skybolt

This is a good point. For example, I work for a civil engineering firm that typically goes after large design fee expressway reconstruction type projects. At some point they figured out that winning local type work with limited design budgets was not worth it, especially when you consider having to hire additional staff and dealing with clients that want a Rolls Royce for Hyundai type money, it just made sense to consolidate and concentrate on the money making projects. CGC is likely facing a similar situation. For them it may be a good decision to eliminate 25% of slow modern submissions that bog down the system and cause inconsistencies in long TAT's, QC, grading, pressing, etc., which leads to customer dissatisfaction. The last thing they want is for the large volume submitters to seek business elsewhere due to these issues.

I've been watching some CGC unboxing videos on Youtube, and this one person had 25/25 random modern books come back as 9.8 after prescreening. He was putting all the books up for auction later that day and said he's basically providing a community service since he'll break even on these books. I'm assuming he's doing this exercise for his Youtube channel, which barely had any views. I'm sure that after a couple more of these submissions he'll tire of the process and stop submitting books, especially if the price hike causes him to lose money.

In the past I've submitted a lot of books that sell in the $50 to $75 range in 9.8. My thought process was that I'll keep the books in my collection for a bid and later sell for a small profit. If the cost to grade these type of books goes up to $30, I can imagine a lot of people staying away from submitting these type of books. Combine this with the slower market and inconsistent grading, I can certainly see a 50% drop in slow modern submissions (at least in the short term). That being said, once the comic books are hot again in a few years, I can see the market adjusting to the new grading fees. For example, although 18-20 years ago it only cost me $15 to grade a book, I could barely sell them for $25-$30 back in the day. Nowadays I can easily get double these prices for these type of non key books.

I really hope that professional pressers are not relying on CGC grading the books within a short period of time so that the books don't revert back to original form. Like I've mentioned before, I have books that were quick pressed by CCS over 5 years ago and still don't show any signs of reversion. I'll wait until I get the books back before making a judgment. They could just be undergraded like other submissions.

It was 1 - 9.8, 10 - 9.6's, 3 - 9.4's, 2 - 9.2's, 2 - 9.0's, 1 - 8.0 and 1 - 7.5. I didn't expect the 8.0 and 7.5 to come back as 9.8's, but expected higher grades. I will say that I will never submit multiple copies of 1 book in one submission, especially if they're from the 80's. I had 9 newsstand copies of Web of Spider-Man #4 and 6 of #5 and none of them came back as 9.8. At least if you spread them out, the hope is that 2/3 of them would get graded by an experienced grader. Like I mentioned above, I still need them in hand to check the pressing job. Most of these books were not circulated and only had minor corner bends, which could easily be pressed out. It's interesting that the 1 book I really wanted back as a 9.8 (Web of Spider-Man #1 Newsstand Edition) did come back a 9.8. Also, I'm not sure if it's the luck of the draw, but that last 10 or so submissions that were pressed by CCS, were ultimately graded by someone whom I agreed with the grades they were assigning. On the other hand, the 4 that were pressed by a 3rd party, I've felt the grading was extremely harsh and likely went to a newbie grader.

Ugh, looks like I ran into another newbie grader. After pressing by a 3rd party, only 1 of 20 books came back as a 9.8. I'll need to check the press job when I get the books back, but most of the books were 9.8 candidates even without pressing.

Were you happy with the grades?

My 4/6/2022 received slow modern submission just went into G/E/I.

Just got back my last CCS submission of 19 books. I had previously noted I got 13 - 9.8's, 5 - 9.6's and 1 - 9.4. After careful inspection, I agreed with every single grade. CGC, please give me the same grader next time.

Honestly, at this point it's like playing Russian Roulette. Your submissions basically have a 33% chance of being graded by a newbie who gives out 8.5's and 9.0's like candy for production type defects.

I contacted CGC about my 4/11/2021 CCS received submission again, and they admitted it was overdue. They said they'll their best to locate it and get it back to me as soon as possible. This is my last 2021 submission.

The Ebay buyers that annoy me the most are the ones that chide me for listing a 9.8 graded copy for $100, since they can get a raw high grade copy from their LCS for $2. I just ignore their response.

Honestly, I'd rather they just ask for a refund instead of giving a neutral or negative feedback.

One issue I've noticed with selling on EBay these days, is that buyers are starting to buy into the harsher CGC grading. I've gotten a couple of neutral feedbacks in the past few months where the buyer thought a 9.8 copy should not have a non-color breaking tick mark along the spine or a slightly rounded corner.

I've submitted a couple of thousand books over the past 20 years and still no 9.9's.

I agree with all your points. The interesting thing is that since I'm mostly buying and selling these days, my focus has been on getting 9.8 grades for most post 1980 submissions. However, when I was collecting 10-15 years ago, I would mostly go after 9.6 copies. In my head I couldn't rationalize paying 3 times as much to obtain a better copy, which required special lighting or a magnifying glass to see the defect.

One thing I do hope CGC fixes moving forward is consistent grading for production type defects. For example, I just received a 9.8 grade for an X-Men #30 (1994) where the staples are well pushed into the spine. However, in a previous submission, a Superman: The Man of Steel #19 was downgraded to a 9.0 for a similar issue.

Since this was a run of the mill low cost book, I would just list it on Ebay as a 6.0 and take the hit. Someone will get a nice looking 6.0 copy.

I just received 4 of my submissions, which included the fifth one mentioned above. The grades for the last batch were lower than expected: 8 - 9.8's, 13 - 9.6's, 2 - 9.4's, 1 - 9.2 and 1 - 6.0. This time around I did receive grader notes (moderate bends to cover) for the 6.0 book, which didn't make any sense. First of all, these books were pressed by CCS and secondly, the book looks like a 9.8 to me sitting in the case. In any case, since this was a low dollar issue I won't sweat it too much. Overall, I thought CCS did a great job pressing the books. There were a few copies where the non color breaking spine ticks weren't removed via quick press, but this was my fault. Over the past year I've learned that quick press will not work for thicker, hard stock type covers. This was no surprise. For two submissions where on average 2/3 of the books came back as 9.8's, the grading was strict, but very fair. On the other hand, for the other 2 submissions where only 1/3 of the books came back as 9.8's, I would say each submission had 4 books graded as 9.4 or 9.6, which look like 9.8's to me. Overall, I will be honest and say that I did receive a handful of 9.8's, which could've easily been graded as 9.6's. So my overall conclusion is that I was satisfied with how the books were pressed, and after careful inspection of each book, I didn't have too many head scratchers. Another couple of things I've learned from this whole experience is to a.) go back to recording the raw and potential pressed grades of the books before submitting (to avoid surprises after 1 year), and b.) to keep my grading consistent and not assume that CGC will be grading tightly or loosely at any given time.

Here are the results for the last of my four 6/25/2021 slow modern CCS submissions that went into grading last week (a fifth one is still at CCS). 13 - 9.8's, 5 - 9.6's and 1 - 9.4. All in all 55 of the 94 books graded came back as 9.8. Not bad considering how badly I've done in recent submissions.

So this afternoon I received 2 separate FedEx shipping notices. I'm pretty sure one was for this submission and the other for another CCS submission. I get the feeling that instead of marking the second submission as shipped, they went back and changed this one to G/E/I instead. Need to e-mail CGC to make sure these books show up on the census.

This is interesting. These books just went from Shipped to G/E/I. Has this happened to anyone before?

My 3rd CCS pressed submission was just shipped. 15 - 9.8's, 6 - 9.6's, 3 - 9.4's and 1 - 9.0. No grader notes. I'll check these books when they come back, but am relatively happy with the grades.

I think the problem is that these new graders are taking these grading standards too literally. For example, in the past, CGC has allowed miswraps, miscuts, slight upper corner spine tears for hard stock type covers, staples pushed into the spine, overhangs resulting in slightly rounded corners, books that don't have perfectly flat spines, indentation from die-cut covers, etc. for 9.8 graded copies. The above grading scale gives these new graders freedom to hammer any manufacturing defect if they feel it impacts the overall look of the book. I can see a new grader seeing a quarter inch miswrap as being a moderate manufacturing defect, hence keeping it from achieving anything higher than a 9.0 grade.

I'm sorry to hear this. It's like CGC is allowing each grader to use their own standards to grade books. If someone doesn't like slight miswraps or production type errors, then they're perfectly within their rights to give you whatever grade they want. I see that these new graders have jumped over to fast track moderns now. With Economy lagging these days. it's a safe assumption that they'll be moved to this tier next.