Discretion or butting into someone else's business.

[Dale Roberts]

Here is what I said to this seller and his response. Direct cut and paste from PMs.

 

me - It appears that several of your higher graded books have been trimmed.

 

seller - I thought the same....When I got this large collection a year ago. I sent some of the big ones into CGC and they all came out fine. People where swearing that the books looked trimmed. I will admit that some did, but they cam back ok. I am assuming the same with these. They cam from same collection. #16 really looks like it but I hope that it has not.

 

me - #__, #__, #__ are almost certainly trimmed.

 

seller - what else can I say? Unless I submit them we will never know..

 

[BrianR]

Sounds like a well crafted answer to deny any wrong doing.

[Foolkiller]

The thing that is problematic here is that we know nothing about the seller and the seller has made no effort to lend any credibility to any of those statements made to Dale in the PM.

 

That being said, I still think that the right move is to give the statement of your opinion and then leave it to the buyers to make up their own mind -- doing it in the thread presents a tricky quandary, and I might start a new thread just stating your opinion.

[Dale Roberts]

I have been PMed by several about who this is. While I do not want to name the seller, I will say that it is not BatmanFan.

 

I actually have not paid that much attention to his thread, simply out of principle. I don't think he has the right to sell here. His first post was his own sales thread and he has never posted anywhere outside of his own sales thread. Since when did this become ebay. Just my 2 cents.

[szelim]

Here is what I said to this seller and his response. Direct cut and paste from PMs.

 

me - It appears that several of your higher graded books have been trimmed.

 

seller - I thought the same....When I got this large collection a year ago. I sent some of the big ones into CGC and they all came out fine. People where swearing that the books looked trimmed. I will admit that some did, but they cam back ok. I am assuming the same with these. They cam from same collection. #16 really looks like it but I hope that it has not.

 

me - #__, #__, #__ are almost certainly trimmed.

 

seller - what else can I say? Unless I submit them we will never know..

Interesting. It looks as if the seller has been forthcoming to you, assuming what the seller said is truthful. Since you asked the question in the thread and the seller provided a response including a return policy, I think it's probably inappropriate to further push this in his sale thread. PMing the buyers (at least the ones you know) would still be appropriate, including the info that the seller provided.

 

My anyway.

[Dale Roberts]

Here is what I said to this seller and his response. Direct cut and paste from PMs.

 

me - It appears that several of your higher graded books have been trimmed.

 

seller - I thought the same....When I got this large collection a year ago. I sent some of the big ones into CGC and they all came out fine. People where swearing that the books looked trimmed. I will admit that some did, but they cam back ok. I am assuming the same with these. They cam from same collection. #16 really looks like it but I hope that it has not.

 

me - #__, #__, #__ are almost certainly trimmed.

 

seller - what else can I say? Unless I submit them we will never know..

Interesting. It looks as if the seller has been forthcoming to you, assuming what the seller said is truthful. Since you asked the question in the thread and the seller provided a response including a return policy, I think it's probably inappropriate to further push this in his sale thread. PMing the buyers (at least the ones you know) would still be appropriate, including the info that the seller provided.

 

My anyway.

 

I don't think it is appropriate for me to PM the buyers. Hopefully they will read this thread, or even better, that the books are not actually trimmed.

[Sal]

I have been PMed by several about who this is. While I do not want to name the seller, I will say that it is not BatmanFan.

 

I actually have not paid that much attention to his thread, simply out of principle. I don't think he has the right to sell here. His first post was his own sales thread and he has never posted anywhere outside of his own sales thread. Since when did this become ebay. Just my 2 cents.

 

it's pretty much always been that way, Dale. until people stop buying books from people who come here solely to sell, the Marketplace will always have that component. i don't even know if it's necessarily a bad thing...i can see a rationale for doing it in certain circumstances.

 

that being said, i do think most make a distinction between people who come here only to sell and those who make an attempt to be a part of the community before they offer books to the forum. i know i do make this distinction, and i would hope others would as well.

 

 

with respect for the topic at hand, i think that there's no 'right' answer here. while this is a community, at some point one has to make one's own assessment when committing to make a purchase. if someone does get burned on a book that has undisclosed trimming - or resto - then it's an expensive lesson to learn. hopefully, the nature of the community would preclude this from happening as often as it might otherwise

 

 

[nearmint]

If I don't know someone's name, I'm not going to buy a book from them in the marketplace. Period.

[Ze-man]

I have been PMed by several about who this is. While I do not want to name the seller, I will say that it is not BatmanFan.

 

I actually have not paid that much attention to his thread, simply out of principle. I don't think he has the right to sell here. His first post was his own sales thread and he has never posted anywhere outside of his own sales thread. Since when did this become ebay. Just my 2 cents.

 

Well since it is all to easy to figure out who it is lets just get it out of the way. I assume you are talking about the run of FF books for sale by Paper Only.

 

I agree that many look to be clearly trimmed.

 

As for if he has a right to sell here or not I cannot say. While his hit the ground running sell sell sell approach certainly does not keep with the true spirit of this place, it does not necessarily break any rules either.

 

If you, me or any other seller here was informed offline that some books we had listed looked to be trimmed we would put things on hold, or pull the books and discuss offline books that were already bid on. But since this person is new here we are walking on eggshells out of respect.

 

Awkward situation. At least there is the option to return the books if I read the thread correctly, and to his credit he did list CT on many of the books.

[TupennyConan]

Great thread Dale.

 

If I got a PM from a friend warning me to be careful about such a sales thread I would be very grateful to the friend.

 

If I went on to buy the books or if I had already bought the books under some accumulation of risky conditions already known to me (like the seller was a total noob, no references, etc), then I would be doing so with the knowledge that there is risk all around us in life, the comics hobby being no exception.

 

I would have to examine my willingness to take a loss vs. the benefit of the upside. In fact, there might even be value in the thrill of the risk itself.

 

We've all got to be responsible adults even in a hobby about childhood nostalgia.

 

 

[nearmint]

But since this person is new here we are walkning on eggshells out of respect.

 

Yeah, and I think it should be the exact opposite, especially when they don't provide their name and some references. We're getting too socially correct, in my opinion. We don't shrink back from accusing new posters of being shills, but if they post a few books in the marketplace, we treat them as well as long-standing, respected sellers.

[Sal]

get help, Bill.

 

 

[Mac Man]

My first thought is that this would be the sort of conversation for the General Discussion thread in the marketplace so as to avoid krapping in someone else's thread; in conjunction with that, I'd say a friendly couple of PMs usually work. Since the seller does not seem to be interested in there being restoration / trimming present and no desire to proactively disclose it, then I'd say you're being a heckuva nice guy PMing interested buyers to give them a heads up.

 

[Sal]

i've seen it written before that we should have some sort of limiter on being able to start threads in the Marketplace. amount of time here, number of posts, etc.

 

 

i do actually think this sort of thing is actually possible, given my understanding of the software this board is based upon.

 

whether or not these artificial boundaries will actually accomplish anything is another issue

[TupennyConan]

get help, Bill.

 

 

 

 

PS I got a PM as described

 

PSS I don't play poker but I know a buncha Boards members who do

[nearmint]

i've seen it written before that we should have some sort of limiter on being able to start threads in the Marketplace. amount of time here, number of posts, etc.

 

 

i do actually think this sort of thing is actually possible, given my understanding of the software this board is based upon.

 

whether or not these artificial boundaries will actually accomplish anything is another issue

 

Which leads to another question. Should a new poster be allowed to buy in the marketplace?

[Sal]

i've seen it written before that we should have some sort of limiter on being able to start threads in the Marketplace. amount of time here, number of posts, etc.

 

 

i do actually think this sort of thing is actually possible, given my understanding of the software this board is based upon.

 

whether or not these artificial boundaries will actually accomplish anything is another issue

 

Which leads to another question. Should a new poster be allowed to buy in the marketplace?

 

no idea. i've heard both arguments and still have no idea.

 

 

the problem is obviously that you do eliminate some potential problems, but there's really no way you're going to stop someone from being a d-bag if that's what they want to do

[ChasingKingKirby]

Many of the books look trimmed to me. Especially the 16, I was interested at first, but the lack of a publicly declared return policy and a very ominous, "not restored by me..." and NO selling history nor anyone that knows this guy, severely cooled my interest. No freaking way I'm touching those books.

[lizards2]

 

I agree that many look to be clearly trimmed.

 

 

Several here have said that - could you elaborate a little on what typically constitutes a "clearly trimmed" book? :shrug:

[TupennyConan]

At this point, some responsible party should PM the seller, make them aware of this thread, & invite them to participate in it.