Elder of the Universe

I had a strange situation about a year ago. I won a fairly worthless CGC graded book in an on-line auction held by a very well known comic book retailer. When I went to register the book, it came back as still being owned by someone else. I tried to register it multiple times, but had no luck. After the third or fourth time, I contacted the registry folks about it, and was told the previous owner was refusing to transfer the book because it was "stolen." I had repeated emails with the CGC registry person, and after explaining where I got the book, he asked me to send him proof of my winning the book in an auction. I sent screenshots of my account from the on-line retailer showing the book in my list of purchased items, as well as screenshots of the book in the auction listing, all of which included the registry number. After providing this information, and spending what amounted to hours of my time dealing with a book I won for less than $20, the CGC person never responded, and I have been unable to add this book to my set to this day. Now, I'm guessing that the previous owner was possibly miffed that their book sold at auction for less than it cost them to grade it, but, after dealing with a CGC representative, providing all the proof I was asked for, all irrefutable by the way, I fail to understand how this company could simply stop dealing with the issue and fail to resolve it. So, be aware everyone, apparently if you sell a CGC graded book you own, don't like the price you got for it, you can enact your revenge by refusing to transfer ownership and accuse the new owner of "stealing" the book and CGC will simply go with it. I can only assume the CGC rep decided that this worthless book wasn't worth his time either. Good thing under $20 isn't worth the time of law enforcement either, or I could be looking at some serious hard time for this. Or not. Well, no, not even remotely. Makes a good story for my friends who think "professional" grading is a fiasco on multiple levels though.

@Six Pack - "after 20 years" would only be relevant if I was a customer for that long and had experienced this before. My continued patronage is up in the air right now. I certainly will not be sending in any more books until my questions are answered by them and my remaining already submitted books are no longer in a hostage situation. The real question should be, why are the long-term customers aware of, victims of, or complaining about, similar issues and still here? CGC may be an important part of modern day comic re-selling, but that doesn't excuse them from questionable business practices or give them the right to not provide customers with concise answers to valid questions. Honestly, I keep getting e-mails that say CGC is hiring. If this is the case, they might want to consider hiring some people with business and customer service experience to guide their company. Being a comic book fan shouldn't be the only qualification that an employee of CGC has, especially at the higher levels. With so many people having similar issues as I am (validated by the multiple threads on the topic), it's only a matter of time until the company gets into a costly legal situation. I have worked for several large retail companies, and I know that there is no way an e-mail like the one I sent to CGC would be allowed to go unanswered. The fact that CGC seems to be okay with ignoring such things, suggests that there may be, in fact, shady things occurring. As I said, it's only a matter of time before they have a serious problem on their hands.

This just happened to me as well. I chose the $15 return shipping option when I sent in the submission form, paid the invoice in full, then got charged and extra $14 and change a month after I got the book back. Why is there an option to choose a shipping service for a specific amount, if that amount gets changed after the fact? Seems pretty shady, and a lot like bait-and-switch.

@ExNihilo - I only sent in one book. It was my first submission, and I wanted to check out the whole process before sending in my more valuable books. In fact, it wasn't even a book to be graded, I sent in an already graded book in a damaged holder for replacement. @Angel of Death - Thank you for that, looks like I'm not the only one this has happened to. Still concerning is that they aren't providing real explanations to anyone.

Has anybody had CGC charge them a second shipping charge on a book already graded and received back? I got charged my initial return shipping amount ($15) when the invoice was charged to my card. About a month after I got the book back, a second shipping charge ($14) was charged to my card for the same invoice and submission number. When I questioned it, I received no reply until my second e-mail. I was then told that my question was being forwarded to accounting. The response I then received was vague at best, and did not answer the question of why I was being charged again for shipping. They also included an updated invoice that showed the increased shipping charge (almost double my originally chosen return shipping service cost), but, the invoice also had no explanations. I replied back asking for more information, but have heard nothing since (over two weeks now). That scenario was for the first book I ever sent in. My second book was also returned to me already, but says "in process/partial ship," and the certification number is still not coming up in the census. I got that one back about a month ago. I'm kind of concerned here as they still have 6 more of my books that I sent in before I started experiencing issues, and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this. Is it normal for them to increase shipping charges weeks or months after you get a book back, and why do we even pick a shipping charge at the time of submission if that is not the amount we end up paying? I think the most disturbing thing here is there lack of any response to what I believe are legitimate questions. I would appreciate any info if others have experienced similar situations. Should I be worried about my other books? Should I be even more worried that random charges are going to be billed to the credit cards I used to pay for the initial submissions? Thanks in advance for any info!

I sent in a 9.8 book to be re-holdered due to a large corner chip on the original holder. It says it was Finalized/Imaged/Shipped on 12/08. and according to the tracking info, it has already left Sarasota. The grade has been listed as 0.0 for 4 days now. I'm hoping there will be a change to that after the weekend. I can't imagine a 9.8 dropping to 0.0 just for being put in a new holder. Maybe they graded the damaged holder accidentally :)