milk_man

CGC promoted the record-breaking $35,000 sale of a 6.5 copy of El Sorprendente Hombre Arana (Amazing Spider-Man) #128. Their article can be found here. They only go so far as to call it a "private sale" and yet sales-aggregate sites such as Covrprice who only track trusted marketplaces have recorded the sale. Does anyone know where this sale took place? I swear I remember seeing it online somewhere but haven't found anything after hours of searching.

Sorry to break it to you guys but there are tons of professionals out there who repeatedly, successfully marry covers, tattoos and marvel-value stamp wraps to receive a CGC blue label. If the pages are the same size, color and the staple holes line up, CGC has no reasonable way to call them married. All these Hulk 181s with different cert numbers means it's not an abuse of the reholdering process, it's someone cracking green labels, marrying the MVS wrap and resubmitting for a new blue label.

If you're wondering how this is possible, one avenue is CGCs terrible quality control. During the pandemic, CGC sent out countless books without having sealed their holders. My assumption was a mix of new staff and high demand led to mistakes. I've seen a few of these books in person. Here's an example of an EoSV #2 CGC 9.8 I purchased from an online seller. The book inside is absolutely not a 9.8 yet it's correctly sealed in the inner-well. The outer holder isn't damage at all, it was simply never welded together. The holographic sticker is part of the holder, not the label, so anyone can swap the 3 components (holder, inner well with book, label) or print their own label to make their own CGC graded book.

My first thought was someone got their hands on CGC's mistakes. I've had multiple books where the case wasn't glued together at all. To top things off, the holographic sticker is on holder and not the label. Nothing stopping me from printing my own label, shoving in any book I want and gluing it together. How many opened slabs do you think are out there just waiting to be used to make a six-figure payday?

I have a CGC signature series book that I'll be submitting to add another signature and possibly a remark. I know CGC requires I submit the intact slab and they will crack the book out which raises the question; how do I indicate where I want the book to be signed? I can't put the book in a window bag because it's slabbed. Can I make a window bag, include it with the slab and when they crack the book out it will be placed inside? Can I leave some kind of note to indicate where I want the signature/remark or what I want the remark to be? CGC doesn't do a very job communicating how we're supposed to communicate with the creators. I tried contacting support 4 days ago but understandably the hurricane has everything shut down. I worry when they reopen in 4 days and have a full week of support tickets to get to, I may not hear back before the cutoff date to ship for the signing.

Another purchase I was excited to make stifled by CGC's incompetence. I have to go out of my way and ask every seller "does this book have newton rings"; the answer is more and more commonly "yes". I bought my first CBCS book the other day and am shocked at how much better their holder is. No newton rings, no floating debris inside, no inner-well scuffing and the case is far sturdier. I swear if they ever switch to an attractive label, I'm permanently jumping ship from CGC.

I'm looking to send a couple dozen slabs to get reholdered. Im not too worried about a slab showing up chipped as I can afford to absorb the cost of replacement but a package getting lost or a $1000 book getting crumpled would be catastrophic.

It seems every courier (Canada Post/USPS, UPS, FedEX) only insure packages up to ~$2000 max value. I have multiple packages I want to send valued at much more than that so I was curious how people properly insure their submissions to CGC?

No? I've never heard of CGC covering shipping costs for anything. I'm Canadian so shipping is the main reason I can't get my collection fixed. To properly ship and insure ~30 slabs worth $15k+ is really hard. Shipping companies have a limit of $2k insurance coverage so I'd have to send half a dozen separate packages, each costing $40 down and $40 back since CGC refuses to combine lots. Even if they miraculously waived dozens of reholder fees, I'd still be out hundreds of dollars to hopefully have fewer rings. Thus far i've had multiple reholders return with rings (like this one) so it was money well wasted.

Another day, another reholder returned with newton rings and hundreds of scratches. How is this still acceptable? Nearly half my collection can't be presented properly and paying them to fix their mistake is a die roll in shipping costs.

Im honestly curious how many books don't have newton rings? Im now to the point where I have so many slabs needing to be fixed that I can't ship them all to CGC in 1 package because no courier will insure its value. 20+ books with reholder fees, submission fees, membership fees, handling fees, 4x international shipping fees, 4x insurance. This is what customers have to deal with to fix something that shouldn't have happened in the first place. The majority of my collection has newton rings so bad that I don't want to display the books. It's been over a year since @CGC Comics left this post, has there been any communication since then? Any improvement? Anything?

Of the 30 CGC graded books ive purchased, a third have visible rings that severely detract from the cover's presentation. I now don't want to risk buying CGC books or submitting books to be graded since it can easily come with a pile of additional hidden fees to be done properly. $25 for a membership, $15 for a new holder, $5 for "handling" and upwards of $75 in shipping means the book I already paid a premium for will now require an extra $120 and 2 months of waiting to be presentable. Imagine going to a custom framing shop and being given a 33% chance of your frame having fingerprints and hair inside. CGC should be ashamed of the poor job they're doing.