RockMyAmadeus

People are trying to counterfeit them as we speak, using all sorts of methods, but thus far, they haven't been successful. ("How would you know that, huh?? If they're successful, that means no one knows!" Yes, but the odds and all the factors involved are still in our favor.) This is also why learning how to grade is imperative for anyone buying comics, slabbed or unslabbed. If you know how to grade, you can avoid the "obvious" frauds. Counterfeiters always get something wrong....and a slabbing machine is quite expensive. There are counterfeit NGC and PCGS slabs (coins), and people figure those out pretty well. Impossible? Of course not. Worth it on a couple of $30 slabs? Even as a "test run"? No.

I saw Skeleto....er, Carbo at San Diego, and I think another show recently...I want to say...Phoenix? Maybe Seattle? Time has been having its way with the poor guy.

I disagree with the general consensus. As far as the staple goes, it's a judgement call...a "welll...ehhhh..." If it bothers you, then you should make a point of asking about things like that before purchasing. That said, it's not a "9.8 killer" defect. You're talking about an incredibly high speed machine pumping out thousands of stapled books an hour. It happens. I've seen many, many books...especially mid 80s books like this, as World Color in Sparta was starting to decline...with bent staples. So long as the rest of the book is fine, it's a "slider." As far as the "protruding pages" goes, again, not a problem. This looks like the "flat inner well" type, and essentially squashes the book between the two layers. If you notice, the inner pages are slightly askew to the cover, which results in them sticking out slight at the top right vertical and bottom right horizontal edges. That is probably the natural way the book sits. If it bothers you, you can try GENTLY, GENTLY tapping the opposing side of the slab, at the point of "greatest protrusion", and see if the pages settle back into a more square situation. But do it GENTLY. And if it doesn't work, leave it as is.

Perfectly normal.

There's a rash of uneducated people who don't know what they're talking about and far too willing to jump to stupid conclusions out of ignorance. So that said, let's look at your WD #128. According to your cert #, it was graded in September of 2014...the new cases (and CGC holograms) didn't roll out until early 2016, meaning yours is an old style case, which DID NOT have the website and phone number in a "line in the middle"...only the website address at the bottom. You MUST consider Occam's Razor. What is a Walking Dead #56 in 9.4 worth? The last sale was less than the cost of grading. Does that mean that there isn't some sort of conspiratorial group "testing" low value books to see if their "counterfeiting operation" would work...? Well, no.......but... ...the far, far, far more likely situation is that they are perfectly real, perfectly legit, and perfectly saleable. I mean, give me a break. BOTH books are BARELY worth the cost to grade, but they're supposedly counterfeit..? If people are going to run around calling things that aren't even worth the cost to slab "fake!!", you don't need to do business with them. Far more trouble than they are worth. That said...who is the flipper, who is so incredibly idiotic (and sorry, but if you're too lazy/stupid to do even a MODICUM of research, you don't belong buying slabs!), so we all may block him/her? I would...politely, of course...explain the above to the buyer, and state that he/she is more than welcome to return the book, but since there's nothing wrong with it, they will need to cover the shipping both ways. I have VERY LITTLE patience with people who cause harm, or attempt to cause harm, like they might be doing with you, by making you eat shipping on a "barely worth the cost to slab in the first place" book, and cannot be bothered to do an OUNCE of research. Fools, the lot of them.

And yes, with old style cases, it's perfectly normal to be able to "open" the sides a bit. They weren't sealed, on purpose.

Sure. Doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary for a 9.6, provided the rest of the book is as sharp as those edges. A 9.6 virtually perfect...? No. Not even close. You're undergrading the book substantially. And the miscut is so slight, as to not even be noticeable by most people. THAT said...if YOU don't like it, ask the seller if you can return it, and offer to cover shipping both ways, so they aren't out anything. There's nothing wrong with the book as is, so if it's not to your liking, you should return it, while making sure the seller isn't out anything because of your dissatisfaction.

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Pool tables AND comic books...? What kind of juvenile delinquent trap are you running, sir?? You think I let any juveniles on my lawn? Well, there's your problem right there: storing your comics on the lawn.

Pool tables AND comic books...? What kind of juvenile delinquent trap are you running, sir??

This thread is deeply rooted in board tradition. In fact, I would say it leaves nothing to the imagination. It's nice that we can branch out in so many different ways. Those who find themselves discounting that might be barking up the wrong tree.

They still exist. There's several near you in Little Rock: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=pool+halls&find_loc=Little+Rock%2C+AR Get shootin'!

If it keeps kids off the streets and out of the pool halls, I say go for it. "Pool halls"...

Of course I can see their position. They have those policies to avoid costs associated with having issues drag on. Nothing more, nothing less. And, for the most part, it works. But those time frames are arbitrary (in the sense that eBay alone determines them), expressly for eBay's benefit, and not even remotely binding. That is proven by the fact that buyers can pursue sellers in court in time frames measured in years, not days. There's no understanding the eBay position, when it comes down to it. It was some worker's decision who isn't qualified to be making such decisions. It could very easily have gone a different way, had it been some other worker confronted with the exact same issue. That's not due process. That's whim.

Your choice to absolve the seller of responsibility was nice, but it was your choice. The page was missing when the seller sold it to you. The seller still got more money than they were entitled to because of that. You converted a transaction into a partial donation, which, again, is fine, and entirely your right...but that's what it was.

That we did.

Disagree entirely, but you probably knew that. eBay, as they have been fond of saying for decades now, is merely a venue. And, while they have taken actions which facilitate resolutions to issues, the ultimate responsibility for each and every listing falls to the seller. In fact, at the top of every single listing on eBay are the following words: "Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing." The process by which eBay helps to resolve issues that come up is not even remotely binding. eBay has nothing to do with a seller representing an item as complete when it is not. The seller does not get to hide behind eBay "policies" and "procedures" (which can be, and have been, contradictory, depending on who you speak to) as a shield to avoid taking responsibility for their listings. And frankly, I don't care how eBay works, insofar as it concerns transactions. eBay has demonstrated, over a very long period of time, that they don't follow their own policies, and can be persuaded, again, depending on who you speak to, to violate them, without anything even remotely resembling due process. So, no...eBay "time frames"? Not relevant. After all...you, yourself say this: "There are scumbags that can simply exploite the system and use the loopholes to enrich themselves. " ...isn't that what this seller is allegedly attempting to do? Exploiting the "eBay time frame" loophole to enrich themselves...?

Disagree entirely, but I've made this point before in other discussions: provided the buyer is telling the truth...and I have no reason to think they're not...then that page was missing when the seller offered it for sale as a presumptive complete copy. Just like you don't sell a 1956 Chevy Bel Air with the backseat missing without mentioning it, you can't say you're selling "Comic Book X #13" with pages missing. The time lapse...while important from a due diligence perspective...doesn't change that fact. The seller was unjustly enriched at the expense of another, and does not have a legal claim to the money they were paid. Here's the definition of unjust enrichment: https://definitions.uslegal.com/u/unjust-enrichment/ The seller got a benefit...by mistake....for which they did not pay or work and morally and ethically should not keep. Missing pages are easy. There's no debate about it. It's not a question of "well, you think it's 6.5, and I think it's 5.5." In this case, the bidders decided what to pay, as you put it, based on a false impression; with the omission of a vital detail that would have significantly impacted the price they would have been willing to pay. That the omission may have been unintentional doesn't alter that it was an omission. If a seller doesn't understand what they're selling, they have no business selling it, and ought to be prepared for issues that might come up from their lack of experience. And I've also said this before: in my opinion, it shouldn't matter if the purchase was 10 minutes ago, or 10 years ago. If a buyer can PROVE it's the item they bought, and they discover something like missing pages or restoration, then it's on the seller to make it right. It may not be expedient...which is perfectly understandable....but if I sold you a book in 1999 with an undisclosed missing page, and you can prove that...a tough challenge, no doubt...then it's on me to make you whole.

Define "small." Nevertheless, there's a clear line crossed when something as integral to the item as an entire page is missing. You don't need to be a professional grade of ANYthing to understand why that's a problem. My mother, who knows nothing about comics, would understand that a page missing is a deal breaker. What CGC graded it is irrelevant to the discussion. The point is: there's a page missing. The item is incomplete. There is a presumption of completeness when selling anything, unless explicitly stated otherwise (or "as is", and there's no such thing on internet transactions.)

Perhaps.

...except that his/her feedback left looks a lot like feedback...especially in a very high "soft fraud" category, such as comics...probably should look. Things to remember about comics: People tend to overstate/overvalue the items they're selling Grading really IS subjective CGC (and the poor imitations) exists because of the rampant, persistent overgrading and nondisclosure that infected this hobby like the plague Most people do not know how to ship fragile items like comic books properly. There have undoubtedly been millions of comics damaged by collector-to-collector shipping in the eBay/internet age People do not complain. The usual statistic thrown around is 96% of all customers say nothing. This results in many sellers adopting a "no one ever complained before!" attitude...which is probably true, but does not prove whether their other customers did, or did not, have complaints. Now...I'm not defending this person. It looks like they're habitually unpleasable, and shouldn't be on eBay. The "too small for cats" comment was hilarious, but also a little disturbing. BUT...that doesn't change the fact that many of his/her complaints are common ones heard in the comics industry, and have been issues for decades. It's why CGC exists. An unusual amount of negative/neutral feedback left doesn't necessarily mean that someone is a bad faith customer. It could mean that...it certainly is evidence pointing TO that conclusion...but it shouldn't be a conclusion reached on that basis alone.

That's the information I'm looking for. How that pharmacy was able to order books, and by what mechanism did they accomplish that (which I know you're not claiming to have the answer to.)

Another question: Today, it's easy to find out what's coming up from virtually every publisher, often months in advance. A quick Google search and you have it at your fingertips. In the 60s, I imagine it was much, much tougher, especially for new titles that no one knew about. So, aside from "coming attractions" ads in comics...and the intuitive manner of #86 following #85, etc...how did buyers discover what was coming out soon? Was there any other way?