Follow up response from Steve Borock

[sterlingcomics]

I don't know about you, but the grader's notes are becoming less than useful. Cryptic one or two words is all I get when I call about a book. I wish there was a stricter standard they could use to provide more useful info.

[topofthetotem]

I dont think they want to make a "guess" if the book was pressed by a pro or pressed stacked floor to ceiling like the church books so they dont consider pressing restro.

[mica]

Why is the "bomb" being graded? It's not Mint 10.0 therefore it's no big deal now? Had this been a year ago, WOW what sharp corners and eye appeal....

To me a Bomb is a Bomb no matter when it goes off.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

You know, the fact that our collective opinions of CGC have fallen so far that to say this is no longer a bombshell says a lot in and of itself.

[nearmint]

Why is the "bomb" being graded? It's not Mint 10.0 therefore it's no big deal now? Had this been a year ago, WOW what sharp corners and eye appeal....

To me a Bomb is a Bomb no matter when it goes off.

 

I disagree. Had this been posted a year ago, this thread would have immediately been bombarded with outraged posts from dozens of board members. That's not happening. The news is heavily diluted by the fact that we now know Chris is performing services for select clients(heck, Steve announced it right here on the boards months ago).

[Foolkiller]

I totally agree with this -- it is diluted and that's why I suggest we have to move forward. We've accepted CGC in the market place, and unfortunately, that means putting our heads down to make things better. Pressing is here to stay.

 

Why is the "bomb" being graded? It's not Mint 10.0 therefore it's no big deal now? Had this been a year ago, WOW what sharp corners and eye appeal....

To me a Bomb is a Bomb no matter when it goes off.

 

I disagree. Had this been posted a year ago, this thread would have immediately been bombarded with outraged posts from dozens of board members. That's not happening. The news is heavily diluted by the fact that we now know Chris is performing services for select clients(heck, Steve announced it right here on the boards months ago).

[mica]

I totally agree with this -- it is diluted and that's why I suggest we have to move forward. We've accepted CGC in the market place, and unfortunately, that means putting our heads down to make things better. Pressing is here to stay.

 

Not to start a fight, just wondering. Why is this considered moving forward? Can you see where it might be considered moving backward; not wanting to deal with a perceived problem; ignoring something; taking the path of least resistance; etc..etc...? I won't waste anyones time by making comparitive analogies but do we accept this sort of idealogy from other sources?

 

It's a part of Blank, so we better move on.

[arexcrooke]

Does the fact that CGC holds itself up to be an IMPARTIAL 3rd part grading company, then they turn around and for select clients work on books with the express intention of improving the grade, show you that there is a conflict of interest?

Why did CGC create the policy that pressing is not restoration? Simple, so they could then implement this new pressing business that seems to be going on.

If this issue was not a big deal, then why the silence?

I just can not understand NM and Steve's causal dismissal of this as being no big deal.

I understand that we are all entitled to our opinions, but I can not understand why this in-house, clandestine, secretive pressing operation is NOT A HUGE DEAL!

One question:

If this had been going on before CGC stated their new pressing is not resto crede, would this then have been a big deal?

[Foolkiller]

Legit point, but we can't fix what's gone on in the past. We can try and get an answer and explanation from them, but quite honestly, what would they be able to do -- tear down the whole slab market for potentially pressed books? Call out CGC for not offering the service for everyone? Well to me, there's no doubt they did it, but we the collectors accepted the CGC product with the understanding that their definition of resto did not include professional non disassembly pressing.

[mica]

Does the fact that CGC holds itself up to be an IMPARTIAL 3rd part grading company, then they turn around and for select clients work on books with the express intention of improving the grade, show you that there is a conflict of interest?

Why did CGC create the policy that pressing is not restoration? Simple, so they could then implement this new pressing business that seems to be going on.

If this issue was not a big deal, then why the silence?

I just can not understand NM and Steve's causal dismissal of this as being no big deal.

I understand that we are all entitled to our opinions, but I can not understand why this in-house, clandestine, secretive pressing operation is NOT A HUGE DEAL!

One question:

If this had been going on before CGC stated their new pressing is not resto crede, would this then have been a big deal?

arex this happened days ago, therefore it's not a big deal anymore.

[Sal]

I dont think they want to make a "guess" if the book was pressed by a pro or pressed stacked floor to ceiling like the church books so they dont consider pressing restro.

 

wait wait wait one second here.

 

 

pressing is hard to detect, therefore we can't look for it, therefore it's not considered restoration.

 

however, in cases where Chris actually worked on the thing under CGC's aegis, then how the **** can they say they can't detect it? isn't it, at that point, something being done to the book to improve its appearance?

 

 

CGC had better figure out what their position is going to be and put a lot of this to bed or they will run themselves into irrelevancy the second a decent and impartial 3rd-party grading company comes along that actually gives two s**ts about the collector OVER the dealer. right now, this is being handled about as poorly as one can imagine, which is confusing as hell to me personally

[Foolkiller]

in cases where Chris actually worked on the thing under CGC's aegis, then how the **** can they say they can't detect it? isn't it, at that point, something being done to the book to improve its appearance?

 

made the same point earlier in the post, others have followed up with similar thoughts...

 

but their stance is apparently, pressing = ok.

[sterlingcomics]

I have a headache.

[nearmint]

Does the fact that CGC holds itself up to be an IMPARTIAL 3rd part grading company, then they turn around and for select clients work on books with the express intention of improving the grade, show you that there is a conflict of interest?

Why did CGC create the policy that pressing is not restoration? Simple, so they could then implement this new pressing business that seems to be going on.

If this issue was not a big deal, then why the silence?

I just can not understand NM and Steve's causal dismissal of this as being no big deal.

I understand that we are all entitled to our opinions, but I can not understand why this in-house, clandestine, secretive pressing operation is NOT A HUGE DEAL!

One question:

If this had been going on before CGC stated their new pressing is not resto crede, would this then have been a big deal?

 

As I've already stated in three other threads today, I hate it that Chris is performing any work on books under the CCG umbrella, and absolutely agree that it creates a conflict of interest.

 

My only point was that we debated this issue ad nauseum 9 or 10 months ago when Steve announced on the boards that Chris was setting up his own shingle, under the CGC umbrella, and that only select clients would be invited to take advantage of his services. Had Redhook's post appeared before then, a great many board members would be outraged and posting like mad in this thread. But, as we've already talked the issue to death, what might have been a bombshell is hitting us as more like a firecracker, or maybe a pretty sparkler.

[sterlingcomics]

Well in that case, I rescind my a-bomb and replace it with:

 

[nearmint]

Pretty colors.

 

How did we get back to pressing anyway? Isn't this a trimming thread?

[nik]

I have a headache.

 

This is total Fu'n BS,

 

a Pressing is NOT Resto

 

b We do pressing in house to a select few

 

c We can not detect pressing all the time

 

d This is the bottom line, deal with it and move on??

[FlyingDonut]

Pretty colors.

 

How did we get back to pressing anyway? Isn't this a trimming thread?

 

Because there are a vocal number of people on this board who refuse to accept CGC's stance on pressing, and continually look for ways to push an agenda to make pressing=restoration.

[mica]

How did we get back to pressing anyway? Isn't this a trimming thread?

Not everyone took that color of pill.

 

Just because certain people grew weary of talking about it doesn't mean it "Went away". Please don't mistake a small amount of silence during a period of time to mean that it's gone. A few pro-pressers started commenting on how they didn't like hearing about it, so the polite anti-pressers refrained like gentlemen.

That's how I see it.

[Red Hook]

And if it has the effect of a firecracker instead of a bomb, that's fine by me.

 

It wasn't meant to be a molotov cocktail anyway. As long as the information is out there, people can make informed choices.

 

I intend to submit books to CGC in future for encapsulation. But I am going to be much more selective about buying slabs in future.

 

Now....my next problem is that Chris' service is not going to be made available to the general public. So the favoritism will continue.

 

Q. You know what's really nice about the boards......?

 

A. They offer a reality check, at no additional cost!