New guy confused about results of CCS Pressing before transfer to CGC Grading... still had "light multiple finger creases" & "heavy" and "moderate creasing to cover"... 1 1

[incgcnito]

Hi... I'm new and I'm just starting to get the graders notes back for my first ever 10 submissions for grading which I Also sent for CCS pressing first and then were transferred directly to grading... so far I have notes on 3 and the results include:

Book 1 was pre-screened for pressing which they decided NOT to press but which includes the following note: "multiple crease cover breaks color"... would they not try to press that out because the color would still be broken?  Is it just as bad to have a color break without a crease as it is with one?  If they had gotten them pressed out would it have changed the grade much?

Book 2 book WAS (supposedly) pressed which includes the following notes: "heavy crease full center of front cover", "moderate creasing to cover"... neither of these say anything about breaking color, so shouldn't they have been pressed out?  How much do you think this affected the grade?

Book 3 book WAS (supposedly) pressed which includes the following note: "light, multiple finger creases left top of front cover"... this also says nothing about breaking color, so shouldn't these have been pressed out? How much do you think this affected the grade?

Does anyone with more experience than me have any idea if this is to be expected?  I have zero experience with this so any insight is appreciated... I also have not received the books back yet so maybe the notes just aren't accurate/complete enough and the ones that don't say "breaks color" actually do?  After watching this video from CCS I'm even more confused... it seems that all of the creases/bends/spine bends etc should come out and if anything just leave missing color... or am I missing something?:  

 

Thanks so much!

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by incgcnito
adding info

[theCapraAegagrus]

Book 2: Not all creases are press-able, but generally most that don't break color are. It's possible that by using the word "heavy" to describe the crease, they're implying a break.

Book 3: Seems not pressed, so perhaps Book 2 was also not pressed.

If they don't look pressed, call CGC.

[LowGradeBronze]

Welcome to the boards. What we don't know from your post, is what these books are and what approximate grade they were prior to submission. If for example, you submit a Golden Age book that is so fragile that pressing may result in a disaster, then it would be sensible for CCs to decline it for pressing. Really bad creases could still present as creases, even after pressing. The full length cover crease sounds like a subscription crease. They can be quite stubborn and break colour. Pictures of the books before you sent them in would help here. 

[dbcn]

Fwiw, I submitted an unopened/unread Wolverine #1 (89) to the Claremont signing a while back - I did not have it pressed (doh) and it came back as 7.5 with 'light creasing' 'light fingerprints' as notes - fine - lesson learned.

I resubmitted the book to CGC for Pressing/Grading as they are the only ones who allow cracks of SS slabs - it shipped today with a 8.0 grade and the exact same grader notes.

So: either CCS didn't bother to press the book, or their pressing processes are not good enough to remove 'light' issues. 

[theCapraAegagrus]

On 6/27/2023 at 12:34 PM, dbcn said:

So: either CCS didn't bother to press the book...

This has happened. Did you contact CGC?

[dbcn]

On 6/27/2023 at 1:15 PM, theCapraAegagrus said:

This has happened. Did you contact CGC?

Just in the last couple hours via the contact form - we'll see what they say...

[PovertyRow]

On 6/27/2023 at 9:34 AM, dbcn said:

 

So: either CCS didn't bother to press the book, or their pressing processes are not good enough to remove 'light' issues. 

Or, as I believed happened with my horrible submission. most of the books came back with light bends. But I had them pressed and subbed by a premier not-CGC presser. It is VERY possible that this is mishandling during the grading. The accumulation of light bends, fingermarks etc had escalated noticeably with a LOT of complaints. CGC Mike took PMs with info from several folk here to pass along to CGC.  

[DougC]

On 7/3/2023 at 9:16 PM, PovertyRow said:

It is VERY possible that this is mishandling during the grading.

Last month I received back a 15 book submission with grader notes consistent with mishandling:

• Light bends to cover
• "Stacking" bends
• Scuffing to cover

These were all pressed, cleaned, and non-CGC prescreened. In a turn i've never seen every book 9.6/9.4 had multiple grader notes.

At this point in time "something" is going on either at the grader level or an employee that is handling books for the grading process, but obviously only CGC knows and would never admit if anything were happening so we are just left to speculate.

On the topic of CGC pressing; I would never advise anyone to use their service (there are many horror story threads). You just do not know if they actually pressed your books, they damaged books, and there "secret" method is just a very very hot quick press that doesn't actually help most books.

You learned a valuable lesson today.

[The Lions Den]

On 6/22/2023 at 9:30 PM, incgcnito said:

After watching this video from CCS I'm even more confused... it seems that all of the creases/bends/spine bends etc should come out and if anything just leave missing color... or am I missing something?:  

Please bear in mind that not all defects will be removed by pressing the book once, but it should reduce the amount and severity of most dents, bends and non-color breaking creases. In addition, since CCS presses thousands of books every week, there are likely going to be some books that don't achieve the same levels of success. 

I thought the video was pretty clear about what can be achieved by pressing, and the methods used to appraise a book prior to pressing seem accurate and reasonable.

My question would be whether you inspected your books prior to having them pressed and graded and if you took notes to detail the flaws that you felt should have been eliminated during the pressing process. In this way, you could then gauge for yourself how effective the CCS pressing service really is. 

I hope this helps in some small way...and good luck!   

[Topnotchman]

On 7/5/2023 at 3:10 AM, DougC said:

Last month I received back a 15 book submission with grader notes consistent with mishandling:

• Light bends to cover
• "Stacking" bends
• Scuffing to cover

These were all pressed, cleaned, and non-CGC prescreened. In a turn i've never seen every book 9.6/9.4 had multiple grader notes.

At this point in time "something" is going on either at the grader level or an employee that is handling books for the grading process, but obviously only CGC knows and would never admit if anything were happening so we are just left to speculate.

On the topic of CGC pressing; I would never advise anyone to use their service (there are many horror story threads). You just do not know if they actually pressed your books, they damaged books, and there "secret" method is just a very very hot quick press that doesn't actually help most books.

You learned a valuable lesson today.

I would not correlate stacking bends and scuffing on cover to any type of potential mishandling of the comics. 

[FantasticDan]

Towards the beginning of May I sent in two modern magazines to be pressed and graded.  Mag #1 had some fairly significant cover ripples from water damage.  Mag #2 had no such issues, but I felt would still benefit from a press (and why not, since it was being sent with mag 1).

Just got the grades - mag #1 came back 9.4, which I'm delighted with.

Mag #2 came back 7.0, with the following notes

Grader Notes:
crease left top of back cover
crease right bottom of front cover
spine stress lines

Seems like the creases would be pressable defects?  I feel like the mag was sent in as a 7.0, and is coming back same..

[FantasticDan]

If there are color breaks, shouldn't the notes specify them?

I haven't gotten the mag back yet to inspect.  I don't remember any color breaking creases.