GRADE IS IN! ASM 316 NOT PRESSED/PRESSED MYSTERY 2 2

[Jarodm5]

Hello. Last November I sent in 8 modern books for cleaning/pressing and grading. They were "received" for clean & press forever then a few days ago went (it seemed) immediately to "grading/imaging". So maybe they didn't do the clean & press? I haven't been charged yet for any of it, which is odd. Well anyway, the comics are shipped and a comic that I thought would get a minimum of maybe 7.5 or 8 showed up as a 5.5! Graders notes say "heavy bends to cover". This is the only photo I have of it before I sent it off and I'll post photos of the slab when I get it. Do you think this book was close to a 5.5?

Edited June 8, 2022 by Jarodm5

[malachirobertson]

I have had this same question.  I sent in a Swamp Thing 21 that I thought was in relatively good shape and it came back with 5.5 saying there was a crease down the center of the cover.

[MrRoboto]

On 3/17/2022 at 1:08 PM, Jarodm5 said:

Hello. Last November I sent in 8 modern books for cleaning/pressing and grading. They were "received" for clean & press forever then a few days ago went (it seemed) immediately to "grading/imaging". So maybe they didn't do the clean & press? I haven't been charged yet for any of it, which is odd. Well anyway, the comics are shipped and a comic that I thought would get a minimum of maybe 7.5 or 8 showed up as a 5.5! Graders notes say "heavy bends to cover". This is the only photo I have of it before I sent it off and I'll post photos of the slab when I get it. Do you think this book was close to a 5.5?

 

On 3/17/2022 at 1:49 PM, malachirobertson said:

I have had this same question.  I sent in a Swamp Thing 21 that I thought was in relatively good shape and it came back with 5.5 saying there was a crease down the center of the cover.

This is not the right forum for this kind of post but I will still answer it anyways. What do of this happens again is take a few photos of your book before you send it off. 
 

Then, if this happens again, you may be compensated by cgc’s customer service.

Edited March 17, 2022 by MrRoboto

[Jarodm5]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:05 PM, AhsokaTano Jedi Apprentice said:

 The book looks like it has a slight spine roll ...doesn't it ?  Did it lie flat the last time you had it out ?

Perhaps a slight one, I don't remember for sure. Nothing major if there was one. I wish I had taken more pictures, I just snapped this photo right before packaging it up almost as a last-minute afterthought.

The grader notes only mention "heavy bends to cover" and "moderate spine stress lines".

[Jarodm5]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:11 PM, AhsokaTano Jedi Apprentice said:

  So that book is coming back a 5.5  ....seems pretty harsh.......in fact it seems kind of crazy.......I'm not very experienced in this ( Fight City Hall ) thing but it sure looks like you have a case. Others can help you with your plan of attack.

p.s. If I was you I might be going out of my mind over this. It's such a great book and it seems you've been wronged ...How frustrating.

I know! And this was supposedly graded AFTER a press! Lol

[Jarodm5]

On 3/17/2022 at 4:28 PM, AhsokaTano Jedi Apprentice said:

  Heavy Bends To Cover.....that doesn't sound good.....but how can that be your book  ?.....ya know they can also say the problem was on your end......like you didn't pack it right ...maybe it was damaged in shipping ? This can go so many different ways. The moderate spine stress lines ...could that be the slight spine roll ? It's not much of a roll and I've seen such books not even docked one bit for that.... and then sometimes they beat you over the head for it. Keep us posted as you go forward.

I followed CGC's packing guide and this was about the middle of the stack of 8. The rest had grades in the 9's so if something happened during shipping it only happened to this book.

On another note, the others came back at about the grade I thought they would be before pressing. So another point for them possibly skipping CCS for some reason.

[MattrixAlien]

On 3/18/2022 at 7:14 AM, Jarodm5 said:

I know! And this was supposedly graded AFTER a press! Lol

A decent press should have taken out that mild stacking curl that's in the photo too. When I read stories like this it makes me glad we don't have CGC down here in Australia. I think I'd freak out if this happened to one of my treasured keys 

Edited March 22, 2022 by MattrixAlien

[joeypost]

On 3/17/2022 at 5:05 PM, AhsokaTano Jedi Apprentice said:

 The book looks like it has a slight spine roll ...doesn't it ?  Did it lie flat the last time you had it out ?

stacking curl.

[grendelbo]

I had a What If? 10 that CGC graded 7.5 which was structurally in NM shape except for moderate non-color breaking creasing to the front cover. Handling creases and finger bends. Those often will not show on photos or in bags.

If CGC deemed your creasing to be heavy, then a FN grade may be appropriate. I also believe that pressing is the expectation before professionally grading nowadays. CGC may be tougher on books that have flaws that could have been improved though pressing.

[Jarodm5]

On 3/18/2022 at 8:35 AM, grendelbo said:

I had a What If? 10 that CGC graded 7.5 which was structurally in NM shape except for moderate non-color breaking creasing to the front cover. Handling creases and finger bends. Those often will not show on photos or in bags.

If CGC deemed your creasing to be heavy, then a FN grade may be appropriate. I also believe that pressing is the expectation before professionally grading nowadays. CGC may be tougher on books that have flaws that could have been improved though pressing.

I had it pressed by CGC, at least it was supposed to be.

[Jarodm5]

Here is the slab. There are some creases, but not anything that breaks color. Am I crazy to think that a press should have taken care of this? The whole batch of 8 comics all have small, non-color breaking defects that (I thought) would be taken care of with pressing. Again, nothing about pressing on the receipt and no credit card charges for pressing. Think they just skipped it?

[Galen130]

[Jarodm5]

Bumping this up. Did I over-estimate how effective a press would be or do you think this was not pressed?

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:41 PM, Jarodm5 said:

Bumping this up. Did I over-estimate how effective a press would be or do you think this was not pressed?

I can’t see any world in which that book was pressed as defects like that come out when pressed 

[Point Five]

On 3/22/2022 at 12:43 PM, Jarodm5 said:

Here is the slab. There are some creases, but not anything that breaks color. Am I crazy to think that a press should have taken care of this? The whole batch of 8 comics all have small, non-color breaking defects that (I thought) would be taken care of with pressing. Again, nothing about pressing on the receipt and no credit card charges for pressing. Think they just skipped it?

If you weren't charged for it it seems highly unlikely that they did it, right? Did you wait extra time for the books to be returned? I haven't used CCS in a long while, but it seems like a stop there adds months and months to the turnaround.

 

[Jarodm5]

On 3/26/2022 at 5:28 PM, Point Five said:

If you weren't charged for it it seems highly unlikely that they did it, right? Did you wait extra time for the books to be returned? I haven't used CCS in a long while, but it seems like a stop there adds months and months to the turnaround.

 

From what I can tell, I wasn't charged for anything. I had a $30 charge show up the week I got it back, so maybe that was for the shipping?

8 book lot and from what I can tell I wasn't charged for grading or pressing on any of it. Maybe a charge coming later? Seems extremely weird to me.

It went from "received at CCS" to "grading/encapsulating" seemingly overnight. So if it was indeed pressed then it had zero wait time for the actual grading. I used "modern" with no fast track.

[Jarodm5]

Ok, mystery solved. CGC had a mix-up and none of my 8 books were pressed. The grading cost was close to my sign-up credit value so they are guessing that's why I didn't have any credit card charges other than the shipping.

Customer Service was very helpful and I'm sending them back in shortly for pressing and re-grading.

 

So now that you know the pre-pressed grade, feel free to submit your guesses for the post-pressed book! I'll post it here when I get it back.

[Jarodm5]

Got it back today with a much more reasonable grade of 8.0!

Interesting to see the same book graded before and after pressing. I would not have necessarily thought a jump of 2.5 would happen.

[Jarodm5]

On another note, one of the books from this batch was an Infinity Gauntlet 1 signed by Starlin, Perez and Rubinstein. First time around (when they forgot to press them) it received a green qualified 7.0.  Got it back today as a blue universal 7.0. Lol

Total of 3 of the 8 books kept the same grades (a 9.2, 9.4 and 7.0) with the exact same grader notes. Think they forgot to press some of them again?

[comicginger1789]

On 6/7/2022 at 2:34 PM, Jarodm5 said:

On another note, one of the books from this batch was an Infinity Gauntlet 1 signed by Starlin, Perez and Rubinstein. First time around (when they forgot to press them) it received a green qualified 7.0.  Got it back today as a blue universal 7.0. Lol

Total of 3 of the 8 books kept the same grades (a 9.2, 9.4 and 7.0) with the exact same grader notes. Think they forgot to press some of them again?

It is possible. Also possible that nothing was really pressable on the book to begin with.

I try to hold my books under a good light and examine from all angles. If the thing is flat with no bends or anything, a press is passed on because it is unlikely to do a thing. As soon as I see any faint indents, I automatically opt for a press.

Also, I don't use CGC for my pressing. Ever. For this reason and the additional time it takes them. It pays to have an experienced presser who is maybe a bit more but who also helps advise you when to spend or not on pressing.