I sent in a handful of books to CBCS back in September. I'm going to share my experience with that submission here.
A Surprise Victor in the Turnaround Game
Let's start with the only real negative. I sent this submission in the same day as a CGC submission. Both submissions were modern slow track. Since this was relatively early in the game for CBCS I expected that I would get their sub back weeks or months earlier than the one sent to CGC.
Oops.
As you may (or may not) know CBCS had some problems with the plastic they were using for their inner wells. This absolutely blew up their turnaround times. It was so bad, CGC handily beat CBCS in getting me my books back. Both shipments arrived at their respective offices on the 9th of September. CGC got me back my books on December 7th. I got my CBCS sub back on January 15th. It didn't even go to grading until December 23rd.
Hopefully this will improve to at least parity with CGC.
Personally, I've never been one to worry too much about turnaround times. I rarely submitted for years and now that I'm doing so once again I'm doing it for my own collection (mostly) so I don't really care how long it takes. I'd rather it was quicker, but I don't have my business' working capital tied up in books so I don't really care.
On a slightly positive note, I did get a discount since my books were late. Which is nice.
Now onto some of the positives.
Communication and site features
The automated updates from CBCS on the status of the submission (even if they were spread out over months and months) and the ability to look up grader's notes for free on the site are both big positives. I've paid for grader's notes from time to time, of course, but having them available for free is huge. This is a great transparency improvement for all involved. I actually have a specific example of how this might be useful when I talk about my specific submission.
Shipping
I really like the packaging. Every three books come packaged in their own individual custom, branded box. It's really nice and obviously reusing the boxes for shipping when you resell is a big bonus.
The Holders
The holders feel great. Very solid. There's also a ton of information on them. My scanner isn't great for slabs but you can see they're plastered with information.
My sub
My sub went well. The one book that was a disappointment is solely my fault, so I can't even complain. It's also an excellent lesson some of the ways that CBCS' transparency can help you find interesting books.
I'm talking about the first book, the Wonder Woman. The three 1970s books are all from a pile of books I'd bought at a local shop last year. I'd already submitted the rest of the books from that purchase and for the most part they came back where I expected them to. When I put this submission together I grabbed the remainder of the books, gave them a quick once over and threw them into the sub. This means I didn't go over the Wonder Woman book as closely as I should have. Here's the (free!) grader's notes. Can you guess what I missed?
light spine wear & stress barely breaks color
tiny wear top edge front cover breaks color
light moisture waves through book
Yes, I missed the "light moisture waves through book." That issue means that the book got knocked down a bit from its apparent grade in the holder. Which means the book got a check-mark on the CBCS holder and an asterisk in the grader's notes and invoice. That check-mark indicates that the book looks better than the numerical grade.
This is cool for both collectors, who can more easily buy books that present well; and for mercenaries, who might be looking for upgrade candidates. This book, for example, would be both as it looks great in the holder and it would be a great pressing candidate.
| Book | Expected Grade | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Wonder Woman #224 | 9.4 | 9.2* |
| Action Comics #458 | 9.4+ | 9.6 |
| Action Comics #460 | 9.4+ | 9.4 |
| Daredevil Vol. 4 #1 | 9.8 | 9.8 |
| Daredevil Vol. 4 #1 | 9.8 | 9.8 |
| Daredevil Vol. 4 #1 | 9.8 | 9.8 |
| Daredevil Vol. 4 #1 | 9.8 | 9.8 |
Final Thoughts
All in all my first submission was great. The turnaround time was obviously insane, but I'm used to this game taking a while at this point.
Everything else was great: the holder, label, site and free grader's notes are all competitive with (or even superior to in the case of the grader's notes) what CGC currently offers. It's really a great start for the new kids on the block and will hopefully get CGC to also improve their offerings.
Will I use them? For sure, although when and how will depend on the book and how they're doing with their turnaround times. My own collecting is tied to the CGC Registry which means I'm not going to be submitting for my own collection very often. For books that I'm looking to sell it could be a great option if their turnaround times start to beat CGC's.
One thing I'm interested in is how well CBCS books do in relation to CGC books when sold. I've got a few on eBay right now and we'll see how they do when compared to GPA results. It may make sense, for the foreseeable future, to use ComicLink, Comic Connect and Heritage where the keyword game is a little less tricky than it is on eBay.
Whatever way the sales go it's certainly a good start for the new guys and I for one am happy to see things start to get shaken up in the grading world.
By Steve February 8, 2015 - 8:37 pm
Great site. I started collecting in 1978. Finally decided to start selling. Submitted my first books last month. 6 to CBCS (because they verify autographed by Stan Lee back in the day), and 5 to CGC. Star Wars #1 was in there to CGC and (my brother) forgot to take pics of all the comics in our sub. Don't know if it was the 35c variant or not. Likely not. :). Glad to read your review comparing the graders, but I think the thing that will really shake things up is the signature verification.
By Rob February 8, 2015 - 10:50 pm
Yeah, the signature verification service is a big deal. I'll definitely take a look at that at some point in the future.
By Steve March 18, 2015 - 12:02 pm
You know what would be interesting is to get a comic graded by CGC, then take them out of the slab, and submit the same exact comic to CBCS. Just to see how grading may or may not differ.
By Rob March 18, 2015 - 12:12 pm
That would be interesting- in both directions. Maybe my next batch of books…
By whoa March 31, 2015 - 6:56 pm
I was researching what an asterisk means next to a CBCS grade and found your very helpful post. I was able to see what my most recent submissions graded at before they shipped and saw an "*" and had no idea what it meant. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
By Rob April 2, 2015 - 8:37 pm
Glad to be of service!
By Dwayne April 20, 2015 - 3:33 pm
I had the opportunity to pick up a fairly rare variant issue of a comic recently and I just found out that one of the creators will be at an upcoming con. Should I get the book signed before sending it off to CBCS or should I leave it in it's raw form (since it is rare)? Which option would increase it's value faster over time?
By Rob April 20, 2015 - 3:37 pm
That's not really my area of expertise. I don't buy or sell signed books. If it's a recent variant then I think signed books do well, but that's just a guess. If it's something older then I think you might be running the risk of losing out on potential bidders.
By Jeff Meyer April 27, 2015 - 10:21 am
Just wanted to mention that although GPA may not be tracking CBCS sales, GoCollect has been tracking them since they began appearing on eBay. GoCollect has them fully integrated into sales results and you can toggle them on or off to include CBCS sales in calculations. There is also a snapshot of the general CBCS sales history here: http://comics.gocollect.com/grading-company/cbcs
By Jim June 2, 2015 - 5:50 pm
CBCS seems to have gained more acceptance by the public than PGX has. Unsure why but I see more CBCS being offered for sale lately so I assume the public is trusting them more and slabbing with them more…unless CBCS is pumping their own books onto the market? Does anyone know?… Also, I have 2 major concerns with CGC and with the auction site ComicLink. First, the CGC census needs to indicate those books that have been graded with 'white pages'. This seems to be a key factor with many when deciding to purchase a slabbed book. I have seen the same issue of a book in 9.2 and 4.0 and the lower has white pages where the higher grade did not. ComicLink extolls the virtues of books with white pages, implying those are preferred, yet, the CGC census offers no clue just how many of a particular grade received that designation. I for one, when checking the census of a book, would like to know which, if any, have received the 'white page' designation…My other gripe is about ComicLink. They boast about a book being, 'single best in grade', and most of the time the 'sbig' applies to #1 issues. So I check the CGC census to verify that it is 'sbig' and once confirmed, I bid accordingly. I have acquired numerous books meeting this criteria over the past 5 years. However, on several occasions, AFTER purchasing these books, I recheck CGC again and now the census list TWO books in the same grade, almost immediately after the auction sale concluded. Its as if someone (at CGC) was holding back the 2nd book from appearing in the census until the formerly 'single best in existence' was sold at auction! This has occurred enough for me to speculate that this is intentional and fraudulent. 2 of the same are worth less than 1 that is unique. In one instance I paid over $1000 for a book that was 'sbig' that is 40 years old, and after I buy it, all of a sudden another book of the same issue in the same identical high grade shows up in the CGC census!? Very shady to say the least.
By Tad October 4, 2015 - 11:39 pm
I sent over 100 books into cbcs this year what i noticed was all the grading companies have long wait times. 5 or 6 of my submissions have had cases that were warped (sides open up where you can drop a 25 cent piece through one end and catch it on the other side). I called them out on facebook about this and on facebook they led us to believe this could be normal but in an email Zach asked me to send them back for re-slabbing of course i had to pay shipping and when they came back fixed not even a coupon for cash off on my next submission. BTW don't include a return with a submission it can almost take a year to get what you wanted, I have been waiting on one book since February 2015 it looks like i might get it November 2015. I sent them a few emails to tell them it was included with a submission but i feel like im speaking greek to them and have given up on this issue. My last issue is that when auctioning a CGC and a CBCS of equal grades and of course the same book the CBCS grade doesn't bring as high of a price. All this said i will use CBCS for my autographed authentication submissions only. CGC will get the rest.
By JB December 3, 2015 - 3:01 pm
I agree with Tad. CGC has a higher value on eBay, but only CBCS offers the signature verification. So, I'll send anything that would get a blue or yellow label to CGC and anything that was already signed to CBCS for a red lable. The only time I send to CBCS for yellow, is if the event I'm at has their reps onsite, but not CGC.