Rankings for Dealers

[FFB]

No not "Exactly" identical, mine has WP. My point of cource is, with a little time you can many times find that same comprable copy, for MUCH MUCH less. In Mark's case his pricing makes it hard to do business with him and if your not doing much business with him, I find it hard for him to be at the top of your list. Get it?

 

Hey, no argument from me there, Rip! As I said when I posted the list,

 

Here are my rankings in order of how they scored overall in the factors we discussed. This is not how I'd rank them in terms of who my "favorites" are, but that's because some factors are more important to me than others, yet all of the factors in this system are weighted equally.

 

The list wasn't intended to show who my favorite dealers are at all. That's a list that I could come up with off the top of my head. No mathematical equations necessary. Goldust would be a lot higher on the list, and Doug Sulipa and Metro would be #1 and #2, and ComicLink would be top four as well. Even though I have nothing against Mile High, it would be near the bottom. PGCMint would be near the bottom as well, even though he's one of the top dealers in the hobby.

 

What I was going for was simply to come up with a total score for each dealer based on the factors that Brian identified plus the personality score, with no weighting of any of the factors that may be more or less important to me or anyone else. If this were a "who is my favorite dealer" analysis, the factor of "how often do you have what I want in the grade that I want it" would be weighted most heavily. Instead, it was intended as a "Who are the best dealers overall" list, and for that, I think it's not too far off, though it could be improved by assigning different weights to each of the factors. Doing so would result in vastly different ranking orders.

[Rip]

Ah,....... , Ok

[namisgr]

Missing but belongs on a "top dealers" list: John Hauser. Easygoing and fair, John has had some truly major collections - just for the Curators and Green Rivers alone that John has sold, he deserves serious consideration.

 

Since different dealers cover distinct parts of the collecting spectrum, and focus on slabbed books to wildly varying degrees, I think that someone's ratings reflect the kind of collector they are. For instance, if its raw 10 cent Silver Age DCs you want, you'd first want to go to......... hey, wait a minute, it's been hard work to learn about inventories!

[FFB]

For instance, if its raw 10 cent Silver Age DCs you want, you'd first want to go to......... hey, wait a minute, it's been hard work to learn about inventories!

 

[Foolkiller]

This is a good call. I'm not sure who John would supplant on my list, BUT I know this was an oversight on my part.

 

Missing but belongs on a "top dealers" list: John Hauser. Easygoing and fair, John has had some truly major collections - just for the Curators and Green Rivers alone that John has sold, he deserves serious consideration.

 

Since different dealers cover distinct parts of the collecting spectrum, and focus on slabbed books to wildly varying degrees, I think that someone's ratings reflect the kind of collector they are. For instance, if its raw 10 cent Silver Age DCs you want, you'd first want to go to......... hey, wait a minute, it's been hard work to learn about inventories!

[COI]

I went over this thread fairly quickly so I may have missed something, but to me there are 2 glaring omissions: Jason Ewert and Steve L.(Comgeek). Both have offered a tremendous amount of quality material on Ebay, which is great for someone like myself who collects high grade but dosen't spend enough to get into the "inner circle". Not only do they offer tons of great material at auction, but their customer service is flawless(in my experience).

[FFB]

Andrew raised a good point, which is that Jason Ewert and Steve Lauterbach should be included. I'm reposting this to add Jason Ewert and Steve Lauterbach. Both scored 8.67 on this scale.

 

Here are my rankings in order of how they scored overall in the factors we discussed. This is not how I'd rank them in terms of who my "favorites" are, but that's because some factors are more important to me than others, yet all of the factors in this system are weighted equally.

 

PGCMINT.COM (Mark Wilson)

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 6

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 10

experience 10

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 9.44

 

COMICLINK (Josh Nathanson):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 8

customer service 8

reputation 10

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 10

experience 8

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 9

FINAL GRADE: 9.22

 

DOUG SULIPA:

quality of inventory in focal area(s): 10

breadth of inventory: 9 (not much early GA stuff, but he has EVERYTHING else)

customer service 10

reputation 10

historical notable sales 6

grading accuracy 10

experience 10

internet accesibility 7

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 9.11

 

HARLEY YEE:

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 9

customer service 10

reputation 10

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 9

experience 9

internet accesibility 6 (ebay and online catalog)

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 9.11

 

METROPOLIS (Vincent Z. and Steve F.):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 9

customer service 7 (no scans under $500? )

reputation 10

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 7

experience 10

internet accesibility 8

dealer personality 10 (based on Vincent, because I've never dealt with Steve)

FINAL GRADE: 9.0

 

HERITAGE (Jim Halperin):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 10

customer service 9

reputation 7

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 6

experience 9

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 10 (Jim is a nice guy and professional to deal with)

FINAL GRADE: 9.0

 

SUPERWORLD COMICS (Ted Van Lieuw):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 9

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 8

grading accuracy 6

experience 9

internet accesibility 9

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 8.78

 

MILE HIGH COMICS (Chuck Rozanski):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 7

breadth of inventory 10

customer service 8

reputation 8

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 7

experience 10

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 9 (Sorry, but I love Chuck and his columns )

FINAL GRADE: 8.78

 

GOLDUST COMICS (Andy Coleman):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 8

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 6

grading accuracy 10

experience 9

internet accesibility 8 (needs more scans)

dealer personality 10 (anyone who has the cajones to try to get away with red pants at a forum dinner gets a 10)

FINAL GRADE: 8.78

 

HIGHGRADECOMICS.COM (Bob Storms):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 7

customer service 8

reputation 9

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 9

experience 9

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality Ask Doug Schmell. Kidding, 7

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

PEDIGREECOMICS.COM (Doug Schmell):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 5

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 8

grading accuracy 10

experience 8 (no GA experience that I know of, but the master of Marvel silver & bronze)

internet accesibility 8

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

SILVERACRE.COM (Darryl)

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 10

customer service 8

reputation 9

historical notable sales 8

grading accuracy 8

experience 9

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 7

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

PCEI:

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 9

customer service 9

reputation 8

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 8

experience 9

internet accesibility 8 (can be a pain and take a long time to register for the site)

dealer personality 9

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

EJAENTER (Jason Ewert):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 4 (almost solely ultra high grade silver and bronze)

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 10

experience 9

internet accesibility 7 (ebay and want list)

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

COMGEEK/INVESTMENT COLLECTIBLES (Steve Lauterbach):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 6 (almost solely ultra high grade gold, silver and bronze)

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 10

experience 9

internet accesibility 7 (ebay and want list)

dealer personality 8

FINAL GRADE: 8.67

 

ROBERT BEERBOHM:

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 7

breadth of inventory 10

customer service 9

reputation 9

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 8

experience 10

internet accesibility 4

dealer personality 9

FINAL GRADE: 8.33

 

COMICCOLLECTORS.NET (Marnin Rosenberg):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 10

breadth of inventory 9

customer service 9

reputation 9

historical notable sales 9

grading accuracy 9

experience 10

internet accesibility 10

dealer personality 8

FINAL GRADE: 8.11

 

JOE KOCH:

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 7 (mostly warehouse find books, but he has a lot of them)

customer service 10

reputation 9

historical notable sales 3

grading accuracy 9

experience 10

internet accesibility 4 (ebay only)

dealer personality 10

FINAL GRADE: 7.89

 

GARY DOLGOFF:

quality of inventory in focal area(s): 5

breadth of inventory: 9

customer service 8

reputation 8

historical notable sales 4

grading accuracy 9 (too strict in many cases)

experience 8

internet accesibility 8

dealer personality 8

FINAL GRADE: 7.44

 

SHOWCASE_NEW_ ENGLAND (Dan Greenhalgh):

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 9

breadth of inventory 7

customer service 4

reputation 7

historical notable sales 10

grading accuracy 6

experience 8

internet accesibility 4 (ebay only)

dealer personality 7 (my only dealings with Dan have been friendly, but I've heard lots of complaints from others)

FINAL GRADE: 6.89

 

NEATSTUFFCOLLECTIBLES.COM (Mike Carbonaro)

quality of inventory in focal area(s) 6

breadth of inventory 8

customer service 2

reputation 5

historical notable sales 7

grading accuracy 6

experience 7

internet accesibility 4 (ebay only)

dealer personality 7 (Wacky, but nice)

FINAL GRADE: 5.78

[burntboy]

Excellent summation, counselor - slow friday???

 

i thought you left off Bob Storms at one point - boy, were you gonna get it.....

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

I went over this thread fairly quickly so I may have missed something, but to me there are 2 glaring omissions: Jason Ewert and Steve L.(Comgeek). Both have offered a tremendous amount of quality material on Ebay, which is great for someone like myself who collects high grade but dosen't spend enough to get into the "inner circle". Not only do they offer tons of great material at auction, but their customer service is flawless(in my experience).

 

GOOD POINT. I agree.

 

Do they do many conventions? I have no idea because I have never attended a convention.

[Silver Surfer]

My rankings (not all "dealers" per say):

 

1. Pedigree Comics - tops in service and while Doug's site is new the voulme of books available for sale continues to grow.

 

2. Mile High Comics - best overall selection, have bought a ton of BA and Modern books that just are not sold in too many places. One stop shopping always works for me, some of the best packaging in the business and I think Chuck is a decent guy, service is also excellent, but he gets a lot of flack for having the good fortune to acquire the Church set of books. Thankfully he has been able to build the world's biggest comic retailer.

 

3. Various Board Members - have bene able to get some nice books and some great help from a number of board members.

 

4. EBay - great selection and have been able to make some good coin selling books here lately.

 

5-10 Various outlets. Have to say that while Metro has a fantastic selection and Vinnie sounds like a great guy although I have never dealt with him.. I was once a big supporter of them (Ed has been very helpful) but I have to admit that three of my purchases have been obviously overgraded and subsequent dealings/conversations were not something that has made me a loyal customer ever since. Actually I haven't bought from Metro in almost a year. Has been on my chest for a long time but there I said it and I feel better now.

[FFB]

Excellent summation, counselor - slow friday???

 

i thought you left off Bob Storms at one point - boy, were you gonna get it.....

 

I only did Jason and Steve today. The others I did yesterday. Using the wonders of the "cut and paste" function, the list did not take very long.

[COI]

5-10 Various outlets.

 

You have a knack for detail.

[Silver Surfer]

5-10 Various outlets.

 

You have a knack for detail.

 

In fairness I haven't dealt with others shops enough to comment. Mostly my purchases over the last 6 months have come from 3 sources where I have had the most success and the best customer expierence, Mile High, EBay and Pedigree. For me its customer service and selection. If the service sucks coupled with a pmpous attitude and I feel like I'm getting a "raw" deal I'm gone. You want more detail?

[COI]

Don't worry, I was just busting your ballz a little.

[Silver Surfer]

Don't worry, I was just busting your ballz a little.

 

[metropoliscomics]

I wanted to thank you all so very much for your kind words. To be honest even with some of the negatives, overall it made my night. I just got back from Mega Con, where I picked up some cool stuff. I bought a high grade Torch 12, Sup 24, Ghosts #1 (and about a dozen pther high grade DC Bronze), a bunch of sharp Nedors-Black Terrors, Fighting Yanks, a Funny Pages Vol 4 #1, an Archie #7 and a bunch of glossy low and mid grade Horror books- Beware, Weird Mysteries and other cool books.

Thanks,

Vincent

 

PS- Hey maybe soon me a bunch of my fellow dealers and I mentioned can start to rate you guys! Now that would be interesting! Just kidding!

 

PSS-Guys if you need scans of books that are under $500 please do ask Ed but only if you are very serious and only if you would buy the book at the price listed.

[sterlingcomics]

cool in depth survey, FFB!

 

Sterling

[Aman619]

PS- Hey maybe soon me a bunch of my fellow dealers and I mentioned can start to rate you guys! Now that would be interesting! Just kidding!

 

PSS-Guys if you need scans of books that are under $500 please do ask Ed but only if you are very serious and only if you would buy the book at the price listed.

 

THAT I would like to see!! Go ahead, and let us know how we look from the OTHER side.

 

as for asking for scans, you really mean ONLY if we are prepared to pay full price? What if the book does not warrant the asking price (in our opinion) after seeing the scan. Shouldnt we get to see a scan anyway w/o being locked into a sale? and if thats the case, why bother asking for a scan? You might as well say we have a choice: either a "no scans but possible negotiation sight unseen" or "scans on request but you just bought the book regardless with no negotiation allowed" policy.

 

A veritable rock and hard place. I guess all unseen books would be returnable anyway, but isnt that more of a hassle (on both sides) than getting a scan done on request? I appreciate the drudgery of scanning and posting (I complained about doing it just today) but if I were selling something Id have to expect showing a scan.....

 

not trying to bust yerballs, but I think you might clarify that statement a bit.

[PovertyRow]

"scans on request but you just bought the book regardless with no negotiation allowed" policy.

 

I don't see Vince saying that at all. Locked into a price, yes. Locked into a sale, no. I see him saying if you are WILLING to pay the listed price for the book. In other words, don't ask for a scan and make a counter-offer. But nowhere in anything he said implied you were obliged to buy the book. Just that, if you did buy the book, it would be at the listed price.

 

At least that is my take.

[lou_fine]

I bought a high grade Torch 12, Sup 24, Ghosts #1 (and about a dozen pther high grade DC Bronze), a bunch of sharp Nedors-Black Terrors, Fighting Yanks, a Funny Pages Vol 4 #1, an Archie #7 and a bunch of glossy low and mid grade Horror books- Beware, Weird Mysteries and other cool books.

Thanks,

Vincent

 

Vincent;

 

Any details you can give us on the Funny Pages Vol 4 #1 and the Archie #7? Are they for sale or do you already have them pre-sold?

 

Thanks;