Shill?

[RockMyAmadeus]

[

 

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?

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

[

 

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.

 

 

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=robojo33&ftab=AllFeedback

[RockMyAmadeus]

Shill may occur in Mycomicshop.com auction,

 

There are too many record breakings for the raw grade key issues. Few months ago, Mycomicshop reported 30% or better above GPA. It's hard to believe them.

 

I tried to do my best to keep the prices little under 12 months average in GPA but I was outbid too many times. Do you think they shill on the raw grade books?

 

It's just a hunch.

 

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.

 

 

 

[Ditch Fahrenheit]

He's just upset because mycomicshop gave his consigned books a lower grade than he wanted. That's what this thread is really about.

 

Exactly.

 

LINK

[RockMyAmadeus]

A great seller isn't judged on whether or not they make mistakes, but how they deal with them when they make them.

 

(thumbs u

[Tony S]

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22953613

 

Amazing Spider-man #1 VG+ -- Click on Zoom Front Cover and Zoom Back Cover. It looked like 5.5 or 6.0 to me. It was sold for $6550!

 

It's hard to believe that price is more than any of those CGC 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 or 5.5 even 6.0 copy!

 

Conan gave his permissions to his employees to bid the books. It is illegal. Only customers. He didn't write about the policy on shill on the website.

 

It was near $2400 for Hulk #1 Fair/Good! Check the enlarged images. It looks like 1.8 to 2.0 no higher than that. GPA showed all 2.0 or lower --- no higher than $2000.

 

Check it out at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22899447

 

Any comments about this?

 

I have observed/stated on other threads that with eBay auctions, low to mid grade RAW major keys are often selling for more than what they would get if CGC and auctioned.

 

Buyer's literally seem to convince themselves that a book that is 3.0 has a shot at 4.5-5.0. So they pay the same price that a professionally graded and slabbed 4.0 copy would bring.

 

if you have a major key in 5.0 or less don't waste your money on the CGC tax. Send it to someone qualified and respected for a restoration check, take a dozen pictures and put it on ebay. it will bring as much and probably more than it will slabbed.

 

Once you get to mid grade - especially 6.5 or better, the price gets high enough that the keys will usualy bring more money if slabbed.

 

As for employees bidding on books - it doesn't seem "right" to me - but as others have pointed out it is legal in Texas. I fight back against possible shilling by only bidding in the last minute or two (sniping). Since shills don't want to end up owning the stuff they bid on they are all gone the last few minutes of an auction - if not earlier. Sniping also keeps me from wasting my time bidding on stuff that ends up more than i'm willing to pay.

My 2 cents

[VintageComics]

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22953613

 

Amazing Spider-man #1 VG+ -- Click on Zoom Front Cover and Zoom Back Cover. It looked like 5.5 or 6.0 to me. It was sold for $6550!

 

It's hard to believe that price is more than any of those CGC 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 or 5.5 even 6.0 copy!

 

Conan gave his permissions to his employees to bid the books. It is illegal. Only customers. He didn't write about the policy on shill on the website.

 

It was near $2400 for Hulk #1 Fair/Good! Check the enlarged images. It looks like 1.8 to 2.0 no higher than that. GPA showed all 2.0 or lower --- no higher than $2000.

 

Check it out at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22899447

 

Any comments about this?

 

Since you are narrowing this conversation down to a grade verses price discussion, can you please explain to me how you get to the grades on the ASM #1 and Hulk #1?

 

What defects that you see keep the grade on the Amazing Spider-man #1 down to below 6.5? To me it looks nicer than most 6.5 copies I've seen and possibly higher.

 

What defects that you see keep the grade down on the Hulk #1 to below 2.0? To me it looks nicer than most 1.8/2.0 copies I've seen and possibly higher.

 

 

[VintageComics]

A great seller isn't judged on whether or not they make mistakes, but how they deal with them when they make them.

 

(thumbs u

 

How do you judge someone who isn't perfect?

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

A great seller isn't judged on whether or not they make mistakes, but how they deal with them when they make them.

 

(thumbs u

 

How do you judge someone who isn't perfect?

 

 

 

how they deal with them when they make them.

 

[mycomicshop]

http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22953613

 

Amazing Spider-man #1 VG+ -- Click on Zoom Front Cover and Zoom Back Cover. It looked like 5.5 or 6.0 to me. It was sold for $6550!

 

It's hard to believe that price is more than any of those CGC 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 or 5.5 even 6.0 copy!

 

Conan gave his permissions to his employees to bid the books. It is illegal. Only customers. He didn't write about the policy on shill on the website.

 

It was near $2400 for Hulk #1 Fair/Good! Check the enlarged images. It looks like 1.8 to 2.0 no higher than that. GPA showed all 2.0 or lower --- no higher than $2000.

 

Check it out at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?ItemID=22899447

 

Any comments about this?

 

 

What I said was:

 

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.

 

Elaborating: in the almost 2 years we've been doing auctions, there has been exactly *one* instance in which I gave permission for an employee to bid. He worked in the warehouse, had no connection to the auction or our web site, and just wanted a book for his collection. I don't remember what it was, but I don't think it was a big book. I voluntarily brought up that instance to illustrate where we would draw the line between what's allowed and what's not allowed (not allowed = anything remotely like shilling). I haven't received any similar requests since that first time. If it ever came up again I'd have no problem disclosing "hey, this bid here came from a guy who works in our warehouse" to anybody who cares that much about it.

 

And I can confirm none of the bidding on the ASM 1 or Hulk 1 came from anybody with any connection to MCS. Both were won by the same bidder (which anybody could see by checking the bidder IDs on the bid history pages). He's a long-time customer but first-time auction participant, and has already submitted his order for the books he won in auction. I'll also note that the ASM 1 is signed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on the splash page, which may have contributed to the final bid. Not everybody has to have the signature series yellow label to find an autographed book more desirable.

[JollyComics]

It looks like the employees helped the companies to make more money that would eat up peoples' money.

[iggy]

I'll also note that the ASM 1 is signed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on the splash page, which may have contributed to the final bid. Not everybody has to have the signature series yellow label to find an autographed book more desirable.

 

There ya go! (thumbs u