I am gettin' mighty sick of this!! RANT AHEAD

[thehumantorch]

Bought 3 SA Thors (128-129-130) from Harley Yee at a con in Montreal all listed in the NM-/NM range he charged me a crudload of money and wouldn't budge on the prices. I told myself, Hey he's in my OSPG, there's his pic, you can trust him. I paid and today my books came back 6.0, 7.5, & 9.0 a far cry from NM.

 

 

Should have inspected the books before buying.

 

YES HE SHOULD HAVE!! The burden shouldn't have to fall on the buyer. He's selling to me, I'm just a shmo who buys comics, it's HIS BUSINESS, he should know better.

 

Sorry to hear it. You are right, a major dealer should be an accurate grader. It is possible that the books were higher grade but have suffered damage due to careless shoppers mistreating the books while flipping through Harley's boxes. I've certainly bought a few books from trusted sellers and found the books had damage that I suspect occured after grading and bagging. Dealers also make mistakes, especially when grading large numbers of books. I learned to always inspect a comic no matter how much I trusted the dealer. If you don't and the comic is overgraded you will lose $$ and the dealer's punishment will be to his reputation.

[dikran]

It seems to me that you savaged a long-time dealer based on one transaction without giving very many details. How about some scans/photos of the slabs? (Front and Back)

 

 

 

Here's the book

 

[3319comics]

Ill give you One Dollar for it >..

[dikran]

More pics

 

[FlyingDonut]

So you bought that book from Harley as a NM?

 

You looked at the book, and still bought it as a NM?

 

Why did you think it was a NM if you looked at it?

 

If there's any here, you should be pissed at yourself, because there's NO WAY you should have bought that book as a NM book. Put it back and move on.

[VintageComics]

OK, so that #129 looks like an 8.0 6.0 from the pics you've shown. (edited due to poor eye sight)

 

Did you ask Harley for a grade when you bought the book or did you just assume it was a NM based on price?

 

Did it have that wear on the book when you bought it?

 

I hope you don't mind me asking questions but I'm only trying to help you understand what happened. It's not so much about laying blame as it is learning.

 

If you paid NM prices (multiples of guide) then I'd be upset (edit: but take it as a learning experience)

If you paid lower and expected NM books then you should have known better than to scoop a BSD.

 

The reason I say this is sometimes people complain when a deal goes sour but they never complain if they come out ahead (ie bought a VF book that grades a 9.6) and it's important to distinguish what happened here.

 

If Harley called it a NM he made either a mistake or misgraded the book.

If you thought it was a NM but never verified then you made an assumption and that doesn't really hold up.

 

 

R.

 

 

[FlyingDonut]

OK, so that #129 looks like an 8.0 from the pics you've shown.

 

Not with the water stain on the back cover it doesn't.

[Point Five]

Are those stains on the back?

[Mr. Zipper]

More pics

 

 

With the huge water stain with tide marks visible on the top of the back cover, I'm surprised it got as high as 6.0.

 

 

[VintageComics]

I didn't see the back cover water stain...poor monitor and slow computer. I see now upon looking closer and also that it is a 6.0.

 

The techincal grade was not really my point....it was how the book was bought.

[dikran]

So you bought that book from Harley as a NM?

 

You looked at the book, and still bought it as a NM?

 

Why did you think it was a NM if you looked at it?

 

If there's any here, you should be pissed at yourself, because there's NO WAY you should have bought that book as a NM book. Put it back and move on.

 

But it's ok for him to grade it as NM?

 

 

 

[FlyingDonut]

So you bought that book from Harley as a NM?

 

You looked at the book, and still bought it as a NM?

 

Why did you think it was a NM if you looked at it?

 

If there's any here, you should be pissed at yourself, because there's NO WAY you should have bought that book as a NM book. Put it back and move on.

 

But it's ok for him to grade it as NM?

 

 

 

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

[FlyingDonut]

The reason I say this is sometimes people complain when a deal goes sour but they never complain if they come out ahead (ie bought a VF book that grades a 9.6)

 

That's for damn sure.

[hockey&comicsguy]

I am by no means an "expert grader". But I think i've come a long way in 2 years. As I primarily only buy GA I would hesitate to buy raw on ebay or even from most dealers (this probably because I don't know many of them). I've taken a few chances on ebay and have been burned once and scored 2 gems but that was only after I asked for more pics, asked questions and essentially came up with my own grade and thought it better than the sellers opinion.

 

Frankly, the people whose grading I trust most in this hobby can be found each other in many of the GA threads. I'd buy from them raw with no hesitation.

 

Otherwise, it's all slabs for me. Takes the guesswork out of it.

[Heresy]

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

 

He can grade it any way he wants but loses any credibility if the grade is obviously wrong.

[BlowUpTheMoon]

 

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

 

[dikran]

So you bought that book from Harley as a NM?

 

You looked at the book, and still bought it as a NM?

 

Why did you think it was a NM if you looked at it?

 

If there's any here, you should be pissed at yourself, because there's NO WAY you should have bought that book as a NM book. Put it back and move on.

 

But it's ok for him to grade it as NM?

 

 

 

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

 

That is what I am trying to become...

[FlyingDonut]

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

 

He can grade it any way he wants but loses any credibility if the grade is obviously wrong.

 

Agree 100%, but that's not the issue here. An educated consumer will know what is and isn't "NM" and can act accordingly. It works both ways.

[FlyingDonut]

So you bought that book from Harley as a NM?

 

You looked at the book, and still bought it as a NM?

 

Why did you think it was a NM if you looked at it?

 

If there's any here, you should be pissed at yourself, because there's NO WAY you should have bought that book as a NM book. Put it back and move on.

 

But it's ok for him to grade it as NM?

 

 

 

He can grade it anything he wants. You don't have to buy it. Become an educated consumer.

 

That is what I am trying to become...

 

That's good. You, unfortunately, have to chalk this up as a learning experience.

 

Harley's a pretty good guy, he might take the books back as he clearly missed significantly on the 129.

[joeypost]

More pics

 

 

With the huge water stain with tide marks visible on the top of the back cover, I'm surprised it got as high as 6.0.

 

 

I agree here. The 6.0 looks to be a gift grade with those huge stains on the BC.