Just had a disturbing thought 1 1

[Westy Steve]

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form am I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

[Bird]

1 minute ago, Westy Steve said:

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form am I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

yes it could. And maybe does. It is also some sort of fraud or crime I would suspect.

 

Westy Steve and Billy Bob. Can we get a Panama Red in there? ;-)

[Deadpoolica]

20 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

This could happen, right? 

Yep

[Bird]

20 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000

if you only consider last sale, then sure. But obviously last sale is not the be all end all of gpa.

you may also fall victim to an internet sleuth who matches the serial numbers and calls foul. Like guys on here do often! but these are just obstacles, if someone wants to commit fraud they could get around them easily

[bababooey]

Worst case is Billy Bob could file a claim for no proof of delivery to get back his "4K" from you, sell it at new GPA high and with the one you reimbursed him he'll pocket an easy 9G's. 

The serial number is meaningless since the second sale is to a third party, perhaps juiced by earlier sale but technically clean...Billy Bob just got 9K for moving a book from the OP to a willing buyer. 

 

[BlowUpTheMoon]

3 minutes ago, bababooey said:

Worst case is Billy Bob could file a claim for no proof of delivery to get back his "4K" from you,

Some friend Billy Bob is. 

[MyNameIsLegion]

how is this really any different than what happens with HA with every single auction? I sell a $3000 book through ha, it hammers at $3600 with juice. I only get $2550 from HA after their sellers fee. GPA says it sold for $3600, but I only made $2500.  Oh, and the seller "bought" it will money they had in their HA account from something they consigned, so it wasn't really cash. 

[bababooey]

34 minutes ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Some friend Billy Bob is. 

That's what I thought after the FIRST post. 

 

 

 

 

[WolverineX]

1 hour ago, Westy Steve said:

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form amYes,  I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

Yes,  never thought about that...

[Gatsby77]

This has been happening in comics since forever, long before the internet came on the scene.

Mile High Chuck even detailed it in one of his "Tales from the Database" columns back in 2003 or so: https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg81.html

Everyone should read this, as I still remember it, even 10+ years later. An example from his column:

"The thing to realize here is that Bob Overstreet does not sell any comic books. He compiles sales data that he receives from comics dealers. That makes him a prime target for all sorts of efforts to raise the values of certain genres. The simplest trick is for two dealers to "sell" each other books at inflated values. Let's say that dealer #1 has an ACTION #1 that hasn't been moving, while dealer #2 has a set of Captain America #1-#10 that he hasn't turned over in a while. Each dealer writes the other dealer a check for $200,000, and they swap inventory. The checks cancel each other out, but now each can report that they "sold" those books for record prices. This happens far more frequently than you would think..."

[jcjames]

2 hours ago, Bird said:

yes it could. And maybe does. It is also some sort of fraud or crime I would suspect.

 

Westy Steve and Billy Bob. Can we get a Panama Red in there? ;-)

 

[Lazyboy]

2 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form am I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

Could?

[Terry JSA]

It could happen, but who would willingly go through the trouble just to do that? 

[NoMan]

2 hours ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

how is this really any different than what happens with HA with every single auction? I sell a $3000 book through ha, it hammers at $3600 with juice. I only get $2550 from HA after their sellers fee. GPA says it sold for $3600, but I only made $2500.  Oh, and the seller "bought" it will money they had in their HA account from something they consigned, so it wasn't really cash. 

ouch

[silverseeker]

3 hours ago, Bird said:

if you only consider last sale, then sure. But obviously last sale is not the be all end all of gpa.

This is key when looking at GPA data...sometimes the last sale will be a high or low outlier data point.

[WolverineX]

Yeah, wont make a difference if you look at the average. Not like everyone is screwing around.

[the blob]

4 hours ago, Westy Steve said:

Disclaimer:  In now way, shape, or form am I advocating the following.  Just pointing out a flaw in the system:

(I mean, it *is* Friday, after all)

Suppose I had a comic book that was fairly valued at $3,000.  Let's pretend that my friend, "Billy Bob", has been pestering me to sell it to him.

Finally, I relent and say, "OK, Billy Bob,...give me $3,000".

He then says, "I have a better idea...I'll buy it from you for $4,000 in a public venue...Then you give me back $1,000 in 'change' later (under the table)".  

Then Billy Bob has a comic with a recent GPA of $4,000.  Everyone would proclaim the book was "hot", and Billy Bob could then sell his copy for a fat profit.

This could happen, right?  

sure, but now you may be paying fees on $4000 vs. $3000 and have more explaining to do to the tax man (the $1000 kick back deduction might now work?)

 

[the blob]

Just now, Wolverinex said:

Yeah, wont make a difference if you look at the average. Not like everyone is screwing around.

yeah, but folks here say something is now a $100 book based on a single sale

 

[WolverineX]

3 minutes ago, the blob said:

yeah, but folks here say something is now a $100 book based on a single sale

 

that's true but most informed buyers  look at GPA when they buy... or at least multiple sales on ebay.

[Lazyboy]

1 minute ago, Wolverinex said:

that's true but most informed buyers  look at GPA when they buy... or at least multiple sales on ebay.

Yeah, they look at multiple purchases by uninformed buyers and think that's now the real market.