Look...CGC is a business and submissions are how they make their dough. With the current slump in prices and the overall comic market, they're ABSOLUTELY going to have pre-screen 9.9s and more 9.9's in general. Think about how much money they'll make with everybody that is obsessed with 9.8's that now will have to have 9.9's. This is a total money grab and somewhat irrelevant to the average collector. In the famous words of Admiral Ackbar..."it's a trap!!!" Thanks for the video Swagg!
I worked in Corporate Loss Prevention for 20 years and I can tell you with 100% certainty this is NOT a one man job. Someone WAS on the inside. Impossible for this scale to go unnoticed. They lost my trust. I'll just send my Signed ones to CBCS
I still think they could just be grossly incompetent, not willfully complicit. It could be a bit of both, of course. Either way, it's not worth the risk of submitting to them.
I agree with you, Swag. The real issue isn't the cases, it has always been quality control with CGC. from the moment they receive the books to the moment they encase them backwards and damaged to the send them out poorly packaged and/or damaged. and CGC will never own up to their full responsibility in a situation like this or they risk losing tons of revenue. I guess it's like the old saying when something bad happens..."better to you than me." Thanks for sharing, good sir.
I remember having to send my Authority #1 back for a big black hair *barf* in the case and yet again for a plastic piece that was loose in the inner well.
Immaculate's video is helpful because: 1) It highlights for CGC the ways in which their cases are vulnerable. If the GCC reholder department does their job, a tampered book can't be passed through CGC to unsuspecting buyers. 2) It tells the marketplace that they need to be very cautious with their books and slabs. You can trust every buyer, but you need to scrutinize your books and slabs when you know that someone could be selling you a lemon. 3) It may drive CGC to redesign for more security. 4) It shows CBCS has more secure slabs.
Cases (*in this type of switcheroo*) were not the reason for the problems. It was the failure to properly regrade resubmission requests on high value books. So easily preventable.
@@tomvu1470 Exactly. This guy knew that CGC was not going to scrutinize his submissions, so he knew that they would essentially do his dirty work for him. What the Immaculate video did was show them how wrong they were to be the rubber stamp. If they can't certify or guarantee the books they mail out, then they aren't worth their name. This should make CGC tighten up their operations, or else the next scam will show they ignored it.
@@tomvu1470The ease of getting into them without damage was at least partially the problem. If someone was sending in slabs repeatedly that looked tampered with or had melted corners like it took to get into the CBCS cases I would assume it is far more likely to raise red flags.
Matt Nelson said at 5:46 in the interview: 'To date there hasn't been evidence of [other] books that have been tampered with.' *Yes, that's because your cases are not tamper-evident.*
If CGC can detect restoration in comic books submitted, why can’t they detect the resealing of original cases that come in? Wouldn’t black lighting or some technology pick glue up?
The 9.9 prescreen is not for the regular public. It is specifically for those retailers who order exclusives from the publisher and artists (comictom, brys, big time collectibles, etc) at a count of 3k issues minimum. They in turn could send a stack of a few hundreds or a thousand to pull out the 9.9s with the prescreens and look to make up for their costs. CGC has identified this an an opportunity where they can make money, and they will.
There is no 9.9 prescreen it is a distraction topic. Hey guys talk about how Matt Nelson let slip that maybe one day they might do a 9.9 prescreen and stop talking about the reholder scam.
9.9 prescreening will never happen. Corporate talking heads do this kind of thing all the time to appear that they’re not stagnant. They mention a bunch of ideas that’ve been floated internally. 9.9 prescreening will never happen.
350 books from one person is just the tip of the iceberg. The guy that got caught became to greedy, but there's probably a couple hundred-thousand others who got away with a small fortune tampering only a couple books through personal, person to person sales and not online. I think the real number with tampered slabs will destroy CGC's reputation completely.
There's ABSOLUTELY other people who have done this. So there is no way of know what CGC slabs have been impacted. Therefore, each and every CGC slab is tainted because no one can know if it has been tampered with. And the only people that insist on downplaying it are those that have a lot of money sunk into slabs and are just looking to protect their cash/collections.
Here's the problem with saying that they are going to compensate at FMV. If people individually went after the scammer and a judge ruled they get compensated at FMV and not what they paid, then the scammer comes out ahead and the buyer who did nothing wrong gets screwed. With CGC keeping the "evidence" people have no recourse to go after the scammer since they don't have any evidence anymore and have already been compensated by CGC. They should be compensating at purchase price if there is receipts or replacement cost whichever is greater.
He said if a replacement book wasn't available, then they would get compensated at fmv. Like an ASM #300 newsstand 9.8 mark jewelers. But if its an ASM #300 Direct 9.8, there's loads available so they'll be given a replacement book in exchange for their tampered one. But he said there will be a lot of variables involved in figuring out how to compensate people. At least he's being proactive and not sitting on his ass. I believe he's genuinely trying to help
Trust will be earned. That is the gauntlet CGC have to clear now. Case by case we will hopefully hear the details as long as NDAs aren't involved. NDAs would be a dagger in the heart for trust.
Just replace the book in the tampered holder with an even worse copy then send that back to them to get compensated, then regrade the book you took out lol
@@stevenbrown9374 Are there loads available? there's like 1500 total, maybe closer to 1400 after this scam is resolved. How many people are selling those books in this market? There is 1 available on ebay, 1 on my comic shop, 2 on comiclink and 1 on heritage. In the past 12 months 90 have been sold in total (according to GPA) which is almost exactly how many are on the list. It reminds me of Sticky Goose who had a CGC 9.6 ASM 300 Newstand that was encapsulated wrong and got damaged. CGC offered the book back regraded at about a 7.5 or 8.0 and the difference in value of 1700 dollars as CGC credit or they would replace it with and ASM 300 9.6 direct. He ended up taking the direct and basically said thank you to cgc for screwing him out of about 600 bucks. Or the startling comics 47 that was a cgc blue label 9.6 that someone paid 12grand for and when they went to crack it for a clean and press it had a huge coupon cut out and got regraded a cgc 9.8 green label and resulted in a $9000 loss, since the book was taken out of the case not by CGC they did nothing. The blind faith of CGC to do the right thing with all the past evidence pointing to them always not doing the right thing astounds me.
I think I might have found more I bought some Star Wars 1 CGC 9.8s last year and the scanned images don’t line up with what my books look like. No notes on the cert number unfortunately
Am I missing something or wouldn't sealing the label inside the inner sleeve so it is not removable prevent this scam from happening? Right now you can slide it out.
350 reholder requests by one person should have raised alarms. Feels like an inside job. Cgc president was not giving up anything and had used car salesman vibes. Their cases are completely compromised.
I agree, this has to be in part someone in the inside at least or at most a culprit in this scandal. Emails exchange included!!! This is all very suspect
CGC was not even aware that those original books were scammed in the re-holders - how is Nelson “sure” that list is all the books & he seems certain it’s just one bad actor. From a statistical standpoint, it’s an impossibility.
More like, it took one of the common sellers acquainted with the group of folks that dominate y0utub3 search results while the rest of us have our comments criticizing CGC end up being muted by those same kinds of channels for years. Y0utub3 is too much censoring and algorithms and one limited search engine, conversations like this could had been ongoing but we were not allowed, until this.
When I worked in an insurance lawyer's office, they had a huge sign that read, "We Only Settle For Less". It took up the entire wall and they meant it.
Matt Nelson is just doing damage control for his mediocre company. 'Gaslighting' might be a better word for it. He doesn't need to be congratulated for that. The only thing that's transparent about CGC is the plastic they use.
When I heard the 9.9 prescreen part of that video I immediately thought about your video. I think this gives strong evidence that they are looking at a modern book 9.9 revenue stream. Get everyone to send in their modern 9.8s to try for the 9.9.....$$$$$$ in CGC's coffers.
Or because buyers won't trust our 9.8s. No one is talking about this enough. We need to be 100% confident books can't be swapped without leaving evidence.
If 9.9's become the new 9.8's that's awful. The problem is that 9.9 CGC books do not look like 9.9's ! As I mentioned in a previous video, EVERY single 9.9 CGC and CBCS that crossed my hands DOES NOT reflect that grade !!!!!
@@StoneyMaloney1 No, on the contrary...I expect 10's to be flawless not 9.9's (however, even the 10's had faults to them).I bought and sold a number of 9.9's and all of them had 1-3 flaws each...some had creases in a corner...others larger color smudges...even multiple spine tics breaking color....I recall a 9.9 I had a finger print on the center of the cover. Clearly, 9.9's , if resubmitted would all come back in lower grades without a doubt
PSA: Matt Nelson went on an interview on the Davengers YT Channel, and after 57m, NOTHING concrete was asked by the Interviewers. This was a puff piece. Mr. Nelson, could not talk about ANYTHING, he had no answers about anything concerning this scandal. Nor were there any commitments to a NEW SLAB HOLDER. This scam did not happened as it did, simply because of a weakness in CGC’s Re-Holdering process. It occurred this way because CGC’s inner sleeve / comic and Labels were not unified and encoded, and because their “New” cases, for comic books and magazines, are NOT TAMPER PROOF. - Thank you.
Yes, let's move to more 9.9s. And then we can go to 9.91, 9.92, 9.93, etc. Where does this grading madness stop?! Are they going to use an electron microscope in order to find these minuscule differences?
Easy answer to fixate on reholders. What about the case where the book in the slab is swapped, slab sold and raw book sent back in for grading. They need imaging software checking every book coming in and comparing against older submissions. My guess would be that the old book would only be sent in again if it had been cleaned/pressed, so would appear like a different book anyway. Still feel some way of linking the inner well to the slab would be better
Cgc is up to it’s neck in its own shit. No one in their right mind should buy a big money book at the moment unless it’s raw, they know what they’re doing and can visually check the book page by page.
That's ridiculous. The obvious thing that is not being mentioned is that the grade that's on the slab is not accurate. If they say that some 9.8 are actually 9.9 then that's clearly an admission that their grading isn't consistent. And people are buying slabbed comic books for their grades. Without consistency, the grades don't mean anything.
I think the community has accepted 9.8 as the "perfect book" largely because CGC essentially refuses to provide grader notes for 9.8 and 9.9 grades. Anything under 10.0 should require a grader note specifying why it isn't a perfect Gem Mint grade. Before they start 9.9 pre-screens, they should fix their grader notes.
As a mold maker there is no reason to redesign tooling when a reinforcement is all you need. Along with a grain sized micro chip incoded and placed inside the book before sealing the inner sleeve.
The comics are sealed in the slab so when they are reholdered they just put the sealed comic in the new holder. So unless they take the book out and regrade it every time having a new grader doesn’t mean anything.
Keep in mind if you take the remedy from cgc you will not be able to go the legal route later (or atleast it will be very difficult for you) if your not satisfied with the remedy don't take it! ..this isn't legal advice..this happened to me years ago with something else ..the company sent me something and because I didn't send it back it was taken as me being "made whole" and when the lawsuit came up I was not eligible to be part of the filing...they don't need to do the whole case they could get away with new inner well thats one piece and a security sticker.its extremely hard to remove good security stickers (not the cheap junk there are really good ones out there)
im done with cgc at this point. I wont be selling every cgc slab i own, but im never using them in the future, and i will be very careful if i choose to buy a book slabbed by cgc. Def never buying a cgc 252, 300 or 181
I am an OG fan who bought 252,300 and 181 off the rack and paid hundreds each to get graded recently at CGC. Their value has been forever compromised because these books now will always viewed as suspicious.
If they were to attach the grade to the plastic the comic is in before it's enclosed in the hard shell couldn't that solve the problem? If someone were to open the casing to swap out the book then the printed label wouldn't match what's attached to that inner plastic sleeve.
You made a lot of good talking points on this matter. Right now things are changing at CGC in response to this and there are changes they can make right now and, like you said, changes that will take some time to implement.
I'm definitely waiting on more info and you're definitely right, I don't think we'll ever hear everything. I would just like get more clarity once the courts are over, along with substantial action towards preventing future tampering.
SWH. Thank you. I watched the interview first and then your video. It helped me understand better when you pointed things out and Summarized. Good job.
Do they address anybody ever trusting current or older cases again? Free re-grading and reholdering? What are folks with current and older cases going to do? They need to laser etch the inner well with the serial number and tamper-proof tape the cases.
Sounds to me like a sucker award for all those affected by the scam. CGC needs to pacify the anger and mistrust of the collectors and so CGC will now grade 9.9. Great way to make them even richer with all those CPRs. What happens when the next big scandal occurs, will we be getting 10.0? I bet they will.
Great video! One thought is to stamp the CGC label # on a specific interior page so it wouldn't take away from the appearance of the book. In addition, if someone resubmits, they can reissue with the same # on the case. This might help with the census issue going back to my last comment where people resubmitting for a grade bump where the census is over stated since no one really resubmits the old label.
9.9 prescreen is a money grab. You send in 10 books with 9.9 prescreen. CGC gifts you 1 or 2 9.9s and sends the rest back to you so you can send it back to them for a 9.8.
I don't think a pre-screen 9.9 will ever happen and it shouldn't happen all it will do is ruin the value of everybody that has collected 9.8 which will cause more loss in trust in the cgc brand and they don't have to change the cases all they have to do is connect the top to the bottom of the inner well if that's too hard add a etching of the number on the bottom inner well and add a hologram to the four corners on the inside they should not be hard fixes but to go out of there the way and have a 9.9 pre-screen that's just screwing the customers that have purchased and collected 9.8 books essentially making 9.8 values like a 9.6 value currently in the market if they do that I'm done with cgc and essentially done with all grading
To be fair, Matt didn’t say that there wouldn’t be new cases, he said that he didn’t have anything to announce at this time. I think they’ll take their time in testing new cases before they announce anything.
@@davidsamuelson2089 He said that they were exploring all options. It took them four years to update to the current case. I would suspect that they would be able to update it quicker this time, but I would rather they take their time in order to come up with the best solution possible.
If pressers and cleaners of today cannot take a 9.8 any higher why would there ever be a 9.9 pre-screen? Will CGC pre-screen and then say... "hey... your book is a 9.8 now but if WE clean and press it using our super secret process and sauces you'll get a 9.9"? I really hope not. Huge conflict of interest if something like that gets created and their processes grade higher :(
They were going to increase their prices regardless of the scam. Blackstone owns the company and they want to deliver to their shareholders. They bolstered staff before the buy out then they subsequently had two price hikes post buy out. They are going to introduce pulps and now 9.9 prescreen see the pattern? Additional avenues for the company to make money.
Come on Swagg, you can be honest about the real problem here and the only possible solution to fix it. I have no doubt that the majority of the youtube comic channels covering this scam story are highly intelligent people. Nobody wants to talk about it because there is a lot of money to be lost, not only for CGC but for all of you who CPR books and resell them. So just drop this already and accept that it is what it is.
Not sure what you are implying. I’m not covering up anything nor am I a comic dealer so I don’t have a horse in the race. I personally think they need to update their cases but I won’t be shocked if they don’t in the short term.
I commented awhile back when this was being discussed that a holofoil void break-away sticker is required. It NEEDS to be 4 long ribbons that run along the whole outter edges. The rounded corners remain uncovered and exposed for purposes of peg inspection.
Of course, perfect is attainable. Nadia Comăneci would dispute your puny 9.8's...😉 Great video. I watched the original and thought about how difficult it will be to go back to fix the issues outside of this one party. They don't want to hire a dozen or more just to review for a thumbs up or down. That would be like a call center...a cost center. That kills the bottom line.
Are they (CGC) even looking anywhere but at this one seller? This indicates they are not. As far as reimbursement goes, you'd be a fool to send CGC one of these scam books NOW. You are way better off waiting until prices climb again and then reporting it to get maximum compensation. Some collectors are probably actively seeking those books now to hold and submit later. When Matt gave those guys that made-up Hobby Hero award it had the intended effect of breeding gratitude that softened their demeanor and that made a softball interview. And now that Matt has spoken publicly he doesn't need to do it again and won't have to face greater scrutiny from a tougher interviewer. I said it in the comments on their video that this was reputation rehab on the one and only stop on the CGG apology tour. I give them tremendous respect for uncovering this scam, but they got starstruck here. To your point, CGC should have stopped grading entirely until they upgrade their cases. Dave and Manu should have been tougher and really pushed for some concrete answers and not been afraid of making Matt uncomfortable. I think that new books are eligible for 9.9 prescreens but I think 9.8s are going to be generally harder to get moving forward because the sin here was that 9.8s were assigned to garbage books.
I guess it’s genius on the part of CGC, they just reject 99% of things and get to regrade all those books at 9.8 eventually, but I think it would be a waste of money for dealers and collectors
They Cant update to a new case that is supposed to be untamperable because everyone would move toward that case and the old ones would be worthless. This isnt like case changes in the past. CGC cases were supposed to be unable to be tampered with. Thats the premise of the whole thing. Now that it can be compromised, the only choice is to come up with a new case that supposedly cant be tampered with. The moment they do, all old cases become useless when everyone moves to the new one. Old case discount time!!!!! With the consumer being screwed once again.
The ASM 300 newsstand 9.8s that have sold in the last few years were not Mark Jewelers, but there were Mark Jewelers newsstand 9.8 copies of other issues, such as the ASM 252 recently.
Thank you, this is your best, objective work so far. Nelson was altered in his body language when answering that question about potential employee involvement. Has CGC fired anyone lately, LOL.
I know you sped up the interview to condense time but that’s exactly how CGC got in trouble in the first place. CGC is under serious obligation to produce as many slabs/reslabs as possible, by speeding up they made countless mistakes including this scam.
Disagree with you on the case comment. If you go to dinner and order the same sushi as the guy next to you, and he drops dead right after he eats it, do you still eat yours because you cant know for sure that the sushi killed him? It doesn’t cost us anything to stop buying CGC until there is a new case so I don’t know why we’d give them the benefit of the doubt.
CBCS in latest cracking video was so much harder to crack without altering case. They can use same plastic and design in CGC case. Just takes investment.
Swag love the channel, great stuff. So when are you going to bring on Steve Borok? I would love to know his thoughts on all of this as the original CGC grader! His insight would be illuminating to say the least don't you agree?
What about the statement he makes about the books on the list that people send in that cgc will keep all the books without validation of them being the official grade, a mark jewelers insert or potentially missing marvel value stamps?
I don't think new cases are the solution to the problem. As you mention in the video, it would take time and lots of money for CGC to create more tamper-evident cases, not to mention how it would devalue books in the current case. The solution for CGC is to change how it deals with reholder requests by having the books looked at by graders to ensure that they're the books that belonged in the original holders.
I really appreciate your videos. Ironically enough Darkhawk #1 is the one book I had graded that killed my personal grading record. I thought 9.4 at least a 9.0. And usually I am within .5 for what I send in. Came back at 7.0 😢
I think no matter what the FMV was, or is now, the buyer in question should be compensated the amount he actually paid for the book itself, not counting shipping and any website fees or insurance. That they should take up with the website, state sales tax agency, etc.
Additionally, after watching Ryan’s video on the 9.9 pre screen I can’t see them responsibly moving forward with implementing this service for books unless they draw a line at today’s date. This would be too damaging to the more modern markets.
It’ll never happen. Corporate talking heads will often say random ideas that’ve been floated internally. You should hear some of the stuff Apple has said over the years. lol It’s just a way to not appear stagnant. It’ll never actually happen.
Tracing down the person who submitted the books is one thing, "proving" that he/she swapped the books in another. From there he/she could just wiggle his way off the hook. There are a lot of loopholes. The law can't convict someone unless it's beyond reasonable doubt. Do you have footage of him actually swapping the books? Fingerprints, etc. There are a lot of wiggle room.
Look...CGC is a business and submissions are how they make their dough. With the current slump in prices and the overall comic market, they're ABSOLUTELY going to have pre-screen 9.9s and more 9.9's in general. Think about how much money they'll make with everybody that is obsessed with 9.8's that now will have to have 9.9's. This is a total money grab and somewhat irrelevant to the average collector. In the famous words of Admiral Ackbar..."it's a trap!!!" Thanks for the video Swagg!
I worked in Corporate Loss Prevention for 20 years and I can tell you with 100% certainty this is NOT a one man job. Someone WAS on the inside. Impossible for this scale to go unnoticed. They lost my trust. I'll just send my Signed ones to CBCS
I still think they could just be grossly incompetent, not willfully complicit. It could be a bit of both, of course. Either way, it's not worth the risk of submitting to them.
@@DocReasonable Agreed 100%
I agree with you, Swag. The real issue isn't the cases, it has always been quality control with CGC. from the moment they receive the books to the moment they encase them backwards and damaged to the send them out poorly packaged and/or damaged.
and CGC will never own up to their full responsibility in a situation like this or they risk losing tons of revenue. I guess it's like the old saying when something bad happens..."better to you than me."
Thanks for sharing, good sir.
I remember having to send my Authority #1 back for a big black hair *barf* in the case and yet again for a plastic piece that was loose in the inner well.
Immaculate's video is helpful because:
1) It highlights for CGC the ways in which their cases are vulnerable. If the GCC reholder department does their job, a tampered book can't be passed through CGC to unsuspecting buyers.
2) It tells the marketplace that they need to be very cautious with their books and slabs. You can trust every buyer, but you need to scrutinize your books and slabs when you know that someone could be selling you a lemon.
3) It may drive CGC to redesign for more security.
4) It shows CBCS has more secure slabs.
Cases (*in this type of switcheroo*) were not the reason for the problems. It was the failure to properly regrade resubmission requests on high value books. So easily preventable.
@@tomvu1470 Exactly. This guy knew that CGC was not going to scrutinize his submissions, so he knew that they would essentially do his dirty work for him. What the Immaculate video did was show them how wrong they were to be the rubber stamp. If they can't certify or guarantee the books they mail out, then they aren't worth their name. This should make CGC tighten up their operations, or else the next scam will show they ignored it.
@@tomvu1470The ease of getting into them without damage was at least partially the problem. If someone was sending in slabs repeatedly that looked tampered with or had melted corners like it took to get into the CBCS cases I would assume it is far more likely to raise red flags.
Matt Nelson said at 5:46 in the interview: 'To date there hasn't been evidence of [other] books that have been tampered with.' *Yes, that's because your cases are not tamper-evident.*
"We'll do whatever we need to do to protect our customers..." as long as it doesn't affect our bottom line, so basically, as little as possible.
You know it! Nelson is a slime ball
Yeah, that “protection” doesn’t include actually having 3 graders look at every book. That would hurt their productivity.
If CGC can detect restoration in comic books submitted, why can’t they detect the resealing of original cases that come in? Wouldn’t black lighting or some technology pick glue up?
They don't use glue- Its a solvent that kind of melts the plastic together!
The 9.9 prescreen is not for the regular public. It is specifically for those retailers who order exclusives from the publisher and artists (comictom, brys, big time collectibles, etc) at a count of 3k issues minimum. They in turn could send a stack of a few hundreds or a thousand to pull out the 9.9s with the prescreens and look to make up for their costs. CGC has identified this an an opportunity where they can make money, and they will.
There is no 9.9 prescreen it is a distraction topic. Hey guys talk about how Matt Nelson let slip that maybe one day they might do a 9.9 prescreen and stop talking about the reholder scam.
9.9 prescreening will never happen. Corporate talking heads do this kind of thing all the time to appear that they’re not stagnant. They mention a bunch of ideas that’ve been floated internally. 9.9 prescreening will never happen.
350 books from one person is just the tip of the iceberg. The guy that got caught became to greedy, but there's probably a couple hundred-thousand others who got away with a small fortune tampering only a couple books through personal, person to person sales and not online. I think the real number with tampered slabs will destroy CGC's reputation completely.
There's ABSOLUTELY other people who have done this. So there is no way of know what CGC slabs have been impacted. Therefore, each and every CGC slab is tainted because no one can know if it has been tampered with. And the only people that insist on downplaying it are those that have a lot of money sunk into slabs and are just looking to protect their cash/collections.
the ppl thinking this will all blow over are free to sell their compromised cgc plastic to each other. I personally will never trust cgc again.
The fact they haven’t acknowledged there may be more comics is the red flag. We know it wasn’t just one person if you read the CGC forum thread. 🤷🏻♂️
Here's the problem with saying that they are going to compensate at FMV. If people individually went after the scammer and a judge ruled they get compensated at FMV and not what they paid, then the scammer comes out ahead and the buyer who did nothing wrong gets screwed. With CGC keeping the "evidence" people have no recourse to go after the scammer since they don't have any evidence anymore and have already been compensated by CGC. They should be compensating at purchase price if there is receipts or replacement cost whichever is greater.
He said if a replacement book wasn't available, then they would get compensated at fmv. Like an ASM #300 newsstand 9.8 mark jewelers. But if its an ASM #300 Direct 9.8, there's loads available so they'll be given a replacement book in exchange for their tampered one. But he said there will be a lot of variables involved in figuring out how to compensate people. At least he's being proactive and not sitting on his ass. I believe he's genuinely trying to help
Trust will be earned. That is the gauntlet CGC have to clear now. Case by case we will hopefully hear the details as long as NDAs aren't involved. NDAs would be a dagger in the heart for trust.
Just replace the book in the tampered holder with an even worse copy then send that back to them to get compensated, then regrade the book you took out lol
@@stevenbrown9374 Are there loads available? there's like 1500 total, maybe closer to 1400 after this scam is resolved. How many people are selling those books in this market? There is 1 available on ebay, 1 on my comic shop, 2 on comiclink and 1 on heritage. In the past 12 months 90 have been sold in total (according to GPA) which is almost exactly how many are on the list. It reminds me of Sticky Goose who had a CGC 9.6 ASM 300 Newstand that was encapsulated wrong and got damaged. CGC offered the book back regraded at about a 7.5 or 8.0 and the difference in value of 1700 dollars as CGC credit or they would replace it with and ASM 300 9.6 direct. He ended up taking the direct and basically said thank you to cgc for screwing him out of about 600 bucks. Or the startling comics 47 that was a cgc blue label 9.6 that someone paid 12grand for and when they went to crack it for a clean and press it had a huge coupon cut out and got regraded a cgc 9.8 green label and resulted in a $9000 loss, since the book was taken out of the case not by CGC they did nothing. The blind faith of CGC to do the right thing with all the past evidence pointing to them always not doing the right thing astounds me.
If you paid $7K for ASM 300 9.8 at those highs, no one legally can make CGC give you $7K when you can get one for less than $3K today.
I think I might have found more I bought some Star Wars 1 CGC 9.8s last year and the scanned images don’t line up with what my books look like. No notes on the cert number unfortunately
Am I missing something or wouldn't sealing the label inside the inner sleeve so it is not removable prevent this scam from happening? Right now you can slide it out.
No More Newton Rings...... No More Warped Comics.... No More Scratched Cases
350 reholder requests by one person should have raised alarms. Feels like an inside job.
Cgc president was not giving up anything and had used car salesman vibes.
Their cases are completely compromised.
Matt may be a good guy in RL, but was talking to fast and came off shady...........ua-cam.com/video/JPH5ePrx5t4/v-deo.htmlsi=F7CdXefIYgM5_qC7
I agree, this has to be in part someone in the inside at least or at most a culprit in this scandal. Emails exchange included!!! This is all very suspect
part of the scam seems to be requesting custom labels, so cgc got paid and didnt seem to bother looking at the inner sleeve 😂
CGC was not even aware that those original books were scammed in the re-holders - how is Nelson “sure” that list is all the books & he seems certain it’s just one bad actor. From a statistical standpoint, it’s an impossibility.
Let’s not forget that it wasn’t CGC that made the scammer discovery. They had to rely on UA-camrs.
Not sure that's true. They started offering free imaging with all grading in the middle of last year. I think they knew something.
More like, it took one of the common sellers acquainted with the group of folks that dominate y0utub3 search results while the rest of us have our comments criticizing CGC end up being muted by those same kinds of channels for years. Y0utub3 is too much censoring and algorithms and one limited search engine, conversations like this could had been ongoing but we were not allowed, until this.
They probably knew but would not admit it until the UA-camrs exposed it. @@huntincomics
When I worked in an insurance lawyer's office, they had a huge sign that read, "We Only Settle For Less". It took up the entire wall and they meant it.
Matt Nelson is just doing damage control for his mediocre company. 'Gaslighting' might be a better word for it. He doesn't need to be congratulated for that. The only thing that's transparent about CGC is the plastic they use.
9.9 prescreen nothing more than a shiny distraction. Terrible terrible idea.
When I heard the 9.9 prescreen part of that video I immediately thought about your video. I think this gives strong evidence that they are looking at a modern book 9.9 revenue stream. Get everyone to send in their modern 9.8s to try for the 9.9.....$$$$$$ in CGC's coffers.
9.9 prescreen is a terrible, horrible, awful idea. Big thumbs down.
The 9.9 prescreen is such a diversion. A great one tho
So will cgc compensate me for the 9.8 books that I have that will completely tank in value because of 9.9 pre screens?
Or because buyers won't trust our 9.8s. No one is talking about this enough. We need to be 100% confident books can't be swapped without leaving evidence.
If 9.9's become the new 9.8's that's awful. The problem is that 9.9 CGC books do not look like 9.9's ! As I mentioned in a previous video, EVERY single 9.9 CGC and CBCS that crossed my hands DOES NOT reflect that grade !!!!!
Because you expect a 9.9 to be flawless, when by definition, it’s not.
@@StoneyMaloney1 No, on the contrary...I expect 10's to be flawless not 9.9's (however, even the 10's had faults to them).I bought and sold a number of 9.9's and all of them had 1-3 flaws each...some had creases in a corner...others larger color smudges...even multiple spine tics breaking color....I recall a 9.9 I had a finger print on the center of the cover.
Clearly, 9.9's , if resubmitted would all come back in lower grades without a doubt
PSA: Matt Nelson went on an interview on the Davengers YT Channel, and after 57m, NOTHING concrete was asked by the Interviewers. This was a puff piece. Mr. Nelson, could not talk about ANYTHING, he had no answers about anything concerning this scandal. Nor were there any commitments to a NEW SLAB HOLDER. This scam did not happened as it did, simply because of a weakness in CGC’s Re-Holdering process.
It occurred this way because CGC’s inner sleeve / comic and Labels were not unified and encoded, and because their “New” cases, for comic books and magazines, are NOT TAMPER PROOF.
- Thank you.
I literally laughed out loud when you said “the junior graders should still be good at their jobs, right?”
Yes, let's move to more 9.9s. And then we can go to 9.91, 9.92, 9.93, etc. Where does this grading madness stop?! Are they going to use an electron microscope in order to find these minuscule differences?
Easy answer to fixate on reholders. What about the case where the book in the slab is swapped, slab sold and raw book sent back in for grading. They need imaging software checking every book coming in and comparing against older submissions.
My guess would be that the old book would only be sent in again if it had been cleaned/pressed, so would appear like a different book anyway.
Still feel some way of linking the inner well to the slab would be better
Too many people are sitting on thousands of dollars worth of CGC books for them to admit the enormity of this scandal.
CGC should grade at 9.81, 9.82 , 9.83 ,9.84 and so on. That’s how they make money
Cgc is up to it’s neck in its own shit. No one in their right mind should buy a big money book at the moment unless it’s raw, they know what they’re doing and can visually check the book page by page.
That's ridiculous.
The obvious thing that is not being mentioned is that the grade that's on the slab is not accurate. If they say that some 9.8 are actually 9.9 then that's clearly an admission that their grading isn't consistent. And people are buying slabbed comic books for their grades. Without consistency, the grades don't mean anything.
It’s way easier to switch out the label instead of the book.
Where are the cops on this? Charges laid yet?
I think the community has accepted 9.8 as the "perfect book" largely because CGC essentially refuses to provide grader notes for 9.8 and 9.9 grades. Anything under 10.0 should require a grader note specifying why it isn't a perfect Gem Mint grade. Before they start 9.9 pre-screens, they should fix their grader notes.
Who in their right mind would ever buy a graded slabbed book again if they don't have new cases, etched inner well, and some mode of restoring trust?
@CharlesCharles-bb6qxMight as well go to 11 like Spinal Tap. 😂
As a mold maker there is no reason to redesign tooling when a reinforcement is all you need. Along with a grain sized micro chip incoded and placed inside the book before sealing the inner sleeve.
But they don’t want people to know it because ignorance is their friend.
Big kudos to Comicwhiz on the CGC forum for doing a ton of background investigative data research that he forwarded to the company
easiest solution is to emboss the inner well with the cert number
only would require additon of 1 machine in their processies
Maybe they'll start grading *everything* as a 9.9 for the next few months, as a gesture of goodwill whilst weathering the current debacle.
The comics are sealed in the slab so when they are reholdered they just put the sealed comic in the new holder. So unless they take the book out and regrade it every time having a new grader doesn’t mean anything.
If 9.9s start showing up in comparable numbers to 9.8s people are gonna be BIG mad
Is there a list of all the ebay accounts the scammer used so we can all check our eBay receipts?
i had matt nelson restore a showcase #4 for me many years ago...back when he lived in Louisiana? very responsive and great to deal with.
Keep in mind if you take the remedy from cgc you will not be able to go the legal route later (or atleast it will be very difficult for you) if your not satisfied with the remedy don't take it! ..this isn't legal advice..this happened to me years ago with something else ..the company sent me something and because I didn't send it back it was taken as me being "made whole" and when the lawsuit came up I was not eligible to be part of the filing...they don't need to do the whole case they could get away with new inner well thats one piece and a security sticker.its extremely hard to remove good security stickers (not the cheap junk there are really good ones out there)
im done with cgc at this point. I wont be selling every cgc slab i own, but im never using them in the future, and i will be very careful if i choose to buy a book slabbed by cgc. Def never buying a cgc 252, 300 or 181
I am an OG fan who bought 252,300 and 181 off the rack and paid hundreds each to get graded recently at CGC. Their value has been forever compromised because these books now will always viewed as suspicious.
If they were to attach the grade to the plastic the comic is in before it's enclosed in the hard shell couldn't that solve the problem? If someone were to open the casing to swap out the book then the printed label wouldn't match what's attached to that inner plastic sleeve.
You made a lot of good talking points on this matter. Right now things are changing at CGC in response to this and there are changes they can make right now and, like you said, changes that will take some time to implement.
9.9 prescreen? Ohhh the money machine go bbbrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! That is truly hilarious
I'm definitely waiting on more info and you're definitely right, I don't think we'll ever hear everything. I would just like get more clarity once the courts are over, along with substantial action towards preventing future tampering.
SWH. Thank you. I watched the interview first and then your video. It helped me understand better when you pointed things out and Summarized. Good job.
Do they address anybody ever trusting current or older cases again? Free re-grading and reholdering? What are folks with current and older cases going to do? They need to laser etch the inner well with the serial number and tamper-proof tape the cases.
I can’t get a 9.9 on perfect books …
Sounds to me like a sucker award for all those affected by the scam. CGC needs to pacify the anger and mistrust of the collectors and so CGC will now grade 9.9. Great way to make them even richer with all those CPRs. What happens when the next big scandal occurs, will we be getting 10.0? I bet they will.
Great video! One thought is to stamp the CGC label # on a specific interior page so it wouldn't take away from the appearance of the book. In addition, if someone resubmits, they can reissue with the same # on the case. This might help with the census issue going back to my last comment where people resubmitting for a grade bump where the census is over stated since no one really resubmits the old label.
9.9 prescreen is a money grab. You send in 10 books with 9.9 prescreen. CGC gifts you 1 or 2 9.9s and sends the rest back to you so you can send it back to them for a 9.8.
I don't think a pre-screen 9.9 will ever happen and it shouldn't happen all it will do is ruin the value of everybody that has collected 9.8 which will cause more loss in trust in the cgc brand and they don't have to change the cases all they have to do is connect the top to the bottom of the inner well if that's too hard add a etching of the number on the bottom inner well and add a hologram to the four corners on the inside they should not be hard fixes but to go out of there the way and have a 9.9 pre-screen that's just screwing the customers that have purchased and collected 9.8 books essentially making 9.8 values like a 9.6 value currently in the market if they do that I'm done with cgc and essentially done with all grading
I watched the interview first thing this morning. I really enjoyed your breakdown. It was well thought out and fun.
Yay. I made the video.
To be fair, Matt didn’t say that there wouldn’t be new cases, he said that he didn’t have anything to announce at this time. I think they’ll take their time in testing new cases before they announce anything.
Wouldn’t you think that he should have mentioned something along those lines?
@@davidsamuelson2089 He said that they were exploring all options. It took them four years to update to the current case. I would suspect that they would be able to update it quicker this time, but I would rather they take their time in order to come up with the best solution possible.
Great interview. Nice of Matt to take time to address the issue.
Swagglehaus, Mickey, I freakin’ love you!!! Great video! Thank you 🙏🏼 !!
Hey Swagglehaus, thank you for highlighting my comment. You reminded me that I need to run out and buy some more aluminum foil! 😆😆😆
Haha, I personally never run short of Reynolds’s Wrap 😅
If pressers and cleaners of today cannot take a 9.8 any higher why would there ever be a 9.9 pre-screen? Will CGC pre-screen and then say... "hey... your book is a 9.8 now but if WE clean and press it using our super secret process and sauces you'll get a 9.9"? I really hope not. Huge conflict of interest if something like that gets created and their processes grade higher :(
Notice how they didn’t say a word on making their cases more secure or less adaptable to scams? But they will be increasing prices.
They were going to increase their prices regardless of the scam. Blackstone owns the company and they want to deliver to their shareholders. They bolstered staff before the buy out then they subsequently had two price hikes post buy out. They are going to introduce pulps and now 9.9 prescreen see the pattern? Additional avenues for the company to make money.
Come on Swagg, you can be honest about the real problem here and the only possible solution to fix it. I have no doubt that the majority of the youtube comic channels covering this scam story are highly intelligent people. Nobody wants to talk about it because there is a lot of money to be lost, not only for CGC but for all of you who CPR books and resell them. So just drop this already and accept that it is what it is.
Not sure what you are implying. I’m not covering up anything nor am I a comic dealer so I don’t have a horse in the race. I personally think they need to update their cases but I won’t be shocked if they don’t in the short term.
I commented awhile back when this was being discussed that a holofoil void break-away sticker is required. It NEEDS to be 4 long ribbons that run along the whole outter edges. The rounded corners remain uncovered and exposed for purposes of peg inspection.
hahaha first thing I thought was "I speak that fast???", thanks Mickey! I just started watching but excited to see the whole thing!
Haha yes I’m guilty of watching things at 1.5 speed 😅
That interview was PR fluff. Definitely didn't instill trust that CGC is really addressing anything.
Of course, perfect is attainable. Nadia Comăneci would dispute your puny 9.8's...😉 Great video. I watched the original and thought about how difficult it will be to go back to fix the issues outside of this one party. They don't want to hire a dozen or more just to review for a thumbs up or down. That would be like a call center...a cost center. That kills the bottom line.
Are they (CGC) even looking anywhere but at this one seller? This indicates they are not.
As far as reimbursement goes, you'd be a fool to send CGC one of these scam books NOW. You are way better off waiting until prices climb again and then reporting it to get maximum compensation. Some collectors are probably actively seeking those books now to hold and submit later.
When Matt gave those guys that made-up Hobby Hero award it had the intended effect of breeding gratitude that softened their demeanor and that made a softball interview. And now that Matt has spoken publicly he doesn't need to do it again and won't have to face greater scrutiny from a tougher interviewer.
I said it in the comments on their video that this was reputation rehab on the one and only stop on the CGG apology tour. I give them tremendous respect for uncovering this scam, but they got starstruck here.
To your point, CGC should have stopped grading entirely until they upgrade their cases. Dave and Manu should have been tougher and really pushed for some concrete answers and not been afraid of making Matt uncomfortable.
I think that new books are eligible for 9.9 prescreens but I think 9.8s are going to be generally harder to get moving forward because the sin here was that 9.8s were assigned to garbage books.
I don’t understand the 9.9 prescreen…I think that would just be throwing money away, unless they are saying they are going to be more lax on 9.9’s??
I guess it’s genius on the part of CGC, they just reject 99% of things and get to regrade all those books at 9.8 eventually, but I think it would be a waste of money for dealers and collectors
Woah, did I see Swagglehaus will be on the Comic Doctor's stream this week? Worlds colliding. Looking forward to it
They Cant update to a new case that is supposed to be untamperable because everyone would move toward that case and the old ones would be worthless. This isnt like case changes in the past. CGC cases were supposed to be unable to be tampered with. Thats the premise of the whole thing. Now that it can be compromised, the only choice is to come up with a new case that supposedly cant be tampered with. The moment they do, all old cases become useless when everyone moves to the new one. Old case discount time!!!!! With the consumer being screwed once again.
The whole slabbing market is a scam within itself. If the general public catches wind of these shenanigans we'll all be laughingstocks.
What is the total estimated value of those 300+ book on the list?
The ASM 300 newsstand 9.8s that have sold in the last few years were not Mark Jewelers, but there were Mark Jewelers newsstand 9.8 copies of other issues, such as the ASM 252 recently.
Thank you, this is your best, objective work so far. Nelson was altered in his body language when answering that question about potential employee involvement. Has CGC fired anyone lately, LOL.
So who is the best graded company for comics now?
I know you sped up the interview to condense time but that’s exactly how CGC got in trouble in the first place. CGC is under serious obligation to produce as many slabs/reslabs as possible, by speeding up they made countless mistakes including this scam.
Has CBCS made any statements regarding their process?
Funny how they don’t “see trends” when it comes to their fraudulent grading.
If cgc adds a bunch of 9.9s to the market now after this it's gonna water down collecting for alot of people. It won't seem authentic.
Disagree with you on the case comment. If you go to dinner and order the same sushi as the guy next to you, and he drops dead right after he eats it, do you still eat yours because you cant know for sure that the sushi killed him? It doesn’t cost us anything to stop buying CGC until there is a new case so I don’t know why we’d give them the benefit of the doubt.
Swaggs man I hope the 9.9 isn’t the new 9.8…9.8s are amazing and if the 9.9 takes over….sorta takes the mystique away from the 9.9. Just my opinion.
CBCS in latest cracking video was so much harder to crack without altering case. They can use same plastic and design in CGC case. Just takes investment.
My suggestion is to seal the grading label inside the inner well with the book...
Swag love the channel, great stuff. So when are you going to bring on Steve Borok? I would love to know his thoughts on all of this as the original CGC grader! His insight would be illuminating to say the least don't you agree?
What about the statement he makes about the books on the list that people send in that cgc will keep all the books without validation of them being the official grade, a mark jewelers insert or potentially missing marvel value stamps?
I don't think new cases are the solution to the problem. As you mention in the video, it would take time and lots of money for CGC to create more tamper-evident cases, not to mention how it would devalue books in the current case. The solution for CGC is to change how it deals with reholder requests by having the books looked at by graders to ensure that they're the books that belonged in the original holders.
I really appreciate your videos. Ironically enough Darkhawk #1 is the one book I had graded that killed my personal grading record. I thought 9.4 at least a 9.0. And usually I am within .5 for what I send in. Came back at 7.0 😢
I think no matter what the FMV was, or is now, the buyer in question should be compensated the amount he actually paid for the book itself, not counting shipping and any website fees or insurance. That they should take up with the website, state sales tax agency, etc.
So hypothetically, if you bought a GSX1 10 years ago for $1000, you'll accept $1000 now?
@@cwwheelz And if it were worth $100 now I'd accept the $1,000 I paid for it originally. It's a two way street.
Additionally, after watching Ryan’s video on the 9.9 pre screen I can’t see them responsibly moving forward with implementing this service for books unless they draw a line at today’s date. This would be too damaging to the more modern markets.
It’ll never happen. Corporate talking heads will often say random ideas that’ve been floated internally. You should hear some of the stuff Apple has said over the years. lol
It’s just a way to not appear stagnant. It’ll never actually happen.
they need to stamp the cert number into the inner plastic it would help
Just say no to slabs.
There you go again thinking critically and not just jumping to conclusions...
Haha my bad 😂
Great analysis!
CBCS has great cases and even "Immaculate Comics" couldn't break into one of their new cases without leaving obvious signs of case damage.
Yeah, CGC banned that from being discussed on their boards
I cant trust cgc now
How are modern books not 9.9. Does this also mean everyone will be be resubmitting 9.8 with no spine ticks for a possible 9.9.
Tracing down the person who submitted the books is one thing, "proving" that he/she swapped the books in another. From there he/she could just wiggle his way off the hook. There are a lot of loopholes. The law can't convict someone unless it's beyond reasonable doubt. Do you have footage of him actually swapping the books? Fingerprints, etc. There are a lot of wiggle room.