I'm at my wits end

[Sqeggs]

On eBay, I either buy from respected dealers -- and then mostly slabs -- or I buy low-grade junk to read. I don't usually mind if the low-grade junk turns out to be even lower grade than I expected.

 

Once I bought what I thought was a low-grade Barks Donald Duck. Turned out to be a Barks cover paired with a different, non-Barks issue. When I complained, the seller asked if I was looking for a particular issue, why didn't I say so?

[Comicopolis]

Sorry but im not buying the idea that the customer has to ask the seller to make sure the item is shipped safely.

That onus is on the seller to make sure things are done correctly not the customer.

 

Absolutely 100% correct.

[Speedy-D]

On eBay, I either buy from respected dealers -- and then mostly slabs -- or I buy low-grade junk to read. I don't usually mind if the low-grade junk turns out to be even lower grade than I expected.

 

Once I bought what I thought was a low-grade Barks Donald Duck. Turned out to be a Barks cover paired with a different, non-Barks issue. When I complained, the seller asked if I was looking for a particular issue, why didn't I say so?

No way!!! Is that true?

[BlowUpTheMoon]

.......Only buy from trusted board members! (thumbs u

 

I bought a pedigree slab. It arrived with the normal box-within-a-box method. Except the inner box, which contained the book, had zero packing material. This allowed the slab to bounce along merrily during the trip to me.

 

I bought the book on the Boards.

[Sqeggs]

On eBay, I either buy from respected dealers -- and then mostly slabs -- or I buy low-grade junk to read. I don't usually mind if the low-grade junk turns out to be even lower grade than I expected.

 

Once I bought what I thought was a low-grade Barks Donald Duck. Turned out to be a Barks cover paired with a different, non-Barks issue. When I complained, the seller asked if I was looking for a particular issue, why didn't I say so?

No way!!! Is that true?

 

Absolutely. He wasn't a comics dealer. He had just picked up a bunch of beat books and was selling them. I guess he had some loose covers and mated them with coverless books. Probably figured one Disney comic was as good as another, so why split hairs?

[binarysunrise]

Why don't I email the seller, you mean before hand, like to ask them to not Fck up the shipping? Really? Sorry if that's what you mean I got nothing for you on that one.

 

I'm overly paranoid - especially because of threads like this - and I *do* email sellers, especially ones that look like they might be clueless. Just a quick note on the paypal invoice, and a private message on ebay that states my desire to have it packed well/securely to survive USPS, to use cardboard that is larger than the comics so the corners aren't near the edges of the box, to avoid tape being anywhere near the comics, and to make sure the contents of the box don't shake.

[bruce21wayne21]

.......Only buy from trusted board members! (thumbs u

 

I bought a pedigree slab. It arrived with the normal box-within-a-box method. Except the inner box, which contained the book, had zero packing material. This allowed the slab to bounce along merrily during the trip to me.

 

I bought the book on the Boards.

 

Trusted is the key word there.

[Dr. Balls]

Bought a NM book on Ebay last week, this week it showed up in a craft unpadded envelope. It was almost hilarious, as the book was beaten down to a VG. Granted, it was a $5 comic, but still - I thought: "Man, are people really that stupid?"

 

Then, today, a package shows up for my wife - it's all bent to shlt and I ask her "What's that?" "Oh, it's a picture."

 

"In that?!? Oh man, I hope it's not important." Open it up, and it was a hand-drawn piece of art from one of her friends, completely trashed and bent.

 

People are dumb, and Ebay allows the stupidest people on earth a place for them to sell things. It will never change - only you can change. By not using it. For some people, that works and they quit. For some people, they just tough it out.

 

I currently have an auction there, and two sales here where people haven't paid in almost 8 days. It's just the way it goes, buying and selling. I sell for a hobby, not a business so if someone doesn't buy something, I just move on. If someone sends me a comic that is destroyed, I contact Paypal, neg (if required) and move on.

[toro]

At least you got a padded envelope. I've had slabs sent in envelopes without padding, surpisingly they didn't crack.

 

When I sell slabs I always try to put a lot of packing material in it. I did have one guy who said the case was cracked and wanted a discount. I knew he was trying to scam me. So I asked for pictures and since he didn't send any I asked for him to ship it back and I would refund. Never heard back from him.

[mikephoen]

You know it's funny, the intention of this thread wasn't to focus on any single transaction I've had issues with. My last transaction with the cracked CGC case, which this thread has become about, happened to be the reason I started the thread and that case had been unfolding over the course of the life of this thread.

 

But really this was supposed to be a more generalized thread. I've only been back into comic collecting for 6 or 8 months after taking a very long hiatus from the hobby. The last time I collected comics there wasn't really much online sales going on. Ebay was still realatively young, CGC I think existed but getting 9.8's and 9.9's of the newest modern books wasn't even a thought to me or the small collector community in my area that I interacted with.

 

In those few short months I've had, what I feel is, an unreasonable number of bad experiences with buying online. I think at the start of this thread I mentioned 10 to 20 of my 300 or so transactions have been bad. Those are transactions where things came damaged, the seller graded them very wrong, and similar issues. In those cases I had to ship back the item to get my refund and lost the return shipping fees. That doesn't include the times where I was made whole, the seller gave a full refund and said keep the item, or sent me another copy of the item. But even having to deal with those cases are a pain.

 

Is it reasonable to expect 10-20% of the time you buy something in this hobby you are going to have to deal with some sort of headache?

 

It's been suggested to buy from better dealers, go to conventions, things of that nature. Unfortanately being new, I don't know who those dealers are, no one gave me that memo. Traveling all over to conventions and large brick and mortar stores aren't an option for me. So I try to make the best decisions I can, buying from people on ebay who have good feedback, and recently buying from folks on these forums. But even doing that I've had a lot of strike outs.

 

Fortunately I'm not in to deep. I don't have 10's of thousands of dollars (or more) invested in books. I really just feel like walking away from the hobby sometimes. I don't know if it's worth all the aggervation. It tough, I really do enjoy the books.

 

The important thing is to learn from this. The 'deals' on ebay just aren't worth the hassle most of the time. There are TONS of other venues out there. Learn more about them from here and give them a try. If you have to use ebay, spend more time scrutinizing feedback. Caveat emptor etc.

[marvelcollector]

Sorry but im not buying the idea that the customer has to ask the seller to make sure the item is shipped safely.

That onus is on the seller to make sure things are done correctly not the customer.

 

Exactly.

 

You shouldn't have to tell the seller a lot of things beforehand; like send the right book, not defraud you in some other way, etc.

[sterlingcomics]

Stay away from the clowns on eBay. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[sterlingcomics]

Sorry but im not buying the idea that the customer has to ask the seller to make sure the item is shipped safely.

That onus is on the seller to make sure things are done correctly not the customer.

 

Absolutely 100% correct.

 

And as demonstrated here, that STILL doesn't guarantee that it will be done. There was a recent thread where someone even took the time to tell the seller and the flat out refused and/or didn't adequately pack the product correctly.

[Kevin.J]

The main reason to keep buying from ebay is the bargins. A couple of sweet deals a week, still makes the mess seem worth it, but it is frustrating.

I get let down about 2 out of 10 transactions, more recently.

I always state how I want the books packed, I would think that my wishes are respected about 30% of the time.

Sometimes you get a snotty message back saying that I dont need to explain to them how to pack.

I have currently got a claim on ebay with one of the worst packers/attitudes I ever had.

 

 

 

Good luck with your claim.

[techvoodoo]

I've seen packing like that Kevin. It sucks, makes me sick when I open the package because I know it's going to be nothing but a pain in the balls. I think I'm done with all of it. I'm sure you will all see some decent deals from me on a lot of books in the near future. Good luck to you too.

[Speedy-D]

For the past several years, my ebay purchases have been limited to OA, and everything has been very well packaged.

 

I haven't bought a comic anywhere but on the boards for a long time now. BOARDS ROCK!!

[Buzzetta]

I have very good luck with my purchased slabs on eBay. Only twice were there any incidents. I had mentioned the Batman #47 recently, but that seller never sold comics before. We worked it out (and no I do not want to out the seller because he learned from it, paid his dues, and I believe made a mistake- no desire to blacklist him)...

 

The other incident was an Amazing Spider-man #41 in an 8.0. CGC was in town that week and I offered a straight up return or the cost for reslabbing, subway fare and a sandwich for my trouble in having to go to the Big Apple Comic Con to drop it off to CGC to reslab.

 

He went for the second option and all was good.

[69CamaroZ28]

The last purchase I made on e-bay was for a set of NM+ Infinity Gauntlet issues. I got the books and they were obviously not NM+ as stated so I returned them. Aparently, they never arrived and I was out the $70 shipped, as well as the cost to ship them back. I'll never buy any more comics off e-bay ever.

 

So if you end up getting your money back, be thankful. I got nothing. No books, no money back.

Joe

[Hado]

Mmmm sandwich

[Buzzetta]

The last purchase I made on e-bay was for a set of NM+ Infinity Gauntlet issues. I got the books and they were obviously not NM+ as stated so I returned them. Aparently, they never arrived and I was out the $70 shipped, as well as the cost to ship them back. I'll never buy any more comics off e-bay ever.

 

So if you end up getting your money back, be thankful. I got nothing. No books, no money back.

Joe

 

Always use a delivery confirmation on a return in the same way a delivery confirmation is required by the seller.