Pressing made things worse? 1 1

[BRD529]

I cracked open two extra 9.6 copies of The Tick #1 ('88) and the Godzilla #1 ('77) to send in for pressing and re-grading in hopes of a grading bump.  The Tick came back as a 9.0(!) and Godzilla was a 9.4.  Even if they didn't actually get pressed, which I'm starting to expect, how is was there such a drop?  The grader's notes for The Tick were "light creasing to cover and light stress lines to cover."  If it didn't get pressed, then these were good enough for a 9.6 before, and if it did get pressed, it dropped it to a 9.0?  Not sure what's going on here, any thoughts?  

[theCapraAegagrus]

Sounds like CGC 'ruined' your comics via pressing and/or handling.

[jas1vans]

Do you have high res scans of the slabs before you cracked the books out, of the books before you sent them in, and of the books after the new grade was assigned? Grader notes from before and after?

If you have all of that, and your books were damaged or unpressed, you could probably reach out to CGC's customer service and bring the matter up with them.

[Lazyboy]

There are many possibilities. There are also no guarantees that a comic will stay the same grade with even a straight resub.

[Yorick]

On 7/24/2023 at 8:12 AM, BRD529 said:

I cracked open

THIS is the problem.  Probably the best scenario would be to ship the encapsulated book to CGC for the press service.  Taking the books out exposes them to all kinds of additional hazards.  Shipping "handling" being at the forefront of my mind....

[joeypost]

They could have been over graded when they were first sent in. 

[TC33]

Most people ignore the most obvious and likely answer.  It could be the exact same book and different graders at CGC can go from 8.5 to 9.6 depending on who you get and what kind of day they are having.  I and a few of big time pressers I have talked with have found excellent pressing candidates with significant bump potential based on back cover dirt/dry cleaning, removing waves and bumps at the spine etc, and guess what they still came back a lower grade because we probably got one of the toughest graders having a bad day or something.  I had an X-Men 121 9.4 I sent in for pressing to get a 9.6, came back 9.0, so based on notes with finger bends, I had it pressed again, it came back an 8.0 with similar notes, go figure!  Instead of all these handling damage scenarios, guess what most of us know..... different graders are not going to be all that similar on different days and you are taking a risk that it may go down even if the book appearance and grade went up significantly and no damage was done!  If a book is already high grade, you are taking a real chance of a downgrade every time you crack it open and send it in even if you improve some minor flaws first.

[JollyComics]

I think CGC Modern graders went too fast.  I had 6 grader notes - all said same thing.  It's unheard of.

[WolverineX]

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 7/25/2023 at 8:45 AM, TC33 said:

Most people ignore the most obvious and likely answer.  It could be the exact same book and different graders at CGC can go from 8.5 to 9.6 depending on who you get and what kind of day they are having.  I and a few of big time pressers I have talked with have found excellent pressing candidates with significant bump potential based on back cover dirt/dry cleaning, removing waves and bumps at the spine etc, and guess what they still came back a lower grade because we probably got one of the toughest graders having a bad day or something.  I had an X-Men 121 9.4 I sent in for pressing to get a 9.6, came back 9.0, so based on notes with finger bends, I had it pressed again, it came back an 8.0 with similar notes, go figure!  Instead of all these handling damage scenarios, guess what most of us know..... different graders are not going to be all that similar on different days and you are taking a risk that it may go down even if the book appearance and grade went up significantly and no damage was done!  If a book is already high grade, you are taking a real chance of a downgrade every time you crack it open and send it in even if you improve some minor flaws first.