Sqeggs

As someone who buys on the boards pretty frequently, I have a strong desire to keep out sellers who don't play by the rules. Apparently, this seller has failed to play by the rules on multiple occasions -- at least if I'm understanding the incidents in Sharon's links correctly. But I agree with Speedy that the PL is not the HoS. So, unless someone wants to initiate the process of putting him in the HoS, I think he should come off the PL. One thing that seems pretty clear, though, is that this seller is down to his last strike. If another incident occurs, I don't see how he will be able to stay out of the HoS. Given that he sells in other venues under the same name, I would think that the threat of being inducted into the HoS would be a pretty strong deterrent to engaging in similar behavior in the future. But, who knows?

He's getting his chance. All Sharon really said is that it's up to those who put him on the list to okay his removal. I don't care if he's here or not, I won't buy from him again. If I have an actual vote it would be no. There are things like honor, responsibility and good customer service, none of which were in evidence. As far as I can tell there were no extenuating circumstances that would've prevented communication. An offer of free candy is not going to change my opinion. Again, the PL is not the place that people go indefinitely. The point of the list is to put people on notice not to deal with certain folks, as they have outstanding stuff they need to clear up first. If you think he belongs on the HoS, start the process. Either way, sticking him on the PL permanently isn't the move. I don't believe it's up to me to decide whether he's taken off the list or not. If someone asks my opinion on the matter I'll give it at that time. Sure looks that way to me unless someone else has an unresolved issue. I don't have a problem with removing him from the list but I don't plan on buying from him either. I have a feeling that is the reaction most people who read about this episode -- including the two links that Sharon posted -- will have. It's my reaction.

Horribly lame, to that point that I never see myself buying anything from HA. I buy stuff from HA all the time and the BP doesn't bother me except to the extent that it requires some arithmetic to figure out how much I want to bid (although they do the arithmetic for you on the screen just before you enter your bid). With HA, I realize I'm dealing with an auction house and that's what auction houses do. On the boards I think (or, maybe, like to pretend) that I'm dealing with fellow hobbyists. So being asked to pick up the one fee that a seller on the board has to pay is annoying enough that I just won't buy from those threads.

Yep, that's the one. Apparently you contacted him and he changed it. Good job. (thumbs u

If I'm reading his TOS right, someone appears to be asking for PP personal -- he's calling it "PP gift." I think that one's ruled out, no?

That's the key point for me. Sellers listing on this board aren't paying a listing fee or a final value fee. They aren't paying a commission or a seller's premium. They also aren't under the gun to get the book mailed in a day or two. The board is a much more favorable venue for sellers than any other place I'm aware of. In those circumstances, asking buyers to pick up your PP fees just seems greedy. BUT they also aren't afforded some of the protections and larger markets of other venues...I agree with you, I just don't think its totally one-sided. This is basically a marketing and psychology question. What way of communicating the pricing/fees/shipping increases your chance for a sale the most? Full itemized fee structure ahead of time? Bundled prices? Discounts? Different things appeal to different markets and industries and turn them on and off in different ways. As long as no one is lying or tacking on non-pre-disclosed fees at the back end, I think we're good here. That is true. You lose the buffering you get by consigning your books, although typically you also wait longer -- sometimes much longer -- to see the money. I'm wondering whether sellers often have significant trouble with buyers on the board. You do see sellers occasionally indicate that a buyer has backed out of a sale and the book is available again. I don't read the PL thread that closely, but have there been incidents like the ones on eBay of scammers falsely claiming not to have received books and claiming refunds through PP?

That's the key point for me. Sellers listing on this board aren't paying a listing fee or a final value fee. They aren't paying a commission or a seller's premium. They also aren't under the gun to get the book mailed in a day or two. The board is a much more favorable venue for sellers than any other place I'm aware of. In those circumstances, asking buyers to pick up your PP fees just seems greedy.

Great seller. Book arrived promptly and was superbly packed. There was even a very nice bonus book included! (thumbs u

I agree that making a Captain Marvel movie that was true to the original would be a tall order and without any built-in fan base it's probably not something any studio would take on. Not sure the romance angle is necessarily a problem, though. If you remember the Tom Hanks movie Big from some years back, they did a good job of having a kid in an adult's body have a love interest without it seeming to be too weird.

Thanks for the reply, I just wanted to make sure if PM is cool even if the seller never mentioned it. I've learned there a kind of a set way things work around here. I probably will pass PP fee required sales unless it's something that I really much have. I PM sellers with offers fairly frequently. I've never had a strongly negative reaction but then most of my offers are not asking for a huge discount off the posted price. I've gotten a few "sorry, but the price is firm," which is fine. Bottom line is that I don't think you will find a seller taking umbrage at a PM offer unless the offer is way below the posted price or the seller has indicated in the listing that the posted price is firm. One thing I never do is to browbeat the seller by using GPA or eBay data to try to get a steep discount. If I were a seller, I would be put off by that tactic.

+1 ... I thought I was one of the few people that had a problem with a seller asking for PP fees...there was a thread a few months ago where I voiced this concern and basically got some resistance. It's nice to read that there are more people here who think it's something that keeps people from buying stuff. For me it's not the extra few dollars, it's the principal of the thing. Here is the thread I'm talking about "It's called capitalism." I'm with you. Maybe it's my imagination but it seems as if lately more sellers have been asking buyers to cover their fees. Next they'll start asking us to cover the cost of the gasoline they burn driving to the post office.

Got an e-mail notice from Amazon today, book is delayed (again, and again...) until January 8th, 2013. I spoke to the author at NYC. He said that the book is at the printers right now. They had found an artist who had worked with Matt Baker. They revised the original manuscript to include the new information that they received. Anyone know whether the book will include a bibliography/checklist of Baker's work in comics? If you go to the Twomorrow's preview you'll see they have included a checklist. (thumbs u

Got an e-mail notice from Amazon today, book is delayed (again, and again...) until January 8th, 2013. I spoke to the author at NYC. He said that the book is at the printers right now. They had found an artist who had worked with Matt Baker. They revised the original manuscript to include the new information that they received. Anyone know whether the book will include a bibliography/checklist of Baker's work in comics?

I would love to see the seller's reaction when they go to a store, charge something, and the charge card fees are added to their invoice.

If you have a first edition, there is an ad for the next issue. No ad means it's a reprint. (Careful, though, a few reprints have ads.) Then you look at the HRN to gauge how late a reprint it is. But there are a lot of complications if you get into it. Overstreet has a good overview, written by Dan Malan. Key point is that the date usually means nothing. Later reprints often kept the original publication date.

That's really a tough one to locate. Congrats on the pickup.

I just click out of the thread if I see that. Zero cost to list or sell and people still want the buyer to pay the paypal fee? they have to make sure to squeeze every penny out of the deal, don't they? That's exactly how I feel. It's like buying a house from a seller who doesn't hire a real estate agent but still wants full market. It's a free world but I just click out. Me, too.

My guess is that if that user name were brought to Chuck's attention, he would be able to get eBay to revoke it. It seems pretty obviously misleading. I would definitely stay clear of that auction.

(thumbs u

I was just thinking about that angle too. A $48,000 print bill is a lot of comics. So, it's 10 cents split 4 ways: publisher, printer, distributor, newsdealer -- and the pub and distro have to factor in returns. That's a pretty tiny unit cost (for the publisher buying from the printer). 3 or 4 cents per unit, plus or minus? Could be around 1.5 million comics, maybe more. Roughly how many titles per month was Centaur doing throughout 1940? Mark, not been following this thread but your post above prompted me to dig out this I posted back in 2010. Some musings I had along the same line but for the '50's. Make of it what you will. I don't recall receiving any replies back in 2010 "Re: Will testimony from the business manager before the UnitedStates Sentate suffice? Froehlich Senate Testimony The tax consideration has to be important in the picture. As similar situation changed the way the Studio System evolved in Hollywood. When the Revenue Act of 1941 came into effect, the top bracket came down to $200,000 and the marginal tax rate was 90%. For the highest paid stars, that was a significant bite out of their earnings. As a result, top talents started to “pursue profit-sharing and one-picture deals whereby their salaries could be invested into a picture and taxed at capital gains at a rate of only 25 percent” (as per Thomas Schatz in The Genius of the System, p. 299). Consequently, it’s easy to assume that having one company own all other companies in the Goodman system allowed profits from each of the outfit to be passed relatively unscathed by a tax bite into the main entity. If one wants to estimate how much money is involved, Froehlich provides some good information. We know that in the ‘50’s the profits from a comic book were split as follows: Publishers charges the Distributors 5.5¢ who charges the wholesale 6.5¢ who charges the retailer 7.5¢. The unknown number here is the publisher cost. Looking at the Bible Tales exposition of Froehlich, we can infer that the printing cost might be 3.5¢ per comic. With that in mind, a sole publisher’s profit margin is 2¢ / 3.5¢ or about 57% and a publisher-distributor like the Marvel Comics Group is 3¢ / 3.5¢ or about 86% (hence the importance of having your own distribution arm). Now take Froehlich’s print run and sell through numbers: 350,000 print run and average sell through of 62%. Assume no advertising revenue for simplicity and a cost of production of the book itself at $1,080, i.e. 36 pages of content at a total cost of $30 a piece (to pay all talent: editor, penciler, inker, writer, … I might be off on that). For the average comic book selling 62%, revenue is $14,105 (350,000 * 0.62 * 0.065) and costs are $1,080 for content and $12,250 for printing cost, leaving you with a net of $775 per average title. Atlas distributed about 60 titles, so on any given month, that’s about 50 books (counting quarterlies and bi-monthlies) or $38,750 and on an annual basis $465,000. The tax structure now plays an important part in trying to shelter as much of that profit as possible. If a title is popular and, let’s say, warrants a 500,000 print run and still sells through 62%, the profit off that one book is $1,570 per month or $795 more than the average title. Publishers could easily afford to pay that talent more than other talent!" Not exactly on topic, but kinda related ... I was looking at the back cover of a WDC&S from the late 1940s the other day and was struck by how substantial a discount they offered to subscribers. I can't quite remember the details, but I think if you went out three years -- the longest sub they were offering -- you were down to about 7.5 cents an issue. Kind of makes sense if the publisher was only getting 5.5 cents per issue from the distributor, but the mailing costs must have been extremely low.

People from Steve Ditko`s generation actually took the time to handwrite letters. I have seen countless letters written between my grandfather and grandmother. They really put in effort in them to communicate their feelings and thoughts. When you wrote a letter it was like an art,so much different then the countless texts we get everyday that usually go like this 'How r u doing?" 'Fine' "bye" In one way we have regressed communicating with one another. Yep we are faster communicating,but most texts are like what Seinfeld says are about nothing. I can see why Ditko would hand write the letters, but people are claiming (I think!) that his assistants are writing the letters. In that case, it would seem to make more sense to have a form letter printed up for Ditko (or his assistant) to sign. Having the assistants write out the letters seems both time consuming and misleading because the recipient is going to believe he has a letter written by Ditko himself.

That part is from research done by Tim Stroup, co-founder of the Grand Comic Book Database: http://www.mindmeister.com/123768009/centaur-publications-comics-mar-1938-dec-1940 http://todayincomics.blogspot.com/2011/11/centaur-publications-demise.html As you can see there he dug up the NYT notices. Very interesting stuff indeed. $100,00 was a not inconsiderable chunk of change for those days, particularly for what was seemingly a small scale operation. Perhaps an indication that their sales were truly dismal?

Kind of funny that in the reprint the heroes go from being world famous to just being popular in America. And it's a new one on me.