Shill?

[mschmidt]

[

 

Did you talk to mycomicshop about this before posting it on a chat forum as a courtesy? They're members here and pretty well regarded as sellers.

 

 

 

 

I agree about the courtesy aspect but with 633 Negs and 333 neutrals (at time of writing) on ebay currently, there are those who might disagree with the second part of your statement

 

I actually did not look at their eBay store, but I have interacted with Conan personally and read many positive things here so my opinion was based on experiences I had read about here.

 

And to be fair, you forgot to mention that they did 213,714 transactions in 12 months and have a 99.7% positive rating. Not 2000, not 20,000...nearly 1/4 of a million transactions in the past 12 months.

 

No, it's not 100% but with a large volume operation I can understand how mistakes can happen once in a while. They do with me.

 

 

Yes I agree mistakes do happen.

What I don't accept is however many positives they have, a neg is a neg, and with that many negs something is wrong.

I have read here posts by members who would not touch any ebayer with any form of negative feedback, but if people want to cut MCS a pass, so be it.

 

To be fair I do have a horse in the race. They have let me down in the past, I do now buy elsewhere. It was their ebay model that failed.

To summarise;

Their inventory and shipping security are first rate.

Despite my repeat business and dollars spent, I found their customer service to be rank.

I chose not to leave a negative, even though they deserved one.

I just never spent a penny with them again.

It cost them thousands of future dollars, but I guess they don't care, so its all good.

 

There's no large retailer (in any industry) out there who can satisfy 100% of their customers 100% of their time. To think otherwise is ridiculously naive

 

I agree you can't please all the people all the time.

However my personal experience lends itself for me to make an informed comment on MCS.

I bought from them regularly, they dropped the ball one time and treated my justified complaint in an offhand and dismissive manner, as if I had never spent a dollar with them.

I then chose not to buy again. This decision was based on my own personal experience.

Perhaps if it happens to you, you may have another viewpoint?

 

That's the problem, though - you're not making an informed comment on Lonestar. You're making a claim about their customer service in general based on an erroneous understanding of eBay's feedback system and your own personal bad experience with them.

 

A positive feedback score of 99.7% on 1/4 million transactions over 12 months is very good. It's not an indication of "something being wrong" (as you claimed) - it's merely a representation of the fact that:

 

a) sometimes any seller screws up

b) sometimes the buyer is an idjit

 

 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

Where did the OP go?

[seanfingh]

 

He just likes to fart in the elevator and then get off at the next stop.

[Dr. Balls]

Where did the OP go?

 

Tried to drop a truth bomb, and then fled the scene.

 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

[font:Times New Roman]Sounds like a common MO in Comics General.[/font]

[PovertyRow]

Where DID the OP go?

 

I am a bit confused as checking ebay (including completed) shows 288,945 Buy It Now and 0 auctions. How do you shill a Buy It Now only?

[VintageComics]

Where DID the OP go?

 

I am a bit confused as checking ebay (including completed) shows 288,945 Buy It Now and 0 auctions. How do you shill a Buy It Now only?

 

Mycomicshop runs auctions on their own website.

 

The eBay comments came from another poster who had a bad eBay experience.

 

 

[somewhereintexas]

Where DID the OP go?

 

I am a bit confused as checking ebay (including completed) shows 288,945 Buy It Now and 0 auctions. How do you shill a Buy It Now only?

 

I'm guessing he was referring to the auctions they conduct at mycomicshop.com.

[Bluetooth-migration]

[

 

Did you talk to mycomicshop about this before posting it on a chat forum as a courtesy? They're members here and pretty well regarded as sellers.

 

 

 

 

I agree about the courtesy aspect but with 633 Negs and 333 neutrals (at time of writing) on ebay currently, there are those who might disagree with the second part of your statement

 

I actually did not look at their eBay store, but I have interacted with Conan personally and read many positive things here so my opinion was based on experiences I had read about here.

 

And to be fair, you forgot to mention that they did 213,714 transactions in 12 months and have a 99.7% positive rating. Not 2000, not 20,000...nearly 1/4 of a million transactions in the past 12 months.

 

No, it's not 100% but with a large volume operation I can understand how mistakes can happen once in a while. They do with me.

 

 

Yes I agree mistakes do happen.

What I don't accept is however many positives they have, a neg is a neg, and with that many negs something is wrong.

I have read here posts by members who would not touch any ebayer with any form of negative feedback, but if people want to cut MCS a pass, so be it.

 

To be fair I do have a horse in the race. They have let me down in the past, I do now buy elsewhere. It was their ebay model that failed.

To summarise;

Their inventory and shipping security are first rate.

Despite my repeat business and dollars spent, I found their customer service to be rank.

I chose not to leave a negative, even though they deserved one.

I just never spent a penny with them again.

It cost them thousands of future dollars, but I guess they don't care, so its all good.

 

There's no large retailer (in any industry) out there who can satisfy 100% of their customers 100% of their time. To think otherwise is ridiculously naive

 

I agree you can't please all the people all the time.

However my personal experience lends itself for me to make an informed comment on MCS.

I bought from them regularly, they dropped the ball one time and treated my justified complaint in an offhand and dismissive manner, as if I had never spent a dollar with them.

I then chose not to buy again. This decision was based on my own personal experience.

Perhaps if it happens to you, you may have another viewpoint?

 

That's the problem, though - you're not making an informed comment on Lonestar. You're making a claim about their customer service in general based on an erroneous understanding of eBay's feedback system and your own personal bad experience with them.

 

A positive feedback score of 99.7% on 1/4 million transactions over 12 months is very good. It's not an indication of "something being wrong" (as you claimed) - it's merely a representation of the fact that:

 

a) sometimes any seller screws up

b) sometimes the buyer is an idjit

 

 

I don't buy the saturation argument, its nonsense.

If you go to a favorite restaurant and eat there 99 times without complaint, and on the hundredth visit, there is a piece of glass in your meal...

What visit are you going to remember? Will you eat there again?

The 99 previous good visits are not much consolation when a sliver of glass has slid down your throat.

Sorry to use such a graphic analogy, but you get what I mean.

 

I would not have commented at all on their ebay feedback had I not had an experience with them which provides me with an understanding of how they got it.

 

If anyone was to ask me "should I buy from them?", I should say, "sure, but if you have a problem, don't expect it to be dealt with a way that you would find acceptable"

 

This opinion is based purely on my own experience with the company.

Like I said I was a happy customer, then they screwed up badly, and now I buy elsewhere. Thats all there is to it.

Anyone here wants to deal with them, I say great. I wish you a good deal.

[PovertyRow]

OK - I got it. I was wondering about the ".com" part. (AM is not my PM)

[mschmidt]

[

 

Did you talk to mycomicshop about this before posting it on a chat forum as a courtesy? They're members here and pretty well regarded as sellers.

 

 

 

 

I agree about the courtesy aspect but with 633 Negs and 333 neutrals (at time of writing) on ebay currently, there are those who might disagree with the second part of your statement

 

I actually did not look at their eBay store, but I have interacted with Conan personally and read many positive things here so my opinion was based on experiences I had read about here.

 

And to be fair, you forgot to mention that they did 213,714 transactions in 12 months and have a 99.7% positive rating. Not 2000, not 20,000...nearly 1/4 of a million transactions in the past 12 months.

 

No, it's not 100% but with a large volume operation I can understand how mistakes can happen once in a while. They do with me.

 

 

Yes I agree mistakes do happen.

What I don't accept is however many positives they have, a neg is a neg, and with that many negs something is wrong.

I have read here posts by members who would not touch any ebayer with any form of negative feedback, but if people want to cut MCS a pass, so be it.

 

To be fair I do have a horse in the race. They have let me down in the past, I do now buy elsewhere. It was their ebay model that failed.

To summarise;

Their inventory and shipping security are first rate.

Despite my repeat business and dollars spent, I found their customer service to be rank.

I chose not to leave a negative, even though they deserved one.

I just never spent a penny with them again.

It cost them thousands of future dollars, but I guess they don't care, so its all good.

 

There's no large retailer (in any industry) out there who can satisfy 100% of their customers 100% of their time. To think otherwise is ridiculously naive

 

I agree you can't please all the people all the time.

However my personal experience lends itself for me to make an informed comment on MCS.

I bought from them regularly, they dropped the ball one time and treated my justified complaint in an offhand and dismissive manner, as if I had never spent a dollar with them.

I then chose not to buy again. This decision was based on my own personal experience.

Perhaps if it happens to you, you may have another viewpoint?

 

That's the problem, though - you're not making an informed comment on Lonestar. You're making a claim about their customer service in general based on an erroneous understanding of eBay's feedback system and your own personal bad experience with them.

 

A positive feedback score of 99.7% on 1/4 million transactions over 12 months is very good. It's not an indication of "something being wrong" (as you claimed) - it's merely a representation of the fact that:

 

a) sometimes any seller screws up

b) sometimes the buyer is an idjit

 

 

I don't buy the saturation argument, its nonsense.

If you go to a favorite restaurant and eat there 99 times without complaint, and on the hundredth visit, there is a piece of glass in your meal...

What visit are you going to remember? Will you eat there again?

The 99 previous good visits are not much consolation when a sliver of glass has slid down your throat.

Sorry to use such a graphic analogy, but you get what I mean.

 

I would not have commented at all on their ebay feedback had I not had an experience with them which provides me with an understanding of how they got it.

 

If anyone was to ask me "should I buy from them?", I should say, "sure, but if you have a problem, don't expect it to be dealt with a way that you would find acceptable"

 

This opinion is based purely on my own experience with the company.

Like I said I was a happy customer, then they screwed up badly, and now I buy elsewhere. Thats all there is to it.

Anyone here wants to deal with them, I say great. I wish you a good deal.

 

Considering that very few people have been seriously maimed by an eBay transaction with Lonestar, I'd say the whole "sliver of glass down your throat"-analogy is pushing it a bit too far. If the food was cold on the 100th visit, would you still shun the restaurant in the future?

 

You obviously had a bad transaction with Lonestar. That sucks. But trying to mesh your single bad experience with a 99.7% positive feedback score on eBay to somehow prove that Lonestar's general customer service is awful makes no sense - the numbers just don't support your argument.

 

I love Amazon - buy from them probably once a week and have been doing so for years. Does this mean I've had nothing but glowing, positive experiences on Amazon? Of course not.

[VintageComics]

I don't buy the saturation argument, its nonsense.

If you go to a favorite restaurant and eat there 99 times without complaint, and on the hundredth visit, there is a piece of glass in your meal...

What visit are you going to remember? Will you eat there again?

The 99 previous good visits are not much consolation when a sliver of glass has slid down your throat.

Sorry to use such a graphic analogy, but you get what I mean.

 

The analogy is more accurately conveyed if you are taking about something uncomfortable like bringing out your food cold, spilling a drink in your lap or making a mistake on the bill.

 

Those things are accidents and they can happen.

 

A bad customer service experience doesn't cause bodily harm. A poor comic book deal is not really like swallowing glass.

 

And yes, I would go back, depending on how it was handled.

 

What was the bad experience that you had that was so poorly handled that you couldn't go back? Was it an expensive item? Did you guys have a misunderstanding? Is there more than one side to the story?

 

You're entitled to your opinion and allowed to spend your money wherever you like but if you are going to defend your position then you'll need more than just a "take my word for it".

[VintageComics]

The flip side of the coin is that out of 217,000 transactions in 12 months, they have 216,000 positive feedback.

 

I have 600 feedback in total on my eBay account, and I've made a few mistakes. I've also dealt with some customers who I have found to be difficult.

 

I can only imagine what happens when you are doing on average of 600 transactions a day. That's how many I have done in 9 or 10 years on eBay.

 

That's 24 transactions an hour or one transaction every 3 minutes that they have averaged over 12 months.

 

Think about that.

 

Perspective.

 

 

[Heronext]

A much more likely explanation for high prices in the lower to mid grades, in my opinion, is that they grade VERY conservatively. I have clicked through hundreds of books in their auctions, and most are graded at least one grade below what I think most other dealers would grade the same book. I think buyers realise this and accordingly bid strong. Another theory is that due to the innovative functionality and unpretentious nature of the site, they have developed a dedicated user base. This company seems to be developing a niche specialty in low to mid-grade raw books, and it is the place to go for this material in my opinion.

 

Consignor shill bidding is possible anywhere, and unfortunately there is nothing that can stop it. Nonetheless I believe it is very rare and personally think there is a 0% chance this is a practice of auction organizers anywhere.

 

The high prices they achieve no doubt helps them attract consigners, although because this is a result of their tight grading, a seller attracted by the realized prices may be surprised when they get the grades for their consigned books (I was, but I went with it and was happy with the outcome). I can believe an occasional careless mistake might occur with a $2, 1980s "NM" inventory item, but if that was my first order with them I would be pissed off too.

 

I don't have a problem with the initial posting. If a collector cannot seek the insight and opinions of other collectors on such a topic here, where else can he do it? I for one understand his quickness to distrust the dealer, although in this case I think there's little cause for worry.

 

By the way, myComicShop's feedback score of 200,000 (or whatever it is) on eBay indicates the existence of 200,000 people who could get any item listed on eBay on myCS's own website for 10% cheaper.

 

This company has an incredible operation going and a website that puts other dealers/auction sites to shame.

[mycomicshop]

A few comments:

 

If anybody ever has any doubts about the legitimacy of the bids in an auction, you're welcome to PM me or call me at 512-240-2802. I'll be happy to take a look and provide whatever feedback I can, short of actually revealing bidder identities. And if it does appear to be shill activity, we will deal with it.

 

Our goal is to be a leader in terms of the transparency and integrity of our auctions. For example, our bid history pages show more info than some other auctions do, with each bidder identified with a unique (though anonymous) bidder code. All our auction results, both the strong prices we're proud of and the disappointing ones, are permanently accessible (auction archive) rather than disappearing once the auction ends. All our CGC sales, both fixed price and auction, are reported to GPA.

 

We also try to be pretty open with our consignors about results from the auction. In previous months we've reported to consignors not just the median auction price as a percentage of GPA average, but given a distribution (10th percentile, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th, all as a percentage of the GPA average). I don't think anybody else self-reports on their auction performance in that manner.

 

If anybody has any additional ideas about how we can further improve our auctions so as to increase bidder confidence, I'm open to suggestions.

 

We (mycomicshop.com) do not bid in our own auctions, either for items belonging to us or for items belonging to consignors. We don't have a company account that bids in our auctions, nor do I, Buddy, or anyone else in any kind of an admin or authority role over our auctions place bids under a personal, individual account. A few months ago one of our warehouse employees saw something he wanted in the auction and asked if he could bid, and we allowed that. He had no privileged knowledge of other bidders' bids and was bidding with an intent to win rather to raise the price. Something like that's the most we would allow.

 

We also don't allow our consignors to bid on their own auctions. We can't guarantee it never happens, but there are signs we watch for. It's hard for consignors to shill without running the risk of actually winning the item, since they don't know what the other bidder's proxy bid is. In the ~2 years we've been doing auctions now, we've had to confront consignors about shilling twice. Depending on the situation (strong proof vs circumstantial evidence) and how that conversation goes, the consignor suspected of shilling will either be given a warning, temporarily suspended from listing items in the auction, or blocked from listing in the auction.

 

In each auction, around 2-4% of auction listings are not paid for by the winning bidder (bidders have one week after the last day of the auction to get their payment in). When that happens, the non-paying bidder will be blocked from bidding in the future. And, depending on the circumstances and how strong the bidding was, we will do one of the following:

 

a) Cancel the auction so the consignor can relist the item in a future auction or switch to fixed price.

 

b) Offer the item to the underbidder, either at their highest bid, or at some reduced amount, like what the winning bid would have been if the top bid from the non-paying bidder had never been made. We'll do this only if in our judgment the second chance offer is fair to the underbidder, and also is offered at a price that the consignor would be happy with. Ie, if the auction ended at a disappointing price, we'd usually cancel the auction rather than make a second chance offer to the underbidder. Also, if there are signs the auction was shilled, we won't make a second chance offer, as that's not fair to the underbidder and would rescue the consignor from being burned by the suspected shill activity. This is a little bit of a balancing act, because we want to achieve high sell-through for consignors and protect them from non-paying bidders, but we also don't want underbidders to receive too many second chance offers, because that can make them suspicious they're being shilled even when (with the knowledge we have) we know that's not the case. For that reason, we try not to make second chance offers very frequently, and generally only if it appears to be a win-win for the underbidder and the consignor (underbidder happy to get the item at the offered price, consignor happy to have the sale).

 

c) As shadroch mentioned, we can also buy the item ourselves at the amount of the winning bid. Generally we'd do this if the winning bid was high enough that the consignor might prefer to have the sale completed than have to relist it, but also low enough that we have room to relist the item as a fixed price item at a small markup.

 

Basically, we do our best to minimize the impact of non-paying bidders while trying to be fair to both consignors and underbidders. I don't know how other auctions handle it, but I'm sure they have their share of non-paying bidders too.

[DeliBebek]

A few comments:

 

If anybody ever has any doubts about the legitimacy of the bids in an auction, you're welcome to PM me or call me at 512-240-2802. I'll be happy to take a look and provide whatever feedback I can, short of actually revealing bidder identities. And if it does appear to be shill activity, we will deal with it.

 

Our goal is to be a leader in terms of the transparency and integrity of our auctions. For example, our bid history pages show more info than some other auctions do, with each bidder identified with a unique (though anonymous) bidder code. All our auction results, both the strong prices we're proud of and the disappointing ones, are permanently accessible (auction archive) rather than disappearing once the auction ends. All our CGC sales, both fixed price and auction, are reported to GPA.

 

We also try to be pretty open with our consignors about results from the auction. In previous months we've reported to consignors not just the median auction price as a percentage of GPA average, but given a distribution (10th percentile, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th, all as a percentage of the GPA average). I don't think anybody else self-reports on their auction performance in that manner.

 

If anybody has any additional ideas about how we can further improve our auctions so as to increase bidder confidence, I'm open to suggestions.

 

We (mycomicshop.com) do not bid in our own auctions, either for items belonging to us or for items belonging to consignors. We don't have a company account that bids in our auctions, nor do I, Buddy, or anyone else in any kind of an admin or authority role over our auctions place bids under a personal, individual account. A few months ago one of our warehouse employees saw something he wanted in the auction and asked if he could bid, and we allowed that. He had no privileged knowledge of other bidders' bids and was bidding with an intent to win rather to raise the price. Something like that's the most we would allow.

 

We also don't allow our consignors to bid on their own auctions. We can't guarantee it never happens, but there are signs we watch for. It's hard for consignors to shill without running the risk of actually winning the item, since they don't know what the other bidder's proxy bid is. In the ~2 years we've been doing auctions now, we've had to confront consignors about shilling twice. Depending on the situation (strong proof vs circumstantial evidence) and how that conversation goes, the consignor suspected of shilling will either be given a warning, temporarily suspended from listing items in the auction, or blocked from listing in the auction.

 

In each auction, around 2-4% of auction listings are not paid for by the winning bidder (bidders have one week after the last day of the auction to get their payment in). When that happens, the non-paying bidder will be blocked from bidding in the future. And, depending on the circumstances and how strong the bidding was, we will do one of the following:

 

a) Cancel the auction so the consignor can relist the item in a future auction or switch to fixed price.

 

b) Offer the item to the underbidder, either at their highest bid, or at some reduced amount, like what the winning bid would have been if the top bid from the non-paying bidder had never been made. We'll do this only if in our judgment the second chance offer is fair to the underbidder, and also is offered at a price that the consignor would be happy with. Ie, if the auction ended at a disappointing price, we'd usually cancel the auction rather than make a second chance offer to the underbidder. Also, if there are signs the auction was shilled, we won't make a second chance offer, as that's not fair to the underbidder and would rescue the consignor from being burned by the suspected shill activity. This is a little bit of a balancing act, because we want to achieve high sell-through for consignors and protect them from non-paying bidders, but we also don't want underbidders to receive too many second chance offers, because that can make them suspicious they're being shilled even when (with the knowledge we have) we know that's not the case. For that reason, we try not to make second chance offers very frequently, and generally only if it appears to be a win-win for the underbidder and the consignor (underbidder happy to get the item at the offered price, consignor happy to have the sale).

 

c) As shadroch mentioned, we can also buy the item ourselves at the amount of the winning bid. Generally we'd do this if the winning bid was high enough that the consignor might prefer to have the sale completed than have to relist it, but also low enough that we have room to relist the item as a fixed price item at a small markup.

 

Basically, we do our best to minimize the impact of non-paying bidders while trying to be fair to both consignors and underbidders. I don't know how other auctions handle it, but I'm sure they have their share of non-paying bidders too.

Professional, as always. Commendable.

[shadroch]

One thing I have noticed that MCS does not do is to require a CC before bidding.

I imagine other auction houses use the CC on file to check out non-payers, but MCS can't do the same.

[mycomicshop]

One thing I have noticed that MCS does not do is to require a CC before bidding.

I imagine other auction houses use the CC on file to check out non-payers, but MCS can't do the same.

 

We will probably be adding that at some point--requiring bidders to have a valid CC on file before being able to bid.

[DeliBebek]

I don't buy the saturation argument, its nonsense.

If you go to a favorite restaurant and eat there 99 times without complaint, and on the hundredth visit, there is a piece of glass in your meal...

What visit are you going to remember? Will you eat there again?

The 99 previous good visits are not much consolation when a sliver of glass has slid down your throat.

This one time, at IHOP, I was overcharged $1000 for a breakfast for myself. It took 48 hours to reverse the charge, even though I hadn't even signed the slip. I don't hold it against IHOP. It was one random error.

 

If I were overcharged $1000 and ate a sliver of glass, I would probably hold it against them.

[Sekowskyfan10]

I'll say this about mycomicshop. I've been buying from them for a few years now. Their selection is fantastic, their auctions improve each month with a wide selection, and their shipping is first-rate. Kudos!