Will CBG Cover Controversial Issues?

[Red Hook]

Wow. And we barely raised the temperature above room level.

[Illiterati-migration]

I guess this is our answer from CBG???

 

Subject: Has anyone ever done any research on whether or not a majority of comics buyers give a rodent's behind about slabbing issues?

 

Author

Tony Isabella

Posts: 324

 

Posted: 3/3/2006 5:16:15 AM

 

Yes, I know it's important to some buyers and speculators and professional graders. My own experience is that our readers care a heck of a lot more about the actual comic books and comic book creators.

 

Tony Isabella

 

LINK: http://www.cbgxtra.com/default.aspx?tabid=42&view=topic&forumid=33&postid=9019

 

 

 

The above thread is officially locked now BTW.

 

I like that the answer to the question posed in the title of this thread is contained in the banner ad at the end of the CBG thread.

 

Will CBG cover controversial issues? Absolutely not. Not so long as they're "on the take".

[Aman619]

theyre not "on the take". At least that isnt the reason they dont cover this stuff. Just to repeat myself once more, they are LAZY, OVERWORKED, UNDERSTAFFED, and too doggon "professional" to do a less than "journalistic worthy" report on subjects like this.

 

The way it works see, is that someone has to send them a press release of a lawsuit, and they will write a snappy headline and reprint the press release as a news item. voila!

 

oh, and their readers hate slabs, even though they never saw or touched one before.

[iron maniac]

Wow. And we barely raised the temperature above room level.

 

The original thread is locked now as well.

[awe4one]

The original thread is locked now as well.

 

Doesn't matter...the point was made. And hopefully CBG will look a little more internally on providing a more balanced aspect of the hobby. Will it happen? Who knows but at least their lack of reporting has been addressed publicly...

 

Jim

[OldGuy]

I guarantee you the 99% figure is an exaggeration.

 

I'll tell you what. I'll print up a poll and ask the guy at the LCS to leave it on his counter for a week. There will be three questions on the poll.

 

1. Have you ever seen a CGC comic in person?

 

2. Have you ever touched a CGC comic?

 

3. Have you ever bought or sold a CGC comic?

 

I'm willing to concede that my 99% is a very slight exaggeration. At the same time I'm willing to make a cash wager the poll will show that 95% have never bought or sold a CGC comic. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to knowing the buyers in the market area I've lived and collected in for 25 years.

Excellent idea, OG. Everyone should take it to their LCS and see what the results are. I'm sure it would be very interesting. I would change the questions slightly though.

 

1. Do you know about CGC and it's products?

 

2. Have you ever seen a CGC product in person?

 

3. Have you ever bought a CGC comics?

 

4. Would you submit a comic to CGC?

 

Sounds good. I'll be going to my LCS this afternoon for my weekly fix and I'll take the survey with me then. Anyone else have input for the survey?

 

Ok, I'm letting the survey run one more week, but here are some rough numbers:

 

1. Do you know about CGC and it's products?

 

Yes = 15%

No = 85%

 

2. Have you ever seen a CGC product in person?

 

Yes = 20%

No = 80%

 

3. Have you ever bought a CGC comics?

 

Yes = 10%

No = 90%

 

4. Knowing what you know right now, would you submit a comic to CGC?

 

Yes = 10%

No = 90%

 

Again, these aren't hard numbers, but they are accurate within about 5% one way or the other.

[Froggy-migration]

Again, these aren't hard numbers, but they are accurate within about 5% one way or the other.

Do you have a rough idea of the total number of people that have responded so far for the above percentages?

[OldGuy]

Again, these aren't hard numbers, but they are accurate within about 5% one way or the other.

Do you have a rough idea of the total number of people that have responded so far for the above percentages?

 

It's hard to say for sure because some people didn't answer all the questions (I have no idea why), but about 35 people so far, give or take 5 one way or the other.

[esquirecomics]

We would need to know more demographics, age, sex, financial status, to really mean something. Especially age.

[OldGuy]

We would need to know more demographics, age, sex, financial status, to really mean something. Especially age.

 

Really? Why? The only point of the survey is to find out how many comic collectors care one way or the other about CGC. I think it's a no brainer that CGC collectors are mostly white men over the age of 30 with $50,000+ annual saleries. The survey proves the point that the majority of collectors either don't know about CGC or know but don't care.

[Ze-man]

We would need to know more demographics, age, sex, financial status, to really mean something. Especially age.

 

Really? Why? The only point of the survey is to find out how many comic collectors care one way or the other about CGC. I think it's a no brainer that CGC collectors are mostly white men over the age of 30 with $50,000+ annual saleries. The survey proves the point that the majority of collectors either don't know about CGC or know but don't care.

 

 

Why so close minded? It sure seems like it is geared toward fulfilling your own goals for the survey, rather then being impartial.

Your point about who collects, and buys CGC stuff is probably spot on. But I also dont think it is out of order to ask the people taking the survey to also write down their age, and collecting preferences If anything else it will help to further break down whatever numbers you do get.

What is the point of conducting a survey like this if you are only going to guess what the results really mean?

 

For all I know 8 year old kids buying pog's and pokemon stuff filled out the survey, skewing the results.

 

Ze-

[esquirecomics]

We would need to know more demographics, age, sex, financial status, to really mean something. Especially age.

 

Really? Why? The only point of the survey is to find out how many comic collectors care one way or the other about CGC. I think it's a no brainer that CGC collectors are mostly white men over the age of 30 with $50,000+ annual saleries. The survey proves the point that the majority of collectors either don't know about CGC or know but don't care.

 

Because polling LCS really doesn't reveal much of anything as most LCS:

 

- do not carry or promote CGC

 

- cater to 7-20 year olds buying new comics or comic related merchandise who

 

- have little money.

 

Given the reality of current LCSs, I do not believe one could conclude that the average customer "knows" of CGC but doesn't care. I would venture that the vast majority of them have no clue.

 

What this says is more important to CGC, which is they need to hit the LCS market.

 

A mean meaningful survey (and I am not criticizing you in the slightest, I applaud your effort) would be to poll at major conventions to find out whether people (a) know of CGC, (b) own CGC books, © slab books using CGC, © what kind of books do they slab, (d) will buy CGC books, (e) will sell CGC books and, but not limited to, (f) how much money they have in CGC books.

[RDK]

I agree that polling a LCS gives skewed results, but what it does tell us is that only about 10% (maybe 15-20% tops) of the guys who visit their local comic shops give a [embarrassing lack of self control] about CGC. But isn't the LCS supposed to be the bread-and-butter of the hobby?

[Aman619]

Polling one LCS isnt a representative sampling, sure, but it DOES go to the query at the heart of this CBG issue. The poll does bear witness to CBGs stance that very few (new) comic collectors are interested in CGC products. We knew that so its no surprise, and therefore why question the validity of the poll since it doesnt detract from US or OUR interests nor was it meant to. We are a breed apart from the LCS, generally speaking , since many of us DO overlap. just not I guess at THAT store.

 

Id like to see a similar poll at a NYC or LA store which presumably would have BOTH kinds of collectors in their clientele.

[esquirecomics]

I agree that polling a LCS gives skewed results, but what it does tell us is that only about 10% (maybe 15-20% tops) of the guys who visit their local comic shops give a [embarrassing lack of self control] about CGC. But isn't the LCS supposed to be the bread-and-butter of the hobby?

 

For new comics, I would think so. But how many brand new comics are submitted to CGC? And why would, assuming I am correct that most LCS cater to 7-20 year olds, that age group even submit new books to CGC. It is just not their niche. So I really don't think one can conclude anything about someone's perception of CGC from a LCS survey.

 

At the very least, a question should be added to follow an affirmative answer to "do you knowi about CGC?", "do you use CGC?", if no, "why not?"

 

That answer would be more helpful.

[esquirecomics]

Polling one LCS isnt a representative sampling, sure, but it DOES go to the query at the heart of this CBG issue. The poll does bear witness to CBGs stance that very few (new) comic collectors are interested in CGC products. We knew that so its no surprise, and therefore why question the validity of the poll since it doesnt detract from US or OUR interests nor was it meant to. We are a breed apart from the LCS, generally speaking , since many of us DO overlap. just not I guess at THAT store.

 

I wonder if we could get CBG to run a mail or online poll to determine its readers' knowledge of CGC and related issues, as well as other views.

[Illiterati-migration]

 

At the very least, a question should be added to follow an affirmative answer to "do you knowi about CGC?", "do you use CGC?", if no, "why not?"

 

That answer would be more helpful.

 

That wasn't the purpose of the survey, was it? In fact, most of the discussion post-results has been decidedly OT from the original purpose of the poll.

 

OG was asserting that the CGC marketing machine hadn't penetrated his area... okay, really I just wanted to say that "the CGC marketing machine hadn't penetrated his area".

 

My work here is done. (You're still missing the original point, though.)

[Illiterati-migration]

Polling one LCS isnt a representative sampling, sure, but it DOES go to the query at the heart of this CBG issue. The poll does bear witness to CBGs stance that very few (new) comic collectors are interested in CGC products. We knew that so its no surprise, and therefore why question the validity of the poll since it doesnt detract from US or OUR interests nor was it meant to. We are a breed apart from the LCS, generally speaking , since many of us DO overlap. just not I guess at THAT store.

 

I wonder if we could get CBG to run a mail or online poll to determine its readers' knowledge of CGC and related issues, as well as other views.

 

That would be spectacular free advertising for CGC (as well as slabbed book sellers) and would utterly contaminate the specimen, no?

 

[OldGuy]

Polling one LCS isnt a representative sampling, sure, but it DOES go to the query at the heart of this CBG issue. The poll does bear witness to CBGs stance that very few (new) comic collectors are interested in CGC products. We knew that so its no surprise, and therefore why question the validity of the poll since it doesnt detract from US or OUR interests nor was it meant to. We are a breed apart from the LCS, generally speaking , since many of us DO overlap. just not I guess at THAT store.

 

Spot on. I couldn't have said it better.

[Scheradon]

I guarantee you the 99% figure is an exaggeration.

 

I'll tell you what. I'll print up a poll and ask the guy at the LCS to leave it on his counter for a week. There will be three questions on the poll.

 

1. Have you ever seen a CGC comic in person?

 

2. Have you ever touched a CGC comic?

 

3. Have you ever bought or sold a CGC comic?

 

I'm willing to concede that my 99% is a very slight exaggeration. At the same time I'm willing to make a cash wager the poll will show that 95% have never bought or sold a CGC comic. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to knowing the buyers in the market area I've lived and collected in for 25 years.

Excellent idea, OG. Everyone should take it to their LCS and see what the results are. I'm sure it would be very interesting. I would change the questions slightly though.

 

1. Do you know about CGC and it's products?

 

2. Have you ever seen a CGC product in person?

 

3. Have you ever bought a CGC comics?

 

4. Would you submit a comic to CGC?

 

Sounds good. I'll be going to my LCS this afternoon for my weekly fix and I'll take the survey with me then. Anyone else have input for the survey?

 

Ok, I'm letting the survey run one more week, but here are some rough numbers:

 

1. Do you know about CGC and it's products?

 

Yes = 15%

No = 85%

 

2. Have you ever seen a CGC product in person?

 

Yes = 20%

No = 80%

 

3. Have you ever bought a CGC comics?

 

Yes = 10%

No = 90%

 

4. Knowing what you know right now, would you submit a comic to CGC?

 

Yes = 10%

No = 90%

 

Again, these aren't hard numbers, but they are accurate within about 5% one way or the other.

 

So, judging thus far, it looks as though I should have taken that cash wager.