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Grading cost in UK
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4 posts in this topic

(I asked this in the 'Ask CGC' section 3 days ago but for some reason the post is still pending) I'm thinking of getting some of my comics graded over the next year or so. I'm in the UK, so will be going via the London (Holborn? or Bloomsbury?) office. I'm trying to get my head around the price. Someone I recently talked to on ebay said the cost of grading for a Moon Knight #1 (bronze age) was £18 + £12 handling fee (he picked it up and dropped it off in London himself). But looking at the grading costs on the CGC website I don't see £18 anywhere. For a comic that's worth around £200 it say's the fee would be £40. The handling fee is then £12 on top of that, so £52, and then there's VAT, so another £10 (roughly) making it £62, and then there would be delivery to London (I'll be using the post option) which would probably be about £5 and then UPS back from London, probably another £10. In total I'm looking at £77 per comic (which a value up to £300) is that correct?

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I'm not going to go into the detail of your fees, but I would offer some general points and advice.

1. Nothing wrong with using "Ask CGC", and yes they do take some wait time before posting your question.  And nothing inherently wrong with asking the question here or the 'newbie' thread.  But you also might get a 'firmer' more definitive answer by emailing/calling CGC yourself.

2.  The CGC UK office is relatively new, and they only recently added in the "mail in" option, and others have complained that the CGC Submission Website is not up to date as of yet.  So it is possible that the prices have or will change since whenever the person you're talking to submitted.  Therefore specific direct contact might be a better option.

3.  In my experience with CGC (in America), CGC offers a cheaper submission option for MODERN comics under a certain value.  For the purpose of this MODERN tier, these are comics from 1975 or newer.  Looks like on the CGC UK website that is currently 24 pounds, but I haven't looked at the specific submission forms.  I think the Moon KNight book falls under the price limit unless you're absolutely sure its getting a CGC 9.8 or higher (CGC are typically A-holes about books on or near the border).  You can submit under the modern tier, and IF the book ends up being worth a lot more CGC can charge you the extra 16 GBP later (but unlikely they'd care).  Sounds like you're a first time submitter, and honestly its rare that first time submitters get the highest possible grade on all their submissions.  So just submit under modern, and they'll assess you a higher price if you hit high grade.  Because if you went the other way (pay the higher price up front), they for sure won't give you a refund.

4.  Generally, the unit cost of shipping goes down PER BOOK when you submit MORE BOOKS, of course there may be limits on the economies of scale.  But yes of course, you would have to factor in the shipping costs both ways too if you're not dropping in person.

5.  The 'handling' fee is 'PER INVOICE', so if you submitted 1 book per invoice, you'd pay the same fee as submitting 15 books on that invoice.  Naturally, this might encourage you to submit more, which makes CGC more $$.

6.  VAT - that sucks man.  20% GOOD LORD.

 

So yes, submitting does take a decent amount of math.  For sure not every book is worth submitting, and everyone's situation is different.

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On 11/15/2019 at 4:57 PM, revat said:

I'm not going to go into the detail of your fees, but I would offer some general points and advice.

1. Nothing wrong with using "Ask CGC", and yes they do take some wait time before posting your question.  And nothing inherently wrong with asking the question here or the 'newbie' thread.  But you also might get a 'firmer' more definitive answer by emailing/calling CGC yourself.

2.  The CGC UK office is relatively new, and they only recently added in the "mail in" option, and others have complained that the CGC Submission Website is not up to date as of yet.  So it is possible that the prices have or will change since whenever the person you're talking to submitted.  Therefore specific direct contact might be a better option.

3.  In my experience with CGC (in America), CGC offers a cheaper submission option for MODERN comics under a certain value.  For the purpose of this MODERN tier, these are comics from 1975 or newer.  Looks like on the CGC UK website that is currently 24 pounds, but I haven't looked at the specific submission forms.  I think the Moon KNight book falls under the price limit unless you're absolutely sure its getting a CGC 9.8 or higher (CGC are typically A-holes about books on or near the border).  You can submit under the modern tier, and IF the book ends up being worth a lot more CGC can charge you the extra 16 GBP later (but unlikely they'd care).  Sounds like you're a first time submitter, and honestly its rare that first time submitters get the highest possible grade on all their submissions.  So just submit under modern, and they'll assess you a higher price if you hit high grade.  Because if you went the other way (pay the higher price up front), they for sure won't give you a refund.

4.  Generally, the unit cost of shipping goes down PER BOOK when you submit MORE BOOKS, of course there may be limits on the economies of scale.  But yes of course, you would have to factor in the shipping costs both ways too if you're not dropping in person.

5.  The 'handling' fee is 'PER INVOICE', so if you submitted 1 book per invoice, you'd pay the same fee as submitting 15 books on that invoice.  Naturally, this might encourage you to submit more, which makes CGC more $$.

6.  VAT - that sucks man.  20% GOOD LORD.

 

So yes, submitting does take a decent amount of math.  For sure not every book is worth submitting, and everyone's situation is different.

In regards to point 3) If that's the case, why does anyone bother submitting with a higher tier? What would be the reason to do that? Is it just if you are good at grading yourself, and you don't want to be surprised by the possible fee increase that a higher tier would bring?

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1 minute ago, GettingBackIntoComics said:

In regards to point 3) If that's the case, why does anyone bother submitting with a higher tier? What would be the reason to do that? Is it just if you are good at grading yourself, and you don't want to be surprised by the possible fee increase that a higher tier would bring?

I’m not entirely sure, but the first reason that comes to mind is.  

if you are OBVIOUSLY in the higher tier, submitting in the lower tier then having it changed by CGC would almost certainly  result in additional waiting time for no real benefit.

and it might result in additional scrutiny of your books that might legitimately be on the border you were trying to slip through 

 

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