Well, CGC is raising prices for their services, and... 14 14

[Lurker89]

2 minutes ago, jcjames said:

This is the problem. as soon as TATs improve, more people send in more books which slow down TATs.

 

I really want to get my ASM 300 (8.5-9.2) graded along with my  NM+ ASM 361's.... Just don't want to wait forever to get them back... they look nice on their shelf.

[Black_Adam]

Honestly, I seriously doubt these price increases are going to reduce at all the volume of books being submitted to CGC. Comic investing (as opposed to collecting) has reached a fever pitch during the Instagram Age and for any and all investors/sellers CGC is seen as a necessary evil and I fully expect the number of comics being submitted to keep increasing exponentially.

PSA (the card grading company) has been going through similar throes. Despite hiring a ton of extra graders and literally doubling the price of grading across all tiers the flood of submissions they were receiving would not abate. One report had the company with a backlog of 9 MILLION cards waiting to be graded and PSA themselves said they had received in one three day period the same number of submissions they would previously have expected to receive in three months. The only way they were to able stop the firestorm of subs (the previously-mentioned firewall of a price increase having failed) was to essentially close their doors with a two-month freeze on any and all new submissions. This should help them chew up some of the backlog, but I bet the second they reopen they will see a tsunami of new subs.

CGC will be busier than ever.

[jcjames]

6 minutes ago, Lurker89 said:

I really want to get my ASM 300 (8.5-9.2) graded along with my  NM+ ASM 361's.... Just don't want to wait forever to get them back... they look nice on their shelf.

Last year there were 122,000 Spider-Man books graded at CGC (blue-labels only).

That is one book graded every minute of every hour, 8 hours per day, every day Mon-Fri, every week of the year. 

That's JUST the blue-label Spider-Man books... one per minute, all year long.

 

[Eric Perry]

3 hours ago, Foolkiller said:

Nobody likes it when change in general occurs and certainly not when prices are raised.  CGC is a business, not a charity and it's primary goal is to make money -- like every other business.  The vintage comic market is hotter than ever and people are sending books in at a record pace.  They've had to expand in order to meet demand and that obviously has costs, but the reason to do so is so that they can make more money.  Just like the fact that the reason most people send books in for encapsulation is to increase their value.  In the free market system we all have a choice -- we could 1) No longer submit and sell books raw.  2) Use a competitor 3) Continue to submit.  Most people are going to choose 3.  I have zero problem with the changes -- CGC has necessarily become more corporate over time -- raising prices is a further step in that direction.  But the reality is, why shouldn't they be taking advantage of this market the same way most of us are?  CGC has helped all of us for many, many years increase the value of our collections or businesses.  They've become an essential component of this industry/business.  If you are opposed to their actions or prices, you do have choices.  

This post is spot on.

[William-James88]

1 hour ago, Buzzetta said:

As Joey pointed out, that move is probably designed to decrease the number of books submitted for prescreens as that is probably seen as a waste of time by their graders. 

1 hour ago, the blob said:

why? isn't that pretty easy money? it seems a lot of books can get rejected pretty quickly at $5 a pop.

If someone sends in a 9.0 asking to prescreen for a 9.8, sure that's easy money, but it's not the case. Most people using prescreens are sending books very close to that prescreen grade, or else, why bother? So I'd be surprised if the amount of time to judge if a book is rejected would be much less than the amount of time to simply grade the book. I figure it's the same amount of time. Especially since you only spend the screening fee IF a book is rejected, which basically confirms that the cost of prescreening an actual 9.8 is the same as grading a 9.8. And yet one only gives CGC 5$ (soon 8$) while the other gives CGC 20$. One is clearly more profitable in terms of time spent.  Now, what they could have done is say that prescreens are 5$ on top of grading fees, no matter the outcome. Would that have been more fair?

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by William-James88

[MetalPSI]

 wonder if the same people complaining about the hike also use Apple products 

[Ryan.]

1 hour ago, the blob said:

what do junior CGC graders make?

 

What's Florida minimum wage? 

[the blob]

19 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

If someone sends in a 9.0 asking to prescreen for a 9.8, sure that's easy money, but it's not the case. Most people using prescreens are sending books very close to that prescreen grade, or else, why bother? So I'd be surprised if the amount of time to judge if a book is rejected would be much less than the amount of time to simply grade the book. I figure it's the same amount of time. Especially since you only spend the screening fee IF a book is rejected, which basically confirms that the cost of prescreening an actual 9.8 is the same as grading a 9.8. And yet one only gives CGC 5$ (soon 8$) while the other gives CGC 20$. One is clearly more profitable in terms of time spent.  Now, what they could have done is say that prescreens are 5$ on top of grading fees, no matter the outcome. Would that have been more fair?

I remember looking into that when I considered it, but from what I gathered they were seperate services. You could either pay for a raw grade or pay for a prescreen. Because or else that would be a pretty good deal.

 

the website says you can do the pre-screen and then the rejects could get the raw grading service. how much that all costs is unclear.

[the blob]

7 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

What's Florida minimum wage? 

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/florida-minimum-wage-to-increase#:~:text=Effective January 1%2C 2021%2C Florida's,hour to %248.65 per hour.

$8.65 an hour. If they're paying their graders $15 to start I'd be more on board 

[Ryan.]

Just now, the blob said:

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/florida-minimum-wage-to-increase#:~:text=Effective January 1%2C 2021%2C Florida's,hour to %248.65 per hour.

$8.65 an hour. If they're paying their graders $15 to start I'd be more on board 

I'm guessing it's somewhere in that range plus benefits, PTO and a $1000 signing bonus. 

[the blob]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Dank said:

 wonder if the same people complaining about the hike also use Apple products 

these are people not thrilled about what looks like an ebay hike (uncertain whether it is...it probably is) and the IRS maybe being more in their bizness

kind of amazing that prices have skyrocketed on so many books even with sales tax being added to sales. with that said, folks living in states where they're not going to get added sales tax are at a big advantage when buying

[wombat]

Pay more money for longer and longer turn around times. Who doesn't love that?

[MetalPSI]

6 minutes ago, the blob said:

these are people not thrilled about what looks like an ebay hike (uncertain whether it is...it probably is) and the IRS maybe being more in their bizness

kind of amazing that prices have skyrocketed on so many books even with sales tax being added to sales. with that said, folks living in states where they're not going to get added sales tax are at a big advantage when buying

Well if I had a company and business was booming, I'd increase prices as well.

As been pointed out, this increase will not deter business.

As for the IRS, I'm Canadian, have no idea what that's about, and being a collector not a dealer, it only affects what I pay in the end.

I can say, the majority of buyers don't understand or want to understand why a slabbed book, which always had a 40 dollar premium, will now be 50 dollars more.

They will either buy the slab or the label

[stippy52]

3 hours ago, blazingbob said:

If CGC wants to partake in the appreciation of collectibles then why don't they sell them for me to?  Or have we all forgot when CGC comes asking for submissions?

This

[apollobuzz]

3 minutes ago, the blob said:

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/florida-minimum-wage-to-increase#:~:text=Effective January 1%2C 2021%2C Florida's,hour to %248.65 per hour.

$8.65 an hour. If they're paying their graders $15 to start I'd be more on board 

Yep. Currently $8.65 an hour.  Summary of the article (at least the one I checked earlier) is that "Florida voters passed a Constitutional Amendment which will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2026."

[the blob]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Dank said:

Well if I had a company and business was booming, I'd increase prices as well.

As been pointed out, this increase will not deter business.

As for the IRS, I'm Canadian, have no idea what that's about, and being a collector not a dealer, it only affects what I pay in the end.

I can say, the majority of buyers don't understand or want to understand why a slabbed book, which always had a 40 dollar premium, will now be 50 dollars more.

They will either buy the slab or the label

How do you know? If the market starts dropping these higher prices sure will. But i guess they can always adjust. 

[MetalPSI]

Just now, the blob said:

How do you know? If the market starts dropping these higher prices sure will. But i guess they can always adjust. 

Because hikes never have, since 2002

CGC is and will remain the leader in comic grading.

I'd love to see someone else take up the slack. The closest competition split off from CGC itself, and has proven to be righteously incompetent. 

Next after that, as been said, needs a bigger basement.

[the blob]

1 minute ago, apollobuzz said:

Yep. Currently $8.65 an hour.  Summary of the article (at least the one I checked earlier) is that "Florida voters passed a Constitutional Amendment which will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by 2026."

I am not holding my breath that this will actually happen by 2026.

[the blob]

Just now, Dr. Dank said:

Because hikes never have, since 2002

CGC is and will remain the leader in comic grading.

I'd love to see someone else take up the slack. The closest competition split off from CGC itself, and has proven to be righteously incompetent. 

Next after that, as been said, needs a bigger basement.

The pre-screen is a 37.5% hike. The other stuff is more modest (15% or so) and can be justified more in that there haven't been some hikes for a while, so 5 years of 2-3% inflation, etc. They're going to get fewer pre-screens. But maybe they want that. 

[THE_BEYONDER]

Will any of this new money be spent on quality control?  Their current QC department is a disgrace.   It’s one thing to wait 6 months to get your books back.  It’s a complete cluster to wait 6 months for your books, only to have to send them back in again to be “fixed”.  
 

Stop the bleeding, and get your quality control under friggin’ control.