Can you believe ha.com does this? Really?

[RockMyAmadeus]

MCS only lists books it has in hand. Yet another reason I go to them first.

I know this board suffers from an inordinate amount of people crying foul about something MCS apparently did to them, but in my experience, they are a top shelf organization and it bears repeating.

 

[rjpb]

A broker who doesn't actually have the book in possession can't be expected to guarantee availability, but this should be made more clear to potential buyers. In these cases, hitting the Buy It button is really just a full price offer not an actual transaction.

 

For us oldsters, it's not much different than the mail order days when you sent a SASE along with your check or money order to a seller in the CBG and had to wait a few weeks to see if you got the book or just your money returned.

 

Or something substituted.

 

 

Man, the kids of today have NO idea what it was like waiting weeks or even months to hear back.

 

 

:shrug:

 

Hard to imagine sending my money to anyone in that scenario...

 

It was a way of life for collectors pre internet and pre cons.

 

So pre-70's?

 

Still can't imagine sending much money in any direction and hoping something accurate comes back my way... It is amazing that there were collectors at all!

 

For me it was back in the 70s. In truth most of what I bought, I bought at cons, but there were maybe 3 a year in my town, and it was a lot of the same stuff after a while, if you wanted more options you had to go with catalogs and mail order. A friend had a sub to TCBG, and I went the order route on a couple of GA. The first time it was a Captain America #18 for $20, which was a lot of money to a kid back then, and yes I was nervous that I would get ripped off. Turned out okay though. When I got back into collecting in the early 90s, long distance phone charges were cheap enough that sellers listed their numbers and you could at least call ahead to reserve a book. Still, if you weren't familiar with the seller, it was a shoot as to how accurate condition might be, and on the rare occasion there was a pix at all it was a small b/w image. And you still had to wait for the seller to get your check or m.o., with a week long wait for a check to clear, before the book was even shipped.

[slym2none]

A broker who doesn't actually have the book in possession can't be expected to guarantee availability, but this should be made more clear to potential buyers. In these cases, hitting the Buy It button is really just a full price offer not an actual transaction.

 

For us oldsters, it's not much different than the mail order days when you sent a SASE along with your check or money order to a seller in the CBG and had to wait a few weeks to see if you got the book or just your money returned.

 

Or something substituted.

 

 

Man, the kids of today have NO idea what it was like waiting weeks or even months to hear back.

 

 

:shrug:

 

Hard to imagine sending my money to anyone in that scenario...

 

It was a way of life for collectors pre internet and pre cons.

 

So pre-70's?

 

Still can't imagine sending much money in any direction and hoping something accurate comes back my way... It is amazing that there were collectors at all!

 

I'm 44 so for me it was mid 80's. And I didn't know what a comic convention was.

 

The first time you did it you didn't expect it to happen. Afterward you became a little more careful.

 

Think buying raws on eBay but 100 times slower in every way.

 

 

I am 43, same here.

 

(thumbs u

 

 

 

-slym

[Dr Carl]

A broker who doesn't actually have the book in possession can't be expected to guarantee availability, but this should be made more clear to potential buyers. In these cases, hitting the Buy It button is really just a full price offer not an actual transaction.

 

For us oldsters, it's not much different than the mail order days when you sent a SASE along with your check or money order to a seller in the CBG and had to wait a few weeks to see if you got the book or just your money returned.

 

Or something substituted.

 

 

Man, the kids of today have NO idea what it was like waiting weeks or even months to hear back.

 

 

:shrug:

 

Hard to imagine sending my money to anyone in that scenario...

 

It was a way of life for collectors pre internet and pre cons.

 

So pre-70's?

 

Still can't imagine sending much money in any direction and hoping something accurate comes back my way... It is amazing that there were collectors at all!

 

I'm 44 so for me it was mid 80's. And I didn't know what a comic convention was.

 

The first time you did it you didn't expect it to happen. Afterward you became a little more careful.

 

Think buying raws on eBay but 100 times slower in every way.

 

 

I am 43, same here.

 

(thumbs u

 

 

 

-slym

 

I lived two hours out of any major city, and there was no way my parents were going to drive me to Montreal to buy something as "silly" as a comic book at a place as "silly" as comic convention or a comic book shop.

 

So my only way was a mail order as well. I found a small company out of Montreal and got their catalog every year. I was mail ordering Spiderman's, because that was my thing - and, you know, overall if worked out well - I kept eyeing the AF15 and ASM1 with great longing, but at $800 for a NM copy of AF15 (which probably would have been a VF, but still...), there was no way I could get there....

 

so it was ASM 44 for a few dollars, then ASM 45 for a few more, and so on... my only disappointment was my ASM100, which I bought as a G, but my copy had tremendous water damage and there was no way it was nearly a G - I called, but they said they'd sent me a G, so what could a 12 year old kid do....

 

Overall, I had a good experience with mail order... I was back in my parent's old home this week as my parents are looking to sell the house, and wished I could have found one of those old catalogues... but no luck...