How exactly bad is the backlog? 0

[geraldfordfan69]

Hi there. Im sure your aware of the millions of complaints that you get about waiting times, but was curious to exactly what was going on. Was there a huge surge of orders due to the price increase? Or is the demand in general just very crazy?

Is the bad log pretty bad at the moment and if so how bad? And any insights to what is going on in terms of how it will stabilize or what is with the wait times? Ive had a order waiting almost 50 days now with no updates and while Im not freaking out like some people, I was just curious to what was going on with it and moving forward what to expect when sending stuff in since I seen estimated wait times change from 60-65 but was not sure if this permanent or just short term. Im not really in a rush to get anything back but was just trying to get some idea of where things are at if that information is even available to the public.

Appreciate your work and thanks again for what you do.

Edited February 16, 2021 by mattyzeepgam

[PaulS.]

The demand in general has been extreme. We are constantly updating or turnaround times as we want to be transparent as possible. There is only so much we can do as the skillset required to authenticate and grade cards is a rare one. We are hiring, and we even are expanding our facilities in order to accommodate the demand, but obviously both of those take time. We appreciate your patience as we are doing everything we can.

 

Paul

[Yeahiwasder4dat]

14 hours ago, PaulS. said:

The demand in general has been extreme. We are constantly updating or turnaround times as we want to be transparent as possible. There is only so much we can do as the skillset required to authenticate and grade cards is a rare one. We are hiring, and we even are expanding our facilities in order to accommodate the demand, but obviously both of those take time. We appreciate your patience as we are doing everything we can.

 

Paul

Wanted to hop in and say I appreciate it as well. I can get heated at time when money is involved but I know it has to be difficult. Finding qualified people and even from an overhead standpoint with cards being a feast and famine type market. I'm sure it can't be easy to dump a lot of money into a booming market now as it might pull back at any point and no one wants to be overstaffed or mid upgrade when something like that goes down. Trying to determine the right middle ground to deal with the high demand now without shafting yourself in the future has to make this trying even without all of us complaining. Have to say you're a better man than I with your ability to respond to some things.

@mattyzeepgam I'm right there with you. Hard to know what's coming and where to put future expectations or to adjust my strategy. I'm sure on any given day the submissions vary wildly enough to make it near impossible to give an accurate long term anticipated turn around. We may be asking questions that don't have an answer, as I've asked the same thing.

[Monty Jr.]

Sumbitted some cards back in late December, marked received on January 18th. Turn around times were showing 45 business days and now I am seeing more than 100 business days when should I expect my service to be provided? I understand the demand is high at the moment but submitting something and expecting a service to be completed in this time period and it being done in double that time is kind of absurd in my opinion. 

[PaulS.]

13 hours ago, Monty Jr. said:

Sumbitted some cards back in late December, marked received on January 18th. Turn around times were showing 45 business days and now I am seeing more than 100 business days when should I expect my service to be provided? I understand the demand is high at the moment but submitting something and expecting a service to be completed in this time period and it being done in double that time is kind of absurd in my opinion. 

Please refer to this article.

[nickdrizzle]

On 2/16/2021 at 3:00 PM, PaulS. said:

The demand in general has been extreme. We are constantly updating or turnaround times as we want to be transparent as possible. There is only so much we can do as the skillset required to authenticate and grade cards is a rare one. We are hiring, and we even are expanding our facilities in order to accommodate the demand, but obviously both of those take time. We appreciate your patience as we are doing everything we can.

 

Paul

Thanks for this Paul! Would it be possible to add the week that is being worked on when TATs are updated? I think that would provide people with better insight/transparency into where their order is and help eliminate some of the frustrations. I've seen you give this information on certain posts so it would probably save you some time and effort as well!

[Monty Jr.]

Thanks for the reply, but doesn't really answer for anything basically. I paid for a service where CGC showed the turnaround times at 45 days once my order was received and now I am told 108 days after the fact? I didn't pay for 108 days turnaround otherwise I'd go somewhere else or pay for faster turnaround. CGC has a great opportunity to take over the card market but they need to be upfront on there service being provided as customers are dropping a lot of money and expecting these turn around dates instead of just sending an email saying "sorry" basically. It's like submitting cards now expecting 100 days and ends up being 200 days. Hopefully I'm wrong but right now I'm a very unsatisfied customer.  

[geraldfordfan69]

9 minutes ago, Monty Jr. said:

Thanks for the reply, but doesn't really answer for anything basically. I paid for a service where CGC showed the turnaround times at 45 days once my order was received and now I am told 108 days after the fact? I didn't pay for 108 days turnaround otherwise I'd go somewhere else or pay for faster turnaround. CGC has a great opportunity to take over the card market but they need to be upfront on there service being provided as customers are dropping a lot of money and expecting these turn around dates instead of just sending an email saying "sorry" basically. It's like submitting cards now expecting 100 days and ends up being 200 days. Hopefully I'm wrong but right now I'm a very unsatisfied customer.  

There isnt anywhere that is doing bulk pricing for the turnaround time that your asking. CGC is a bargain right now. I dont think their walkthroughs will last since its a steal that you can get something in the 5 figures only graded for 75 bucks. They seem to be criminally undervalued if anything.

My bulk from 12/7 got scheduled for grading today. Im not doing bulk in the future since the market is flooded with new stuff going in. I get your annoyed that they changed that TAT's, but paying the 7-8 bucks per card to be graded, yeah you got an amazing deal. I think you dont realize the value of what you got. And its not going to take 200 days. Things are moving along in my account and many others. Everyone and their mother is grading, so the market conditions are what they are all over. Its not really an CGC exclusive issue.

Edited March 19, 2021 by deletedaccount

[Monty Jr.]

I'm not complaining about the pricing I know CGC has the best quality grading for the price all I'm saying is they need to have there grading times on point. Just be honest upfront on when we can expect our product instead of delaying it double the time we initially expected. 

[geraldfordfan69]

2 hours ago, Monty Jr. said:

I'm not complaining about the pricing I know CGC has the best quality grading for the price all I'm saying is they need to have there grading times on point. Just be honest upfront on when we can expect our product instead of delaying it double the time we initially expected. 

They arent lying. They just got way more business than expected. My own shop is dealing with similar issues. We had product from distribution get delayed twice. Customers got pissed too. But its beyond my control, similar to how its beyond CGC's control. Unless they decide to reject shipments, there is no way for them to prevent someone from sending in 10k cards and jamming up the system.

Paul already told everyone that they hired 70+ people and got more storage space. They cant do much more than that with the resources they got. Regardless, I think you need to lower your expectations based on what is going on with the market in general. There was no way that you were getting a 45 day turn around time on economy. At least in 2021. Maybe later this year when the pandemic calms down and the hobby dies down a bit, yeah it might be realistic. But right now, yeah thats just not a realistic expectation based on current market conditions.

[Noddy]

CGC need to be open and honest to the PAYING CUSTOMER from the beginning, it’s like stating your car could be ready in around 45 days but it give us unlimited time anyway? Don’t state 45 days then. BE HONEST. This is on top of loosing comics, submissions being received on a certain day then disappearing only to resurface a week later, comics in submissions getting mixed up, conflicting emails about grading - that’s if you even get a response back, invoices charging you twice for items you have already paid for, non existent customer phone service - no one answers whenever I call, no replies back to emails sent to them, the list goes on. BE OPEN AND HONEST TO YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS. Most customers understand that CGC is busy and turnaround times have to be extended along with price increases, fine, but offer the customer the service and respect to match too. It’s not rocket science.