Vault Grading?????????....huh?

[MrBedrock]

How or where would you get the custom made plastic casings? I would assume that is the most expensive part. Labor and grading can all be done by the one or two startup people.

 

 

It would, most likely involve having a mold created for production, 5 figures easy.

Only one figure...rectangle.

[Designer Toast]

The most expensive part of it would be two fold:

 

1. Getting the right employees with good and known reps

2. Going to every major show and advertising

 

This is where companies like vault and those Richard craniums at PGX fail on every level. PGX once complained that a major comic publication wanted $10K for a full page ad. Was PGX expecting free advertising and people to fawn all over them just because...

 

If someone wants to compete with CGC, they'll need a lot of cash to get it done. Producing a slab can't be that expensive considering the access the world has to manufacturers - that part comes cheap compared to the rest.

 

If the schmucks at PGX can get a slab produced, any dolt can do it. You just have to do more than run a business like grading books on a whim and out of an apartment, house, or PO Box.

 

[Psithyrus]

I was at my LCS in San Jose, CA a few weeks ago and one of the employees started talking to me about a man who came to the store and was asking the employee questions about starting a new comic book grading service. The employee knows I regularly submit books to CGC and asked if I would submit books to a new company. I said I would if the secondary market saw the value and if I would be able to sell for an equal or greater profit than I do with CGC books. We spoke about the many barriers to entry that have already been mentioned in this thread. After I read this thread I remembered the conversation I had and yesterday I spoke to the employee about it. It turns out that that man (he left an email address with Gianni as a name) had come back and dropped off a graded book as an example – it was a Vault graded book. I told the LCS employee about this thread and how the new company had really hurt itself with questionable selling activities. It turns out that the Vault employee had mentioned that he would be willing to do local pickups to save customers on shipping charges. I do not recall reading if the Vault’s location was known or not, but there definitely is a Vault presence in San Jose.

 

Thanks for the info. It appears Gianni didn't sell off his accounts or share in the company as claimed a few pages back.

 

I was going to mention that. . . how can he be associated a few weeks ago when he supposedly sold the company to someone else before that?

[Tony S]

I'm still amazed no one has come along and made a solid run of it. All you need is to be honest, a slightly lower cost, and faster turn around times.

 

All those things would be possible right out of the gate.

 

Oh and our other collectible hobbies dominated by one grading company like comics?

 

In a word, NO. Cards and Coins each have several well respected grading companies and at any given time another two or three trying to make a name.

 

However, Coins and Cards are much larger hobbies - many more collectors. So the amount of business more easily supports multiple companies.

 

I think many people over-estimate the start up costs. And it would be comparatively easy for one of the major companies that also grade coins and/or cards to move into comics. IF they saw a market and opportunity. CGC may not have a well accepted competitor. But CGC's parent company - The Certified Collectibles Group - most certainly has well established competition. Perhaps the best known being Collectors Universe whom own PCGS (coins) and PSA (Cards). Their PSA division offers encapsulation services for photos up to 8x10 in size, so it wouldn't be that big a stretch for comics.

 

The fact someone like this hasn't moved in makes me think that potential competitors don't see enough business.

[Tony S]

I went back to look at Vault grading's web site. Last I looked it was down. So I was surprised to see this thread resurface.

 

Poking about the site, I noticed a few "interesting" things. They offer to make a "reading copy" of the book(s) you send in. For $15, they scan the entire book and send the owner a pdf. Now I'm not an attorney. And I also ardently support "fair use" of copyrighted material by us consumers. But scanning the entire book and creating a pdf?As a paid service? This seems to me to be an obvious violation of copyright law. An individual collector - sitting at home and doing this on their own computer for their personal use probably never attracts attention. For cataloging, referencing, academic and sales purposes a business can scan the covers. But a business making money by offering to duplicate an entire copyrighted work? I guarantee you Kinkos or Office Depot's printing dept will tell you NOOOOOO if you asked them to do this. I think the lawyers are likely to come knocking on this.

 

And do they really charge $55 for graders notes? Fifty Five BUCKS?? For what will probably be half a dozen sentences?

[GACollectibles]

Once my new 3-D printer arrives in the mail I'm going onto the grading/slabbing business and will be able to accommodate onsite grading.

[Sauce Dog]

To be honest I am surprised how well done their website is now, it isn't the worst thing and once they expand it I can see it being a very attractive option for some people (especially since how well designed the label is). The online grading is something I love, a simple idea that does make sense to help customers less experienced with grading.

 

BUT...they went ahead and blew away all good will in those initial weeks with how they acted and claims they make. Ughh. All they had to do was pretty much shut up, and showcase some of their graders on the website to build confidence. Oh well, so much for competition.

[comix4fun]

How or where would you get the custom made plastic casings? I would assume that is the most expensive part. Labor and grading can all be done by the one or two startup people.

 

 

It would, most likely involve having a mold created for production, 5 figures easy.

Only one figure...rectangle.

 

[Mayor006]

Once my new 3-D printer arrives in the mail I'm going onto the grading/slabbing business and will be able to accommodate onsite grading.

 

Once mine arrives I might just build a slabbed comic!

[comix4fun]

Once my new 3-D printer arrives in the mail I'm going onto the grading/slabbing business and will be able to accommodate onsite grading.

 

Once mine arrives I might just build a slabbed comic!

 

 

Don't let Andy fool you, the first thing he's printing is Kelly LeBrock, circa Weird Science.

[GIJOEISAWESOME-migration]

Hey, guys, I think you are being totally unfair to the Vault company. As the owner of the very honest upright Vault Grading co., I do not appreciate these angry comments

 

 

 

A company that lies will just keep lying. If they want to lie about being the biggest grader, who's to say they won't over look resto for a major customer.

[Designer Toast]

Once my new 3-D printer arrives in the mail I'm going onto the grading/slabbing business and will be able to accommodate onsite grading.

 

Andy, you're on to something here. Each book is freshly slab before your eyes while you get to watch your slab freshly made. Brilliant!

[gyro-1]

They have cleaned up their web site really well no craziness I can see

 

So I think they should thank the CGC boards for helping them be a better company (not likely to happen )

 

 

 

 

[slym2none]

They can become better yet - their costs are sky-high and their name recognition is nil.

 

But if "we" helped them clean up their site of the lies they were spreading, I guess that does make it "better."

 

 

 

 

-slym

[retrothecollector]

No thank you

 

I like CGC only

[Psithyrus]

Once my new 3-D printer arrives in the mail I'm going onto the grading/slabbing business and will be able to accommodate onsite grading.

 

Once mine arrives I might just build a slabbed comic!

 

 

Don't let Andy fool you, the first thing he's printing is Kelly LeBrock, circa Weird Science.

 

[Muaythai607]

Vault casing looks pretty crappy.. basically you don't get wut you pay for.

 

Vault=crappy grading in a sh*tty case. at a high price.

 

 

thank you for posting another company I will avoid like the plague

[skershaw948-migration]

Im new to the thread and read these posts. I used to work at a comic books/novelty store in NYC owned by Gianni Amato. I never met him but know that he was a hedge fund guy in NYC and then opened other businesses including a comic related art gallery in Williamburg and other stores that sold comics. He sold the stores i worked at to a guy named Eddie Berlin last Sept.. Ed Berlin is a total POS. I quit a month after that guy took over the stores because he was a total scumbag. I read the mail posted by comicart1 and that is definitely Eddie Berlin - he talks just like he writes.

[Jiminy_Cricket-migration]

Im new to the thread and read these posts. I used to work at a comic books/novelty store in NYC owned by Gianni Amato. I never met him but know that he was a hedge fund guy in NYC and then opened other businesses including a comic related art gallery in Williamson and other stores that sold comics. He sold the stores i worked at to a guy named Eddie Berlin last Sept.. Ed Berlin is a total POS. I quit a month after that guy took over the stores because he was a total scumbag. I read the mail posted by comicart1 and that is definitely Eddie Berlin - he talks just like he writes.

 

 

[retrothecollector]

Im new to the thread and read these posts. I used to work at a comic books/novelty store in NYC owned by Gianni Amato. I never met him but know that he was a hedge fund guy in NYC and then opened other businesses including a comic related art gallery in Williamson and other stores that sold comics. He sold the stores i worked at to a guy named Eddie Berlin last Sept.. Ed Berlin is a total POS. I quit a month after that guy took over the stores because he was a total scumbag. I read the mail posted by comicart1 and that is definitely Eddie Berlin - he talks just like he writes.

 

 

:O