stormflora

The Texas address may have been a forwarding company. It's one of the only means of being able to buy stuff from America-only sellers. This is definitely a possibility. Chargebacks are still possible for American credit cards (for whatever the hell reason, while that practice is not permitted in Canada), which means the seller could have their comic effectively stolen. Again, unless utterly desperate, just wait another month or two.

Based on how eBay is designed, as long as you provide a tracking number, it's hard for the buyer to open up a dispute and argue non-receipt to get their money back. They could attempt a chargeback against PayPal/eBay, but that would just to a slew of issues that would probably be weighed in your favour as an innocent seller. Nonetheless, you are right to feel hesitant to selling to someone without any feedback, and there is no harm done in declining. However, consider this scenario: If a seller puts up an expensive key comic for auction and it closes at, say, tens of thousands of dollars, but the winning bid was just some random joe that also has zero feedback but does indeed pay for it, what would the seller do in this situation? eBay typically gives the seller a really hard time to cancelling these kinds of transactions, as there is no justifiable reason to do so as long as they are a paying customer. In your case, since you created a standard non-auction listing with a best offer, you don't subject yourself to this sort of risk, as you do have the final say in accepting the offer. If you are not in a dire rush to sell, go ahead and let the listing run on for another month or two to see if someone else bites. But if your estate expenses are immediate and you have no other source of cash, you might not even have a choice. This all depends on your own circumstances. Do you need the money now? This isn't even the issue. The issue is more about whether the buyer might try some foul move like claiming they did not receive it/got the wrong item/chargeback after the comic is shipped. eBay disputes can get messy in these situations as it becomes a "he said, she said" scenario. And eBay is historically known to be biased towards the buyer, not the seller.

Ah, I didn't even think of that! Now I feel stupid, lol. Will definitely consider that option for really roughed up comics.

Nah, it's a site-wide discount. The only e-mail sign-up would be an account to actually make purchases on their site. Shipping and taxes definitely negates that discount, as you say. They try to make it seem more pleasing with a free comic for every $10, but as we all know, they're dollar bin stuff.

Was stoked for the Cyber Monday (Booksgiving?) sale at MyComicShop, but was disappointed by the measly 10% discount. Sure, they have freebies, but they are freebies for a reason; they have no meaningful value. I made an order that ended up being more expensive than most sellers on eBay, but I needed some issues from their store that were rare (and I wanted to have a discount on them). I ended up cutting out a lot of issues that still remained above a certain price. Definitely not satisfied with the skimp.

So if a comic has a spine split or other damage on the spine, it's advisable to use less pressure with the press?

Yeah, there isn't much documentation or experience shared online regarding the order of things, since most people who heat press presumably avoid restoration, and vice versa. I'm not sure how tape interacts with a heat press, and how sensitive tears/rips are to the heat as well. One video I watched explained that some spine splits, when stressed by a heat press, could be split even larger. But what if tape were involved?

So, as a side question, if I were to use some archival tape (as mentioned) for tears, should it be before or after a heat press? Has anyone tried heat pressing comics with tape on it before?

Not very long; only a few months. Definitely a newbie. And I only like specific cartoon series from the GA/SA era. Also, most of the lots in that link are either overpriced or dollar bin disposals...

Wise advice. And should be much easier to pull off. For the criminally unaware, approximately how much is your entire collection worth at FMV?

It's a bit too late for those auctions now (they've ended already), but they had already rose to prices I wouldn't really want to pay, anyway. After factoring in shipping and taxes and whatnot. And many have advised me not to bite anyway, since the work involved in resale is likely to be too much. So I'll only focus on bulk buys/auctions/lots relevant to the series that I am interested in at this time, and sell the unavoidable extras from those.

So for the most part, it's optional to most people (even collectors), until you reach the NM/M range and/or deal with key issues and every little difference matters. And if there is a large supply of an issue, having it marked as an MJ variant would look more appealing to buyers. Good to know. For me, since I don't collect overly expensive comics, I'd prefer to just fill the gaps with any non-reprint issue, regardless of the MJ status. But that's just me.

This is what it looks like to me as well. The staple on the inside was deliberately bent to hold the centerfold.

Very Good-, they said... Very Good-... GOLD KEY ** TOM AND JERRY ** Silver Age 🔥 Comic 1961 #178 VG- 🧀🧨 | eBay

That's typically more of a necessity, though =P. There's no reason to keep unwanted comics lying around, after all.

Did a final check. 44 new copies and 37 duplicates, with two bonus comics that aren't part of the main series. I'll be looking forward to MCS's Cyber Monday sale to fill even more gaps.

Those are not rare Whitman comics, so you didn't miss out on anything by not buying them :P

Eh, it may be unique to the comic scene, but it isn't unique to retail business in general. It's quite common amongst supermarkets and department stores, actually. However, it is somewhat contingent on offering good customer service and a welcoming atmosphere, which seems to be lacking in this case, based on what people have described here and on Google Maps

Update: I have won the Tom & Jerry auction which I had been mentioning about for the past little while. Final cost was $162.50 USD + $24.25 shipping for approx. 45 unowned issues and 35 duplicates I'll have to resell (based on my last count). Total per-issue cost of $2.33 USD each, or $4.15 for the ones I do not own. Not too shabby when it would cost me more time and money (from the darned shipping) to have to find and secure 45 different issues. I'll do a final check on the issue numbers again in a bit and update my WTB thread.

Closures/liquidations are always amazing, especially when they haven't been sifted through. Do you have any Tom & Jerry in your collection, per chance?

I definitely got this vibe from research around MHC. They want to look like the biggest brick and mortar comic store in America. And the only way to do that is to have a lot of stock. They are clearly catering to upscale buyers, or physical customers who don't know much about price and just care about the look of the comic.

Yeah, in that case, I'd just open up the Best Offer feature across all listings and let people offer whatever they want. Plus, I can set minimums too, which would auto-decline low offers. I think the only times I might ask for an item discount is if I was planning to buy many issues from the same seller. They are more inclined to budge that way. All in all, the biggest issue are the eBay and PayPal fees. I can't blame sellers for hating eBay's ridiculous commissions, which eats into profits heavily, especially when they're only making a buck or two per non-key issue. Just not worth the time and effort.

It really depends on what you're looking for, just like any other store. They'll either have a lot of what you need, or none at all, whether it is because they did not manage to secure any issues, or because they had already sold them to someone else.

I'm a new collector and I am quite interested in GA/SA myself, since I'm only interested in the old Dell/Gold Key/Whitman comics. Modern superhero stuff isn't huge for me, although I do dabble in some modern indie series.

I've learned (with my experience on Facebook Marketplace) to simply report, block, and move on when it comes to lowballers. I don't even entertain them with a response.