Turnaround 6.015610

Originally Posted by Lonestar
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Originally Posted by flanders
@Lonestar my submission that was delivered on July 6th was marked as received on August 16th and I received a notification email. So it took 6 weeks and I'm assuming it will take at least that long if not more, for anything submitted from August or later.

Finally received my notification e-mail today. 8 weeks after they were delivered to CBCS. They must really be behind.

Originally Posted by Petroman
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Originally Posted by Nearmint67
My customers would laugh at a 22 week waiting time.

Agreed, not many businesses would get away with this. And the really scary thing that many don't consider is whether or not these companies are actually insured for the insanely large and valuable backlog of books that are sitting in their warehouses. Based on current prices of graded books and the huge backlogs, each company is sitting on tens or more likely hundreds of millions of $$$ worth of books (mags, cards, etc.) that have been entrusted to them by their clients for grading. If a flood or fire were to wipe out a warehouse I'd guess that the company would never be able to pay out and would likely just file for bankruptcy. To me, this is probably the most compelling reason to *not* submit any more books to either grading company until they can guarantee a timely turn around time. I know I always sweat it a bit when my valuable books are in transit to/from CGC, now there is the added stress of an extra long stay at their facility for grading.

I hope your pad is very well padded indeed as you ponder the risk involved in sending your books into the abyss.

Originally Posted by Petroman
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Originally Posted by Supertom
I don’t think hiring more graders would really address the core of the issue. I actually like that they only have 15 or so graders. The grading process is probably the least time consuming step in the whole process. This is evident by how long submission sit before they’re even marked as “received”, or how long they’re stuck in the “shipping” stage. I know I’m playing armchair business guy here but it seems like a logical path forward.

To scale a business it would seem you need more of pretty much everything. More box receivers, more graders, more encapsulaters, more shippers, more warehouse space, more insurance, maybe even more locations. I doubt we will ever get much visibility into their actual operations (or that of CGC), but persistent, massive backlogs and delays in opening submissions would indicate that there is something lacking with their current process. Sure, maybe this is just a spike that will abate at some point, but the fact that both of the major grading companies seem to be experiencing the same phenomenon could indicate that this is more than just a fluke.

Originally Posted by felnora
Well... I see we're at Turnaround 6.0 now...
Ah, back in my day we were at a mere 5.0, when I recounted my tales of waiting woe...

So just thought I'd drop my stuff here for those looking for timeframes:

0) Order Complete 4/25 - Shipped 4/26
1) USPS shows delivered to individual on 4/29
2) CBCS updated status to 'Processing' from 'Submitted' on 5/17
3) As of 9/23 Still in 'Processing'

I too share the thoughts of others in this thread I've seen, that I'll probably fast pass, speed wooblet, or high tail it widget on the grading services in the future. They are all for my PC, but like... I'm about to hit the 5 month mark in a week.

I had no pressing or anything, so I've crossed the currently listed "Turnaround Time" of 17 weeks for my all modern submission. Which is why I've come back to the forums, to see if others getting close to turnaround are getting books shipped back. I feel my time is soon.

Originally Posted by Cerebus3000
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Originally Posted by Petroman
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Originally Posted by xtraplayer
And lol about getting a higher grade from CBCS than CGC for same book. Maybe try PSX ??

I don't get it. If you're implying that CBCS gives lower grades then why the heck would anyone want to use them? Heck, CBCS books already sell at a discount to CGC books at the same grade, if they grade out lower this discount will go from 10% to 90%.

I think the implication was that shopping around for the highest grade, instead of the most accurate grade, should not be the motivation of those purchasing grading services.

Originally Posted by Nearmint67
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Originally Posted by BPaxson002
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Originally Posted by Nearmint67
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Originally Posted by Supertom
@EbayMafia @flanders A simple way to alleviate this is to stop taking submissions once they hit a certain capacity, say 1,000 book, and set up a que system. Submit your books online like you normally would, and once CBCS is caught up, they send you a notification to ship your books. That way even if it's a 7 month wait, 5 of those months the books will still be in your possession. It benefits everyone involved. We don't have to wait around guessing what stage our books are in and blowup their forum with negativity, and CBCS doesn't have to store, sort through, and insure a mountain of boxes. I'd guess air conditioned warehouse space isn't cheap in Texas.

I also personally think the whole fast track system was a bad idea from the start. All books should be graded in the order they're received. If the problem they're having is throughput then why waste time sorting through who paid a little more. It's costing them time, space, and customer loyalty to sit on all these books rather than just moving through orders in a timely and efficient manner. I'm sure their employees are overworked and frustrated too. It just seems like a frustrating business model for all involved. Imagine if a restaurant took an infinite number of reservations and just told you to show up and wait. Then someone shows up and gets a table in 10 mins. You ask why and they tell you, "Oh they paid an extra $10 for their cheesy fries."

A fantastic fantasy idea you have. Or they could increase their staff like other companies do when the work load increases. I have been self employed over 30 years, when I have more work than I can handle, I hired more workers or turned down the work. My customers would laugh at a 22 + week waiting time.
But I digress, I just keep sending my books in. It gives me more room in my padded pad. hahahehehoho...

Simply doing a warm body hire is not always the best solution. Hiring, even in the best of times, is difficult if you are not hiring the right people, for the right positions and then provide the correct training.

I worked for 15 years in production much like what CBCS/CGC is going through. We had much the same problem with bottle necks of the workflow, until until I did a systemic change on how the mail was sorted. I would love to know how the processing here works, but I suspect that would fall under "trade secrets".

Warm bodies and training are far better than no bodies and 6 month turn around times

Originally Posted by Petroman
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Originally Posted by Nearmint67
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Originally Posted by Petroman
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Originally Posted by Nearmint67
My customers would laugh at a 22 week waiting time.

Agreed, not many businesses would get away with this. And the really scary thing that many don't consider is whether or not these companies are actually insured for the insanely large and valuable backlog of books that are sitting in their warehouses. Based on current prices of graded books and the huge backlogs, each company is sitting on tens or more likely hundreds of millions of $$$ worth of books (mags, cards, etc.) that have been entrusted to them by their clients for grading. If a flood or fire were to wipe out a warehouse I'd guess that the company would never be able to pay out and would likely just file for bankruptcy. To me, this is probably the most compelling reason to *not* submit any more books to either grading company until they can guarantee a timely turn around time. I know I always sweat it a bit when my valuable books are in transit to/from CGC, now there is the added stress of an extra long stay at their facility for grading.

I hope your pad is very well padded indeed as you ponder the risk involved in sending your books into the abyss.

Hey crazy guy, no need to sweat the safety of the books bud. We pay for insurance every time we submit books. I always insure my books at 200.00 for the cheap (new) books when submitting.
And I always add insurance with signature verification when shipping them to CBCS (never use CGC anymore). So relax, take 2 chill pills (medication time...medication time...) is there an echo in my pad????

You do realize that ahipping insurance expires when the package is delivered, right? Any insurance after that would be the responsibility of CBCS. And you're calling me crazy?

Originally Posted by BPaxson002
@Nearmint67

Training takes time, training warm body hires more so. Part of the onboarding process is seeing who belongs where. I find it sorta amusing there seems to be two levels of positions at CBCS: Production Associate and Operations Associate. Does that mean graders and everyone else? How do you train for "everything else"?