Help me help you!14694

Originally Posted by andy49
magazine slabs

Originally Posted by DrWatson
Oh, and I am sure you are aware but the area CBCS needs great improvement is customer service. If you all improve your customer service, your stock would skyrocket.

Originally Posted by earthshaker01
@sborock I would like to see satellite office here on west coast and one on the east coast. If for nothing else, if on site grading wasn't an option, but atleast a submission location where clients could send in, or walk in their submissions. Then satellite office could package properly and send to main office.
I know I would drive a few hours each way to submit larger orders. Plus I've noticed many perspective clients on different social medias who have never sent in books that want to, don't out of fear or packing wrong and their books getting damaged.
Oh! and I'd like to be hired out here to work that office. Lol.

Originally Posted by EbayMafia
An invitation to offer ideas? My time has come! I've seen too many companies put out of business by trying to execute too many good ideas. I'm going to try to limit my ideas to things that
A) Cost little or nothing to implement.
B) Will not hurt the company if they don't succeed.

1) Try to get a closer relationship with MCS...try to get them to accept Raw Grade books. I don't know what the history is between Beckett and Lonestar, but they are both in Texas so their must be some history there. MCS and CBCS share a common demographic. The customer for both companies see themselves as different from the average Ebay/CGC customer. MCS customers would likely be more easily persuaded to become CBCS customers. Also MCS has a bottleneck at grading that limits their ability to accept raw books for consignment. If they were persuaded to accept CBCS Raw Grade books, I think over time a deal would be worked out for MCS consignment customers to send all raw books to CBCS first for Raw Grade certification.

2) I noticed that the Max grading fee is something like $2,700. Take a close look at how many books you grade in the average month with a fee over $1,000. If it's less than a handful, try cutting the Max fee to $1,000 for a 90 day promotion and see what happens. Getting high dollar books into CBCS slabs has marketing value and raises the brands perceived level of panache. It's a low-risk, high-reward proposition.

3) Some of the simplest business advice I ever got: Track it and it will improve. Anything you want to improve...start tracking it and make the whole company aware of the numbers on a regular basis. Typically it will start improving immediately just by doing this.

Originally Posted by DrWatson
As far as the good stuff. The cases are great. Notes are great. The boards are great. The CBCS personel that end up as representatives of the company are much more people friendly than some other companies.

Originally Posted by Darkseid_of_town
Steve,

First let me say this posting you are doing here is perhaps what is most needed , and more of. Asking what the market wants and what the customer sees as missing. This is a rather awesome thing in itself you have offered here. Thanks for opening the gate.


I refuse to try and speak for the entire market or even others. I am such a specialized oddball collector I can only speak for and about my own thoughts.
I have a large collection obtained over a good forty solid years, and at some point will need to cross the grading , slabbing and in some cases reducing inventory stages. I have watched the back and forth between other companies and this one for a few years now.

I had been watching for a few things before starting the grading stage....one being a case holder type I was fond of, coupled with labeling and services I could make work for me.

I think the newest holders are the answer ..they are what I had been watching for. I just need something more for the labels. I am not an artist or design type myself, but bring a better label to this product, and I will be ready to start grading en masse.
My only other suggestion is somehow make the submission process less "rigorous" and more intuitive. I get headaches and worries watching all the questions and pitfalls coupled with questions people keep posting. KISS....keep it simple, and stupid.
Thanks for your time Steve.

Originally Posted by Joosh
Great stuff posted already!

I really like the new slabs, the labels are OK, but they are missing something subtle, if I were to nitpick. Could be font alignment, I dunno.

Biggest improvement I would be tickled to see is carrying newsstand/direct edition designation beyond 2000.
Marvel had newsstand distribution through 12/2013, DC into 11/2017. Independents up through 2019, maybe later.
I’d be happy to offer up what I know to CBCS on the subject to help keep things accurate.
This is an issue your competitor has fell behind on as well; they designate some newsstands across all years, inconsistently. This is further reason to jump on it and be the best.

I second the notion of working more closely with MCS. I use MCS a lot, so I’m a bit biased.