This ($30 sub shipped the day after $30 tier was announced) hit QA1 today, Assembly took just under a month. Been hearing others say that assembly was like a bottomless hole so glad to know submissions actually get out of that step 
Past submissions have shipped from QA within like a week so I’ll be stoked if I can have these back in the next few weeks. Just realized they’re probably gonna charge me for these soon…
I’ve had a damned order in QA2 for about 2 months now, best of luck on yours flying out soon!
Direct sub?
I think you, me, @kpod and @redsticktcg are all at QA2 through Ludkins, updated around the same time if I remember correctly.
I also have a submission from Feb/March of 2021 sent through Ludkins that’s been in QA2 for a while now.
my feb/march submission has been in grading on the tracker for 8 months but a sub from the same time being past grading gives me a little hope at least
anyone have any movement on their july special orders? mine’s still just arrived lol 
guys what grade will i get if i send this card to PSA/CGC, there is 2 holes in the back corner and scratches on the back, i think cgc will get me a higher grade but i wanted your opinions 
This is one of those cards that could get a CGC 8.5 and PSA 6-7 simply due to differences in surface grading. I’ve seen Japanese new-backs with similar indentations get a PSA 8 in the past, but whether that determination is consistent is unknown to me.
People seemed to appreciate the other regrade post I made recently, so here’s another one with new results. A couple of successes, but plenty of failures, too:
The Latios was a PSA 8 that I bought from a seller I’m very familiar with and that I know personally pulled and correctly preserved his cards. And so I expected it to be a strong 8, and it was. Don’t expect to be able to just take a random PSA 8 and regrade it as a CGC 9 – it takes a particularly strong PSA 8.
The Skarmory was a new cert CGC 9 that seemed severely undergraded to me. I was confident it would get bumped to a 9.5, though I will admit that the 10 surprised me.
And then there were a bunch of attempted regrades that stayed the same (all of these were cards I felt were slightly to severely undergraded):
So yeah, CGC has been quite consistent for me with the exception of the Skarmory lol. One thing I’ll also say about this submission is that cards overall underperformed compared to previous subs. While my pre-grade guesses are normally almost all accurate, this time I was off by .5 on many of them. I had a TMTA Jirachi, a DR Shedinja, a DR Plusle, and a DR Muk ex in the sub that I thought were all easy 9.5s. But they all got 9s. And then I had a bunch of Expedition holos that I thought were all easy 9s. But most of them got 8.5s.
For some of the aforementioned cards, it’s kind of annoying lol. For instance, I own two CGC 9.5 Muk exs that both are in inferior condition to the CGC 9 Muk ex I just graded. I wish one of my CGC 9.5 Muks could switch places with the CGC 9 Muk, because the 9 is in superior condition and I’d much prefer to have it in my set than either of the 9.5s I own. IMHO, the CGC 9 deserves a 9.5 and both of my CGC 9.5s deserve 9s. Ugh…
I feel those darker holos can be so difficult to judge. Like whenever I look at a Base Alakazam, Mewtwo or the darker Neo era ones like Skarmory or Steelix it can be really tough to judge IMO assuming it’s mint+ example. The stuff that really shows the most wear in my experience are the white background cards, like Neo Lugia or early WOTC Chansey/Wigglytuff.
That is pretty surprising to see a 9 go to a 10, especially in regards to CGC. So overall, looks like a decent cross grading success on some. I always find these interesting to see.
Always great to see this type of data - thanks for the update @zorloth!
When cards are regraded, do you send them raw again or in the old case?
Always raw!
Agreed with @zorloth. Sending them in their original cases will always bias the grader.
Cracking isn’t difficult but you need to be very careful. I’ve personally found that CGC cases are far easier to crack than PSA cases.
Yup, that’s my rationale.
And yeah, I’ve cracked countless cards at this point and I’ve yet to damage a single card – once you figure out how to safely do it, it’s very easy. I will also add that, in my experience, PSA and CGC cases are similarly easy to crack. I don’t find either to be noticeably more difficult than the other, and I use the same technique for both.
resub bareback for sure.
i found the cgc cases to be difficult to open, personally. i clip the top right corner and try to ram a flat head in there, but i find the case always wants to snap in half and not fully open properly. @zorloth share ur strats pls and thx
Yes. CGC cases do want to snap in half on the front, and the back is still intact. It takes a surgical technique, but it works.
I sent in a $18 special submission to PSA that arrived on Aug 4th. It’s still stuck in “Arrived” stage. Is that normal? Do you guys have similar status? Seems like a long delay to me unless PSA is flooded with submissions again.
Yes, this is normal. I sent in a $50 submission on August 8th and it is still in Arrived.
