EBay Seller MRGA

[AllTop8Me]

Check out the item description here, as well as the questions to the seller.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=68&item=2278533546&rd=1

 

Does anyone have anything to add, positive or negative, about their experiences with MRGA?

[milo-g]

If you read their description on terms of sale and everything they have had over 3000 transactions, yet their total transactions record is 1136. hmm... difference of about 1864. Could it be that that many people are pissed about comics they received. I would steer clear of this seller.

[Forbush-Man]

I would heed the message Madcow Comics is sending and stay away from auctions run by MRGA.

 

MRGA should have offered a refund to Madcow Comics!

[goldust40]

This may sound smug but I've never bid on their auctions in the past simply because of a deep-seated distrust of their P.T. Barnumesque hype and their refusal to actually grade the comic in question. Looks like my alarm bells were right.

[batman_fan]

They always seem to have neat stuff at an affordable price, but given what people on the board have said about the seller, I have always passed. This auction from Madcow just helps drive the message home.

[jmg3637]

Stay away from MRGA. They are almost all hype. can not grade to save their lives.

 

rude abrasive/abusive sellers refuse to even deal with problems after the sale.

 

 

care to know how i really feel

[shrunkenhead]

I thought about bidding on some fiction house stuff of theirs awhile back, until I read through their disclaimer. They have this really weird, rambling disclaimer about how a percentage of ebay bidders are endless whiners and complainers, and even the Pope can't please everyone. I've honestly never seen any disclaimer like it. I mean, it really kinda sounds like the scrawlings of grade-A nutter. They had some nice looking books, but their loony commentary totally scared me away.

[jmg3637]

I had bought a couple of small groups from them years ago. I think it was supposed to be a set of "high grade" Man From Uncle's I did think that they were a bit overgraded, but for the price it was reasonable.

 

I got sucked in by the hype of one of their big lots back in February. The auction was very confusing and even with that they started threatening me right away. I should have backed out and just taken the Neg but i did not want to get a NPB. so I paid

 

The books came however these were just totally off the scale bad. A Very High Grade Actually had a detached cover and a detached centerfold. A book that would have had to have been a VF based on the value they had assigned to it was about a VG. On the lot I estimate that I lost over 1k

 

They responded with vague comments until i started to press them. They then claimed that MRGA (Steven) had had a heart attack.

 

Rather than press the issue I waited until they started listing again to continue to follow up. Since the 90 day feedback period had ended they have just totally ignored me.

 

I had been planning on running a similar auction. I guess they really inspire their abused customers to hate them

[jmg3637]

i found the scans of the books that I got from them. The Broncho Billy is the one with the detached cover and centerfold. Obviously you cannot tell from the scan

 

 

The Daredevil had a pencil check mark that was erased.

 

 

And the Key book from the lot is this one. They had it at as at least a VF. I would put it much closer to a VG

 

[jmg3637]

Just want to keep this in people's minds in case they ever get tempted to bid on anything from this aweful seller

[jmg3637]

they are back at it, so this post needs a

[esquirecomics]

 

They are back at it and indicating they will be auctioning off some major key GA books.

 

Popscomicbooks Auctions

 

What is this person's name, contact info and location? Anyone deal with them any more recently than discussed in this thread?

[esquirecomics]

Just got this message from "Tina":

 

hello - 95% of our offerings and sales are to our monthly direct sales customers - we do list some at ebay to give new collectors and investors a shot at some of our comic books and to add new, sincere collectors to our customer base. Of the books noted on our upcoming auctions list to which you're referring, several are currently up at ebay auction (check our listings out - the All Negro, Detective 6, etc are currently up), some are either sold, on hold or time-payment plans, and some have not been scanned and a description for the comic book(s) broken down as of yet (Amazing Fantasy 15, etc). If you are looking for particular titles and issues, just e-mail us a want list and we'll add you to our customer base and notify you if and when we pull the issues of interest from our boxes - we still have some 100+ boxes to go (around 25,000 issues) and only get to a box or two each month. Thanks again ...and happy collecting. Tina

[DarrenSmith]

Those major keys they have been mentioning for years. Although I did see their Detective 31 on Ebay once.

[Rip]

Well Tina, if your listening, could I see a scan of your Catman 13 and your NM Punch 12

[skypinkblu]

I bought from him a few years ago, or rather from her...the book was described as VG/Fine or better, and it had a tear straight across the front cover, you couldn't see it in the scan...when I wrote, they ignored me, so I called...and was told by a woman, that I was basically a insufficiently_thoughtful_person...that I should learn to read, but this time and this time ONLY she would send me a partial refund...but if I didn't like that, she did mention something about negging me...

I didn't realize that they had changed names until after I sent an email this morning, asking about their "private" feedback...and got this reply...just thought I'd share...

Hello - thank you for your inquiry and interest in our comic books. We have addressed this question within our auctions - just go to any of our auctions - in the terms of sale section below the scan - and you will see a highlighted "Private Feedback" section - this will answer your question as to why we've decided to go "Private" after 7 years at ebay, over 8,000 comic books sold at ebay (we've sold dozens of lots consisting of hundreds of issues per lot), and over 1,100 ebay seller transactions. Thanks again ...and happy collecting to you! Tina Respond to this question in My Messages.

and I think Madcow should have gotten a refund too:)

Nice to meet you all:)

[skypinkblu]

Waves at Jim and a couple of other people... Ciao!

[GoodyRickles]

SKY, Nice to see you!!! From your harness Buddy, "Doc" (don't use my eBay ID here)

[skypinkblu]

Hi:Doc:)! nice to see you, too, buddy:) ...are Ebay ID's frowned upon here? I'd tried to make up a name, but the login thingy didn't seem to like it, so I figured, I'd be just plain me,

[esquirecomics]

I received this response tonight from Tina:

 

A little bit about us: We started (my brother and I - with the help of a few dear friends and family members) selling my grandfather's life-long comic book collection back in 1998. Our grandfather collected from the 1930's right up through the early 1970's - many issues in duplicates and triplicates. He decided to sell his collection in 1998 and asked us to help him do so - primarily to supplement the retirement income of my grandparents.

 

Prior to beginning our venture back in 1998, we contacted a few of the "big guys" in the business and did have a few very enticing offers (before we realized exactly what we had) - one of which was in the mid six figures. We did our homework at that time and realized the majority of those we spoke with were "car salesmen" to say the very least - we had a handfull of comic books alone that were worth nearly 7 figures. One of the main problems we had back then, and still do today, is that none of the boxes are categorized - we don't know what's in there until we start going through the boxes - and, we are only able to get to one to two boxes each month - as it is very time consuming and we all have real jobs. However, we don't complain much as it makes our grandparents happy and it is a pleasure to see our Pop's face when he sees some of those issues - many of which he is still attached to and we don't sell those particular issues until he gives us the go ahead.

 

We started off with nearly 250 boxes of comic books (probably around 50 to 60 thousand books) and still have some 100+ boxes to go (20 to 25 thousand possibly). We enjoyed ebay in the early years and developed a nice direct sales customer base of very sincere, knowledgeable customers - unlike what ebay seems to have become today. We spend 95% of our time and energy serving our direct sales customer base (in the order of their want lists - we don't have "favorites" - we believe in first come, first serve ...if that customer doesn't want the comic book, for whatever reason, we go on to the next want for that particular issue) - - these days, we only list at ebay so we don't totally eliminate and exclude the new, sincere collectors and investors coming into the hobby - we hate to ruin a good thing due to a few bad apples, but when something becomes more aggravation than fun, it is time to change something.

 

Our storage facility where we store the majority of the books is located an hour+ drive from our residence - so, we go there but twice a month to break down descriptions and scan books and to get others ready for shipment to our customers. We do everything via internet and mail - primarily for security purposes. We still have some very valuable comic books in the remaining 100+ boxes - and many that our Pop still has with him as we've pulled them from the boxes over the years - that he won't let go to new homes just yet - including his Action #1 issue.

 

Hope this sheds some light for you.

 

Feel free to drop us an e-mail with any titles and issues of interest and we'll log you into the computer and keep you informed.

 

As I said in the Superman #2 thread, sometimes people are just strange, but I smell something funny here. Just not comfortable with it.