One thing I’m getting from the video and I’m not sure how true this is but I think this would affect the 9.8 prescreens in the future. What we’re seeing is that the grader will separate books into piles that meet and don’t meet the 9.9 and above criteria. They will do extra passes to examine if certain books will get that elusive 9.9+ grade.
When CGC does come out for the 9.9 prescreen, they will charge you a little more because they will have to go over some extra steps for your books. Now suppose you don’t decide to partake in such nonsense and stay steadfast on just a 9.8 prescreen, cgc will just take your books and just go over it once to see if your books meet the 9.8 prescreen. They won’t go over your books for a second pass or 3rd pass to check if your books qualify for a 9.9 or 10. Meaning you could technically have a 10.0 book but because you didn’t pay extra for the 9.9 prescreen your book now only qualifies for a 9.8. They’re incentivizing you to pay extra to get the 9.9 prescreen to chase that 9.9 carrot that’s dangling. Does that make sense? @Bill I need you to talk me out of this delusion that I’m having
I think I am plum tuckered out with them. I have no more strength and they have beaten me down to a pulp with their actions and lack there-of
The general problem is they’ve set up a “standard” for the last 25+ years of 9.8 being the highest (with extremely small exceptions). I’ve lovingly called it a “standard” here when I really mean a “scam-ard”.
They’re seemingly changing the scam-ard.
I think I have to submit “Scamard” to the urban dictionary now for a “well known and established standard that has it’s very basis & core principles based on a scam”.
All nonsense video details aside that we can write a book on, who at the top would think it was a good idea to show a 400 qty box pre-screen taken directly from the distributor?
I mean, who the heck does that? 1% of submitters?
What was Nelson, et al thinking how this might be perceived from a typical customer perspective?
Really wondering if anyone over there has any business acumen whatsoever
I mean, they graded invisible comics what did you expect? Never once did they considered how that would make them look. Bunch of clowns working at the top.
I’m not trying to defend CGC here, but I think the benefit of showing 400 identical books is that you can demonstrate minute differences. Harder to do when showing different books.
And, while there were a ton of 9.9s and 10s in that batch, the VP dude did talk about how that was a high quality book with thick card stock. I’d love to see 400 Marvel books graded at once. I bet you’d get 350 fail 9.8 prescreen, two 9.9s and zero 10s.
Just more reason to not give them your money. You’re paying them to accurately grade a comic not a comic cover. I wonder how they’re going to explain the dramatic increases in books that grade above a 9.8? It won’t be because the printers are using top notch materials and equipment.
Make no Mistake, you will NOT get a 9.9 unless you prescreen. And the max grade is now a 9.8 for normal submissions.
Big picture, this only really matters for modern/new books. Which no one should really be sending in anyway.
If you start seeing an uptick in pre-2020 books coming in at 9.9s, then that just confirms how crooked their grading process is. It would be a really bad thing. Right now it’s just an eye roll.
I’ve gotten 2 9.9s through 9.8 prescreens, although that could be CGC just giving me a taste of the good stuff. But 9.9 prescreens? I’m not playing that game. 9.8 prescreen should mean 9.8 minimum grade, not maximum. If they adopt a policy where 9.8 prescreens put a 9.8 ceiling on every book, then we’d be paying them to undergrade. So silly imo.
That’s true. You might still get a 9.9 or 10.0 in a 9.8 prescreen. The process is likely the same.
I’m just saying if you don’t prescreen it’s very unlikely they’ll give a book several looks like they’re doing here.
Now that I’ve watched the video, the biggest foul I see is that they don’t open the book at all, nor is there any second opinion. Perhaps that occurred behind the scenes here…I don’t know.
I always wondered what a prescreen really was…I would think it’s just a quick process to eliminate books clearly not meeting the grade…and then books that pass go through he normal grading circuit (I.e., get looked over by a second grader or maybe third to confirm/validate the grade… pages counted, restro checked, etc…). Now I’m not so sure.
Btw, what I did enjoy was the pre-screeer process of quickly assessing books is EXACTLY what I do when I’m looking for 9.8 candidates at the LCS.
I grab the stack. I look for those bindery tears and move the worst books back to the rack. Then what’s left I compare the spines and free edges looking for bends and creases. I then look for color rubbing off the spine or transferring onto the cover in the UPC symbol or other white areas.
In a stack of 5-10 books I might have 1 or 2 books remaining and I’ll hold it up to the light to look for defects across the surfaces. I can do this in about a minute, as long as I’m not holding anyone up.
I would say 9/10 times I find things wrong with all the books, and I’ll take he best one and compare it back to the first ones I eliminated due to the minor bindery tears and see if it had less overall defects than the last book standing from the normal process. That’s because, as confirmed on this video, small bindery tears can still achieve 9.8.
Interesting. And validating of my prescreening method!
Edit: Looks like no 9.9 for me. Small bindery tear and little (loss of color) along the spine where the cover folds. Guess I’ll have to settle for the loser 9.8….
So when the say that each book is checked twice, I wonder if they do a quick scan, like a pre-screen, then go back over the book again in more detail. That would technically be screened twice.
