Grader Notes

[blazingbob]

I'm not sure what the uproar is about.

 

CGC has been "toll collecting" for years now.

 

FMV walkthroughs were always a way to "share" in the owners windfall even though I've always questioned how a grading company knew what something would sell for. Always seemed like a conflict of interest.

 

CGC tried to share in the profitable pressing business because frankly there is more money made pressing than grading.

 

Since that one didn't fly they are trying another way to profit from pressing. Charge the upgraders for the notes that they need when they are on the fence trying to figure if a book is upgradeable. No overhead, pure profit, no more phone calls to the graders.

 

 

[DiceX]

I'm not sure what the uproar is about.

 

CGC has been "toll collecting" for years now.

 

FMV walkthroughs were always a way to "share" in the owners windfall even though I've always questioned how a grading company knew what something would sell for. Always seemed like a conflict of interest.

 

CGC tried to share in the profitable pressing business because frankly there is more money made pressing than grading.

 

Since that one didn't fly they are trying another way to profit from pressing. Charge the upgraders for the notes that they need when they are on the fence trying to figure if a book is upgradeable. No overhead, pure profit, no more phone calls to the graders.

 

 

Seems like they'd want that information more easily and cheaply accessible due to the fact that they directly benefit from the crack and resub.

I can see why they put it online but charging for it isn't really in their best interest.

 

 

[blazingbob]

What's not for CGC to like?

 

How much money would they have made on the Hulk #1 8.0 Pacific Coast notes?

 

They've already made a lot of money for the multiple grading attempts, imagine the additional money for the notes.

 

It's not about hitting home runs, little singles are what makes a company money. If John Seeberger only knew this

 

 

[Bruno_s4]

Just got this via email (so they have mine)

 

Get CGC Grader Notes!

  Ever wondered how CGC grades are determined? Our professional graders often take notes on the comic’s or magazine’s condition as part of the grading process. Now we’re making these notes available to you.

 

CGC Grader Notes can help you research and describe a comic or magazine you want to buy or sell, or just gain insight into its grade. They’re delivered electronically for a fee based on the grading tier the collectible was submitted under:

 

WalkThru — $30 / collectible

Express and Standard — $15 / collectible

Economy, Value and Modern — $5 / collectible

 

To get started, visit our free Certification Lookup tool on the CGC homepage or at CGCcomics.com/Cert

 

Dealers: Ordering CGC Grader Notes is easy. Select the notes you want, and we’ll add it to your next invoice.

 

 

 

 

 

I find this quote . "Now we’re making these notes available to you." to be misleading.

 

They've always made those notes available to us.

 

It should read . "Now we’re making these notes available cost prohibitive to you.

 

I thought CGC was above such disingenuous corporate speak, spinning a price hike as beneficial to their customers.

 

I got the email too.

 

If anything it might help our cause as it goes out to everyone in their database (a larger group than the CGC forum I imagine).

Hopefully more people complain in person, on the phone, at shows and on the boards until CGC is forced to rethink their new strategy and offer the notes at a reasonable price or free of charge again.

[asteroid-comix]

Grader's notes should be free - its all part of the service you are already paying for.

 

Its always hard to charge people for something that was once free...they would be better off to provide the notes and then just raise the overall submission rates. Its all about perception!

 

I'm still not convinced they're selling the notes. THREE FULL DAYS and no notes.

 

There couldn't have been a bunch of requests before mine that they are working through.

 

So apparently you have to have a valid email on file to receive the notes.

 

Fail on my part.

 

Once I got a corrected email to CGC...I received the notes.

 

The format was better than I expected. You get a nice cert/attachment with the details of the book and the notes. Not sure if it was the new format/offering, the book that was graded or the fact that the book was graded before the current waiting queue, but the notes seemed better than I've received for the few recent books I've called about.

 

I really like that the notes were on a nice cert/attachment that could be printed. Not knowing what to expect, I thought I might just get the notes in an email. I could see doing this for my higher end books, so that the document could be printed and slipped in with the slab. If I ever kept "personal" books for longer than a few months...I might see myself doing it for an entire registry set if the price point was better.

 

At the very least, I could see myself requesting them again for higher end books

 

OK...so what did the notes say?

 

Were they "worth" the $15?

 

The notes detailed the three defects with the book. Covered the spine breaks, smudges to the back cover and a ncb on the bc that wouldnt have been visible in a scan (abbreviated by me...notes were more detailed). Gave specifics to what they were and where they were. It was a higher end book, so there were not a lot of things wrong with the book. Its what I would have wanted to know before dropping a couple k on the book, so yeahto me it would have been worth the $15 if I were getting the notes for a purchase.

 

I ordered them this time to see what it was like, so the value obviously wasnt there given my email fail.

 

May try it again on a lower grade book to see what the notes detail is like and to see what the turn around is really like.

 

 

Did they send the sub-grades (the grades each of the 3+ graders gave)?

 

Dan

 

No, the sub-grades were not provided.

 

[reed_richards]

Grader's notes should be free - its all part of the service you are already paying for.

 

Its always hard to charge people for something that was once free...they would be better off to provide the notes and then just raise the overall submission rates. Its all about perception!

 

[asteroid-comix]

Just got this via email (so they have mine)

 

Get CGC Grader Notes!

  Ever wondered how CGC grades are determined? Our professional graders often take notes on the comics or magazines condition as part of the grading process. Now were making these notes available to you.

 

CGC Grader Notes can help you research and describe a comic or magazine you want to buy or sell, or just gain insight into its grade. Theyre delivered electronically for a fee based on the grading tier the collectible was submitted under:

 

WalkThru $30 / collectible

Express and Standard $15 / collectible

Economy, Value and Modern $5 / collectible

 

To get started, visit our free Certification Lookup tool on the CGC homepage or at CGCcomics.com/Cert

 

Dealers: Ordering CGC Grader Notes is easy. Select the notes you want, and well add it to your next invoice.

 

 

 

 

 

I find this quote . "Now were making these notes available to you." to be misleading.

 

They've always made those notes available to us.

 

It should read . "Now were making these notes available cost prohibitive to you.

 

I thought CGC was above such disingenuous corporate speak, spinning a price hike as beneficial to their customers.

 

I got the email too.

 

If anything it might help our cause as it goes out to everyone in their database (a larger group than the CGC forum I imagine).

Hopefully more people complain in person, on the phone, at shows and on the boards until CGC is forced to rethink their new strategy and offer the notes at a reasonable price or free of charge again.

 

I think 'reasonable price' is the key. The service isn't bad and it would be cool to have them to slip in with a slab. The cost is just too high for most books as it is now.

 

I see their logic in charging folks for the notes. I can only imagine how many calls they get. It's got to be a labor cost nightmare. It also pulls graders off to take a phone call; time that could be better spent grading a book.

 

I'd like for someone to throw out another successful company that offers as many uncharged services to its customers as CGC does. Registry, boards, previous grader notes process, census...these things cost money. Smart companies charge for services like these.

 

[DiceX]

They should start printing the grader notes on the slab and they could charge an additional $20 per slab to have the books graded. That way they're capitalizing on ALL the books instead of just the few that get questioned by the flippers.

 

 

[Davenport]

What's not for CGC to like?

 

How much money would they have made on the Hulk #1 8.0 Pacific Coast notes?

 

They've already made a lot of money for the multiple grading attempts, imagine the additional money for the notes.

 

It's not about hitting home runs, little singles are what makes a company money. If John Seeberger only knew this

 

How many books has CGC graded so far?

 

I've been thinking of it as 'niche-market demands' being like 'radio stations', and each encapsulated book as a 'song'.

So yeah, a 'song' might get played twice a year, or once, or never. A very tiny residual income each time one is 'played' (notes requested).

 

But their song-catalog consists of millions of titles, and producing more each work week. Only record producers in the world, with one hell of a playlist.

 

Might be a wrong / goofy way to think of it, but the potential residual $ seems enormous.

[Peter Loves Gwen]

I believe someone already posted it early on, CGC set the prices really high to start with. They will drop them some after this period of enraged customers dies down some. Then they expect everyone to appreciate the new lower prices.

 

Advertising/propaganda doesn't impress me, the price has been zero for 12+ years, any increase from zero is way way too much.

[Transplant]

Registry (advertising), boards(advertising), previous grader notes process (not free), census (advertising)...these things cost money. Smart companies charge for services like these.

[Aces]

I haven't gotten a response to the e-mail asking that they not sell any notes pertaining to any of my submissions until I determined my legal rights to those notes.

 

Natural born sand pounder.

[DiceX]

I haven't gotten a response to the e-mail asking that they not sell any notes pertaining to any of my submissions until I determined my legal rights to those notes.

 

Natural born sand pounder.

 

Pound Sand. Good times.

 

 

[Bfairb]

I sent in my request for notes on two silver age books and was charged the $30 last saturday.

I still have not received the notes as of yet. So much for the advertised one day turnaround.

 

 

[DiceX]

I sent in my request for notes on two silver age books and was charged the $30 last saturday.

I still have not received the notes as of yet. So much for the advertised one day turnaround.

 

 

They're 4 months behind on the turnaround on these, too.

 

 

[Cat-Man_America]

I got an e-mail response to my request for all the notes on every book I submitted during the calendar year 2011. They said they wouldn't do it, but I could pay.

 

I haven't gotten a response to the e-mail asking that they not sell any notes pertaining to any of my submissions until I determined my legal rights to those notes.

 

 

 

This is a smart move, IMO and may produce a legal quandary. If someone were to purchase grading notes to one or more books owned by a reputable dealer like Rich, who has reservations about the company charging new fees for work product he paid for, it would be interesting to see who has the best poker face. Any wagers on who'll ante-up, call or fold?

 

My money is on MrBedrock having the winning hand!

[asteroid-comix]

Ordered notes on a few more books. There is now a feature to verify your email address. At least I hope it is new

 

It looks like, for anything that's been graded recently, the notes are delivered instantly and presented back to you on the page.

 

[Boba]

If anything allowing prospect buyers (or sellers) to access the notes behind the grade on the slab would seem to enhance the value of having a book graded. This, IMHO could very well lead to even more submissions to CGC, and open up a completely new customer base. Sure, like a digital scan they could make it an option to have a printed certificate returned with the slabbed book, for a reasonable fee. I think folks would be ok paying for something of value like this. Potential buyers (who order the notes on a book) would pay a fee, again resonabe, to get the notes on a book via email or snail mail.

I think they are missing the point. This has the potential to furher legitimatize the grading system. So why kill it at birth with exorbitant fees and I'll conceived business plan.

I think Roy said it earlier, dealers are learning about this and aren't happy. These guys have the.clout with CGC and can likely get the right ear to yell into.

We're behind you

[Mark 1]

I'm not sure what the uproar is about.

 

CGC has been "toll collecting" for years now.

 

FMV walkthroughs were always a way to "share" in the owners windfall even though I've always questioned how a grading company knew what something would sell for. Always seemed like a conflict of interest.

 

CGC tried to share in the profitable pressing business because frankly there is more money made pressing than grading.

 

Since that one didn't fly they are trying another way to profit from pressing. Charge the upgraders for the notes that they need when they are on the fence trying to figure if a book is upgradeable. No overhead, pure profit, no more phone calls to the graders.

 

 

I respectfully disagree Bob.

 

It's not just pressers or crack, press, resub people calling for graders notes.

 

They had to be the catalyst for this change and why it became a problem for CGC...but certainly not all who called for graders notes.

 

I've called and it wasn't to see what upgrade potential a book has. I called to see if a book I am interested in buying had a detached centerfold, rusty staples, etc.

 

This change punishes the casual user.

[comicwiz]

I'm not sure what the uproar is about.

 

CGC has been "toll collecting" for years now.

 

FMV walkthroughs were always a way to "share" in the owners windfall even though I've always questioned how a grading company knew what something would sell for. Always seemed like a conflict of interest.

 

CGC tried to share in the profitable pressing business because frankly there is more money made pressing than grading.

 

Since that one didn't fly they are trying another way to profit from pressing. Charge the upgraders for the notes that they need when they are on the fence trying to figure if a book is upgradeable. No overhead, pure profit, no more phone calls to the graders.

 

 

I respectfully disagree Bob.

 

It's not just pressers or crack, press, resub people calling for graders notes.

 

They had to be the catalyst for this change and why it became a problem for CGC...but certainly not all who called for graders notes.

 

I've called and it wasn't to see what upgrade potential a book has. I called to see if a book I am interested in buying had a detached centerfold, rusty staples, etc.

 

This change punishes the casual user.

 

+1

 

I had a few books on my want list, but with this change, that's out the window.

 

I also see less an inclination for 9.2 or lower books to get subbed now.

 

9.2 and below would probably be the grade range where defects like rusty staples would fall, and if a dealer has to choose between fielding requests for graders notes on inventory they're sitting on, or just keeping the book raw and remove the hassle/expense of being asked for notes, I'm certain the decision to keep books raw is both an economic and academic one.