CGC Announces Price and Policy Changes 9 9

[D2]

On 4/28/2023 at 12:27 PM, Prince Namor said:

And by the way, with your complaining, I do suggest you take a moment to realize that with all of your smack talk about how bad it is to be upset over the rising prices....

Dealers buy from CGC, and have supported them for years. This is their job, their life, their livelihoods. 

Some dealers take pride in working with CGC, and happy to be in business with a company they enjoy. 

For all the desired business they give CGC, the quality of service has continued to go downhill, while the COST has gone UP. 

With your apparent, vocal personality here, I would love to see how well you'd accept it if your were submitting 1000 books a year for the past 20 years, only to AGAIN see them raise the price on you, give you even less incentives and fall behind even more at quality control than ever before. 

If you submit almost exclusively pre-1975 books, you're going to be spending $2000 more a year for the service, MINIMUM (based on 1000 books). 

That DIRECTLY impacts the life and livelihood of dealers who's sole income is off of comic book sales. 

You're pointing the finger at THEM.

Of course they're vocal about it. 

 

None of what is being said about CGC is directed at the PEOPLE that work there.

It's directed at the company. 

Big difference. 

 

Dealers and businesses pass off price increases to their customers. As do all intelligent businesses. 
 

On 4/28/2023 at 3:50 PM, Jeffro. said:

I'm sure D2 will sleep well tonight knowing that he defended the honor of CGC. Kudos to you, my friend! Kudos! We are all duly and rightly chastised and ashamed! Woe be to those who will not drink heartily from the CGC trough!! Keep working at it Don Quixote. Those windmills won't tilt at themselves.

I sleep like a King. 
 

On 4/28/2023 at 4:40 PM, mattn792 said:

Ever heard of @CGC Mike?

 

Love that guy. Can’t speak more highly of him. 
 

On 4/28/2023 at 7:54 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I’ve yet to see a price increase in the past three years that is reflective of better quality, service or experience. CGC or otherwise - and I’ve seen a lot of price increases.

Dr. Balls, no shots at you, spoken genuinely, but you don’t know if that’s true. 

The simple fact can be that the supply for CGC’s product continues to explode, and they are trying to keep things affordable to their customer. You don’t know. 

No one knows. Maybe in order to maintain this invisible benchmark people expect, they would have to build another 10 billion dollar facility and increase prices by 85%. None of us know. 

But what we do know is, no one does it better than CGC at the price that they offer, and that’s a fact. 
 

On 4/28/2023 at 9:07 PM, october said:

What's worse than complaining into the void?

Stanning into the void for a giant multinational conglomerate. Congrats. Way to fight the good fight!

 

This isn’t a fight. This was my perspective and subsequent comments on behaviours that I see.

People here think they’ve been around so long that they are valid and entitled to their unwavering opinions, saying whatever they believe because they’ve earned that right. They’ve paid their dues. My 13 year old believes the same thing. 

[mattn792]

[Dr. Balls]

On 4/28/2023 at 10:39 PM, D2 said:

Dr. Balls, no shots at you, spoken genuinely, but you don’t know if that’s true. 

The simple fact can be that the supply for CGC’s product continues to explode, and they are trying to keep things affordable to their customer. You don’t know. 

No one knows. Maybe in order to maintain this invisible benchmark people expect, they would have to build another 10 billion dollar facility and increase prices by 85%. None of us know. 

But what we do know is, no one does it better than CGC at the price that they offer, and that’s a fact.

1. I'll side with you on that one. From the business end, the vendor price increases (especially in restaurants) creates a very frustrating situation that can make it seem like no improvements are ever being made for the same product. However, there is also the employee issue, where trying to find good employees can be a serious financial challenge. So I do agree with you on that after some thought.

2. With all the problems people point out with CGC (they just seem more of late), I still love their product enough that if I get a competitor slab, I crack it and keep it raw or submit it to CGC. That kind of brand loyalty is valuable and I think they try to maintain that, and I'd agree that they are the best in the business (in various ways).

[SpineTic]

A reminder that #CGC is updating its submission forms to reflect changes to tiers, services and fees for grading, pressing and #CGCSignatureSeries. These new fees apply to all online submission forms completed ON May 2, 2023, OR LATER. This is your last chance to complete an online form and qualify for the old pricing. These submissions completed before cutoff must arrive at our headquarters by June 1, 2023, to qualify

Edited May 1, 2023 by ak47po

[OJ Pimpson]

On 4/18/2023 at 10:07 AM, Timmay said:

Perhaps they can use the price increase for Quality Control.

They are using it to subsidize CSG which is an unmitigated disaster 

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:39 AM, D2 said:

This isn’t a fight.

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 5/2/2023 at 12:45 PM, Hot Nickels said:

They are using it to subsidize CSG which is an unmitigated disaster 

Not going well? 

[D2]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:04 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:21 PM, D2 said:

[D2]

On 5/2/2023 at 3:22 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

[Yorick]

Anyone know what the new threshold is for "High Value"?  It STARTS at $1000, but what is the high end limit before it becomes "Unlimited Value"?  @CGC Mike?

 

Did I read it wrong?  Anything above $1000 value is a "Unlimited"?

Edited May 5, 2023 by Yorick
Hmmmm...

[lou_fine]

On 5/5/2023 at 1:05 PM, Yorick said:

Anyone know what the new threshold is for "High Value"?  It STARTS at $1000, but what is the high end limit before it becomes "Unlimited Value"?  @CGC Mike?

 

Did I read it wrong?  Anything above $1000 value is a "Unlimited"?

No, you read it right...............anything from $400 to $1,000 is considered to be "High Value" and anything above $1,000 is "Unlimited Value".  

So, that means if you've got a book valued at $1,001 although you may think that it's going to cost you only 4% of FMV to have it graded, it's really actually 15% with their minimum fee of $150 built into their equation.  Clearly more than what the auction houses are charging to sell the darned thing for you and if you need to have the book pressed which they clearly targeted you for with their undisclosed grading standards, then you are really looking at 30% of the value of the book by the time you get it through the CGC facilities which certainly must make them happy.  

In their fight against inflation, I wouldn't be surprised to see them lower these threshold levels even further with their price increases next year.  

[NewWorldOrder]

On 4/28/2023 at 9:27 AM, Prince Namor said:

Dealers buy from CGC, and have supported them for years. This is their job, their life, their livelihoods. 

Some dealers take pride in working with CGC, and happy to be in business with a company they enjoy. 

For all the desired business they give CGC, the quality of service has continued to go downhill, while the COST has gone UP. 

With your apparent, vocal personality here, I would love to see how well you'd accept it if your were submitting 1000 books a year for the past 20 years, only to AGAIN see them raise the price on you, give you even less incentives and fall behind even more at quality control than ever before. 

 

I submit around 1500 books per year now since 2019, and even before that a good amount annually.

You and I have choices in life, here are the 3 choices I have to the best of my knowledge for my comic business.  

1. I can choose to not submit all the nice boxes of "raw books" I bought all over the country working my arse off to find since 2008.  Just let them go to waste by sitting in Mylars with unrealized profit gains.

2. I can try to create a company from scratch that will become a viable competitor to CGC and become filthy rich after I spend the next 20+ years growing the business and working 80 hours a week with hopefully A+ graders and CS workers. Only need a couple million start-up investment capital to start that business venture. 

3. I can continue to submit to CGC and keep the gravy train rolling, and cut back on other things if I feel like it.

Obviously for me 3 is the answer.  For others you can vote with your wallet.  Of course I am not happy with any kind of price increase on anything I use in my daily life, but this is my living.  My wallet says nothing changes because the net income very much outweighs my CGC costs per book.  If I want to play the game, it will cost a little more.  Out of my control, so I better tighten up my submissions to make sure the value of getting the book graded makes business sense.

Here is what many collectors/dealers can do at all times while deciding what books to submit to CGC regardless of their fee pricing.

Stop submitting garbage where CGC, USPS, FedEx, UPS, Auction Houses, Dealers/sellers you bought the book from, and pressers all make money except you in the end.  You would be amazed when you start looking at yourself in the mirror of what kind of books you submit to CGC the amount of money it can save you. 

Also learn how to be a better grader in general.  The most importance part of being a professional grader or a very good comic book grader isn't the books you buy its the books you now don't buy. 

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by NewWorldOrder

[lou_fine]

On 5/5/2023 at 3:23 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

Stop submitting garbage where CGC, USPS, FedEx, UPS, Auction Houses, Dealers/sellers you bought the book from, and pressers all make money except you in the end. 

These are the CGC boards which you are posting on here right now, and as a matter of simple courtesy, you should try to refrain from posting anything that might be detrimental to their financial well-being as what you are referring to is actually the bread and butter of their entire business model here. 

That is, garbage in and garbage out, with CGC literally "squeezing" you and banking all the money they can from you in between.  

Edited May 5, 2023 by lou_fine

[Yorick]

On 5/5/2023 at 3:12 PM, lou_fine said:

anything from $400 to $1,000 is considered to be "High Value"

Thanks.  I guess it would be more understandable if they (CGC) had labeled the tiers by value range than the way they have written it.

MODERN = $0 up to $400

VINTAGE = $0 up to $400

HIGH VALUE = $401 up to $1000

UNLIMITED VALUE = $1001 and up.