bovard
Sunday, August 23, 2009 1:49:47 AM
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Rank: Celestial Groups: Member, Super Seller
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Joined: 6/18/2007 | Posts: 2,795 | Points: 26,106
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Well, first of all, let me just apologize if this gets lenghty.
As you mentioned, both companies do have their pros and cons. And, both have been through some difficult times involving a bit of controversy surrounding their grading, and it's reputability. Although, PGX seems to continually have problems in that department.
Some time back, when PGX was first established, the owner was found to be grading and selling his own comics. This is obviously a huge conflict of interest. CGC's official policy is that their owners and employers are not supposed to actively sell or collect comics - whether or not that's a policy that is monitored, is unknown to me. And, since the controversy, many years ago, surrounding the owner of PGX, he has since publicly stated that he no longer collects individual comics, only Graphic Novels, and no longer sells comics either.
There has also been some controversy around restoration detection. It has been stated that PGX does not have any restoration detection. That is simply untrue. PGX does do restoration checks, and has an official label, much like CGC, for that instance. In there early days, there were some documented cases of restored books getting through PGX with a universal (blue) label. While this is true, the exact same thing happened to CGC when they were first starting out.
The last time I submitted comics to both CGC and PGX, PGX was the only option for grading JayCompany covers, so that was definately a determining factor when wanting to have JayCo's slabbed. And, as you mentioned, turnaround time and cost seems to be lower with PGX.
My last two CGC submissions were returned with at least 1/20 of the cases cracked. The packing was... eh. For the money I spent, sure expected a little better packaging. When I called CGC about the issue, they stated they would recase the books for free, but would not pay for shipping to or from their facility. Or, I could file an insurance claim. Also, of around 20 or so books, per submission, I found about 16 to be graded right where I expected them to be, 2 much higher, and 2 much lower. About the same ratio with PGX as well. Except none of the PGX cases were broken. Of course there was no shipping, as I picked them up personally. But, I do agree about the PGX case being of higher quality.
As far as their grading in comparison to each other. IMO, CGC might grade about 1/2 a grade stricter, on average. So, a submitter might receive higher grades with PGX.
At point of sale, CGC books might realize higher prices paid then for comparable PGX books. The question here is, does the reduced cost and time of PGX VS. CGC make up for any difference in final sale price. It also depends on if an individual wants to resell their books once graded, or keep them.
Those are just my thoughts based on personal experience submitting to both companies, and from what I've read on different sites, and the company websites.