skybolt

One of my three 2/242022 slow modern received submissions was just shipped. I received 12 - 9.8's, 6 - 9.6's, 6 - 9.4's and 1 - 9.0, with no grader notes. I will give an update once the books are in hand, but my gut tells me the books were graded tight but fairly. Most of my non 9.8 graded copies were ones I had on the fence between 9.6 and 9.8 and between 9.4 nd 9.6.

The inconsistency does hurt the overall market. For example, if CGC was grading 9.8 copies harshly across the board, I could see the market adjusting, where buyers would be willing to pay a premium for a tightly graded 9.8 copy graded in 2021/2022 vs. another 9.8 copy graded before. However, when grading standards are all across the board with experienced vs. new graders, it's hard to define which submissions were graded more harshly than others. These days we'll just have to assume that 1/3 of the submissions we get back will be a wasted effort. I am hopeful that shorter TAT's would result in more graders looking at each submission.

I would say the grading is more inconsistent these days than tight across the board. Five of my last nine submissions have come back with fairly expected grades, while the other four were graded extremely tight with very few books receiving a 9.8.

What year?

I get your point, but I have dozens of CCS quick pressed books in my collection that I personally sent in it be pressed, and they're still in their perfectly post pressed condition 3 or 4 years later. I haven't noticed any reversion. I will say that sometimes the quick press will not get the initial bend out, which is frustrating.

In process at CCS means very little. It's sort of like SFG in grading. Once the books get actually pressed they move to CGC shortly and are entered into the system. Once that happens they are typically graded within 2 to 4 weeks.

The only issue with this is that CGC typically grades CCS pressed books within 2 to 4 weeks of being pressed no matter what the current grading turnaround times are. I think this could be a more relevant issue for some inexperienced 3rd party pressers though.

I think the other concern is getting a runaround from CGC customer service. For example, 5 weeks ago I was told my 4/11 CCS submission was almost complete and only a couple of books were left to be pressed. I contacted customer service again last week and was told to wait another 2 weeks. I don't mind waiting, but the response has to be based on factuality. I'd much rather be told that your submission has been miss placed for the time being, but will be located in time. Going back to the grocery store analogy, this is like finally getting to the front of the line and your groceries suddenly disappearing from the conveyor to the cashier. Then being told to step aside while the people behind you are getting checked out.

Still waiting for my 4/11 received submission.

I completely agree with your post, but unfortunately, I just don't have the desire or patience to press my own books. With that being said, I did transition to Joey after the five 6/25 received submissions. It's still a long wait time, but at least I have a pretty good idea when the books will be pressed. With CCS, for all I know, this submission has been miss placed and won't see the light of day for another few months.

A couple of quick updates: I had my credit card charged for five 6/25 CCS received submissions. About 3 or 4 weeks ago I e-mailed CGC about the status of my 4/11 CCS received submission. At that time I was told that only a couple of books were left to be pressed. I contacted them again on Friday and was told to wait an additional 2 weeks. At this point I get the sense that there are no real updates and will just have to wait for CCS to locate this submission. It's interesting that the other 3 CCS submissions that were mailed with this one back in March 2021 were graded and shipped 2 months ago.

Just wondering if the grades were close to expectation.

Going to SFG quickly is not a concern. When it goes from SFG to grading to Q/C to shipped in a matter of hours, then the grades will likely be lower than expected.

Based on past experience with CGC / CCS, here are my two cents: - Does CGC damage books in their possession from time to time? I would say the chances are remote (since it hasn't happened to me yet), but others have had issues in the past. - I would be shocked if CGC or CCS stores books in non optimal, humid type conditions. Again, I've had books sitting at CGC/CCS for 6 months to a year and haven't noticed any new creases resulting from temperature variations. - CCS Quick Press is definitely a hit or miss. I think they do a great job on 1980's type covers, but would not recommend using quick press for hard stock or thicker type books. This includes books like Adventures of Superman 500, the collector editions of the various Superman returns books from 1993, collector editions of Uncanny X-Men #316/317, thick wraparound covers, etc. If you send these books to CCS using quick press, you'll likely get them back in their original non pressed condition. That being said, they have done a good job with foil type covers like Punisher 2099 #1. On a side note, I was really impressed with a Spectacular Spider-Man #117 I sent to CCS a few months. It literally had about 20 light bends and creases on the cover, and all of them were removed with the quick press, resulting in a 9.8 copy. - IMO, I believe that most of the books that come back with creases after being pressed by a 3rd party are either due to minor creases or bends missed during pressing or as Joey mentioned in a previous post, the books were not allowed to take shape after pressing and before sending to CGC. In all honesty, perhaps this is the one benefit of having books sitting at CGC for such long periods. If the pressing job was bad, then at least the books would revert back to their original form BEFORE being slabbed.

I have books in my collection that were pressed by CCS almost 10 years ago and haven't noticed any reversion. My concern with this guy is what if the books reverted after getting graded and sold. He makes it sound like it's a normal thing.

Not sure if I want to buy books off of this guy. He keeps talking about his personally pressed books potentially reverting back to original form (right before slabbing) like it's a common thing.

Yes, I was billed on 1/6/2022 along with 3 other submissions. The other 3 submissions were pressed and graded 2 months ago, but this one is still lingering. I contacted CGC 2 weeks ago and they told me the books are currently being pressed. Not sure why this is taking longer than the others.

To clarify, I do actually have most (if not al) books in the $150 to $200 plus range dry cleaned and pressed (just in case). I'll do the same for lower valued books that have noticeable dents / non-color breaking creases.

Unfortunately, the inconsistency will hurt everyone in the long run. I would rather have CGC come out and say that starting May 1st, 2022 we will tighten the grading for 9.8 books than having inconsistencies in various submissions. At least with tightened grading across the board, the market will adjust, and buyers will know they're getting pristine 9.8 copies if graded after a certain date. Honestly, from now on, I will likely have all early 1990's and older books pressed before grading, since some new graders are knocking off a couple of grades if the book does not have a perfectly flat spine (even though this was not how it was manufactured).

The tracking number for my 4/11 received CCS submission disappeared over 4 months ago.

It could also be a case of CGC grading books more harshly these days (in certain cases) to reduce the glut of high grade copies hitting the market all at the same time. For example, if all of sudden 10 times as many copies of Batman #500 are submitted for grading, this could potentially kill the market for this issue if 10 times as many 9.8 copies hit EBay all at the same time. If that happens then less people will submit this particular issue in the future since the return value would have dropped significantly. This is even more evident for books like ASM #300 and 361. I have two 9.8 copies of ASM #361, which I purchased already graded about 5 years ago. Since that time, I've owned better looking raw high grade copies, but can't get a 9.8 for the life of me.

This inconsistency needs to be corrected by CGC as soon as possible. Something like this should not happen.

Just got back my other 12/6 submission and the results weren't what I expected. Only 8 - 9.8's, 12 - 9.6's, 3 - 9.4's, 1 - 9.2 and 1 - 9.0. Upon closer inspection, at least 7 or 8 books have no noticeable flaws and would've likely received a 9.8 grade another day. Some graders continue to be tough on 80's and 90's books that don't have perfectly flat spines. 7 books had grader notes, which made sense upon closer inspection.

I will say that most of the submissions I send in these days include 2 or 3 copies of the same book. Although I feel like the grading is super tough these days, I haven't had any of the experiences noted above. With that being said, I have several submissions that are currently being pressed that will have 8 plus copies of a single issue. Will see how that goes.

Just got the books back today and inspected each one very carefully. I will be completely honest and say that CGC did a great job grading these books. Overall, I completely understood why 10 of 11 books did not receive a 9.8 grade, and I'm sure I'm missing something with the last one. There were a couple of 9.4's that looked more like 9.6's, but I'm not too concerned about that.