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Which Auction Site Do You Prefer and Why?
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Started by Hudson,

29 posts in this topic

Hudson

Hudson

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Posted

As strictly a comic buyer, I know that there are some things I prefer about purchasing from one auction site as opposed to others.

I am curious as to other people's experience and preferences when it comes to the various auction sites

What do you like/dislike about each site as a buyer or seller.

Some of the things that you might consider mentioning....

1) Do you prefer the auctions that end at a certain time and high bid gets it (like eBay or Comic Link) or do you prefer the more traditional auction where one continues to bid until all other bidders give in (like Heritage or Comic Connect)? (question for buyer or seller).

2) Customer service (buyer or seller)

3) Postage charged (buyer)

4) Payment forms accepted (buyer)

5) Time it takes to receive your items (buyer)

6) Do you prefer auctions where what you bid is what you pay OR auctions that charge a buyer or seller premium. (buyer or seller)

7) Anything else you think is relevant as either a buyer or seller

I appreciate your thoughts and thank you in advance for taking the time to share any experiences (positive or negative) that you have had (although I hope this does not become just a thread complaining about eBay - as we have enough of those already).

 

 

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Hudson

Hudson

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1 minute ago, oldbsturgeon said:

I’ve only ever bought comics as an auction on eBay but it’s shorter listing times and large variety appeals to me.also checkout allows me to take advantage of promotions that other locations might not offer.

 

Great points and things I had not thought of.  Thank you!

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miraclemet

miraclemet

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Posted

Though I bid in and have won in them all, I like auctions that just end (eBay , clink). No extended time.

I prefer auction sites that list the buyer premiums at the point of bid (like heritage), but it's not a deal breaker. I can do math.

 

Otherwise it's all good on all the other aspects. 

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William-James88

William-James88

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Honestly, my favourite auction place is mycomicshop.com. Their shipping rates to Canada are excellent and their grading is superb. 

However, there seems to be a lot of people looking at these auctions and prices usually end up being higher than whatever the GPA is and they don't have great inventory compared to other places.

I also buy from comiclink but the prices to canada for shipping are really high and the site is from the 90s. There are no scans of the back of the books and you can't even add something to a watch list. You can't even combine orders unless you do the workaround of finishing a transaction online by stating that you will then call them to finish the transaction. But great inventory and final prices are usually on the lower end (compared to mycomicshop).

Comicconnect is ok for slabbed books. They also dont post the back cover and their site aint all that great. Shipping is the same as comiclink. They have probably the best inventory of the bunch. But their grading for raw books is atrocious and they have a habit of not disclosing restoration. So that's why I stick to slabbed books. They are usually a last resort though. Aparently, they get away with it because they have really good customer service where they will take the books back if you are not satisfied. But that only applies to the raw books, so I have no experience with that.

Then you have Heritage, which I have a love/hate relationship with. I tend to get the best deals there because of their lot format. They are probably the biggest auction house for comic books and thus tend to group stuff together to turn their lots into higher value lots. Like seven $50 books sold as a lot valued at $350. So you end up buying more in bulk and with that comes bulk discounts. Like a lot valued at $800 would sell for $600. That's fun when you have none of the books in the lot and I really like that they sell lots of raw books, so I can read the golden age issues before I chose whether or not I want them slabbed/pressed. They tend to put one more wanted book among others less wanted to sell everything since with them, its all about volume. And that's where the Hate part comes in for my relationship with them. Since to them its all about going through things as quickly as possible, they will take shortcuts that suck as a collector. For instance, with low value books (like less than 100$), they will grade judging by the cover without opening the book to check if anything is missing. Their grading of the cover is usually spot on but there are a bunch of stories of them missing coupons being cut and such, rendering the book you bought almost worthless. That happened to me a lot. So, you then get the books and go through them yourself to check if anything's amiss. Then you contact customer service and arrange how you want to proceed with the return. If your book is part of a lot, you usually have to send back the entire lot (unless negotiated otherwise during the customer service back and forth). As for inventory, they have some really good stuff sometimes, that's the place you'll find pedigree books being auctionned off, for instance, but you'll be waiting longer to find that book you want there than at comiclink or comicconnect. Shipping is the same. All these three use Fed Ex.

 

So there you go. As for the question of the bid amount being the price I pay, it's all the same to me. Technically since none of them include shipping, your bid will never be the final cost of your book, so I just take it all into account regardless. Comes to the same though once again, I do like what Heritage does where they list the buyer premiums at the point of bid.

 

I hope this helps.

 

 

Edited by William-James88
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Hudson

Hudson

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30 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

Honestly, my favourite auction place is mycomicshop.com. Their shipping rates to Canada are excellent and their grading is superb. 

However, there seems to be a lot of people looking at these auctions and prices usually end up being higher than whatever the GPA is and they don't have great inventory compared to other places.

I also buy from comiclink but the prices to canada for shipping are really high and the site is from the 90s. There are no scans of the back of the books and you can't even add something to a watch list. You can't even combine orders unless you do the workaround of finishing a transaction online by stating that you will then call them to finish the transaction. But great inventory and final prices are usually on the lower end (compared to mycomicshop).

Comicconnect is ok for slabbed books. They also dont post the back cover and their site aint all that great. Shipping is the same as comiclink. They have probably the best inventory of the bunch. But their grading for raw books is atrocious and they have a habit of not disclosing restoration. So that's why I stick to slabbed books. They are usually a last resort though. Aparently, they get away with it because they have really good customer service where they will take the books back if you are not satisfied. But that only applies to the raw books, so I have no experience with that.

Then you have Heritage, which I have a love/hate relationship with. I tend to get the best deals there because of their lot format. They are probably the biggest auction house for comic books and thus tend to group stuff together to turn their lots into higher value lots. Like seven $50 books sold as a lot valued at $350. So you end up buying more in bulk and with that comes bulk discounts. Like a lot valued at $800 would sell for $600. That's fun when you have none of the books in the lot and I really like that they sell lots of raw books, so I can read the golden age issues before I chose whether or not I want them slabbed/pressed. They tend to put one more wanted book among others less wanted to sell everything since with them, its all about volume. And that's where the Hate part comes in for my relationship with them. Since to them its all about going through things as quickly as possible, they will take shortcuts that suck as a collector. For instance, with low value books (like less than 100$), they will grade judging by the cover without opening the book to check if anything is missing. Their grading of the cover is usually spot on but there are a bunch of stories of them missing coupons being cut and such, rendering the book you bought almost worthless. That happened to me a lot. So, you then get the books and go through them yourself to check if anything's amiss. Then you contact customer service and arrange how you want to proceed with the return. If your book is part of a lot, you usually have to send back the entire lot (unless negotiated otherwise during the customer service back and forth). As for inventory, they have some really good stuff sometimes, that's the place you'll find pedigree books being auctionned off, for instance, but you'll be waiting longer to find that book you want there than at comiclink or comicconnect. Shipping is the same. All these three use Fed Ex.

 

So there you go. As for the question of the bid amount being the price I pay, it's all the same to me. Technically since none of them include shipping, your bid will never be the final cost of your book, so I just take it all into account regardless. Comes to the same though once again, I do like what Heritage does where they list the buyer premiums at the point of bid.

 

I hope this helps.

 

 

WOW!  Thank you for taking the time to write out all these thoughts.  I really appreciate it.

I agree with a lot of what you said.  I will assume (as you stated) that shipping cost is the same for the three listed because you are in Canada.  They are not all the same for those in the US. 

Excellent thoughts and observations. (thumbsu

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Hudson

Hudson

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1 hour ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

eBay, only because of familiarity. Easiest place for me to stay aware of my bids.

Do any of the dedicated auction sites have apps?

Good question.  IDK.  I bid via lap top.  Maybe someone else out here has an answer.

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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11 hours ago, William-James88 said:

Honestly, my favourite auction place is mycomicshop.com. Their shipping rates to Canada are excellent and their grading is superb. 

However, there seems to be a lot of people looking at these auctions and prices usually end up being higher than whatever the GPA is and they don't have great inventory compared to other places.

Mycomicshop has done a very positive about face in the grading department. Back in the "old days" it was not so good but these days they seem to be very strict on grading. To the point, in some cases, of being undergraders. This is great for collectors, but as more people catch on to this, their auction results will only end up higher. I'd much rather pay more for something that is more likely to be accurately graded, or better yet, undergraded. 

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Hudson

Hudson

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12 minutes ago, Jeffro. said:

Mycomicshop has done a very positive about face in the grading department. Back in the "old days" it was not so good but these days they seem to be very strict on grading. To the point, in some cases, of being undergraders. This is great for collectors, but as more people catch on to this, their auction results will only end up higher. I'd much rather pay more for something that is more likely to be accurately graded, or better yet, undergraded. 

I agree.  MCS tend to be very strict graders (which I find good for buyers).  This may be why their raw books (or at least the ones I tend to bid on) seem to fetch a higher ending bid than on other sites.

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Unstoppablejayd

Unstoppablejayd

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Personally - I find myself buying the most from Comiclink.. and honestly it is probably for me the least (maybe connect is worse) liked site as far as functionality and ease of use. But I tend to get the best deals there. That being said

Heritage- Pros-fantastic site.. easy to use , easy to track, great reminder emails. Incredible selections. Ability to search previous sales easily.  Cons- No Paypal, the buyers premium while calculated into your bid just looks terrible. Fluctuating shipping charges. Charge on top of all the other fees for using a credit card

Comiclink- Pros auction ends when done, good selection, good breakdown of auction tiers (GA,High Silver, LOw Silver, Modern,Art) and separate so if you do not collect modern for instance you can ignore that night. No buyers premium if you mail a check and very small fee if CC . Cons - No back scan, no tracking, no sniping as it is a multi tab bidding system,

Ebay- Pros- deals because of volume of mis-labeled stuff , good site, ease of tracking, promos and ebay bucks, Cons- the wild west.. I mean tons of terrible grading, no listing of faults, hidden resto,and tons of shill bidding.

Comicconnect- I hate there new website but I will leave it incomplete for now. 

Mycomicshop- I like a lot - Pros great system , minimal buyers premium, great tracking, great grading, cheap and fast shipping. All types of payment accepted. Cons not as good of a selection, large lots with not great description, the lots are all mixed together so you may have to wait through lots of stuff you are not interested in to get to the piece you want. And although I do not mind the extended time for bids, unlike HA they do not wait for one item to end so you may wind up with multiple things you are bidding on ending at the same time. 

 

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evilskip

evilskip

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I've used Comiclink a few times. I can't afford big ticket items, so I've not been back there in a year.

I like MCS' auction site, but my luck is horrible. Their grading is awesome.

Ebay is a crapshoot. Raw books are the only thing I buy. poor grading and not listing that there are serious defects inside (like missing pages, cut outs, residue etc) also are drawbacks.

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William-James88

William-James88

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13 minutes ago, evilskip said:

I like MCS' auction site, but my luck is horrible.

I think that's the same for most. As indicated above, thats where prices are highest due to ease of payments, cheap shipping, and best grading. So you have books that people think may be worth more and more people looking, making for much higher prices. I thought I got lucky with a big key book once (since I got it for way below guide) but then I realized the guide price was double the GPA so I didn't get a deal after all.

But another thing about MCS is that while the grading is very fair, not everything is undergraded and yet it seems some fans are assuming it is. Like a 7.0 being assumed to be an 8.0. But if you look at the comic closely (thanks to their very good scans), you see that while it may look really good, it does have defects that make the odds of it being above a 7.0 really low (like a staple tear or a spine split). But yet, because of the assumption that it could be higher, the price ends up higher. So your 7.0 raw that would end up 7.0 slabbed will cost you more than purchasing that same book already slabbed at 7.0.

Edited by William-James88
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William-James88

William-James88

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3 minutes ago, Unstoppablejayd said:

Not for like the last 6 months - unless they started again

huh, odd. I had not realized (I use my credit card with them). What also added to my assumption was their recommendation of Paypal as the fastest way for logging into their site, but yeah it's not necessarily related.

 

image.thumb.png.d35e4d77d17a9f4908606403d3badf4a.png

Thanks for the info!

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batman_fan

batman_fan

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From a quality of material, Heritage gets the nod.  I have definitely spent the most with Heritage.  The quality of scans, shipping, payment, support, etc is top rate but that comes with a healthy premium on charges.  That is the big negative.  I love their catalogs but have started to get tired of storing them.  Could they reduce the buyers premium if they did away with them?

Comiclink gets decent material and I like the low seller premium and not buyers premium.  Lack of back cover scans sucks.  Bidding sucks because it is time based rather than highest bid based.

Commicconnect is very similar to Comiclink but they have back cover scans and bidding is based on highest bid ending the auction rather than time based.  I think for a seller, it maximizes the final hammer price, but that is my perception, no statistical data to prove that perception.

eBay is pretty much a dumpster fire.  I buy a little but not much.  Reason is eBay has a ton of scammers and much of the stuff listed isn’t really auction anymore.  

MCS - never bid, no idea of how it is

Weiss - high buyer premium and expensive shipping

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