CGC vs CBCS vs PGX

This reminds me of the McFarlane Spawn book that wasn’t signed but got graded as a SS yellow label.

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Should state as such on the label.

Does anyone even do that anymore? What’s the point of signing on the interior and then slabbing it?

Maybe I’ll do that on a future book just to be known as that guy that did that.

image

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Old school writers and interior artists don’t like to sign the cover as they usually had nothing to do with its creation. It’s odd. In other book signings they are always inside the cover. No one signed the dust jacket or book cover. For comics. Many would sign above the indicia on the first page.

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Touched on this in the CGC thread, but…first time I’ve ever had an issue with CGC…two separate books. Looks sort of like cotton in the case.


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I don’t think anybody disputes that creators used to do that.

This McFarlane book was part of his CGC signing event, though and I’m pretty sure he signed just about everything on the cover.


The person who posted the picture above also seems to be pretty pissed there’s no signature on the cover. So, if it’s inside, he wasn’t aware that’s what was going to happen.

I think it’s exceedingly likely this is another CGC ■■■■ up.

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New CBCSTurn-around Times?

Moderns went from years to days…just like that.

I’m skeptical…but paying close attention.

So, $37 and I can have my books back in 10 week (50 working days)…

For comparison, CGC is $39 ea and 7 weeks (press & grade), plus $5 processing fee.

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I still don’t like how you can’t easily call CBCS if you have a question or issue. I can ring up CGC with a question or concern with ease. I like that.

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CBCS used to be so responsive. I miss those days

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“You used to call me on my cell-phone,”

A song by @Anthony about CBCS!

Or Drake. Whoever.

When was that? Day 1?

I find the forums help more than anything. The people that hang out there for fun know more about how things work than CBCS does at times.

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Early on. First couple of years. I used to know the customer service reps by name. Had met them at cons. Could pick up the phone and get a live person. When Beckett bought them out that all changed.

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I got my July order back last week.
My August order is coming in the mail today.
And my November order is finalizing this week for shipment.

There is definitely a bit of a renaissance happening over there.
After sitting around for the last couple years waiting, waiting, waiting for what seemed like years, books are moving now

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i was actually considering submitting an order to CBCS after a couple years too. I’m close to submitting to CGC for the 1st time ever. Hopefully i have no nightmare scenario happen. :crossed_fingers:t3::crossed_fingers:t3:

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So CBCS and CGC finally broke him (Bill from Economics in Comics)

Cliffs notes: He’s done with all the BS from both companies and have now decided to quit getting any books graded with only the exception if he comes across a grail like X-men 4 etc, where he’ll ship it overnight.
He goes on a huge rant on CBCS whom he’s been an avid supporter for a while. Lots of useful info in there including evidence of something that I’ve suspected for a long time now. The fact that CBCS/CGC don’t actually open the books during grading. Matt Nelson (CEO of CGC) was interviewed on Beyond Wednesday’s youtube channel and he talked about how modern books were graded by their graders in seconds (yes seconds). He pumped his chest at that declaration as something to be proud of by their grading standards. I’m left wondering how can you take their grades seriously if they whiff through your books in seconds?
Here in the video you’ll see further evidence of graders not opening the books, total disaster. Worth a watch.

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Grading is a Ponzi scheme and I say that as an individual who submits comics every month to CBCS/CGC. I have sales I need to make.

As long as the industry is so entrenched with this nonsense, I will continue to live in the ponzi scheme and hope (and expect) it never comes crashing down. But it could as hobbyist discontent increases. This Youtuber is highly speculative in his statements, but I have to say I’ve often felt the same.

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So there’s a lot of accusations and assumptions going on. So let’s take a step back for a moment and analyze.

He has this self published book…we should all know the graders don’t 100% go by what’s on the indica as they don’t even agree sometimes. The Walmart variants come to mind. So maybe there was something about how the indica was formatted or written that didn’t fall into the standard process for what CBCS puts on the label. We only know what he’s saying…one side of the story. So this is just speculation without proof. not fact. Maybe he should call up customer service and ask what the deal is…oh wait…lol.

I know he says he has a good track record with 9.8s. But it still takes a conscious effort to reject a book (as opposed to CGC handing out 9.8a like they are candy…I have recent 9.8 CGC books that would likely grade no higher than 9.4 at CBCS). So
Something is up there…maybe they confused the stack of “damaged” books with the clean ones and accidentally rejecting them….he had a lot of the same book. Still inexcusable . The damaged copies are concerning, for sure. Either way you look at it screams carelessness. I do believe him when he says they were 9.8s when shipped out.

I do agree that CBCS went from year TATs to weeks practically overnight, and without much explanation which is suspect. That is pretty much a fact. And I do agree other suspect things have happened since Steve Borrock left (like books being lost, potentially were sent to an employees home).

Either way, CBCS is still harsher in grading than CGC. And CGC still pays out more. The drop in TAT means business may not be good there all of a sudden. Borrock may have seen the future and was smart to get out before negativity tied back to him.

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Quick note on grade screening.

I don’t like grade screening, personally. The cost to ship out, screen, and ship back you might as well get it encased. If you’re so sure it’s a 9.8 then worst case you get back a 9.6 and you can recoup your investment. Otherwise you get back a raw copy and whatever you sell it for doesn’t make up for that investment in screening, in my opinion. Basically just screening a book and having it rejected is a loss whatever way you look at it, but slabbing it will get that money back and you will in nearly all cases break even or better.

Never screened a book. Never will.

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Interesting. I posted a few weeks ago that I sent 20 books to CBCS and got a 9.8 hit rate of 50%! This is after having a CGC hit rate of 95%. I recently sent 6 to CGC and got a 100% hit rate. I was a bit boggled, now things seem a bit clearer after watching the video!

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I’m firmly believe CBCS is/was more strict with their grading. Also every single page needs to be looked at. It’s complete bullpoop that you pay for a service and they skip 90% of the book.

Would be interesting to hear the grading companies response to this. Surely it cannot be the case that a tiny spine tick can bring a grade down, whilst an internal tear, crease, stain or staple rip doesn’t even come into the equation! It does, however, go someway to explaining how so many moderns can be processed so quickly by relatively few people.

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