Submission issue 4 4

[thehumantorch]

On 6/22/2023 at 10:03 AM, SoCalComics said:

You know you've been kicked to the curb by CGC when they stop responding. Right now we have one of two boxes that have been opened, although a claim by CGC has stated that the contents are damaged. If so, then the shipping box must have been damaged. If that is the case their past policy has been to refuse the package and notify me. This time, that notification came after the fact and the comics are scheduled for grading.  I was told I would receive a call from a supervisor which never happened. I hate going over worker's heads to get a job done, but I'm now in CGC communication limbo. First time in the two decades I've been a dealer member.

Unfortunately for me, there is a second box containing similar Last Ronin bundles. BTW, we have found from experience that the odd-sized IDW Last Ronins ship safe and more efficiently in bag-wrapped bundles of 5-10 issues. They are too tall for Regular through GA bags. Mag bags, the next size up, are too wide to squeeze the books and prevent them from shifting in the bags in transit. We seem to be getting reamed for this knowledge.

The status of that box shows arrival at CGC per USPS. Nothing confirming the arrival of the box has surfaced on CGC’s site and it has been three weeks. All this nonsense is over packed books with no individual bags and boards.

@CGC Mike

[CGC Mike]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:03 PM, SoCalComics said:

You know you've been kicked to the curb by CGC when they stop responding. Right now we have one of two boxes that have been opened, although a claim by CGC has stated that the contents are damaged. If so, then the shipping box must have been damaged. If that is the case their past policy has been to refuse the package and notify me. This time, that notification came after the fact and the comics are scheduled for grading.  I was told I would receive a call from a supervisor which never happened. I hate going over worker's heads to get a job done, but I'm now in CGC communication limbo. First time in the two decades I've been a dealer member.

Unfortunately for me, there is a second box containing similar Last Ronin bundles. BTW, we have found from experience that the odd-sized IDW Last Ronins ship safe and more efficiently in bag-wrapped bundles of 5-10 issues. They are too tall for Regular through GA bags. Mag bags, the next size up, are too wide to squeeze the books and prevent them from shifting in the bags in transit. We seem to be getting reamed for this knowledge.

The status of that box shows arrival at CGC per USPS. Nothing confirming the arrival of the box has surfaced on CGC’s site and it has been three weeks. All this nonsense is over packed books with no individual bags and boards.

Let me see what is going on.

[CGC Mike]

Hi Jamie

I was given this to post:

Jamie, I’m sorry for the length of time it has taken to resolve this, which primarily involved CGC researching the $2 charge policy. Currently CGC does not have this charge posted on the website, so we apologize for the email you received about it. You will not be charged anything extra for the unbagged books. Also, one of our senior graders is going to reach out to you via phone call shortly to discuss your Ronin submissions.

[Gaard]

When / if CGC ever explains why a damaged box (supposedly) was opened, please let us know.

[TC33]

On 6/15/2023 at 10:30 AM, CGC Mike said:

Hi Jaime

I have asked that we rescind the $2 per book bagging charge, and you will not be charged for this.   One of the head graders is bagging them up for you now.  The grader did say the books received damaged in transit.  He suggested that you may want to consider bagging them going forward.  I am currently looking to see if this is some sort of requirement going forward.

Mike

Lets be honest, if you are trying to submit a boat load of hand picked 9.8s, at the very minimal of common sense, you really should bag them up before you ship them to avoid them all from getting rubbing/contact damage in shipping or you will lose a ton of value with many of those coming back 9.2-9.4, its totally worth that very small investment of time/money.  If you truly want to keep them 9.8, a backing board would have likely given that extra bit of security and been fairly smart also and likely worth the extra investment to keep even more at 9.8, but at the very least put them in a bag.  

[Gaard]

On 6/22/2023 at 5:48 PM, TC33 said:

Lets be honest, if you are trying to submit a boat load of hand picked 9.8s, at the very minimal of common sense, you really should bag them up before you ship them to avoid them all from getting rubbing/contact damage in shipping or you will lose a ton of value with many of those coming back 9.2-9.4, its totally worth that very small investment of time/money.  If you truly want to keep them 9.8, a backing board would have likely given that extra bit of security and been fairly smart also and likely worth the extra investment to keep even more at 9.8, but at the very least put them in a bag.  

You may be right, but that's really not the point, is it?

Are bags/boards a requirement to have your comics graded at CGC? A simple yes or no answer by CGC is all that's needed.

[TC33]

On 6/22/2023 at 4:00 PM, Gaard said:

You may be right, but that's really not the point, is it?

Are bags/boards a requirement to have your comics graded at CGC? A simple yes or no answer by CGC is all that's needed.

Backing boards have never been required, but not even using a bag for minimal protection while shipping a bunch of potential 9.8s is like...    Just a dose of common sense that would have prevented this whole situation and for the least should be a lesson and warning to anyone else thinking of submitting a bunch of high grade books without bags in the future.  DONT DO IT!  

[TC33]

On 6/22/2023 at 4:08 PM, Low Dollah said:

Diamond does it every week. 

Most of those "Newstand" copies show up as 9.2 range and are meant for readers, not speculators that are submitting to CGC and hoping for 9.8 or 9.6 at the worst.  The 9.6 to 9.8 are hand picked ones that at times were lucky enough to be cushioned from impact in the middle of the pack and or just got lucky in an abnormally smooth transit.  That is why graded 9.6 and 9.8s are worth far more than the other grades, because most brand new books don't even show up to the comic shop in nearly that nice of a grade.  

[Gaard]

On 6/22/2023 at 6:04 PM, TC33 said:

Backing boards have never been required, but not even using a bag for minimal protection while shipping a bunch of potential 9.8s is like...    Just a dose of common sense that would have prevented this whole situation and for the least should be a lesson and warning to anyone else thinking of submitting a bunch of high grade books without bags in the future.  DONT DO IT!  

Whether a person agrees or disagrees with you is a moot point. The author of this thread was charged $2/bag to bag his comics. As far as I can tell, this requirement is not stated anywhere on the site.

I'll ask again...Are bags/boards a requirement to have your comics graded at CGC? A simple yes or no answer by CGC is all that's needed.

[Lightning55]

On 6/22/2023 at 6:19 PM, Low Dollah said:

Then how did they find 250 9.8 candidates?

Warehouse find. It helps to read at least the first post.

[Lightning55]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:03 PM, SoCalComics said:

BTW, we have found from experience that the odd-sized IDW Last Ronins ship safe and more efficiently in bag-wrapped bundles of 5-10 issues. They are too tall for Regular through GA bags. Mag bags, the next size up, are too wide to squeeze the books and prevent them from shifting in the bags in transit. We seem to be getting reamed for this knowledge.

 

On 6/22/2023 at 5:48 PM, TC33 said:

Lets be honest, if you are trying to submit a boat load of hand picked 9.8s, at the very minimal of common sense, you really should bag them up before you ship them to avoid them all from getting rubbing/contact damage in shipping or you will lose a ton of value with many of those coming back 9.2-9.4, its totally worth that very small investment of time/money.  If you truly want to keep them 9.8, a backing board would have likely given that extra bit of security and been fairly smart also and likely worth the extra investment to keep even more at 9.8, but at the very least put them in a bag.  

Comics were bulk bagged due to no conforming bags and boards to fit them. Before you ridicule, you need to know the facts by reading posts.

[TC33]

On 6/22/2023 at 6:22 PM, Lightning55 said:

 

Comics were bulk bagged due to no conforming bags and boards to fit them. Before you ridicule, you need to know the facts by reading posts.

We selected out about 260 copies because of their 9.8+ quality. Rather than individually bag and board square-bounds, we bound them into bundles of 10-12. We completed the process according to the standards accepted by CGC in the past.   (This is how they have done it multiple times)  You can easily get Magazine bags to fit this book!  If there is overlap, you just have to modify it and tape it around the side also to cinch it up. After all, CGC is now apparently bagging them for them for free, so we know that magazine bags that fit this do exist!  I am merely making a strong suggestion that if you are truly taking all that time to pick out 260 9.8s from a warehouse find, you should really try to be patient enough to order the mag size bags online and send/ship them in bagged at a bare minimum, we all know the rubbing/friction damage that occurs from having non bagged books bunched together, at least and especially when shipped in a typically tough and bumpy "ground" shipping manner. Mag sized Backing boards for a 9.8 keys like that one seems to make a long of sense also, again if they are too big, easy enough to trim them down, but for goodness sakes, don't send them all bunched together unbagged unless you like losing out on a sizable % of the potential 9.8's just from minor rubbing/contact blemishes caused shipping them unbagged alone. I am just hoping to convey some general common sense here to help improve this tough situation for the future, the value of getting even a few more 9.8s and 9.6s vs 9.2s and 9.4s should more than make up for the time and expense to bag and or board . 

[Lazyboy]

On 6/22/2023 at 7:14 PM, Lightning55 said:

Warehouse find. It helps to read at least the first post.

There is no such thing as a "warehouse find" of TMNT The Last Ronin. Somebody could have a lot of copies, but that's not a warehouse find.

[RockMyAmadeus]

[Gaard]

Just want to state the obvious...

According to RMA's email, they were charging for this nonexistent bag rule well over two years ago. WTH is wrong with this place?

[Gaard]

@SoCalComics Did CGC call you yet? And if they did, did they explain why they opened a damaged (supposedly) box? Or why they're grading books that they told you were damaged?

[SoCalComics]

For those of you that have questions I will try to answer them all at once:

Warehouse find? They came shrink-wrapped in bundles of 10 with the spines alternated from the IDW warehouse. We opened the wraps to identify the contents which, BTW, is complicated with all the variants we had to learn about and account for.Once identified. We re-bundles the CGC-worthy submissions for the trip to CGC. These copies did not come from a distributor. These were IDW comp copies mailed to them from the printer. I have a firm belief they left our shop as 9.8s and better. The packing was thorough and tight padded with multiple layers of bubble-wrap and placed so there would be no shifting and insulated should the two boxed be dented.

The printer did bag and board some individual copies with GA bags and boards. The copies are too tall to mate up with the boards and extend about 3/8" above the boards in the bags. We tried the next step up, but magazine size is too wide and the books shift out of position in the bags.

We have completed many submissions from finds such as these, including comics that were shipped to stores that never sold them, just re-boxed them for storage. Our track record of submissions yielding 9.6-9.8s from 1970s comics such as these is very good. All bundled in similarly fashion. CGC has never warned us, complained or sent us disappointing grades and I'm talking several thousand copies over ten years. Same for CBCS. We sent some past copies to them for comparison. Same results: no complaints and no damage in transit. 

As it stands now, I've been promised three times I'd receive a phone call from either a supervisor or a grader. That hasn't happened yet. We shipped two boxes. One caused this consternation while the second box hasn't even been discussed and only shows its arrival on USPS (confirmed by CGC Customer Service). I have no idea how put this concern to rest with CGC. The whole issue reminds me of CBCS and their lack of Customer Service response after both the Beckett's takeover and then their relocation. I thought better of CGC since their inception. Something has changed and I seem to be the only guy getting the cold shoulder over this bag/board issue.

[Gaard]

This whole fiasco is a cluster. It seems like CGC knows that they royally screwed the pooch, and decided that instead of explaining what exactly happened and why they did what they did, they'll just keep silent and hope it just goes away. Typical.

[CGC Mike]

On 6/28/2023 at 12:43 PM, SoCalComics said:

As it stands now, I've been promised three times I'd receive a phone call from either a supervisor or a grader. That hasn't happened yet.

I am so sorry to hear that you haven't been contacted yet.  I have sent another e-mail to the appropriate people.  I hope you get a call tomorrow.  

Mike

[CGC Mike]

I am sending you a PM, Jamie.  I have been told that we have tried contacting you via e-mail and phone.  It would seem that all of your contact info w have on file is no longer valid.

Mike