PROBATION DISCUSSIONS 21 21

[retrothecollector]

Some you "win" and some you "lose".

 

This is the essence of why mystery box sales are untenable. In order for the seller to make the concept workable he'll have to create enough winner boxes to appease the buyers but will have to balance that value with loser boxes. It is those who get screwed in the deal that are going to come into this thread and complain, and the administrators of this site should spare themselves the headache by disallowing them completely. A successful sales thread is when the seller and all buyers are satisfied, not just those that "won".

 

eBay had so many problems with them that they forbid them way back in June of 2008 .

7 years ago.

 

edit: I can do math. I graduated the 7th grade.

Edited July 18, 2015 by retrothecollector

[Bird]

I bought three MBs from comicalgems in a prior thread. They were not shipped in a timely manner and one of them was dinged severely in shipping. I ended up keeping one that arrived in good shape, sent back the dinged one for a refund and canceled the one that had not even shipped yet. I considered it a lesson learned and have stayed away since. But the one box I did keep (because a deal is a deal) was not up to snuff either. But since that complaint was about the contents I stayed quiet lest I be accused of returning the other 2 boxes for the content and not for the damage and failure to ship.

 

So long story short (a bit late for that) there seems to be a pattern of trouble here. I do not think you can fault buyers for buying from a thread that was revised and deleted multiple times as no one knows for sure why those threads got deleted. I assumed it was due to wording and not the concept, or else why was the final thread allowed to remain?

 

So lesson here should be mystery boxes=butt hurt. Can the whole idea, I agree with that for sure.

[fastballspecial]

Some you "win" and some you "lose".

 

This is the essence of why mystery box sales are untenable. In order for the seller to make the concept workable he'll have to create enough winner boxes to appease the buyers but will have to balance that value with loser boxes. It is those who get screwed in the deal that are going to come into this thread and complain, and the administrators of this site should spare themselves the headache by disallowing them completely. A successful sales thread is when the seller and all buyers are satisfied, not just those that "won".

 

eBay had so many problems with them that they forbid them way back in June of 2008 .

 

Thanks for looking that up

 

Mystery Auctions prohibited

Due to the high rate of claims and bad buying experiences related to these listings, starting early June,

the Chance Policy will now also include Mystery Auctions as a prohibited item.

 

 

Edited July 18, 2015 by Fastballspecial

[AnhDepTrai]

I was one and done buyer of MB, the shipping is EXTREMELY slow, few months after paid. Even with the FMV, the total is not come close to what paid for. What I feel is that none of these MB are packaged/bought at the time of the MB running. If they are pre-packed, boxed up, why so long to drop off at the PO or even have them come and pick them up? Feel more like, collect money up front, go buy some random/key books then send out these boxes.

[jsilverjanet]

in general the most damaging aspect is that board members go into the mystery box threads (not just comicalgems ones) and give support/kudos from previous purchases that it encourages new buyers to jump in

 

I fell victim to that in another mystery box thead and I stopped buying them all together since that purchase

 

Every time I see a new one come up I just shake my head especially when folks chime in on how great their last one was

[Ditch Fahrenheit]

Some you "win" and some you "lose".

 

This is the essence of why mystery box sales are untenable. In order for the seller to make the concept workable he'll have to create enough winner boxes to appease the buyers but will have to balance that value with loser boxes. It is those who get screwed in the deal that are going to come into this thread and complain, and the administrators of this site should spare themselves the headache by disallowing them completely. A successful sales thread is when the seller and all buyers are satisfied, not just those that "won".

 

eBay had so many problems with them that they forbid them way back in June of 2008 .

 

Thanks for looking that up

 

Mystery Auctions prohibited

Due to the high rate of claims and bad buying experiences related to these listings, starting early June,

the Chance Policy will now also include Mystery Auctions as a prohibited item.

 

 

You're welcome.

 

And if you click on the the Chance Listings Policy , they state:

 

Policy overview

 

We don't allow listings that sell an opportunity to win an item or prize either by chance or in connection with a skill contest.

 

Specifically, we don't allow listings that promote giveaways, lotteries, sweepstakes, random drawings, raffles, contests, or prizes. These types of promotions are highly regulated and may be unlawful in many states.

 

I'm not a lawyer, but it would seem that CGC has a fair amount of litigation exposure by allowing these types of sales to exist here.

[jsilverjanet]

I believe any raffle type is shut down as soon as the notify button is hit

 

 

[Ryan.]

Every time I see a new one come up I just shake my head especially when folks chime in on how great their last one was

 

Survivor bias.

[jsilverjanet]

I looked that up and it was too difficult to digest

Back to playing MLB15

[retrothecollector]

I looked that up and it was too difficult to digest

Back to playing MLB15

[Bird]

in general the most damaging aspect is that board members go into the mystery box threads (not just comicalgems ones) and give support/kudos from previous purchases that it encourages new buyers to jump in

 

I fell victim to that in another mystery box thead and I stopped buying them all together since that purchase

 

Every time I see a new one come up I just shake my head especially when folks chime in on how great their last one was

 

This is exactly what happened to me. I saw that someone I trust was happy, matters not who it was, and felt I could trust the seller. (Now the person I used as a reference is in this thread complaining about the experience.) Not placing any blame on anyone but myself but it was support from the boards which tipped my hand.

[CAHokie]

I am starting to think that a lot of people that had issues were quiet about them and now starting to come forward which is a good thing. As someone who was on the fence before on mystery boxes, I am starting to agree that they should be banned for the boards. A shame that so many had disappointing experiences. I had two bad experiences myself (different sellers than Comicalgems), and that is why I stopped buying them personally.

[ItsJustRyan]

I'm thinking about starting a mystery box sale... Is this a good idea

[1Cool]

I am always happy to support sellers who do a great job meeting or exceeding my expectations so I typically post up the contents of the mystery boxes I get from Jason when I get them. I don't think it's fair to voice my like for his past sales threads to not post what I got. In almost all cases he has met or exceeded the FMV of $150 or whatever I spent in my opinion. I do notice not a lot of people post the contents of their boxes and I assumed they wanted to keep it secret for flipping purposes but maybe people were not getting their value from them. I don't like getting far less then I expected but I'm more concerned Jason isn't returning PMs or defending himself in the PM thread or on here. I'm hoping he is just swamped processing the new collections and nothing worse.

[CAHokie]

I'm thinking about starting a mystery box sale... Is this a good idea

 

 

 

Wait, I mean NO!

[retrothecollector]

I'm thinking about starting a mystery box sale... Is this a good idea

Cause you have stellar books. I can see it now: MB $1000 but all slabs included.

[miraclemet]

I don't get how anyone jumped into that cluster.... no minimum stated value for the mystery boxes, then how can anyone think getting fleeced wasn't a possibility?

 

No structure/transparency to it means it could easily be a "make sure my friends get good stuff, give junk to the guys I don't know"

 

There's a way for everyone to win in a mystery box sale, even the seller...but it means that the seller has to understand that their "win" is getting rid of volume in an easier method than scanning hundreds of individual books and managing dozens of purchase orders.

 

When a seller promises big winners, then everyone has to understand that means there will have to be big losers for things to balance out unless the seller is willing to be the loser (and who thinks a seller is interested in doing that?)

[Scturo]

I'm not one to throw money at mystery boxes either, but after hearing so much positive feedback about comicalgems' boxes. I bought a couple from one of his sales. I was really dissapointed in the whole experience. The headliner comics were in the boxes, but we're beaters, and were third at best values in the boxes, which didn't even reach the $150 listing price.

 

Was also asked if I could choose personal payment so he wouldn't have to pay PayPal fees. I did. The most dissapointing thing about the whole thing was the packaging. The comics were not even boarded, or sandwiched in cardboard. They were squeezed into a plastic bag, and put in a shipper without any cushioning.

 

Lesson learned, and would not waste money on a Mystery box again.

[1Cool]

I just got a response message from Jason and he is at work for another 90 minutes and he will come on after that.

[fastballspecial]

Id love to dig out the last discussion we have over these Mystery boxes, but its probably 1,000 pages deep. I hate to read about all these boardies having these issues now, but at least I am hoping they will finally end this mess.

 

Its sad that this had to happen to get some attention to this topic.