THIS EXPERIENCE LEFT ME WITH A BAD TASTE............

[drdonaldblake]

I wanted to let hobbyists know that recently i had to deal with some behaviour from a dealer, which imo, was unprofessional and certainly not courteous.

 

heres what happened:

i sent a book to comilink for listing on their site, it was bid on @ $6000, i emailed comiclink several times to let them know i'd accept this offer but didnt get any replies from comiclink, about 4 weeks later , after repeated emails on my behalf comiclink responds sayign the bidder retracted their bid.

 

how about some communication in a timely manner?

 

i had actually bought this book from bob storms and way prior to listing it on comiclink bob had emailed offering to buy the book back from me. recently, while the book was still on comiclink (not known to bob) bob emailed again with an offer i couldnt refuse.

i emailed comiclink asking them to release the book to bob, delist it from their site and, to save some $$ on postage and insurance (on a $6k range book). i said to bob why dont u pick up the book in person from comiclink as ur both in new york.

this is when the silly childish unprofessional uncourteous behaviour began- delayed replies to my emails, not returning bob's calls, saying the book wasnt @ the offices to be picked up and refusing to release MY book to bob storms as i had asked.

this went on for about 1 week...........................well, finally bob has the book but what was really disappointing was the attitude of comiclink.................i just ask myself......why did they behave in such an unprofessional and uncourteous manner?

 

its this sort of immature behaviour that unfortunately seems to be a trait of many east coast comic dealers...................i can tell u that in any other industry this sort of conduct wouldnt see them last long in business.................maybe as collectors weve become accustomed to expecting such [#@$%!!!] from dealers for too long...................god bless competition

 

i would welcome peoples opinions and comiclinks response

[bullseye]

yikes, that is totally not a way to treat someone that is listing something there that makes them money, i would take my books elsewhere if i were in your shoes. maybe esquire? he's a forumite, and a nice guy in general

[FlyingDonut]

"Comiclink really pisses me off", February 4, 2005

 

"Hosed by Comiclink", June 20, 2004

 

 

The pattern just continues OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again.

[FFB]

When I read the subject line of this post, I thought you were going to tell us that you'd switched professions and moved your "office" to the Red Light District of town.

 

PRAISE JESUS I WAS WRONG.

[greggy]

When I read the subject line of this post, I thought you were going to tell us that you'd switched professions and moved your "office" to the Red Light District of town.

 

PRAISE JESUS I WAS WRONG.

[DiceX]

When I read the subject line of this post, I thought you were going to tell us that you'd switched professions and moved your "office" to the Red Light District of town.

 

PRAISE JESUS I WAS WRONG.

 

[drdonaldblake]

im amazed @ their poor customer service

[THE_BEYONDER]

Maybe it's time to launch the 'CGC FORUM CONSIGNMENT SITE'....

[FFB]

How about a little joke, in honor of the sexually ambiguous nature of the thread title?

 

A guy walks into a bar and says to the bartender, "Give me six shots of Jack Daniels and line 'em up!"

 

The bartender lines up six shots of Jack Daniels and says to the guy, "Wow, six shots, you must be celebrating something big."

 

The guy says, "Yeah, first BJ."

 

The bartender says, "Wow, well let me give you a seventh, on the house."

 

The guy replies, "Nah, that's ok. If six doesn't get the taste out, nothing will."

[Ze-man]

Ba.. dum...bump..

 

Thank you.. thank you.. Scott will be here all week.

Be sure to tip your waitress!

[DiceX]

You, sir...are a sick mofo.

[FFB]

You, sir...are a sick mofo.

 

As if my avatar didn't clue you in on that already.

[sterlingcomics]

C'mon now--wouldn't you be pissed if you just missed out on a $600 comission?

 

 

Quick question: It sounds like you let ComicLink list your book, correct? Generally speaking, you can refuse/accept offers and list/delist books by yourself without CL's help. If they were acting on your wishes, they have no leg on this one...

[drdonaldblake]

i emailed comiclink to release my book to bob storms which they said they wouldnt do/stalled/etc

[Aman619]

Bob agreed to pick the book up at Comiclink office? Theyre both in NY, but so are Albany and Rochester!

[batman_fan]

I had a bad experience a while back. Sold a book that was over 8k through Comiclink, packed it up and shipped it out (pretty expensive with insurance). Get an email shortly saying "buyer backed out, it you want back, shipping will be $$$. I lost it and he finally agreed to return the book at his cost, but I was out my initial shipping. You would think for his "fee" he would insure funds are forthcoming from a buyer, especially on such an expensive book. My guess is that he (Josh) was the buyer and didn't like the CGC grade when he saw the book so he backed out. Just a guess on my part. I have never tried Bob's site, but maybe it is time.

[Ze-man]

 

i had actually bought this book from bob storms and way prior to listing it on comiclink bob had emailed offering to buy the book back from me. recently, while the book was still on comiclink (not known to bob) bob emailed again with an offer i couldnt refuse.

 

 

Lemme make sure I got this straight..(nothing personal Blake.. I am just trying to see if I understand what went down)

 

Bob sells you a book.. you list it on Clink..even though Bob had already offered to buy the book back from you.. but you list it on Clink for whatever reason.. then you accept a bid for $6K... things bog down with Clink....meanwhile..out of the blue, unbeknownst to Bob...he offers to buy the book back again. but this time at a much sweeter.. "cannot refuse price." You accept Bob's generous offer.. ask Josh to pull the book from clink since the $6k bidder renegged.

And in doing so..you avoid lotsa consignment fees... get a better price from Bob then the original $6k offer that you previously accepted.

 

Did I get it mostly right?

 

Tell me again why you are upset? ... ?

 

Oh yeah.. this is about bad customer service.

 

While I agree.. Josh might not have handled the situation in the best manner.

And I am not saying you really did anything wrong.

I just wish Josh would speak up and tell his side of the story. There are always 2 sides to every story.

 

It is things like this that make Clink a pain.. what if somebody hit the BIN on your book while it was still listed? The same time you told Bob the book was his?

 

The BIN bidder is the innocent one in all of this. He is the one who is told.."Sorry.. that book is no longer available"...SORRY.

Well then WTF is the BIN option listed for?.. to MAYBE BIN if Clink can verify the seller still wants to sell the book? Or the seller even still has the book?

That is why the system is flawed... things like this can happen.. and somebody is always left feeling burned.

 

Sorry you had a bad experience with Josh and Co.. But I just dont see how this ended all that badly for you , other then time lost.

It sounds like there is some previous bad blood on some level here... with so much money at stake I can see why Josh might drag out waiting to see if the bidder might still pay. But I can also see how he would be upset at losing the commision. Still.. that does not mean he should stoop to not returning your calls, or emails.

 

Ze-

 

 

P.S. What was the book?

[Aman619]

good point Ze. suppose Bob or someone else suddenly wanted it for 10K. The story THEN would be how lucky it is that it fell thru on Clink the first time right? Given all the circumstances and entities involved (you, Bob, Clink, bidders etc) YOU came out pretty okay minus a shipping charge (maybe) and a few days time as Ze said. AND you saved a 10% commission.

 

Bob paid more than he would have.

Josh is out a commission.

and Bobs buyer paid more than he would have too.

 

Clinks syatem has gaps that lead to messes like this, but in the end, what harm was done you, DrDon?

[tth2]

good point Ze. suppose Bob or someone else suddenly wanted it for 10K. The story THEN would be how lucky it is that it fell thru on Clink the first time right? Given all the circumstances and entities involved (you, Bob, Clink, bidders etc) YOU came out pretty okay minus a shipping charge (maybe) and a few days time as Ze said. AND you saved a 10% commission.

 

Bob paid more than he would have.

Josh is out a commission.

and Bobs buyer paid more than he would have too.

 

Clinks syatem has gaps that lead to messes like this, but in the end, what harm was done you, DrDon?

Ze and Aman-

 

Ben never said he suffered harm. The gist of his post was to complain about the behavior of CL.

 

Look, if he had pulled the book to sell to Bob at a higher price while the bid for his book was still live, then he would be clearly in the wrong. But he seems to be saying that a bid was initially made, which he wanted to accept but CL didn't seem to recognize that he wanted to accept it (source of aggravation #1), and when he was finally able to accept the bid, the bidder backed out (source of aggravation #2, not necessarily CL's fault).

 

So, the book is no longer "active", it's just sitting on CL. Which means Ben now has every right to de-list it and take the book back if he wants, as does every other seller of a book for which there is not an accepted bid. Surely you guys aren't implying that once you list a book on CL you're required to keep it there for eternity, even if it's not getting any bites?

 

So, he gets the offer from Bob, and since there's no active bid on the book, he asks to have it de-listed and allow Bob to come to Josh's office in Little Neck to pick it up. According to Ben's story, this seems to be a much more difficult and complicated process than it should be (source of aggravation #3). The book belongs to Ben, right? So if he asks for it to be returned, CL is obligated to honor his request. If instead of telling CL to mail it back to him, he tells CL that Bob is going to pick it up, what issue is it to CL, other than the fact that Bob is a competitor? If CL insist that it first be mailed back to Australia to Ben, so that Ben

can mail it all the way back to NY to Bob, that's just plain petty.

 

Now, I would definitely like to hear Josh's side of the story. I know and like Ben, but there are always two sides to the story, as someone else in this thread has pointed out, and I also know and like Josh. However, based on the facts as presented by Ben, which is all we've heard so far, I don't think the fact that all ended well means that he doesn't have a right to be angry about what transpired in-between.

 

One thing to take away from this is don't send the book to CL to hold until it has sold! For one thing, the book might never sell, in which case CL will hold it forever, and if you ever want it returned or sent somewhere else, then you've got to get it back from them first, and we all know the line about "a bird in hand".

[Red Hook]

I think you should just forgive and forget, and send along this cute Teddy-Gram to CL.......

 

Hey, Everybody Makes Mistakes.....