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I just soiled myself.....and I couldn't be happier.

Started by JiveTurkeyMoFo,

364 posts in this topic

sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

Posted
Posted

Well, I'm a guy who has calls and get answers; sometimes it isn't answers I want to hear. (example: the reason why SCS isn't going to be fixed for non Moderns). I'm also a guy who wants more information of value from a company whom I trust my comic collectibles. A more vibrant and informative site, with increased presence/availability is always a positive.

 

I call CGC all the time when I have questions, but I also want to help them be an agent of change, and provide better information to the consumer. This I think is the goal of what people like Red want, which, in all honesty, hasn't happened from CGC to date. I don't complain as much as others here, but I still want some positive changes.

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skybolt

skybolt

Posted
Posted
Super post Nick!

 

I'd suggest we dispense with the tired "give Steve a call" baloney once and for all. Make any and all information about services offered public. And advertise it. End of story.

 

And I will disregard your suggestion. But not to single you out -- this is really in response to all the posts this morning from the "We won't call CGC" brigade.

 

Those who won't call Steve and ask whatever questions they might have simply don't want answers IMO. They just want to complain, and calling and getting answers would rob them of the opportunity to do that -- oh, and they'd have to be polite on the phone, too, unlike here where they can accuse CGC of being corrupt spin doctors and in bed with all the BSDs, etc.! Zoinks!

 

Make all the excuses you want, bat the ball back into CGC's court all you want, be as passive-aggressive as you want, tell me that you can't call during 8-5 even though you post on the boards all the time during 8-5, but this is what it boils down to. You guys say you want answers, but you don't, really. If you really wanted answers, you'd pick up the phone. If you wanted to make sure the answers you received got shared, you'd make a post for the boards announcing what you were told (as I have seen Zeman, OldGuy, and many others do over the years when they were actually looking for answers). But that would make it tough to continue to play the part of the "victimized non-BSD collector" here, and that is apparently unacceptable.

 

Anyway, I think I've wasted enough time on this discussion. I don't expect to change any of your minds anyway, but I did want to get that off my chest. I feel much better. cloud9.gif

 

I don't know about others, but I certainly don't have a hidden agenda when it comes to CGC and their services. I've certainly bought and sold enough CGC graded books to want the company to succeed. What's the big deal in trying to get additional answers by more straight-forward means. My post was certainly worded in a way where I'm mostly blaming myself for not taking the bull by the horn and calling Steve every minute of every day until I get the information I want. However, I think that there are a lot of big time collectors like myself that would prefer to get the information via easier means. Heck, if worst comes to worst I can go out there and hunt for my own food if I was starving to death, but it's certainly a lot easier to visit the local grocery store instead. smile.gif

 

For a lot of collectors, e-mail responses are a convenient way to discuss issues instead of playing phone tag with someone you've never spoken to before. Sure, I spend some of my work time frequenting these boards, but I just don't want my co-workers to hear me talk about comic books for 20 minutes on the phone. I don't want that stigma to be carried against me during review time.

 

As far as sharing e-mail or phone resposnes with CGC goes, the only one I can remember pertains to the microchamber paper. I e-mailed someone at CGC regarding whether or not the microchamber paper would be replaced everytime the book was reholdered (due to cracking or whatever). CGC's reponse was that the inner well would not be opened and the microchamber paper replaced unless the book had been slabbed for a long time, it was completely regraded, or a special request was made. For instance, just because a book originally graded in 2000 has a new label in 2006, it doesn't mean the microchamber was or will be replaced in 2007 if it's reholdered again. This is really a minor point since the microchamber paper lasts a lot longer than 7 years, but I see your point about sharing information.

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Red Hook

Red Hook

Posted
Posted
Well, I'm a guy who has calls and get answers; sometimes it isn't answers I want to hear. (example: the reason why SCS isn't going to be fixed for non Moderns). I'm also a guy who wants more information of value from a company whom I trust my comic collectibles. A more vibrant and informative site, with increased presence/availability is always a positive.

 

I call CGC all the time when I have questions, but I also want to help them be an agent of change, and provide better information to the consumer. This I think is the goal of what people like Red want, which, in all honesty, hasn't happened from CGC to date. I don't complain as much as others here, but I still want some positive changes.

 

There's nothing that Steve Borock can say to me on the phone that he can't say to each and every collector spending money on his product.

 

I don't want special treatment.

 

I don't want the inside story.

 

I don't want to be made to feel "special".

 

I don't want to hear anything from CGC other than what they are willing to post publicly and stand behind 100%.

 

 

Okay Dena....you can lock this one up too, now!

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted
October,

 

When I was packing my father's car to drive up to Albany to start college (he was taking me on the 2 hour drive), my father caught wind that I was bringing my US Bong (probably sticking out of a gym bag). He confiscated it as he didn't want to promote or "acquiesce" my smoking/partying at school. Unbeknownst to dad, I had a hookah I had bought in the Arab Market during my trip to Isreal the previous summer. Scared the [embarrassing lack of self control] out of every freshman that first few nights who were like "what the hell is that 6 tentacled thing".

 

You gotta improvise, buddy. That's the name of the game!!

 

Doug

 

I should have expected a post like this from a guy with your screen name. laugh.gif

 

Captain Tripps is the old skool nickname for Jerry Garcia from the Dead's acid test days, but you knew that. Always happy to have an excuse to put some cool Dead footage up. thumbsup2.gif

 

With 100+ hours of GD concert tapes on my shelf, I would hope I knew that! wink.gif

 

Did you see that Vince Welnick died? frown.gif

 

Its the curse of the Dead keyboard! Assuming you also know about this website then. 2,900 Dead shows. thumbsup2.gif

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted

I do,but I don't generally sell too many.In most cases I will also take a cgc book back in trade for the amount that I sold it for(or close,depending on the trade).GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) thumbsup2.gif

 

p.s. That's an advantage to only carrying what you like.

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PedigreeMan

PedigreeMan

Posted
Posted
Super post Nick!

 

I'd suggest we dispense with the tired "give Steve a call" baloney once and for all. Make any and all information about services offered public. And advertise it. End of story.

 

And I will disregard your suggestion. But not to single you out -- this is really in response to all the posts this morning from the "We won't call CGC" brigade.

 

Those who won't call Steve and ask whatever questions they might have simply don't want answers IMO. They just want to complain, and calling and getting answers would rob them of the opportunity to do that -- oh, and they'd have to be polite on the phone, too, unlike here where they can accuse CGC of being corrupt spin doctors and in bed with all the BSDs, etc.! Zoinks!

 

Make all the excuses you want, bat the ball back into CGC's court all you want, be as passive-aggressive as you want, tell me that you can't call during 8-5 even though you post on the boards all the time during 8-5, but this is what it boils down to. You guys say you want answers, but you don't, really. If you really wanted answers, you'd pick up the phone. If you wanted to make sure the answers you received got shared, you'd make a post for the boards announcing what you were told (as I have seen Zeman, OldGuy, and many others do over the years when they were actually looking for answers). But that would make it tough to continue to play the part of the "victimized non-BSD collector" here, and that is apparently unacceptable.

 

Please, Scott, stop thinking like a lawyer for a second and treating these issues like some nice, neat, little interrogatory that can be wrapped up just by the receipt of an answer from a star witness.

 

This isn't rocket science; most of us here either know the score or can deduce it from the pieces of evidence that have been presented. These dialogues are most people's way of hashing out an issue -- chewing it around ad infinitum and seeing what it tastes like. Receiving an answer from CGC would effectively short circuit this dialogue, leaving a whole lot of people with nothing but a bunch of half-chewed, unknown-tasting chunks in their mouths.

 

Is this process pretty? No. But it does work. As Redhook loves to point out every time one of these dialogues happens: "We're all a heckuva lot smarter today than we were a few years ago."

 

Shutting everyone up at a crisis-point like this is the absolute worst thing that could happen. This conversation should be allowed to draw to its own naturlal conclusion ... whatever that may be.

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uclapeterg

uclapeterg

Posted
Posted
Call me crazy, but in all of those phone calls, I've never thought of asking for additional services not listed on their website.

 

 

I'm this way too. Part of getting answers is being able to know the right question.

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jbud73

jbud73

Posted
Posted
I can vouch that a few years ago, I mentioned to Steve that I thought that my Batman 238 CGC 9.2 deserved better than OW pages. It was before SD and he did tell me to bring it down for him to review. However, I decided not to because I ultimately felt that it didn't matter and that I got some "gifts" on PQ on some other books. So, it is possible. confused-smiley-013.gif

 

893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

I also have a confession to make. frown.gif

 

I once called CGC and asked them to hold off sending me back some books so I could save a few bucks on shipping and have them sent with my next batch...and even though that service isn't offered in print on their website, THEY AGREED!! 893whatthe.gif

 

Hey Mike I like your posts and all, but how is that in the same universe as sending a book in for a PQ only check and retaining the same serial number? PQ is part of the books material structure and therefore I would assume part of the technical grade assessed by CGC (the weight of course being factored into their criteria and therefore unknown). So how one can resubmit a book and only ask for part of it to be regraded and not an entire reassessment and still have it be considered a resub, but then again NOT get assigned a new serial number.

 

Well that to me is an entirely different thing altogether from having them hold your mailing to wait for another submission. hi.gif

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Captain Tripps

Captain Tripps

Posted
Posted

John,

 

I called CGC and asked if I had to re-submit the book in order just to have the pages re-examined, and the customer service rep passed me on to one of the senior graders (I honestly don't remember who it was) who told me they could do a page quality review (one of the "other" options/services listed on a standard CGC submission form).

 

John, I don't know what it cost me as they charge my Amex periodically for all new charges. I would imagine, considering the perceived value of the book, that it was like a walk thru or in that range.

 

I do not think a book can be downgraded on a review as that would be like a slap in the face. I mean, you're politely asking them to reconsider the pages and that you feel it should be white instead of off-white to white or off-white instead of cow, and then they say not only are you wrong, but the pages are being downgraded! A book can obviously be downgraded if you took it out of the holder and submitted it anew, but I think a review just "asks" for an improvement, i.e, that you disagree with the given grade/page quality. I never did ask about that but I was sure it wasn't coming back any less than off-white to white. It would be pretty tough to have a book come back now with a lower page q based on how much tougher they were in the beginning. So many of the Pacific Coasts that were originally graded in 2000 and 2001 have consistently gone from off-white to off-white/white and white, etc.

 

Doug

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Captain Tripps

Captain Tripps

Posted
Posted

Lantern,

 

That was in my college days. It's been over 13 years since I've ever seen the stuff, let alone put pipe to mouth. I get a much bigger high these days watching my son Jack or looking at a high grade run of Vampirellas, etc!!

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