Lightning55

Yeah, that might work. Anything that makes tampering more obvious would help.

I don't think it would help. It would be difficult to determine if the clip broke during a "comic swap" or during shipment. So you're back in the same dilemma.

I completely agree with this. For the high fees on valuable books, that may take only a bit longer to grade (more thorough resto check), CGC could well afford to add security features, included in the price. And make those same features available to any submission, as optional upgrades.

There was a thread earlier this year where the submitter got a huge upcharge, and checked with CGC as to how they were going to handle the return insurance. They said they only use the original DV and last I saw, would not deviate from that. He scrambled to find alternative insurance, like C.I.S. So they got the extra money for the service, which if submitted properly in the correct tier, was supposedly to pay to insure the book for that large number. But since they didn't know it was a large value until grading was completed, they were never on the hook for more than the DV. And even when they knew what they had, they never intended to insure it for that higher value, either at the facility, or en-route. So what was the extra the money for??? Profit, of course, and because they can.

Oh, it's possible. Way back in 2016, I sold about 50k comics to a re-packager. Nothing to do with his re-packaging business, but he gave me a tour of the warehouse and happened to point out his sonic welder. He was no millionaire, but he had one. I asked him if it could un-seal as well as seal. He said, "Yes it can, but I really can't tell you any more than that.". And we moved on. He was also into card product, buying multiple tractor trailer lots when possible. And the comics....I never saw so many long boxes stacked to the ceiling of a 14' high warehouse, like an acre or two of warehouse. Crazy.

"This buyer has been found..." Couldn't get it right. He's the seller, not the buyer. Just a mistake that is 180 degrees wrong. Based on what is said there, the seller will have little difficulty getting the negative removed.

It's still early. The thread started here Saturday, so today is the first work day since. Maybe they are giving us time to figure it out, saving them from having to do it. Free comic detective work force vs. taking someone off their regular duties to look into it.

Oh, you're right, I did miss the point. Not much of an explanation to follow there, though, in my own defense. But now you have me in suspense. What follows "except for those darn..."?

This makes no sense to me. What good would it do to take a 9.8 book out of a 9.8 holder/label and put it into a 9.8 holder/label with a different cert? There's nothing to gain. The idea we are investigating is moving a lower grade book into a higher grade case.

But I bet if CGC only noted the Mark Jeweler version, and NOT Newsstand also (Newsstand presumed because it is MJ), people would get upset that it didn't say Newsstand.

Maybe.....

They always took photos, but only recently made them available on the cert lookup page. Which makes them perfectly positioned to investigate this situation. The could check the original scans and compare to the reholder scans. Super easy, but will they do it? And if they found it to be swapping, probably not too anxious to publicize it.

Yeah, multiple copies of specific grails in 9.8 that coincidentally don't look 9.8 at all.

Yeah, that's exactly how it went for me. Too late to retract unilaterally. Would have to ask the seller to do it. Maybe that's how 2 people working together can shill the bidding, even within the 12 hr. cutoff. The seller can cancel his buddy's bid for him at any time by "request", after revealing what the highest bid was of a competing bidder (the "mark"). The mark's bid would then revert back down to the amount necessary to still be high bidder, maybe even as low as the starting bid. But with the high proxy bid revealed, the buddy (same buddy or another) could place a bid right under that proxy amount to extract as much money as possible from the mark. Still close to 100% sure that once a bid is placed, the seller can't change any terms (title, photos, description, shipping cost or method), locked up. You can add to the description to clarify, but not change the original description.

Two of these things don't ring true to me. Last week I tried to retract a bid when I found out that the seller's last 5 feedbacks were Negative, never shipped. There were only 10 hours left, so I was unable to retract, denied by eBay, under 12 hours left. Even if I wanted to retract it for the wrong amount bid, it would not have let me proceed, just roadblocked. So I guess the 12 hour rule is alive and well. Fortunately for me, an equally unobservent bidder outbid me, letting me off the hook. And once there is a bid placed on an auction, the seller is unable to revise it (all consequential fields grayed out). I found that out when I wanted to make a bulk revision of handling time, not noticing that one of the listings in the group had a bid on it. Revision denied. I'd like to know who has been able to get around these restrictions, because I know I can't.

Regarding the 4 days, no biggie. It's not perishable. It'll get there. But I know comic people "have to have it" yesterday. Regarding the padded mailer for any comic, that's bs. I hope it survived the trip. And if it did, sheer luck. A seller playing Russian Roulette with your comic. Or maybe his own, if he has to eat the return of a crunched, valuable comic. I swear I just don't know what people are thinking in these instances.

You are correct about eBay charging a fee (fvf) on the shipping cost, tax, and item price. That's unavoidable. But they also make money on the shipping label you purchase through them. I stated that by not using EBay Shipping, they don't get any of my label money to pocket. They, like every other postage provider, make money on your shipping label purchase by getting a lower rate than what you pay. They can get enormous discounts due to their volume, but don't pass all the savings on to you.

As far as rates, it's close in both directions. I don't remember the exact scenario, but there is some particular eBay rate that is a few cents less per label. If someone primarily shipped that exact configuration, like you sold that same product over and over, you probably wouldn't switch. Every other rate is equal or lower than eBay, especially Priority Cubic. I haven't followed EBay Shipping features lately, and they may have adopted Priority Cubic also, but I don't think so. Insurance, if you purchase that occasionally, is much cheaper on PS. I use Pirate Ship on my desktop, logging into their site. I don't remember having to download anything. I'm not sure if there is any type of an app. It doesn't cost anything to use PS, no monthly fee. They make money selling you postage (labels), just like eBay profits from the sale of shipping labels. Neither company sells you labels at cost. As I mentioned earlier, you can set it up as a backup, compare rates, get familiar with it. You may make it your primary service if you like it.

Definitely could be. May also be that something was already on the paper pre-production, that would not let it absorb ink in that spot. CGC will have to make their best determination.

Looks to have occurred during production, so will likely be considered a manufacturing defect, no grade hit.

Not saying Ebay Shipping is bad, but I find Pirate Ship to be better. They don't keep messing with the interface. There are no glitches, no interruptions of service. They have low Commercial Rates, and also Priority Cubic, which always beats Flat Rate. They charge 80 cents per $100 for insurance. Very friendly and fast CS - you actually get a human! By phone, email, or chat. It's always good to have a secondary shipping method, so you might want to set up Pirate Ship as that. It's free. I did that, and never went back. And I really like that eBay gets zero $$$ of my label money. I had coverage through PS labels on a claim for $600 in USPS-damaged raw comics. I was personally assigned a PS rep that coordinated with the underwriter. Paid in full. Nothing like that is going to happen with eBay, for sure.

I suspect you mean the eBay settings, especially shipping rules, always tricky. If you're not already making labels with Pirate Ship, I would suggest using that. Much better than EBay Shipping.

There's nothing you can do about it from a financial standpoint. He doesn't offer combined shipping, nor did he advertise combined shipping. By bidding, the buyer agreed to pay the stated shipping amount. His obligation is to get it to you, once paid. If he advertises Priority Shipping, and sends it Media or Ground Advantage, that's a violation of the auction process as set up. You could message that you want a refund for the difference in the shipping method. He'll probably refuse, or just not respond. Then you contact eBay to get them to make him do the right thing, whatever that is deemed to be. You could also refuse the shipment if you see it's not Priority. Then it goes back. And if it was Media, he might have to pay the return shipping as well. Media does not include paid return shipping like other services do. Then he would have to ship it again by Priority (3rd shipping charge paid), or refund your entire original payment includingshipping, and re-auction the books. An increased hassle for him, but also exposing your newly purchased books to multiple trips back and forth. And lastly, you can slam his feedback. Just don't include anything non-factual in the response. Don't say "wouldn't combine shipping", when he never said he would. That's probably how he got the earlier feedback removed. But you can point out the high shipping cost, or if sent by the wrong method, or if packing is poor. You have 500 characters to work with now. But the more you write, the chances increase that you will say something that gets the fb pulled, so be very careful. Or you can take him up on offer to cancel, and avoid all this.

Hey, if you CPR them through CCS, it'll only cost you $2600 more! And it might even make economic sense in this case (some chance).

A depiction of the very first PODS shipment.