I can’t imagine at this point what’s taking so long. 

[PKJ]

32 minutes ago, USCMitch said:

This is somewhat interesting.


To be fair, the first shipment was being pressed first so I don't know if that would make a difference in receiving the shipment. 
Also, on a whim I decided to mark Shipment 2 with "Modern FT" on the exterior of the box. Did it make a difference? No idea.

You know in regards to marking the box.

 

At one point in my career I had to develop cost saving processes and standards for our Distribution centers that handled enormous volume daily. One of the keys was "locating" raw materials, sku's etc and building tasks groups responsible for moving the items through the process.

This was some time ago (20 years) but I had them adopt batching techniques that located all items and it systematically would task the users of each material to go to certain bins and unbin the material, then the next work group would fill the bin etc, we also would be audited so those buildings had to account for every item in the building.

For very little money they could look at re vamping their process. Simply including a bar code with the submission form that the sender  would attach to the outside of the box when they send in , this would locate the item and IF it was a Walk Through, Express, etc it could be sorted on the first touch, reducing CPU in itself by reducing touches. Then the Barcode would locate from each station until shipped. Then the rest of the other boxes could be "batched" together so there are triggers when a date range is out of spec chosen by their QA team. At least then the sender could actually see their barcode is in their possession and watch it.

 

 This "you must not have marked the box" right is actually ridiculous when you consider the technology now (I just described something done nearly 20 years ago). When you can't produce enough labor, or if labor becomes more expensive you should always look at technology and efficiency improvements to offset the lack or cost of labor.  

Edited May 21, 2021 by PKJ

[wombat]

3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

MAGAZINE MODERN (+CCS)
Estimate at submission:  "74 working days"
Delivered:  1/15/21
Received: 1/26/21 (Interval to = 6 business days)
 

Current TAT is 139 days. To think it doubled in 4 months is insane. 

[sfcityduck]

Just now, wombat said:

Current TAT is 139 days. To think it doubled in 4 months is insane. 

Remember, TATs are an estimate, not a "Promise."

[SeanYork]

9 hours ago, williamharms said:

At this rate, I'll get the moderns back at the end of the year. (They were submitted for a quick press, and that still hasn't happened.)

I have 18 moderns that got marked as received on 1/15/21.  They were submitted for a quick press also.  When I submitted them I think I calculated that they would be back to me end of May/early June.  The last TAT I remember seeing on quick press was 99 days.  There is no telling what it would be now since they have removed that service.  I can only hope that doesn't mean they went to the end of the modern slow line.

[skybolt]

11 hours ago, SeanYork said:

I have 18 moderns that got marked as received on 1/15/21.  They were submitted for a quick press also.  When I submitted them I think I calculated that they would be back to me end of May/early June.  The last TAT I remember seeing on quick press was 99 days.  There is no telling what it would be now since they have removed that service.  I can only hope that doesn't mean they went to the end of the modern slow line.

Was your credit card charged for the 1/15/21 submission? My 12/21 quick press submission was charged about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but still shows up as received on 12/21.

[SeanYork]

17 minutes ago, skybolt said:

Was your credit card charged for the 1/15/21 submission? My 12/21 quick press submission was charged about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but still shows up as received on 12/21.

No I haven't been charged for those yet.  When I called about them charging the new rate on some fast track pressing I asked about this order and they couldn't give me any update, but I was on the phone with accounting for what it's worth.

[skybolt]

Just now, SeanYork said:

No I haven't been charged for those yet.  When I called about them charging the new rate on some fast track pressing I asked about this order and they couldn't give me any update, but I was on the phone with accounting for what it's worth.

My 11/16 quick press submission was charged on 3/23/21 and went to SFG on 4/08. The books were actually shipped by 4/16, even though they were modern slow track. My gut tells me that there's a 2 week wait period between when CCS is done pressing books and when they get marked received/SFG by CGC. That being said, I think I got lucky with the 11/16 submission and now they're completely backed up.

[SeanYork]

2 minutes ago, skybolt said:

My 11/16 quick press submission was charged on 3/23/21 and went to SFG on 4/08. The books were actually shipped by 4/16, even though they were modern slow track. My gut tells me that there's a 2 week wait period between when CCS is done pressing books and when they get marked received/SFG by CGC. That being said, I think I got lucky with the 11/16 submission and now they're completely backed up.

I talked to customer service about a month after they were received when I noticed the times increasing about possibly changing them over to regular pressing since the times were shorter.  She told me it wasn't possible since they were already in the room to be pressed, but if I wanted to upgrade to fast track pressing and fast track grading they could manage to do that.  I passed on that because I think it would have been a $500-$600 cost to upgrade.

[skybolt]

2 minutes ago, SeanYork said:

I talked to customer service about a month after they were received when I noticed the times increasing about possibly changing them over to regular pressing since the times were shorter.  She told me it wasn't possible since they were already in the room to be pressed, but if I wanted to upgrade to fast track pressing and fast track grading they could manage to do that.  I passed on that because I think it would have been a $500-$600 cost to upgrade.

Agree with your decision. If I was sending books in the $150 to $200 range, the fast track may make sense. For $65-$75 books (if they come back 9.8's), it's not worth it.

[Ron C.]

On 5/5/2021 at 8:27 PM, Ron C. said:

I still have a Modern FT book received on 3/10/21 that is still SFG. I called 2 weeks ago and was told that it was graded, but encapsulating was backed up. C'mon.

Still at SFG. That's over a month already graded and waiting for encapsulation? 

[skybolt]

23 minutes ago, Ron C. said:

Still at SFG. That's over a month already graded and waiting for encapsulation? 

I understand books recently submitted being backed up, but am surprised with how everything from opening boxes to pressing books to grading to encapsulating, seem to be backed-up so much. Either A.) they're diverting staff / resources to put out other fires or B.) any additional staff they've hired has gone to increasing their in-house signings.

Pretty soon CGC will refuse to grade books unless you get them signed first.

Edited May 21, 2021 by skybolt

[ADAMANTIUM]

and before it blacked out

Value Fast Track 

Delivered 4/04

Received 4/05

SFG 5/13 I think

Grading QC 5/21

[wombat]

1 hour ago, skybolt said:

1 hour ago, Ron C. said:

Still at SFG. That's over a month already graded and waiting for encapsulation? 

I understand books recently submitted being backed up, but am surprised with how everything from opening boxes to pressing books to grading to encapsulating, seem to be backed-up so much. Either A.) they're diverting staff / resources to put out other fires or B.) any additional staff they've hired has gone to increasing their in-house signings.

Pretty soon CGC will refuse to grade books unless you get them signed first.

Yeah, it seems like this one would be an easy "fix". Buy more machines and hire people to run them. I can't imagine it would be hard to train someone to do this. 

[skybolt]

25 minutes ago, wombat said:

Yeah, it seems like this one would be an easy "fix". Buy more machines and hire people to run them. I can't imagine it would be hard to train someone to do this. 

Same with opening and receiving boxes.

[Cranium79]

On 5/17/2021 at 12:10 AM, kimik said:

My 25 book Value submission from 1/20/2021 is finally in Shipping. It has taken nearly double the amount of time that was stated upon the submission being entered in the system to get the books graded. 

Good, at that rate, I should see mine before Christmas or after New Years or maybe when hell freezes over  

[Willbert]

18 hours ago, USCMitch said:

This is somewhat interesting.


To be fair, the first shipment was being pressed first so I don't know if that would make a difference in receiving the shipment. 
Also, on a whim I decided to mark Shipment 2 with "Modern FT" on the exterior of the box. Did it make a difference? No idea.

I agree that it's so completely random. I have an Express delivered on 5/12 and scanned into package delivery confirmation on 5/14 and it's still not entered as Received. And it's marked "EX" very clearly and very high contrast. The only way it could be missed if it was done intentionally. Also I noticed that some time in February that the instruction to marked Walkthrough and Express orders was no longer part of the order confirmation email for reprinting your packing slip. Could be nothing, I guess.

[ADAMANTIUM]

6 minutes ago, Willbert said:

18 hours ago, USCMitch said:

This is somewhat interesting.


To be fair, the first shipment was being pressed first so I don't know if that would make a difference in receiving the shipment. 
Also, on a whim I decided to mark Shipment 2 with "Modern FT" on the exterior of the box. Did it make a difference? No idea.

I agree that it's so completely random. I have an Express delivered on 5/12 and scanned into package delivery confirmation on 5/14 and it's still not entered as Received. And it's marked "EX" very clearly and very high contrast. The only way it could be missed if it was done intentionally. Also I noticed that some time in February that the instruction to marked Walkthrough and Express orders was no longer part of the order confirmation email for reprinting your packing slip. Could be nothing, I guess.

we really shouldn't have to think this hard about it  but that said

Current TAT are estimated with the "delivery date" as the "start of the estimated tat" so that said

if you see your package in cgc's tracking thing, they may have selected your box since it was written on, and will either

still get to it in the estimated TAT 

or

they really are behind

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

maybe they're just going through boxes and setting them aside 

and the people actually opening and marking them in is what's behind....

I don't "know" just thinking outside the box here 

hopefully it helps  

[Willbert]

Anything is possible. And I honestly I'm not really that concerned. Sure I'm eager to get my books back just like everyone else but I'm just more curious about the process and tracking actual turnaround times. I'd hate to actually have something that was truly time sensitive like an auction deadline because I have zero confidence in any information provided by CGC right now beyond it's going to take what it's going to take.