Keep it Raw!

by Usnav
(New York )

CGC is a profit driven company selling a flawed service/product. The service they provide is way overpriced and the 'grading' is inconsistent. How and why? This is because the process of grading is based on subjective criteria, humans are not always consistent, make mistakes and have implemented profit driven motives toward their grading process. Lastly, consumers/users of their service are not privy to the observation process - are the books scrutinized to the extent they claim, who are the graders and what makes them 'professional'?
There are MANY examples of books sent back (unslabbed) to be regraded and the second submission results in a grade that is plus or minus up to 2-3 points from the iinitial grade (ex, initial 7.0 grade, regrade becomes 8.5). The condition of the book being is not guaranteed during the initial shipping process.
CGC promotes itself to provide 'confidence' for the consumer by stating buyers will know what they are getting because it has been 'professionallly graded'. On the contrary, there is less and less confidence for the consumer as they are realizing the prices for graded books are over inflated. Inflated prices due to sellers having to recuperate the cost of grading/shipping/etc. by overpricing the value of the book, too much confidence in their grading process and the promise of unrivaled protection of the book - CGC claims to use 'state of the art' materials for their holder. The so called state of the art material they use is called PLASTIC!
The very concept of grading and selling comic books has taken the 'fun' out from this particular collecting hobby. As more and more collectors are submitting and or buying/reselling graded books, people will simply lose interest because of the over inflated prices. New collectors will immediately be turned off by the over inflated prices. Collectors who are passionate about this hobby and the consumer WILL lose. The true value found in comic books are found in the stories and art. Books with great stories, characters, art and relative condition of the books are the core of the collecting hobby in that order. The value of putting hard plastic and slapping a number grade to it does NOT add value to the content of the book and their highly advertised preservation techniques are overrated, debatable and yet to be proven effective.
Buyer beware, if you choose to buy graded books then don't overpay or better yet KEEP IT RAW!!!!