skybolt

No worries. My 5 CCS submissions from 6/25/21 were graded and shipped last month. I did receive a couple of other responses in the middle that noted they'll send someone to look for the books. Maybe each customer service employee has their own canned answer to keep the customer at bay.

My apologies Mike. I just sent you a message.

Just got back another response, which was pretty much a cut and paste from what I received 3 months ago. April 7th, 2022 Response: "Thank you for your email. Your invoice 3821994 is finishing up with CCS pressing. I'll see if we can try to speed that up at all for you. It does look like it is almost completed with just a couple more books that need to finish pressing." July 13th, 2022 Response: "Thank you for your email. This submission is still in process at CCS. A few of the books have not yet finished up through the pressing process. This will be transferred to CGC shortly. Let us know if you have any other questions."

Wish I could say this was my favorite book growing up, but the truth is I got these as a bundle raw, and they all graded out as 9.8.

The last reply from CGC was on 6/16 where they noted they will physically send someone to look for the submission, but it could take a while due to the thousands of received submissions during that period. I'm hoping that once they got through most of the books received before the price change, this submission will be located.

Thank you CGC Mike. I will do an honest and thorough job and provide you the best data possible.

So the current TAT's for slow modern CCS pressing is 254 business days. My submission delivered on 3/23/2021 (received 4/11/2021) is currently sitting at 324 business days. In comparison, the other 3 submissions from that time period were pressed and graded almost 5 months ago. Another 5 CCS submissions (received 6/25/2021) were pressed and graded last month. After contacting CGC 5 times over the past 3 months, and basically being told to be patient, what is the next course of action? Anyone else in the same boat with respect to CCS pressing?

I'm getting 4 submissions back this week. I'll do a full analysis once the books are in hand with respect to how my original grading was, the press job performed and CGC grading. The 4th submission was graded today and came back with 7 - 9.8's, 6 - 9.6's, 6 - 9.4's, 2 - 9.2's, 1 -9.0 & 1 - 8.5. These were mostly 80's books, so the grades are probably not totally off. At least 2 of the 3 Uncanny X-Men #195 Newsstand Editions got a 9.8 grade.

By a 3rd party presser.

Not sure how others are doing it, but here's my approach for resending in books to be regraded: A.) Will probably hold off on resending any books until I see more consistency in grading from CGC. This will likely not happen until next year. B.) It's not worth cracking out and resending a book if the value difference between a 9.8 and 9.6 copy is $50 or less. In that scenario I'd just consider it a sunk cost and move on. C.) If I get a 9.2 grade for a borderline 9.8, I probably won't resend it unless a 9.6 is selling for good money. D.) Every submission that I think is under-graded, I'm placing a couple of books on the side for a straight resub later on. Most of these books are ones I'm fairly confident are 9.8's, but were downgraded for a production type defect. .

I have a total of five 5/12 submissions. Three of them have been already been graded, with 2 bad results and 1 in-line with what I was thinking. Luckily, the more expensive submission was graded by an experienced grader. My hope is that the law of averages is on my side and that the remaining 2 submissions, which mostly contain books from the 70's and 80's, are being handled by an experienced grader. By the way, does anyone know what this grader note means? "small paper lift top of front cover"

Ran into another buzz-saw. This submission went to G/E/I at the same time as the one above, so I'm assuming it was the same grader. 2 - 9.8's, 16 - 9.6's, 4 - 9.4', 1 - 9.2 & 1 - 9.0.

I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I guess moving forward we just have to assume that 1 out of every 4 modern submissions will just go to waste. This grading inconsistency is being talked about at local comic shops and Youtube. What's funny is that whomever these graders are, they always thrown in 1 - 9.8 graded book to show that they know this grade exists.. It's typically the most modern book in the submission.

Yup, it happened again. Books went from G/E/I to Shipped in a matter of minutes (without QC being noted), and the grades are horrible again. 1 - 9.8, 10 - 9.6's, 9 - 9.4's, 1 - 9.2, 3 - 9.0's and 1 - 7.5. All of these books were pressed by a 3rd party, but the 5 grader notes I received included bend and crease notations. I'll need to check the pressing when the books are in hand. Very frustrating, since most of these books were sent with the hope of getting a 9.8 grade.

Three more of the 5/12 submissions just went into G/E/I.

These books went from SFG to shipped in about 5 hours. I received 12 - 9.8's, 4 - 9.6's, 5 - 9.4's, 2 - 9.2's, 1 - 9.0, 1 - 8.5 & 1 - 7.0. I need to inspect the books upon arrival, but this was a batch where I wasn't expecting all 9.8's. I knew there would be a bunch of 9.4's and 9.6's. The 7.0 had light foxing noted, so that makes sense. As far as sending in multiple copies of the same book in one submission is concerned, here are the results: 6 newsstand copies of Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 (1985) - 2 - 9.8's, 1 - 9.6, 2 - 9.4's and 1 - 9.0. 7 newsstand copies of Crisis on Infinite Earths #4 (1985) - All came back as 9.8's.

I would call CGC and ask about your submission (for example, my 4/11/2021 received CCS submission is way overdue). For example my four slow track moderns received on 4/6 were graded and shipped over 2 weeks ago. I've also see other people post their slow modern books received in late Aril / early may going into G/E/I.

One of my five 5/12 received slow modern submissions just went to G/E/I. I hate to say this, but these days I'm dreading getting books back due to A.) CGC's tough grading on about 1/3 of my submissions, and B.) the slow selling market, which creates a lot more inventory.

I will join you and eat crow on my last batch as well, where only 1 out of 20 books came back as a 9.8. I sent these books in to be pressed about 10 months ago and couldn't remember whether or not they were strong 9.8 candidates. A lot of these books were newsstand copies of Web of Spider-Man #4 & #5. Since CGC was grading a lot more leniently last year, I guess I had assumed that the one very small color breaking spine tick along the spine of most of these copies would still achieve a 9.8 grade after pressing. Since CGC is grading tougher these days, I completely get why these books were downgraded to 9.4/9.6.

The hope is that if the books are pre screened for a minimum 9.6 grade, perhaps there's a bigger possibility that an experienced grader will perform the prescreening work. Worst case scenario, if I'm assuming 20 - 9.8's and 5 - 9.6's, but get 14 - 9.8's, 9 - 9.6's and 2 rejects from a tough experienced grader, I can still sell the 9.6 copies on Ebay at cost or for a small profit. I just want to avoid getting these newbie graders who give out 9.0's for 2 non-color breaking spine stress lines or if the staple is slightly pushed into the book.

I honestly hate seeing non-color breaking spine ticks on pressed books. I wonder if spine stress lines tend to revert back after a couple of months sitting at CGC, more so than other pressable defects.

Can you please ask your kids if they saw mine as CCS camp. They got there in April 2021 and the last I heard from them was December 2021. CCS staff keeps telling me not to worry, but I need more confirmation.

I get your frustration. CGC grading shouldn't be like gambling, where we factor into our equation that 1 out of every 3 or 4 submissions will be completely hosed by the grader, and that we have to be prepared to shell out another $25 (minimum) to have a 70% chance that an experienced grader will grade these same books next time. With respect to your previous point about pressing, I think professional pressers will also have to deal with a lot of complaints from customers that their books did not receive 9.8 grades because they didn't get pressed like a pancake. For example, I have many 9.8 pressed books in my collection with 1 or 2 non color breaking spine ticks and/or spines not sitting perfectly flat. The newbie graders could easily give these books a 9.2 or 9.4 grade.

The inconsistency in CGC grading will drive a lot of sellers and buyers away from ultra high grade CGC slab market. From a seller's standpoint, it's a huge hassle since A.) not being relatively sure what the grade will be before sending the book to be pressed and/or graded, B.) breaking even or losing money on every 3rd submission graded by a newbie, and C.) having to scan and list 9.0/9.2 graded copies at a loss, even though deep down inside you know these will likely come back as 9.6's or 9.8's if resubmitted. However, if a 9.8 copy of a certain book is only selling for $90, most sellers will not go through the hassle of shelling out another $25, waiting 3 or 4 months for the book to be graded, and then hoping they don't get the same newbie grader again. From a buyer's standpoint, I can already sense some of their frustration when receiving a 1980's CGC 9.8 graded book that isn't absolutely flawless. I've had a couple of buyers complaining about the book being over-graded because it has one non color breaking tick mark along the spine. At some point these ultra high grade buyers will start noticing that some of their recently graded 9.4 copies looking better than some of their 9.8's, and start asking themselves why they're paying a premium for a 9.8 copy. Yesterday someone sent me a message on Ebay asking if my 9.8 CGC graded copy was completely new or like new. He basically wanted a book that was never handled before (even though all graded books are handled by CGC). I honestly hate this roller coaster ride of grading high grade books, and am leaning towards buying and selling mid grade bronze age type books instead. At least in that scenario if a book is graded a 4.5 or 5.5, the 5.5 copy will not sell for 3 or 4 times more.

This happened to me as well. Books were marked as shipped and then switched back to G/E/I a few hours later. After receiving the books, I contacted CGC and they were able to update the notification and add the books to the census/registry.