Actually it’s more ridiculous than that. Ryan from Automatic Comics did a followup video. One of his viewers did some sleuthing and found out they 77 Wolverine 1s were sent in together in the same submission. Basically all 10 new 9.9s in the census were to the same submitter (Comicconnect)
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■■■■■■■ Vincent Zurzulo. That guy has so much money that he just has to snatch up Wolverine 1s and resubmit in hopes on getting an 80k Wolverine 1
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Here is the video if anyone wants to see more CGC related amusement. There’s some good info there and number crunching.
BTW I mentioned earlier that I thought these 9.9s flooding the market would encourage folks to snatch up a batch of 9.8 keys to resubmit. In the video Ryan talks about the 9.9 record sales prices in ComicConnect’s auction. Among them was a 9.9 X-Force 2 (2nd Deadpool) that sold for a ridiculous $4600. I had mentioned that I think people could potentially be accumulating some of these lower tier 9.8 keys to prescreen. You can pick up a 9.8 X-Force 2 for $50.
So essentially CGC has created a new money generating scheme for themselves and flippers
- Folks buy up 100 cgc 9.8 X-Force 2 at $50. 100 x $50 = $5000 + shipping cost
- Crack and send in for either a 9.8 or 9.9 prescreen
- Now out of the 100 people send in, even if you get 1 9.9 and sell it for $4600 you almost break even. But it’s very likely that you would get more than that based on the example we saw from Wolverine 1. Let’s say you get 10, then you are making bank.
- What happens to the ones that get rejected for a 9.9? Why you send them in again for a 9.9 prescreen again of course
- Eventually you will get no more 9.9s from this batch of 100, you would then sell the rest as 9.8s to recoup some money back, but assuming you have already gotten a few 9.9s then these are just extra money for you until you sell them and a new buyer/flipper buys them and recycles this scheme.
- So essentially the census will be flooded with 9.9 X-Force 2 and prices will continue to drop depending on how often the flipper is putting these out to market. So it makes sense for them to sell it early.
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CGC is now just some company people send money too to lie to them to tell them their books are in better shape than they actually are…
You know, that just baffles me in this day in age why people have to spend money to be lied to all just to say their book is not what it actually is in reality… just keep your money and your comic, slap your own perfect grade on it I say… just flushing money down the toilet if you’re giving it to CGC!
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We sometimes forget that there’s a significant population of hobbyists that just aren’t all that savvy and/or bright. It’s no different than the world outside of our hobby.
Yea - most, if not all on here educate themselves in the hobby, pay attention, are savvy, quick, can deduce likely outcomes, and are spot on. But have a chat with some rando on a line at a convention and often your head will spin. We forget this.
Until most hobbyists are savvy, can make educated decisions on their own based on criteria, and are bright enough to research and stay “in the know”, this CGC will continue to be successful. I’m banking on it. And I will continue to submit even though I do not believe in the scam because the scam has worked for me very very well
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No, but that’s what I’m saying. Pre-9.9 would someone actually submit these books? Some Maybe, but the 9.9 carrot is extra incentive.
Can’t wait for people to crack those to get his signature thinking they’ll retain the 9.9, only to get a 9.8 back!
They’ll have to send it back in for a 9.9 prescreen AGAIN!!
Money money money money.
Money!
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The other thing is, it makes one wonder if those were submitted by someone not as “connected”, would they get that many 9.9s and 10s? 
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There really is no discernible difference in a 9.8 than a 9.9 that warrants an order of magnitude greater value.
Can’t really blame CGC for this. It’s the people paying 10x the fmv of a 9.8 for basically a label that says 9.9 in “gold”
Ink.
Stupid is as stupid does.
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This. I hear ya.
What spins my head is where does this money come from? I struggle to accumulate the cash to buy a decent Bronze Age book…forget about a stupid 9.9 x-Force 2…
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…not a chance.
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What’s more is apparently CGC CEO Mike Hudson or whatever his name is, apparently said that 9.9 can have spine ticks. It’s in an interview with Swagglehaus. I haven’t watched it yet, but that is the tag line.
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The thing that I find amusing is the short-sightedness of it all. You start accumulating a bunch of 9.9 or 10.0 Wolverine #1s, you know what happens to the price of Wolverine 9.9/10.0s, it plummets, especially when everyone knows how the 9.8s are being cracked to get a 9.9. The reason they go for so much was they are perceived to be rare, once that is no longer is the case, it just another 10% higher than the grade below.
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Well, if my Batman 423 can be riddled with ticks and be a 9.4, I believe him.
They’re trying to get there first so they can get the biggest potential return on investment.
Normally I’d be in favor of the hobby trying to save people money, but honestly let fools and their money be parted.
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Man, I’m about ready to not have my CGC membership renewed as I barely used-up my credit for this year getting some stuff slabbed for my personal collection. It is just a mess after mess with this company.
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It’s like a train wreck…so much momentum you can’t stop it but can only watch it as the tragedy unfolds…
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Why so much talk about CGC 9.9 pre-screens, something that doesn’t exist 
All these 9.9’s must keep coming, flood the market and crash it, this hobby needs a proper reset and I’m all for it. Let them become the new 9.8
CGC is quite interesting. Out of the almost the 700+ submissions that I have made to them over the years, I have only had 1 9.9 and it was on one of the most obscure books. Who knows if this is CGC themselves doing this or if it is Blackrock forcing into coming up with these shady practices. Honestly, it should have been like this from the start because what is the difference between a 9.9 and 10.0? I’ve sent in 9.9 and 10.0 quality books, they always end up with a 9.8.
As much as they are doing this shady stuff, I will say their customer service has always been good to me. I have even had to have Matt Nelson involved on several instances where his team has damaged books of mine and they did the right thing replacing those books.
What sounds crazy is that he says they will allow a spine tic on a 9.9, yet I have sent in books where it has one faint spine tic and the books ends up with a 9.6 or even worse, a 9.4. It is very inconsistent to say the least.
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I still use Overstreets grading definitions. They’re strict but thats how grading should be done. Older books and new books should be graded under the exact same criteria. It’s nonsense that older books should be graded more leniently.
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Well, remember, here in America it’s buy now, pay later. I think I read most americans can’t afford a 1k dollar emergency bill… it’s like in the 80% range… that’s astounding to me… I feel fortunate I use to carry a thousand in cash in my wallet for emergencies (you know, when credit won’t work, etc).
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