Cbcs

Anyone here used CBCS for grading in recent times. For the first time I sent a batch of 22 modern books to them via a very reputable presser. I was trying to avoid the 2021 CGC backlog, but ended up waiting 4 months for the presser and a further 10 months for grading (had been quoted 6 months at the time).

The results have rattled me a bit to be honest. My 9.8 hit rate for moderns to CGC via CCS is about 95%, with the rest at 9.6. This submission has come back 50% at 9.8! The rest range from 9.2 to 9.6

The graders notes refer most often to spine stresses and bends. Obviously, I wouldn’t send in books with colour-breaking ticks and I thought pressing would resolve any bends.

I reviewed the books in light of the notes and I can only conclude that CBCS set a much, much higher standard for 9.8 than CGC. I just cannot see a significant proportion of what the notes indicate dropped the grade.

Hugely disappointing waste of time and money : (

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From what I’ve observed, CGC grading is not on par while CBCS is more strict with their grading.

I would rather have truth than just every book come back as 9.8’s, that’s just lying to oneself at times. It just really goes to show, grading is subjective when they all have their own rules. It’s probably why I also just keep my books raw if obtained raw.

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For me personally any books that I send for grading would be thoroughly inspected by me to insure that I only send in 9.8 candidates. I would be observing them meticulously under a magnifying glass and under a lamp to insure there is not a single tick or imperfection. Thus I don’t believe for a second that the graders at CGC possess any special skill that would make them any more suitable to be better graders than you or I. Matt Nelson (ceo of CGC) was on Beyond Wednesday’s show and he talked about how some of the modern books would be graded in seconds…yes seconds.

The only real value you get from grading them is that you’re paying for impartiality from a third party grader which makes your slabs easier to sell. It’s also encapsulated so if you want to protect your books. If the books are for my personal collection, what CGC or CBCS says about the grade of my books don’t matter.

For this reason, if CGC is more laxed with their grading and you hope to sell your slabs I would go with CGC.

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I use both.
Both companies would be out of business in a competetive business environment. I look at them as Mickey Mouse Club 1 & 2 and they only differ in the areas where they are completely incompetent.

Now that I’ve set the bar at the absolute bottom, CBCS does seem to be not necessarily more strict; but more consistent. I get laughable grades with CGC below (a common complaint) but also ABOVE (where they completely miss something readily observable and is not manufacturing). That’s incompetence at it’s best

If these companies didn’t net me such tremendous profit, theyd be kicked to curb forever with how they handle the most mundane business aptitude

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I’ve only ever used CGC as I appreciate I can give them a call and talk to someone on the phone if any problems arise. I wanted to call CBCS once to ask a question and couldn’t find a phone number or even a useful email. I didn’t search hard, but it should be easy to find.

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I was watching a video from the Economics of Comics guy (who used to be the biggest supporter of cbcs). He had an issue and called them. The person who answered the call was a girl from India sitting on a train. It was so loud and her accent was so thick he had no idea what she was talking about. He went on a major rant on cbcs.

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Their (CBCS) customer service … I can’t even use the word abysmal. I have to go heavier and say “train wreck”.

The other one (CGC) - I swear I have more “Mechanical Errors” on my dashboard than submissions. How many broken and scratched cases do consumers need before they fix the damn problem instead of handling phone calls. I don’t want the damn problem to begin with and I don’t want to talk to customer service. It should never happen in the 1st place to that amount of times. Idiots

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Speaking of Econ for Comics here’s the latest video that’s a must watch if you got time. Cliffs note, his partner in the show had sent over $30k worth of business in the past with cgc signings had a recent submission of 9 books damaged by cgc. Instead of acknowledging that they damaged the books cgc went ahead and graded the books anyways and had J Campbell sign the books for a signing. They then charged him $90 per book. When he got the books back he was horrified and asked cgc to refund him for the damages. They refused and have now lost a pretty big customer who also has their own youtube channel all for a few hundred dollars.

How these 2 companies haven’t completely gone out of business by now is beyond me.

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Someone on this forum (I honestly forget who, sorry) always says how if there were a really competent grading company CGC and CGCS would be out of biz fast.

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what i would love to know is what % of comics are graded strictly for resale and what % get graded and go straight into a pc. if the former is higher, as is my guess, then these companies will stick around as long as that phenomenon holds, no matter how bad they are.

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We would never be able to find out how many, but I think you are correct; it is mainly for resale value. Follow the money; people want it, and CGC helps them get it, along with really inconsistent grading and suspicious slabbing issues. As long as people give them money, they will be more than happy to grade however they feel like, and wreak havoc as necessary.

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I’ve said this before: The comic market is so dependent on grading companies; so much money is tied up and spent on CGC/CBCS slabs, that if one company fails, the market would collapse.

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That is indeed the kicker here. I inspect the books using a magnifying glass and light. I am not so arrogant as to claim that I never miss anything, but to go from 95% to 50% in a single submission? Ummm…

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Makes me wonder if a group of your books was mishandled after the pressing process, and before grading.

Between your (or any half competent collector) personal screening, and pressing, a modern sub should get the results you expected.

100% it was damaged during the handling from the the pressers to the graders. Multiple people handled your comics during the process and I highly doubt they would take the utmost care like you would expect.

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I just had a really hard look at the books and you are absolutely right about at least one of them. Radiant Black #1 1:50 (highest ratio), which I had exchanged after my initial copy arrived damaged, was in great condition. It came back a 9.4 with two huge bends leading to colour-breaking ticks. The ticks were not there when I sent it, and the bends clearly occurred post-pressing but pre-grading…hence a 9.4 I know it is not a mega key, but it now looks awful and any future value has been wrecked.

There are just so many of these stories with both CGC and CBCS.

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Which is the completely wrong person to do this to. It’s not her fault nor is it ever customer services fault. More likely than not, you’re also talking to someone who gets paid dirt and gets shit on daily, so these are the people you should be nice to.

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Having worked in customer service in the past, and having worked with the customer service team in my last job daily, people who yell at customer service/support staff are the worst. It’s ironic, too, because 99.9% of the time being polite and nice with them is going to get you better help.

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