FN-2199

Maybe a New Mutants 98 CGC 9.9 because "there will never be another like it"

Unpressable defects

I refunded the cost of the book, but not the shipping. My buyer seemed to have vanished. Sounds like you're guy should have updated his address and wants the books re-sent to his new address. If his address was eligible for "seller protection", hopefully you will be covered but I wouldn't think you'll get the postage refunded.

This happened to me once. I mailed a stiff, flat envelope to an apartment in NY so USPS probably left a pick-up slip. The buyer never picked the book up from the Post Office. USPS just did a return to sender after 30 days or so and there was no return shipping charge. I could never get back in touch with the customer to re-send or find out what went wrong.

I got the same notification too. Haven’t tried it yet.

I have one such comic in a slab. It is in the "to be re-slabbed" pile.

Not picking sides in this discussion, but perhaps the confusion rests with buyers who suggest that eBay prices are FMV are actually suggesting that the lowest auction price for that book is FMV. We all know that both auction prices and BIN prices can fluctuate wildly from seller to seller and day to day. Some folks don't understand that a comic with the final hammer price of $0.99 is really $5+ because of shipping. In reality, I expect these $0.99 eBay books to be $5-10 at cons and rightfully so but people on their phones only see the $0.99 figure. These guys are not just at cons but all over eBay too, i.e., "I only won one book in your latest auction and I'm not paying shipping for a $0.99 book" but I digress.

If a seller of your caliber gets the big chorizo from eBay, the rest of us don't stand a chance. I hope they listen to you.

Since it was international shipping to Brazil, you probably had the customs declaration on the front indicating that the value was $700. That could have led to that package getting targeted by thieves. Maybe, not saying it was but that is the downside of putting the value of the package on the outside. That is not your fault and I hope eBay sides in your favor. I have shipped to Brazil several times without issue and they do track delivery, but the comics I send are usually worth less than the international shipping.

As a general observation, the vast majority of people buying comics seem to care more about the price more than anything else. To these people that is the only black and white issue. I don't like getting a short box sent to me via media mail and even think about how cheap the seller was, but as long as it gets to me safe and it was cheap, I don't care. I suggest anyone refusing to do business with sellers using media mail stop patronizing multi-national conglomerates with their off shore, tax-evading headquarters that hire legions of lobbyists to create loophole after loophole to maximize every last penny of profit at any expense; the same companies who pay $1 Billion in fines to avoid jail time for their CEOs after markets collapse. Capitalism: pigs get fat and sheep get slaughtered.

I like this. If you want to convince people not to break the rules and they continue to do it anyway, you have to convince them why it is in their best interest not to break the rules just because they are not getting caught.

I feel it is more like people in glass houses are throwing stones. Are the media mail police here really not breaking any rules anywhere? They also seem to be viewing this as a violation of a criminal statute when it appears to be more of a violation of policy akin to doing deals off of eBay.

USPS is the largest drug trafficker in the world - they ship the most illegal narcotics. Ask your local prosecutor what their prosecution guidelines are for shipping narcotics in the mail. Drug dealers know what the threshold is and ship just under that limit so they won't get investigated/prosecuted. Point being, USPS has real crimes to worry about that are more important than out-of-policy (not criminal) packages. I would prefer they don't scrutinize media mail and concentrate on the narcotics, precursors, detonators, bulk cash, fraudulent documents, gun parts, etc. I don't know why people are crucified on here for bending the rules where there is some seriously bad stuff going on in the world. Stuff that I am no longer surprised by and can't get angry at any longer for the sake of my own health.

That sounds about as slow as Metropolis....wait, never mind.

I've got an unpaid item case open against comicbookjourneys2017 but he's also paid in the past. I think he just takes his time paying. There are worse people on the Bay.

He was also a contributor/consultant for Marvel Studios. I wouldn't be surprised if you see his name in the credits for some of the upcoming DC movies since he also brings that experience.

Hopefully you decide to come back and at least chime in once in a while. Many of us get along in here though there are exceptions. Good luck with your blog.

Welcome Ben. You may want to consider starting a journal on this site not to duplicate your blog to for news updates, feedback, etc.

Sounds like you have a good question. Maybe they feel that book drives traffic to their eBay store? I also find it hard to negotiate when the book is already the cheapest BIN. Or maybe you're right and you talked with them on the wrong day.

He's responsive to PMs. At least one of my suggestions to improve the database has been implemented already.

Sometimes the 10% fee is worth eBay's automated invoicing, payment, and tracking system. It seems like everyone on Instagram automatically wants the 10% discount for double my work. Manually invoicing cheap-o books isn't worth it unless I'm selling in bulk.

They needed Marvel to salvage losses from ESPN... and then they extended Stephen A. Smith

You can fix this by selling the extra slabs and buying an ACOG.

I like this train of thought. Comic + Investment (press, grading, selling fees) + time = Profit? OR Comic + Selling fees = Higher % Profit, but less money and less time I sell a lot of moderns so slabbing is usually expensive, time consuming, and sometimes I'll realize less profit than selling raw if my grading isn't spot on. If you're slabbing keys you'll usually win on those books, but slabbing any and everything won't work. I also recommend finding your niche because everyone is chasing keys.

This question has been asked before so don't feel bad. CGC will remove any poly bag to grade the comic. If you want to get it graded it will have to be out of the poly bag. I would recommend taking it out yourself and keeping the polybag if you need to have it graded. If it were my comic, I'd keep it bagged and boarded and get another unsigned ULTRAVERSE #1 graded.