Is anyone else getting books back with warped inner wells? 25 25

[Stefan_W]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:29 PM, Ninja0215 said:

@Stefan_Wty so much for your insight! Much appreciated.  I don't want to crack any books that are affected with the fear of damaging them further. 

I know for all of us this is a concern  but how much concern should we have? I'm sending in a book to them soon and I'll  go from there. 👍

I have not had the chance to work on the books in the pictures, but I have worked on others that were in bent inner wells. Based on the limited number of books I have worked on the pronounced tick thing gets back to normal for the book with minimal effort (often when it is removed from the inner well), and the bend comes right out easily.

In terms of worry everyone has their own threshold. I have seen nothing to suggest the books are being damaged, but some look worse until you go through the time and cost of pressing again and resubmitting (and hoping you don't get another bent inner well, since it seems they have not fixed this). Bottom line is if the aesthetics of a bent inner well bother you, or you have books with ticks in the middle of the spine, it may be an issue. If you send in clean copies it isn't a concern at all (unless you like to look at the the book through the side of the case), but most books worth grading are not completely clean copies. As a person who does crack and resubs a lot it is not a concern for me since I am removing those books from the cases anyway, but I definitely want to see the bending thing disappear in future submissions that I get back. 

TL;DR - I see nothing that shows extra damage is being done to books, but damage isn't everything. IMO this is an issue that CGC absolutely needs to fix before customers start jumping ship. 

Edited August 14 by Stefan_W

[Ninja0215]

@Stefan_WI'm about half way there myself. This can and is done better elsewhere. The member credits and turn around kept me here. Plus, the JSA didn't hurt

 

I'm anticipating my book coming back to be okay but I'm going to inspect it thoroughly.  

[MAY1979]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:25 PM, DanJD said:

I for sure try to slab a book so I can crack it

even out of the slab the book looks like excrement due to the bending...

[comeaux]

[MAY1979]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:14 PM, Stefan_W said:

Part 2/2
I also cracked open a Werewolf by Night 31 CGC 9.4 (cert number 4426154018) which was graded on 28 May 2024.

  

Thanks for doing that Stefan! As mentioned, even out of the slab that book now presents like excrement due to the bending... Truly helps to drive the point home to avoid ALL post 2023 slabs.

Edited August 14 by MAR1979

[LordRahl]

On 8/13/2024 at 3:53 PM, MAR1979 said:

assuming of course the grading is just as strict, hopefully stricter!

 

 

I would take consistent over stricter. Right now consistency in grading is non existent with CGC. It's like Forest Gump and a box of chocolates.

[Stefan_W]

On 8/13/2024 at 8:14 PM, Stefan_W said:

Part 2/2
I also cracked open a Werewolf by Night 31 CGC 9.4 (cert number 4426154018) which was graded on 28 May 2024. This was also cracked a few minutes ago and I took pics with my phone. The picture quality for some images is pretty bad so you will have to go with what I am saying for parts of this. 

- The inner well had the "u" bend where top and bottom curved upwards
- There is a cluster of tiny ticks in the middle of the spine
- I removed the inner well and immediately took a photo, and it shows that inner well is still bent 
- When I removed the comic from the inner well the comic itself was bent, but not to the same degree as when it was in the inner well 
- The ticks did not look as bad after removal from the inner well
 

Please note this is also a crack and resub for my PC.

 

In case anyone is interested in what I meant when I said the bend is easily corrected - I bagged and boarded the two books I cracked out, and I just pulled them out and took another picture of them two hours later. No pressing or any work whatsoever was done, they just went into bags and boards. The bends are gone from one book and almost completely gone from the other book already. 

 

 

[LordRahl]

On 8/13/2024 at 5:40 PM, Stefan_W said:

I have not had the chance to work on the books in the pictures, but I have worked on others that were in bent inner wells. Based on the limited number of books I have worked on the pronounced tick thing gets back to normal for the book with minimal effort (often when it is removed from the inner well), and the bend comes right out easily.

In terms of worry everyone has their own threshold. I have seen nothing to suggest the books are being damaged, but some look worse until you go through the time and cost of pressing again and resubmitting (and hoping you don't get another bent inner well, since it seems they have not fixed this). Bottom line is if the aesthetics of a bent inner well bother you, or you have books with ticks in the middle of the spine, it may be an issue. If you send in clean copies it isn't a concern at all (unless you like to look at the the book through the side of the case), but most books worth grading are not completely clean copies. As a person who does crack and resubs a lot it is not a concern for me since I am removing those books from the cases anyway, but I definitely want to see the bending thing disappear in future submissions that I get back. 

TL;DR - I see nothing that shows extra damage is being done to books, but damage isn't everything. IMO this is an issue that CGC absolutely needs to fix before customers start jumping ship. 

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but the book went in flat and came out... well... not flat. How is that not extra damage? They downgrade my books when they aren't flat with notes that say "whole book bend". I'm assuming this means that CGC themselves consider a bend like that to be damage. Yet they are telling us this is normal. 

Normal!!!

 

[Stefan_W]

On 8/13/2024 at 10:11 PM, LordRahl said:

I would take consistent over stricter. Right now consistency in grading is non existent with CGC. It's like Forest Gump and a box of chocolates.

I dunno, I send hundreds of books per year in and the last year has had exceptionally consistent grading for what I am sending in. I thought there were issues with consistency back during the pandemic when they probably had to hire a ton of new graders to keep up, but I find the grading now is really solid and very consistent. 

[DanJD]

For sure a CGC plant…I am convinced.

[LordRahl]

On 8/13/2024 at 7:19 PM, Stefan_W said:

I dunno, I send hundreds of books per year in and the last year has had exceptionally consistent grading for what I am sending in. I thought there were issues with consistency back during the pandemic when they probably had to hire a ton of new graders to keep up, but I find the grading now is really solid and very consistent. 

I too send in hundreds per year. When I can tell that one grader got one box and a different grader got another box, something is wrong. Same source, same pre-grader (namely me), same presser, one box will have 4 books not pass 9.8 prescreen and another will have 14 not pass (just an example on percentage failed). In some instances, the books came out of the same frikin case. I'm glad it's working out better than that for you but what I'm describing is the opposite of consistent   IMO.

[Stefan_W]

On 8/13/2024 at 10:18 PM, LordRahl said:

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but the book went in flat and came out... well... not flat. How is that not extra damage? They downgrade my books when they aren't flat with notes that say "whole book bend". I'm assuming this means that CGC themselves consider a bend like that to be damage. Yet they are telling us this is normal. 

Normal!!!

 

If a book was being damaged it would not look exactly the same as before it was slabbed two hours after being pulled from the inner well. We can keep disagreeing and all, but when I use the term damage I think of something that persists a bit more than that. I do get where you are coming from, and I do see this as an issue to be fixed, but the terminology "damaged" is just as bad as CGC's "normal." 

[Stefan_W]

On 8/13/2024 at 10:24 PM, LordRahl said:

I too send in hundreds per year. When I can tell that one grader got one box and a different grader got another box, something is wrong. Same source, same pre-grader (namely me), same presser, one box will have 4 books not pass 9.8 prescreen and another will have 14 not pass (just an example on percentage failed). In some instances, the books came out of the same frikin case. I'm glad it's working out better than that for you but what I'm describing is the opposite of consistent   IMO.

My last three pre-screens were 22/25, 23/25 and 23/25. For all three pre-screens the books that failed were the ones that I figured were long shots or marginal. 

I can't speak to your experiences since I cant see your books before they go in, but I'm sorry to hear your results have been mixed with some being less than stellar. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 8/13/2024 at 7:24 PM, Stefan_W said:

terminology "damaged" is just as bad as CGC's "normal." 

 

[LordRahl]

On 8/13/2024 at 7:30 PM, Stefan_W said:

My last three pre-screens were 22/25, 23/25 and 23/25. For all three pre-screens the books that failed were the ones that I figured were long shots or marginal. 

I can't speak to your experiences since I cant see your books before they go in, but I'm sorry to hear your results have been mixed with some being less than stellar. 

That used to be the norm for me as well and I always send in stuff that I know is borderline so missing 3/4/5 is expected but lately one box is like this and another is just hot garbage. Sigh!

[DanJD]

On 8/13/2024 at 9:20 PM, DanJD said:

For sure a CGC plant…I am convinced.

[MAY1979]

On 8/13/2024 at 10:33 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

 

Kudos to that forum member for rubbing salt into your open wounds and all the others affected.

Edited August 14 by MAR1979

[Ninja0215]

Is this science class now?? Are we doing science? 

 

Quantum physics at cgc university.  

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wiparker824]

On 8/13/2024 at 7:53 PM, Ninja0215 said:

Is this science class now?? Are we doing science? 

 

Quantum physics at cgc university.