VintageComics

Until you're capable of reading minds, all you're doing is guessing and feeding the exact thing about social media that you despise so much. You have no way of knowing what anyone's motivations are unless they tell you. And he has repeatedly stated that he wants an open, more unbiased exchange of ideas. More importantly, couldn't / wouldn't ANYONE who tried to improve on a product be accused of the same thing of being vain? So, why does one person's motivation or venture meet disdain and criticism while another's is met with praise? And most importantly, how doe someone who was endlessly praised for all the 'good' they did all of a sudden become worthy of non-stop scorn? I think people confuse how they feel with what is true and don't realize it. The two seem to be interchangeable to most.

Lack of contact should always be a concern, but when someone sends 15 or 18 emails but doesn't take the time to pick up a phone they need to reevaluate how they communicate. This is an instance where someone's avoidance of picking up the phone created an entirely new set of problems. Anyone in customer service knows that it would depend on the conversation and the demands being made. If the customer is reasonable you offer them a lot more rope than an unreasonable customer. And there are some VERY unreasonable people out there. I would say that they learned a valuable lesson about the pitfalls of doing business cross border and had their expectations adjusted for the better moving forward. But that lesson was obvious to most people on here because most people's expectations are reasonable and foreign exchange differences are the cost of doing business. As someone who lives in Canada I've been dealing with this since the start of eCommerce and the internet and I would NEVER expect someone to reimburse me for foreign exchange fees. In fact, I once lost $100s in foreign exchange fees for a transaction. Well over the total invoice cost of the OP. Not once did I think to myself "damn, someone owes me for that" The OP not only had unreasonable expectations, they neglected to pick up a phone and make a simple call about their concern just in case emails weren't getting through and then they started a public thread to complain about it. That doesn't sound very reasonable to me.

The primary complaint was that he wanted to be refunded his foreign exchange loss. An unreasonable expectation by any stretch of the imagination, as all the replies here agreed. The technical glitch (or whatever it was) that stopped registering his emails on MCS' end is what was being addressed in that reply. But frankly, after an email or two if I don't get a response, I generally pick up a phone or pay a visit if they're local. Emails end up in spam or get overlooked often in eCommerce. If someone sent me nearly 20 emails and those emails were based on an unreasonable expectation, I'd be questioning whether I'd do business with them moving forward.

Deleted, because I don't want to be the one responsible for locking the thread. I read your reply (but couldn't reply at the time) and disagree I also have NO idea why your post would lock the thread except if a bunch of button humpers feel the need to try to make it happen out of spite. To your point, if someone made a concerted effort to shine a flood light into YOUR life you would lose your mystique as well and people could pick you apart making you look bad where you previously were respected or at least didn't stand out in a crowd. That's the entire point of a smear campaign. The same would be true for anyone on here with no exceptions. This thread is the perfect model example of what we're talking about and it's relevant to this discussion. Someone came on trying to disparage a dealer. The dealer was allowed to respond showing that the OP didn't really have much of a leg to stand on in regards to his primary concern. Without the ability to respond and bring that floodlight back to neutral ground the dealer would have been left looking in a bad light. Any respectable organization or person can be made to look bad even if they aren't.

Isn't it amazing how Musk was the darling of the world until he stepped out of line with the mainstream narrative? Personally, I welcome people to disagree respectifully. It's the only way to grow. A tree that isn't challenged by the weather will never be as strong as one that is. And a tree coddled by it's owner and protected from the elements will never reach it's full potential. It will end up stunted. You CAN NOT advance technology without having an open free entanglement of ideas. Are you not aware of this? By allowing greater entanglement of ideas you ARE continuing with technological advancement philosophy. Those protesting him are quashing the concept of open entanglement of ideas and trying to stop it because selfishly, they don't actually want a free market of ideas that comes from open entanglement. You CAN NOT control open discussion and also promote growth of tech. The two are necessarily, diametrically opposed. Just like you can't resolve problems on the chat forum if you don't allow both sides to speak. We've seen personal attacks on reputable people by ignorant people and if you only enabled one side of a discussion and did not allow a response from BOTH sides, these resolutions we are seeing happen in real time on this forum would never happen. And the truths being exposed would never have risen to the forefront as they have.

The answer to that, is you.

You're like an annoying mosquito I can't whisk away.

I couldn’t be more chill right now. I assume your question is rhetorical.... Well then that explains everything.

Dude, are you high? My points have addressed those that I felt needed to be addressed. Take Domo's advice and chill out.

I think this needs to be emphasized. There are not many people who are nicer or more helpful than George from GPA or Conan from MCS in my experience. I genuinely believe they are two of the best people involved in this hobby and that is why I myself took such exception to what was being discussed in the way I did. Nobody is perfect but they generally go above and beyond to be helpful and I feel that is worth noting. That a few people could throw people who are to my knowledge beyond reproach under a bus so easily is very disheartening and those are the acts people should be outraged about.

I obviously pay to track sales to make money from them but I don't rely on GPA to teach me how to make money, which is what some might be intending to glean from it. I use GPA as a general guide not as an instruction manual on what to buy, when to buy and when to sell. For those things, I spend a lot of time and effort reading, listening, learning and watching markets and things related to markets. I am realizing through this discussion that some may be using it as a flipping tool. I'm not a 'flipper' so it didn't cross my mind. As a potential flipper, I can understand the exception people are having, but I think a better question is how outraged should I be for a service I pay $10 a month for? People pay more for coffee each day than they pay for this service that is likely 99% accurate and that helps them maximize their investments on hobbies that cost them $1000's or even millions. That's why I keep saying I feel the outrage is disproportionate. Some in the discussion have lost sight of how much benefit we're getting for literally next to nothing in cost.

They're not endless and there are a million different reasons for outliers on GPA. These outliers we're talking about make up a very small portion of the market. As I stated, and this is just my gut feeling, there are likely more sales that are NOT COMPLETED through various reporting sites than there are late reported sales. Think about how many books sell on eBay alone, which is likely the largest contributor to GPA. There's no way of verifying every sale. So people need to understand that GPA is a great tool but it's not Gospel. And learning to interpret it is just as important as having a subscription to it. And people have been saying this for years. It's nothing new.

This would have ended very quickly if people were more accountable with themselves. If you hang someone out to dry on the internet and are obviously wrong about it, just admit it. Put the same amount of effort into apologizing as you did into getting the story wrong and it makes you look like 10 times the person you are compared to trying to sugarcoat it. And armchair critics who are quick to insinuating wrongdoing on the part of reporting to GPA really shouldn't be throwing such accusations around without understand the system better before doing it. ------------------------------ From my own experience, and for some additional perspective I've seen those outlier sales on GPA for years. I simply assumed it was either late reporting or someone hitting a BIN on a 'must have' item, or whatever. I never got offended by them, never thought anyone was doing anything wrong and they didn't affect me at all. I know that outliers happen for various reasons and I just move all outliers into an average. Problem solved. That's why I stated that people need to relax and understand how GPA works better and that the outrage is disproportionate to the disagreement. And let's be frank, I think it's likely that some are complaining about the timing of reporting a sale because they feel it might cause them to miss out on a buying or selling opportunity affecting their own personal interests. For what GPA is, it's an incredible product offering way more information than $10 a month can buy you anywhere else. You can never win every game but with a service like GPA you're winning most of the time and those are incredible odds.

I've known you for almost 20 years. You're always outraged.

I love that pic. Thanks, Stu. I'm adding these to the harassment file.

There's no elitist condescension being poured on. The outrage is disproportional to what's actually being discussed. People are arguing over an outlier as though it affects the entire hobby in some detrimental way (it doesn't) and some are even attributing malice or wrong doing rather than admitting they themselves were wrong. The witches to burn are the people who jump to conclusions without doing their homework. Or who make mountains out of molehills.

My reply was to your snarky, personal post toward me calling me a "white knight" I've always stood up for this community and was calling out people who spoke out of ignorance or just plain bad intentions. Why you'd take exception to that I have no idea but your comment calling me "white knight" was unnecessary. Do let us know when these topics being discussed actually affect you in some meaningful way. At least then you'd have some real incentive for actually making a mountain out of a molehill. And thank you for reminding me again why I've avoided posting here.

You're making this about you. Do you feel accusations made by Detective Dave, Detroit Rob and others about the integrity of the organizations involved in the discussion were OK?

I'd do the same for you if someone else was in the wrong and threw you under a bus, dork.

Have you seen MCS and GPA's windshields lately? Mods notified.

Anyone who submits data to GPA owes NOTHING to anyone. They're VOLUNTARILY submitting sales to GPA. It profits them nothing. They get NOTHING for their efforts except criticism. In fact, it would be more advantageous for them to NOT submit anything to GPA, as many dealers choose to do because that knowledge is power. ----------------------------------- The fact that some are shredding reputable people who are voluntarily submitting credible info really reveals the selfish and greedy nature of the general consumer. They expect everything for nothing. They want a lifetime of experience in interpreting data in a neat, $10 a month package and they want it to be perfect with a bow on it. And why do they expect that? Because they might miss out on an opportunity to use a cheap, voluntary, mass produced product to profit from it in some way. The reason people are complaining is because they don't know how to use GPA. The criticisms are driven by fear, greed and ignorance. Not because GPA or MCS is doing something wrong. If everyone steps back and stops hyper-analyzing each data point (something I've been saying for decades because it's creating massive volatility and doing damage to the market), and you use GPA is SUPPOSED to be used, then one data point a few months out doesn't affect the over all picture on GPA any more than it would in the Overstreet Price Guide. Especially on a high volume selling book that sells 100s or even 1000s of copies a year! Can the system be improved? Sure. Anything can always be improved but the tone of the discussion and accusations being levied by some are utterly ridiculous and overly entitled. And while I'm a full time dealer now, people will remember that I've always felt this way and defended people's right to submit or not submit to GPA and also the expectations to have of GPA. ----------------------------------------------- I have a question: Do all the critics have any idea how many books out of the millions of books auctioned and recorded each year are NOT paid for? No? Neither do I. But I'll bet that number is much higher than the odd book that's put on time payments at MCS and reported after it's paid for. Some people in this discussion over the last few days are just ridiculous and have lost all perspective. Welcome to social media.

You accused MCS of wrong doing and are now entertaining the idea that MCS is possibly being malicious. Good grief. What is wrong with you people? This is exactly the line of thinking that 'Detective Dave' started with an unfounded accusation that should have been avoided. You should get your facts and words straight first before you speak because you're making accusations at the expense of someone else. HE (Dave) was wrong and YOU are wrong. MCS was NOT wrong. You seem to be the one who doesn't understand how GPA works. You can try to make GPA more accurate but you have to understand that it's nothing more than a cheap, $10 a month site that captures high volume sales. There are going to be variables, outliers and especially mistakes. It is not a university course meant to spoon feed you the FMV. It's just one tool and it's never going to replace experience, research and common sense.

Let's get a grip on reality. MCS is doing nothing wrong. They owe you nothing and their reporting is entirely voluntary. MCS is reporting a sale when a sale is completed and they don't owe anyone anything more than that. Some reported sales are never completed, some are completed well after the customer commits to the sale and some sales are never even reported. GPA is full of variables. Where everyone errs is trying to make it Gospel when it isn't. Your accusation of MCS doing something wrong is just as wrong as Detective Dave's video accusing them of collusion.

Fair enough, and I wouldn't presume to tell anyone how they should feel about the guy. After talking to you about it via PM I realized where we disagreed. I initially put in my post the 2nd video is "not worth watching" and then I edited that out because I was realized it was unfair of me to post that. You quoted my post before the edit and caught that. The only other thing we really differ on now is the size of the apology. If he puts out an entire video under the title of "collusion between _____________ and ___________" to 13K followers and realizes he was wrong then the next time he posts on the subject, his video should be titled "I was wrong about my accusation of collusion between ______________ and ___________" not "Hey, look what GPA is doing!" and bury the apology a few mins in. I take offense at that, but it nothing personal against this guy. I hate it when newspapers do it too and have railed on it for years. They'll post an inflammatory headline to sell papers and influence perception that throws one side under a bus and then days, weeks or months later they'll post a tiny retraction somewhere buried deep in the paper that nobody sees. And they do it REGULARLY. Like weekly, constantly riling up the masses for effect. Basic fairness should be the minimum expectation and not an exception to be applauded. That's the way things used to work pre internet.

I definitely don't want this discussion to turn into an intense internet battle so I'll keep it short. I'm always wrong. Especially with 100K posts. I'm human. And when I'm wrong I say I'm sorry first. When you accuse a large, well known business of fraud that's a huge thing. The size of the apology should be proportional to the size of the mistake. Aren't you in law? If you apologize and admit you're wrong, there's nothing to pile on about. It's over. And the few that do pile on after someone apologizes are obviously bad apples to everyone. Anyway, those are my thoughts.