This has to be said. Regarding all grading companies no matter what they’re grading. These companies have to be fully transparent. From when they receive the collectible to shipping it back to the consumer. Everyone who touches the collectible has to be accountable for what they do.
@The9.9Newsstand - This was great. I was looking forward to @Swagglehaus posting the longer interview and it did not disappoint. If I give guff, I also give props, and I thank you for giving the additional context. You raised a lot of points here that we are all wise to keep front of mind as we move forward in this hobby. And I think the subsequent CGC lawsuit (against the shady employees) puts a certain perspective on Matt Nelson's statements and motivation, which elucidates at least a degree of bad faith. And that's what I was criticizing -that his actions had the potential to reflect negatively on you and Dave. Luckily, the more time that passes and the more opportunity you have to address the behind-the-scenes story (and continue to be critical), the clearer it becomes that in spite of CGC's efforts, your integrity was never compromised. It's evident that CGC's intention was to use prominent voices in the community to rehab their image and recognizing as much shouldn't be seen as an attack on you or Dave. Everybody -even the so-called haters- greatly appreciate you for uncovering the scam to begin-with, and the criticism is against CGC.
Great work as always Swag and Manu! We definitely need a new CGC case ASAP. Tamper evident, hi-res scans of all past holders, matching serial numbers on the inner well, and more!
I think this all boils down to updating the case and QC overall. From the process of receiving books, grading, encapsulating (newtons rings or damage), packing, and shipping. CGC just needs a hard look overall on them as a company and processes. That being said…swagglehaus and Manu…thank you gentleman for this video and work on this! Keep it up! 👊🏼
I'm amazed that 9.9 Newsstand actually mentioned the even BIGGER scandal, which is the books shifting in the case during shipping. This has happened to me many times and I'm always worried that the comics will be damaged. CGC needs a new case so that they can't move around all over the place and get impacted during transit.
CBCS has a great, secure, tamper proof case that securely holds the book. I get it that CGC graded books command more money in the secondary market, but isn’t it time to ask why, when their product is so much more inferior than CBCS.
Keep saying the quiet things loud here Micky. Appreciate you continuing to bang this drum- it's too important. If anything, this scandal is really calling out the differences between the phony, scripted casts as opposed to real dialogue and discourse like you have. And shout-out again to 9.9! Manu - I think you should seriously consider putting out a t-shirt with your face on it that says 'Switcheroo!'
CBCS had the biggest opening to gain market share during the pandemic when CGC jacked up TATs and pricing, and they shit the bed big time. I sent in books which should have been back in 3-5 months and it took almost a full year. In the midst of that they introduced the premium tiers which allowed people to cut the line further delaying regular submissions. They’re apparently better now but they fell into the same trap as CGC, choosing quantity over integrity. I also sent CBCS new label designs and they never responded. Then coincidentally their new labels have a LOT of similarities.
So if you submit your valuable book to CGC, this is what could happen: 1. They steal your book and tell you it was misplaced. 2. They replace your high grade book with an incomplete, trimmed or restored copy but give it a blue label and tell you nothing. 3. They slab your book upside down, bend at least one corner of it and give it a label intended for a completely different comic. 4. They accurately grade your book. Which of the above is the most likely at this point?
Once again, Swag and comic fandom "Hero" Newstand 99, excellent content. I truly believe that this scandal is entirely of CGC's own making. Instead of focusing on hiring and managing staff, and internal controls - things that they had packaged into a service, that wasn't enough. They built up a near monopoly, and that wasn't enough. Then, having a monopoly, they raised prices repeatedly, and that wasn't enough. So, what was next... what new ways could they use to extract as much money out of the system? They promoted endless CGC Signature Series and CGC custom labels - at a time when they couldn't handle the volume they had, had wait times of a year, and were making grading mistakes and damaging comics right and left. I hope the irony isn't lost on CGC - that those Sig series and custom labels were the things that increased their reholdering business... that, and the outright employee thefts were the genesis of the scandal that has destroyed their reputation. They had two jobs to do... to safeguard their customer's comics while they were in their care, and to encapsulate their customer's comic into a case that had a grade on it that was reliable. Failed at both.
I saw that video when immaculate comics talked about him sending this information to c. C. G c back in 2021, He said that the c Gc forums also blocked him. He is not allowed to write or communicate in the CGC forums.. That's a damn shame.
They don’t need to make the case open proof, they simply need to make it obvious if the case has been reopened. Something like a tab that breaks or shifts upon opening that can easily be seen. Second, they can’t announce a new case is coming because the second they do a ton of people will stop sending in books in anticipation of the new cases. Great talk guys.
Demand accountability from CGC. Glad what he did. CGC needs to be held accountable for their internal scams and processing. Look up to a company that really focuses on the customer needs vs profit.
Matt Nelson did nothing but lie and create smoke screens. It wouldn't matter who did the interview or what questions where asked. Employees are literally at the company walking out with people's comics. A lot of people have said there's no way shady stuff is happening inside the company and weeks later we find out that's exactly what's happening. At this point the absolute worst scenario i can think of is exactly what's happening at CGC. They are done. Put a fork in them.
Until Matt gets out from under the PR game to address the problems, CGC is over. I hope you both keep doing the hard work of uncovering scams even if CGC won’t answer the questions we are really asking but that make them uncomfortable.
This whole idea of encapsulating comics was absurb to begin with. It makes sense with coins and cards, but not with comics. Coins only have 2 sides, but when you buy a slabbed comic, you have no idea what's really between the covers.
I must be lucky or something, out of the 100 books i have had garded, they all come back beautiful, but then again, I only live 3 hours away from CGC. Lucky me. It takes one day to ship to them. Haha. MOVE to Florida, our UPS postal workers are awesome here!
The astronomic prices of comics has now attracted the corrupt, greedy villains to our community. It will only intensify. How could it not? The books will only increase in value…drawing even more corruption
As far as gift grades go, I just got one myself. Bought my book raw, submitted myself. No third party middle man. It just came back from a signing. I graded it at about a 9.0. Came back 9.8. Not going to complain. CGC has smacked me on what I have graded as 9.8 books in the past. Just saying. They still do give gift grades. Maybe because of the scandal they have been more relaxed the last few weeks. Great video. Great conversation.
Really appreciate you checking out the video! Thank you! And you bring up a very interesting topic/idea… that with everything going on right now, perhaps they have become a little bit more giving in their grading. Maybe so people have some positive things to say socially. We talked about this a little on a stream last night and of course there’s no way to be sure but there is a friend of mine that just got a 25 book submission back and he felt the grades he got were, let’s say, quite generous. Maybe some truth this this. Definitely interesting to think about! And thank you again!
There's always the chance that CGC employees will steal your book and just say, 'Oh sorry, we misplaced it. Hope you had insurance'. This isn't just a paranoid conspiracy theory either.
I sure hope you, Manu, and Dave don't take the criticism along the way as bad intentions. Most of us truly are just spectators to the whole process. There are also many people who have a horse in the race, and probably engage from a very proactive or defensive position for their own security and well being. As for me personally, I don't actively submit books for grading or buy many graded comics. I find the whole process interesting because of the whole secondary business ecosystem that has developed around comics as plastic items. My biggest criticism still is that for all the money flowing into CGC during the pandemic and the outsized impact they have had on the comic collecting hobby during the MCU speculation era, CGC does not take their job as graders serious. The interview with Matt Nelson showed that they're so nervous about losing market share, that CGC was willing to hand out awards and tease new programs instead of just say we're taking these actions against us seriously.
This drives me crazy: "More scrutiny" for a higher grade makes NO SENSE. How do you spend more time looking at a comic book to find FEWER imperfections???
The thing about cbcs retaining the same value as a cgc graded book is…..we decide that…we the comic buying public decide if we value this product as much as that product. That takes time. Send your books to cbcs see how the process goes. See what grades you get back. See what you think about the case. I’ve been sending stuff to cbcs for a year and I can tell you their product is superior. What we need are some of you comic RU-vidrs to send stuff to them make some videos and tell us all your honest opinion. I will not be sending anything to cgc until I am waaaayyyyy more secure and trusting of their process.
I was highly critical of that CGC interview primarily because it was an obvious PR play, one that hit cringe-factor-11 when the hobby hero plaques got pulled out. Here, Manu does confirm a pre-screened list of questions in this interview. That's how that game gets played. A lot of talk about the negativity in the comments on that one... Well, quite frankly, it's deserved and it's negative energy that's reserved for Mr. Nelson's lack of answers and to CGC in general. CGC is not anyone's friend and their stated committment to the community and to the hobby is laughable and isn't mirrored in their actions. Their committment is to profit. Unfortunately, Manu and Dave are collateral damage to all the flak that interview received. Manu especially had some great followups, but most of the conversation came off like a celebrity meet and greet chit-chat skirting dangerously close to the edge of a full-blowen circle jerk. However, as I mentioned in my critique in the comments of that video, that was totally by design. That's what damage control is all about. Nelson shouldn't have been talking to Dave and Manu at all about the matter... The company should be getting grilled by FTC and FBI investigators. By incidentally helping them with their PR, Dave and Manu helped CGC in keeping a lid on the situation, controlling the narrative and keeping federal investigators from prying into their company. The fact CGC continues to ask people to send their books in is just unnerving to me. I assure you, not a single law enforcement officer is going to recommend shipping what would be considered primary evidence to CGC for them to fiddle around with. Those affected should be holding on to their books, individially filing police reports locally and with the FTC and FBI, and informing them they are one of potentially hundreds of victims. Yes, I'm sure everyone's got a "I filed a report and nothing happened" anecdote to tell, except it's very hard to ignore when dozens or even hundreds do it. They WILL investigate. CGC's internal controls are obviously deeply problematic given the details in the lawsuit against their former employees and their side hustle theft. It's very troubling to me that Mr. Nelson had to have known about these bad apples in his company at the time he was asked if there was anyone at CGC potentially involved with the reholder scam in that interview. He was awfully quick to deny it knowing full well when he said it that they had at least two employees who were up to sneaky shit on the same level as the Mark Jeweler Fooler.
Very important information here. Matt Nelson wanted complete control of the narrative. He had a wealth of knowledge and information he withheld from his customer base. Dont expect a new case within the next several years. CGC will need to burn through the existing inventory of cases before even thinking about investing money on engineering a new case...😒
CGC should just change the case for expensive books. Given the value of the book Action #1, securing the book in current, cheap plastic is ridiculous. CGC can easily afford to use the much more secure case given what they charge for these grails. For the lower price books, stay with the current case since collectors will not pay the premium.
Never slabber until you’re on your death bed and you tell your wife to send your books to get graded so your family can maximize the sales on your comics.
The biggest problem is the current and old cases. They need to re-case in a new case at near free or their brand is toast. They need to laser etch inner well with serial number, lower the melt temp, add rip foil and clear tamper evident features.
It’s always been strange to me that people will say they prefer CGC because the label is better. But in the card community, PSA is the leader and their label looks like it was designed by a librarian in 1975.
@@Supertomscustoms I’ve always very much enjoyed the technical, informational, not cute look, of the PSA label. I suppose those aren’t the most flattering descriptions lol, but I like it.
I understand not wanting to burn bridges and to maintain a relationship with these high level people. But what’s more important, a good get for your RU-vid channel, or the truth about what’s going on? If CGC were as transparent as they say, they should have no problem answering almost any question.
It is best to stick to raw books. At least you can hold and look through the book and determine its grade and integrity. Why waste so much money when you do not trust the product? Then you can use that money not spent on grading to buy more books.
1. New Case 2. Actually have 2-3 graders look at each book. 3. High res pictures with flaws circled 4. Detailed graders notes that coincide with the pictures 5. Notes should contain names or ID# of the graders that reviewed the book for accountability.
I think all of the above to be honest with you! It always felt like there was some level of intentional manipulation at play. I’m with you in this thought.
They have the better case no question. I haven’t had enough experience shipping CBCS slabs to know for sure if the book does or does not take damage during shipping from time to time. But I don’t have any trouble imagining that you are correct.
If a messed up company like Beckett that does comics as their 3rd level of profits, much less than cards, how come CGC can’t figure it out? Comics are their bread & butter.
I’d still trust CGC’s often blind graders & slackjaw shipping over any online dealer’s wildly over grading, overpriced & manipulated junk. Then it comes in like garbage & the dealer blames the post office.
Well, in this comment, you’ve certainly set the standard quite low as to who you would trust CGC over. But I hear what you’re saying. I’d prefer to compare them to what we deserve from a grading company, and they have a lot to work on to live up to that.
You literally had Nelson on for an interview to gaslight about faulty cases & lie about the number of books jeopardized - how could you NOT ask him clearly about plans for new cases?
"That's their business". Nah. Their business is to maximize profits and minimize overhead. Unfortunately, they are doing so at the expense of their own clientele. Clientele, mind you, that continually seem to forgive and forget. Until that changes CGC won't change.
Wizard was both the best & worst thing that happened to comics in the day. Worth the benefit of hindsight it really was the worst, b/w that scumbag Shamus & his shilling with Valiant to ripping off his own people.
Many important questions were asked. One or two questions were left out. But that doesn’t discount the ones that were asked. We don’t control the answers. And I know that is a frustration, but that’s not in our control.
