Why I will no longer deal with Comiclink

[jkrk]

I was interested in a book on Comiclink's site. The book was offered at $1800. I bid $1600. After a few days I received an E-mail from Comiclink asking for $1700.

I declined the offer and my bid was cancelled.

I glanced at the site today (a few days after my bid was cancelled) and noticed that the book sold for $1550.

Here are ny thoughts:

 

I will be reluctant to bid for any books on Comiclink's site as I thought the transaction was handled badly. Should I have received an e-mail from them indicating that the seller was willing to hit my $1600 bid if i was still interested before offering the book again? Since buying and selling books is a hobby for me I can stand on principle and refuse to deal with businesses which I have problems with.

[Aman619]

you should have received a chance at it. It was stupid of the seller to NOT get an offer from you before accepting a lower bid. But all this proves is this was a stupid panicky seller, and a NOT overly greedy Comiclink as middleman. If they were, they would have pitted the both of you against each other to gouge every last dollar!!

 

Know what Im saying? Seems to me Comiclink is innocent here.

[Jeffreykli]

After you declined the counteroffer of $1700, your first bid of $1600 was also automatically cancelled. So, the seller must have kicked himself or herself for letting you go. Then, someone else comes in with a $1550 bid, and the seller is now a little desperate, so takes it.

 

I can see that you'd want to have your $1600 bid still active, but I'm not sure that should be the default. In the future, if you want to keep using Comiclink, and you reject a counteroffer, I'd go back and place the first bid again.

[divad]

I agree that it sounds like it was poorly handled . . . I feel your pain - stick to your guns. Badges?! We don't need no stinkin' badges

[jkrk]

The seller should have gone straight to E-Bay(3% vig?) for this transaction so I suspect that he was clueless. I blame Comiclink since the seller could not contact me directly but Comiclink could have. The seller simply lowered his offer hoping that I or another buyer would accept the offer.

[jkrk]

I'm not sure I could have bid again? I vaguely remember something in the rules but I'm not sure. If I wanted the book badly the $100 wouldn't have been an issue.The process disturbs me. I felt that I received no consideration for my bid. Given the large numbers of outlets to procure books from one less won't limit my choices very much.

[ArAich]

If you enter a bid, and are comfortable with it, then when a counter-offer is submitted to you just ignore it....

If the seller has a change of heart then you are still in the system with your initial bid...

[skybolt]

I'm a little confused, how could the second person bid $1550, when you're original bid was $1,600. Even if your bid was rejected, it should still be in Comiclink's database. The only thing I can think of is if the original owner re-listed the book. What was the time gap between when you made your $1,600 offer and when the book was sold?

[jkrk]

I'm a little confused, how could the second person bid $1550, when you're original bid was $1,600. Even if your bid was rejected, it should still be in Comiclink's database. The only thing I can think of is if the original owner re-listed the book. What was the time gap between when you made your $1,600 offer and when the book was sold?

 

Here is the sequence of events:

 

A book was offered on CL @$1800 with a bid of $1500 (was that the sellrs bid?).

I bid $1600. Two to three days passed and I receivd an E-Mail from CL that the seller was now willing to sell the book for $1700. I declined the offer and my bid was automatically canceled (which I was happy about as I had no desire to leave an open bid on the book). A few days later (maybe 5-7 days) the seller must have relisted the book with a lower offering. I became aware that the book was relisted when I saw the "sale pending" $1550 price.

[Tomega]

I would have to respectfully disagree with you and most of the people here. You placed a bid and cancelled it with your declination of the counter offer. That should be the end of it. However, no one knows if your bid is kept in a database. Sure your bid amount next to the item when searching for that book but there is a good chance that after your bid cancellation/declination, there is no record of who was associated with that bid. Why would there be? I doubt Josh has the time to mentally take note of hundreds of bids he receives each week. Except for the illegal practice of charging a surcharge for credit cards, Comiclink is pretty good in they way it is run.

[Jeffreykli]

I'm not sure I could have bid again? I vaguely remember something in the rules but I'm not sure. If I wanted the book badly the $100 wouldn't have been an issue.The process disturbs me. I felt that I received no consideration for my bid. Given the large numbers of outlets to procure books from one less won't limit my choices very much.

 

I think you might be right. You would have had to bid higher than the $1600, but I think you could have bid $1601.

 

To me, it sounds like the seller was greedy, but also desperate. So, when you declined the counteroffer, he just grabbed the other bidder. Perhaps the $1500 bidder countered with $1550, and the seller took the money and ran.

 

I can see why you don't feel good about the experience. Personally, I haven't had any problems with Comiclink, but I've only sold a couple of books, never bought.

[FFB]

I'm a little confused, how could the second person bid $1550, when you're original bid was $1,600. Even if your bid was rejected, it should still be in Comiclink's database. The only thing I can think of is if the original owner re-listed the book. What was the time gap between when you made your $1,600 offer and when the book was sold?

 

Here is the sequence of events:

 

A book was offered on CL @$1800 with a bid of $1500 (was that the sellrs bid?).

I bid $1600. Two to three days passed and I receivd an E-Mail from CL that the seller was now willing to sell the book for $1700. I declined the offer and my bid was automatically canceled (which I was happy about as I had no desire to leave an open bid on the book). A few days later (maybe 5-7 days) the seller must have relisted the book with a lower offering. I became aware that the book was relisted when I saw the "sale pending" $1550 price.

 

I still don't see why you are refusing to do business with ComicLink because of this. It sounds like the "problem" if there was one was with the seller, not with ComicLink. Also, this sequence of events is so bizarre that I think it's safe to say that this is the very rare exception, not the rule, when dealing with CL. I can see how frustrating this has been for you (though I'll admit that I don't understand why), but I think that you are kind of overreacting to the situation by making this public proclamation that you won't use ComicLink anymore.

 

Every purchase I've ever made on ComicLink was handled in a professional manner such that I have far more confidence in ComicLink than I do, say, buying books on ebay.

[shrunkenhead]

I think I have to agree with 'mega. To me, this doesn't sound very different than a seller putting a high reserve on a book on ebay that doesn't make. The next week he sells it at a really low reserve, and could've done better if he'd found an apt middle ground. But nobody's going to blame ebay for that.

[jkrk]

You might be entirely correct that CL can't track the bids. That's not my problem.

I am annoyed and I am choosing not to transact any further business with them.

I am simply sharing my experience to make others aware of a possible problem when dealing with them.

[jkrk]

I think I have to agree with 'mega. To me, this doesn't sound very different than a seller putting a high reserve on a book on ebay that doesn't make. The next week he sells it at a really low reserve, and could've done better if he'd found an apt middle ground. But nobody's going to blame ebay for that.

 

I'm not sure I agree. With E-Bay the seller can contact you directly. I would look at the following scenario as being parallel. If a seller on E-Bay and I are negotiating and we fail to reach a 'fair price" then no transaction is concluded. If the seller lists the book again, the following week, as a buy it now at a price lower than I was willing to pay then I would no longer deal with the seller. I never had the opportunity to deal with the seller directly so the sellers agent represents the seller.

[nearmint]

But the seller could have asked Josh to contact you and see if you were still willing to pay $1600. The seller chose not to make that phone call.

 

I declined a bid on CL sometime last year. A few weeks later, I changed my mind and emailed Josh. He called the bidder, but he'd already spent the money on another book. The deal didn't go through, but I gave the bidder that second chance at the book.

 

The seller in your case either didn't think or didn't care to give you that second chance. Josh has no responsibility to make that happen.

 

Of course, you have every right to stop doing business with CL. We all should feel comfortable with those we're throwing money at. But I have to agree with those that suggest your anger is misdirected.

[shrunkenhead]

I had a similar situation where I made a bid and the seller passed. Months later, I got a call from Josh asking me if I was still interested, as the seller now had a change of heart and would be willing to sell the book for my original offer. I went ahead, and got the book....so yeah, the seller could have got in touch with you with some very minimal effort.

[sterlingcomics]

If your bid wasn't accepted, and the seller deleted the book and relisted it, why do you feel entitled to get first shot? It's a new book, new set of rules, new transaction. Don't go blame ComicLink because you couldn't get to bid on the book in time. That doesn't mean you can't feel angry, and justified I might add.

[COMICLINK]

I was interested in a book on Comiclink's site. The book was offered at $1800. I bid $1600. After a few days I received an E-mail from Comiclink asking for $1700.

I declined the offer and my bid was cancelled.

I glanced at the site today (a few days after my bid was cancelled) and noticed that the book sold for $1550.

Here are ny thoughts:

 

I will be reluctant to bid for any books on Comiclink's site as I thought the transaction was handled badly. Should I have received an e-mail from them indicating that the seller was willing to hit my $1600 bid if i was still interested before offering the book again? Since buying and selling books is a hobby for me I can stand on principle and refuse to deal with businesses which I have problems with.

 

It does not make me happy when someone is unsatisfied with our system. However, I think your decision to no longer allow yourself the opportunity to select from the thousands of vintage items from our site in the future may be a bit hasty. The function that you would have liked to see is not built into the system and we, at ComicLink, do not get a notification when a seller wants to lower a price in advance of him actually doing it. So, there is no way we could contact you.

What I think must have happened here from your description, is that your bid became inactive after you declined the counteroffer. At some point after that, the seller changed his mind on his bottom line price, for whatever reason, and lowered the price on ComicLink. You were not notified because your bid, having declined the counteroffer, was no longer active. This is not something that we humans would have anything to do with. What book was it, and what is your name? I can look it up and see what happened, exactly, to confirm the accuracy of these statements. However, if you have an issue, or do not understand how the system works in the future, just give us a call. We'd be more than happy to clarify.

 

Josh Nathanson

www.comiclink.com

[COMICLINK]

I'm a little confused, how could the second person bid $1550, when you're original bid was $1,600. Even if your bid was rejected, it should still be in Comiclink's database. The only thing I can think of is if the original owner re-listed the book. What was the time gap between when you made your $1,600 offer and when the book was sold?

 

Here is the sequence of events:

 

A book was offered on CL @$1800 with a bid of $1500 (was that the sellrs bid?).

I bid $1600. Two to three days passed and I receivd an E-Mail from CL that the seller was now willing to sell the book for $1700. I declined the offer and my bid was automatically canceled (which I was happy about as I had no desire to leave an open bid on the book). A few days later (maybe 5-7 days) the seller must have relisted the book with a lower offering. I became aware that the book was relisted when I saw the "sale pending" $1550 price.

 

One other thing I must mention - SELLERS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BID ON THEIR OWN ITEMS on ComicLink, as implied here. IF WE FIND OUT THAT IS HAPPENING, WE WILL CANCEL THEIR ACCOUNT. If anyone has any evidence that this is occurring, please contact us immediately!

 

Josh Nathanson

www.comiclink.com