1st one in over a decade...(another 5D3 bent pin thread).

10D no pin issues, 7D immaculate pins, 5D3 4 months in bent pin and CF cards basically don't work anymore. Really frustrating as some searching seems to place this on a 5D3 design or quality control issue.

Making preparations to send it in to Canon, trying to figure out what events I'd be better off trying to limp through with the SD card, or just swallow not having it and go to the backup cameras. I'm assuming about a one week turn around with Silver CPS. Is it worth it to upgrade to make the process any faster? I'm thinking this is such a common issue that it should be a quick part swap and send it back out quicker than a loaner would be worth doing.

Pin that bent is right near the center, on the SD card slot side. I can see where the bent pin managed to nick the cards, but it would appear these cards are still safe to continue using with the 7D? I really do not want 2 cameras to be down at the same time.

That is a fear of mine. I hope you get it sorted. I bet it will be a quick repair.

That is why I hardly ever take the CF card out. I always download my images from the camera with EOS Utility via the USB link. It is different for the SD cards which are less vulnerable but even these stay in camera most of the time. With both 32Gb I can take about 2000 RAW images before the cards are full.