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Tuesday, August 31, 2004

CGG is Now PGA

The company formerly known as CGG (Comic Grading Group) has changed it's name to PGA (Professional Grading Authority). Apparently, there was some threat of legal action by CGC (Comic Guarantee Corporation) based on the similarities in the name. Confused yet?

It was probably a wise move by CGG to change the name and avoid the legal hassles that would have ensued. That said, the name "Professional Grading Authority (PGA)" really lacks focus and they could have done better.

I've always wished that CGC had a solid competitor... it's just healthy for the hobby. Unfortunately, time and time again CGG has shot themselves in the foot with bad PR moves and questionable quality of materials. Well, I hope they get their act together... they seem like decent folks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Zip.

Sorry forgot my password. Redhook here. I am struck by CGG/PGA's consistant inability to handle PR problems. You may be right about them being good guys, but perception is everything. Especially in a trust-based operation like grading someone's precious collectibles, I think transparency is really important.

They have seriously failed in this area. I also believe that any business looking for credibility has got to have a fully functioning, professional looking website. They are still lacking that. The very first thing I would do, as webmaster, would be to post some nice looking shots of the graders, just to put some faces on these anonymous guys.

As I said, perception is everything, and the current perception is that they are not together, have questionable relationships with a couple of shady dealers, and that they don't do well in catching restoration on older books. Whether this is close to being factual does not matter at this point. They need an articulate upfront spokesman to handle the PR, or it won't matter how many times they change their name.

Best, RH