Looks like everything will be live now at Heritage...

[skypinkblu]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

[telerites]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

Sorry, Sha. After getting a clearly restored GA raw book from them that was undisclosed and being off on grades a few times significantly, I shy away from raw books through HA. I may have just been unlucky.

 

And I had similar issues explaining the restored book - they said it wasn't restored because it wasn't in the description. They said they would need to look at it and make a decision on whether it was restored before refunding my money. I won the book at just over $400.

 

I returned it and they refunded the money. ANd you have a specific time frame for returns so I couldn't delay getting it back to them. The cover had been reglossed and was easily detectable. I did notice it was being sold the next week as an Apparent Grade with reglossed cover. It sold at a fraction of what I paid given the restoration.

[originalisbest]

The few purchases I made on Heritage were due to sniping. I have mentioned repeatedly, NYS Tax on top of the books are mostly a deal breaker as most items can be purchased cheaper elsewhere.

 

However, with countdown auctions it is a love hate relationship. I could sometimes get a bid in allowing for a purchase under the 'value' of the book. Often times I would be outbid at the last minute where if I had the opportunity to bid again I would have.

 

To those that are about to say, why not place a maximum bid earlier, the answer is that I do not want to give my competing bidders the opportunity to bid me up in an exploration move to see where the book would sit by 'microbidding' or walking my bidding up.

 

Feel the same way. I would bid my maximum nut "close" to the end, not the very last seconds. If I got a decent deal great, if I lost out, there was always next week to look forward to. Now buyers won't have the same chance at a possible "deal", so be it -- but yep, I'll be unlikely to win anything more in the Sunday auctions. Too bad, I love Heritage but not crazy about this choice of theirs.

 

I'd complain to Steve B. but he's busy with other things now.

[originalisbest]

The biggest impediment to me is I do not have hours to spend watching Heritage crawl through the lots waiting for the one or two books I want to come up to the block. Yeah, you can put in your max bid ahead of time, I have only won a handful of books from Heritage in this way, and have almost always paid a premium when that has happened.

 

 

There is a third alternative, namely the "LiveProxy bid" feature. This lets you enter a bid to be placed on your behalf the moment that particular lot comes up. You can enter these LiveProxy bids starting two hours before the live session (i.e. starting at 5 p.m. Central), or of course any time before the lot you're bidding on has come up.

 

A more detailed explanation of this feature can be found here:

 

Heritage Live tips http://comics.ha.com/c/ref/web-tips.zx#live

 

Appreciate the tip Barry, didn't know about that feature. However I am disappointed in the loss of the ability to enter a snipe. I wish Heritage well, but feel what chances I occasionally had to snag a cool book in the weeklies are now toast.

[originalisbest]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

Sorry, Sha. After getting a clearly restored GA raw book from them that was undisclosed and being off on grades a few times significantly, I shy away from raw books through HA. I may have just been unlucky.

 

And I had similar issues explaining the restored book - they said it wasn't restored because it wasn't in the description. They said they would need to look at it and make a decision on whether it was restored before refunding my money. I won the book at just over $400.

 

I returned it and they refunded the money. ANd you have a specific time frame for returns so I couldn't delay getting it back to them. The cover had been reglossed and was easily detectable. I did notice it was being sold the next week as an Apparent Grade with reglossed cover. It sold at a fraction of what I paid given the restoration.

 

That's an unusual bit of bad luck; but as far as being able to get repaid in full, Heritage is one of the last organizations I'd worry about with regard to that issue.

[Bomber-Bob]

I have enjoyed the weekly Heritage auctions. I liked the fact that the whole auction closed at once. It totally eliminated those 'heat of the moment' bids.I would put in my best price and let the Comic gods take over. For the most part, I was always happy with my purchases, no buyer's remorse. While I am sure I will continue to bid online, I will not participate in the Live part. I think the weekly auctions started out as a dumping ground but the quality of the material has been high so I do understand them making the change, I just don't like it.

[originalisbest]

I have enjoyed the weekly Heritage auctions. I liked the fact that the whole auction closed at once. It totally eliminated those 'heat of the moment' bids.I would put in my best price and let the Comic gods take over. For the most part, I was always happy with my purchases, no buyer's remorse. While I am sure I will continue to bid online, I will not participate in the Live part. I think the weekly auctions started out as a dumping ground but the quality of the material has been high so I do understand them making the change, I just don't like it.

 

I hear you, but I never thought of them as the dumping ground, maybe just "more affordable-ish". Or, maybe I collect at the dumping ground level, and don't know it.

 

Anyway, I do think that'll be "it", as for me winning anything weekly, I'll still try, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll try the feature Barry mentioned, FWIW.

[Boba]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

Sorry, Sha. After getting a clearly restored GA raw book from them that was undisclosed and being off on grades a few times significantly, I shy away from raw books through HA. I may have just been unlucky.

 

And I had similar issues explaining the restored book - they said it wasn't restored because it wasn't in the description. They said they would need to look at it and make a decision on whether it was restored before refunding my money. I won the book at just over $400.

 

I returned it and they refunded the money. ANd you have a specific time frame for returns so I couldn't delay getting it back to them. The cover had been reglossed and was easily detectable. I did notice it was being sold the next week as an Apparent Grade with reglossed cover. It sold at a fraction of what I paid given the restoration.

 

I got the Famous Funnies 213 I had for sale here for a short while. It was described as having, quote: "color touch on spine of cover" - I got it and didn't look at it right away, and when I did finally it had a ton of CT. I should have returned it, but it was so pretty I hesitated and that's my fault. But their descriptions on raw books is severely lacking. This has worked in my favor too - as I once bought a GL #76 as VG/FN that is currently in a CGC slab graded 7.0

I'm going to miss the Sunday offerings - I'll standby and see how it works out for them. I think we have enough auctions, that the format they had was a nice break.

[skypinkblu]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

Sorry, Sha. After getting a clearly restored GA raw book from them that was undisclosed and being off on grades a few times significantly, I shy away from raw books through HA. I may have just been unlucky.

 

And I had similar issues explaining the restored book - they said it wasn't restored because it wasn't in the description. They said they would need to look at it and make a decision on whether it was restored before refunding my money. I won the book at just over $400.

 

I returned it and they refunded the money. ANd you have a specific time frame for returns so I couldn't delay getting it back to them. The cover had been reglossed and was easily detectable. I did notice it was being sold the next week as an Apparent Grade with reglossed cover. It sold at a fraction of what I paid given the restoration.

 

That's an unusual bit of bad luck; but as far as being able to get repaid in full, Heritage is one of the last organizations I'd worry about with regard to that issue.

 

You would think that's true, but unless you have tried to return something, you would not have had the wonderful time wasting experiences. I had the same issue as Jeff, I had to send pictures of THEIR books and they discussed it.

 

I enjoyed their auctions, otherwise I would not bid, but I enjoyed them a lot more when there were pictures. Even if they had group pictures of the lots, it would be OK...and back covers on $400+ books;)

 

I do have to say that the people you talk to when you call, ARE all very nice, but they need to ask permission to take returns. It's not automatic, which is what it sounds like when you read the "3 day" rule.

[originalisbest]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

Sorry, Sha. After getting a clearly restored GA raw book from them that was undisclosed and being off on grades a few times significantly, I shy away from raw books through HA. I may have just been unlucky.

 

And I had similar issues explaining the restored book - they said it wasn't restored because it wasn't in the description. They said they would need to look at it and make a decision on whether it was restored before refunding my money. I won the book at just over $400.

 

I returned it and they refunded the money. ANd you have a specific time frame for returns so I couldn't delay getting it back to them. The cover had been reglossed and was easily detectable. I did notice it was being sold the next week as an Apparent Grade with reglossed cover. It sold at a fraction of what I paid given the restoration.

 

That's an unusual bit of bad luck; but as far as being able to get repaid in full, Heritage is one of the last organizations I'd worry about with regard to that issue.

 

You would think that's true, but unless you have tried to return something, you would not have had the wonderful time wasting experiences. I had the same issue as Jeff, I had to send pictures of THEIR books and they discussed it.

 

I enjoyed their auctions, otherwise I would not bid, but I enjoyed them a lot more when there were pictures. Even if they had group pictures of the lots, it would be OK...and back covers on $400+ books;)

 

I do have to say that the people you talk to when you call, ARE all very nice, but they need to ask permission to take returns. It's not automatic, which is what it sounds like when you read the "3 day" rule.

 

FWIW, I've never had any problems sorting things out with anyone at Heritage. Time wasted would be "wasted" for me only if I never got anywhere with their CS. One time (the only time) I sold a $3K coin with them (a ton of $ for me) I wasn't happy with a glitch I noticed in their photography. The auction was underway with several days to go, but to their credit they pulled, reshot and reposted a new image set almost immediately. The coin sold for more than I'd hoped and at 100% of hammer, I came out roses. My Heritage experience, YMMV.

[Silver Surfer]

Terrible story Sha. On the flip side to that I have bought a few lots of raw Hulk Western Penn's that I believe were only described as "NM". I later resold them here and a bunch of them graded out at 9.8.

[skypinkblu]

Not terrible, just annoying. I've bought tons of stuff from them. It's just recently I've had problems.

 

and it is a waste of my time if they send the wrong book, ...not a waste of their time;)

[ttfitz]

If they show all the books and both sides, I might be OK with it. In the past 3 months or so, I've won 2 lots. One had a book described, but not pictured, as a rather expensive GA book. 3 other books in the lot were pictured, but not this one. When I got the lot, the book I wanted turned out to be a reprint, not the original. I got to return the lot, but only after spending an hour on the phone explaining why I wanted to return it.

 

The last lot, was a book described as having small tears. The last 8 pages were split to the middle and there was a 2 " side tear running through the 1/2 of the book. Another hour on the phone.

 

At least with eBay, if I get something not as described, I can just write a sentence explaining why I want to return it.

 

I've bought a number of lots from HA Sunday auctions over the last year or so, most of them groups, and I agree, it would be much better if all the books were shown - the 3 issue thing is a little lame when there are 10 or 20 (or 45, as one group I won) books being sold.

 

For the most part, I've been happy, I've only had two occasions when I thought the descriptions were off enough to complain. The first one was described as "Grades vary from GD to VG/FN, but average GD/VG." There were 4 books with coupons cut out, one had an added beard in blue ink pen on Jimmy Olsen's face on the cover, and one had a missing back cover. I was still interested in the lot, but not for what I had paid for it. I sent them an email describing the problems, and they gave me a partial credit.

 

The second was recently, when the description said, "Average GD+" with nothing more but a listing of the books. That group had 3 issues (among the most expensive of the lot) with brittle pages, one with a completely split spine, and another missing the centerfold, which included a story page. Once again, I sent an email, they requested I return the group (they sent me a return postage label) and they credited back my credit card. This second group I just saw listed in last week's auction. The only change? It now said, "Average GD." Sold for more than I paid for it, too....

 

I'm curious on how the descriptions are provided - I've seen groups like the one above that only have an "average" grade for the group, and I've seen some that have an average, plus particulars on any book that was different, both good and bad.

[originalisbest]

Not terrible, just annoying. I've bought tons of stuff from them. It's just recently I've had problems.

 

and it is a waste of my time if they send the wrong book, ...not a waste of their time;)

 

You had a problem, it got resolved? Sounds like it wasn't time wasted. Perhaps it was a "learning experience."

[Boba]

Yeah, you learned that Heritages grading sucks.

[Boba]

The biggest impediment to me is I do not have hours to spend watching Heritage crawl through the lots waiting for the one or two books I want to come up to the block. Yeah, you can put in your max bid ahead of time, I have only won a handful of books from Heritage in this way, and have almost always paid a premium when that has happened.

 

 

There is a third alternative, namely the "LiveProxy bid" feature. This lets you enter a bid to be placed on your behalf the moment that particular lot comes up. You can enter these LiveProxy bids starting two hours before the live session (i.e. starting at 5 p.m. Central), or of course any time before the lot you're bidding on has come up.

 

A more detailed explanation of this feature can be found here:

 

Heritage Live tips http://comics.ha.com/c/ref/web-tips.zx#live

 

Appreciate the tip Barry, didn't know about that feature. However I am disappointed in the loss of the ability to enter a snipe. I wish Heritage well, but feel what chances I occasionally had to snag a cool book in the weeklies are now toast.

 

Sums it up for me. On a positive note it's going to help my budget enormously,

 

[skypinkblu]

Not terrible, just annoying. I've bought tons of stuff from them. It's just recently I've had problems.

 

and it is a waste of my time if they send the wrong book, ...not a waste of their time;)

 

You had a problem, it got resolved? Sounds like it wasn't time wasted. Perhaps it was a "learning experience."

 

Thanks, I'm glad I learned that other people can send you the wrong book or books with huge undisclosed tears.

 

I absolutely needed to learn that!

 

I also learned that Heritage's review process could use work. As a matter of fact, they said they would look into it, after I wasted several hours on the phone and driving to Fed Ex (because that is how they wanted the books mailed;)

 

Much appreciate the positive outlook.

 

I think the learning experience was more for them, but that's just me;)

[Boba]

So, did anybody play this Sunday and if so, how'd it go

[ttfitz]

So, did anybody play this Sunday and if so, how'd it go

 

Starts next Sunday (the one coming up).

 

[Sqeggs]

So, did anybody play this Sunday and if so, how'd it go

 

Pretty sure this Sunday's auction will be the first one using the new format.