I'm leaving ebay as a seller...where should I go for better protection? 3 3

[Arkham]

I sold very little, but have stopped completely after my experience on eBay. 

Frankly, it even sucks as a buyer now… eBay has imposed some fantasy “import charge” that I have to pay for an eBay purchase, that I don’t have to pay when I buy a book from anywhere else. 

Yeeeeahh… let’s do this

[Buckaroo19]

Aw man! I guess this will make the sting a little more bearable when they are delivered. 

[shadroch]

On 9/3/2021 at 5:37 AM, 1Cool said:

E-Bay is still the way to go for people who have a bunch of books to sell.  I'd sell books valued at over $600 on ComicLink or possibly ComicConnect (depending on the book) but for books under $500 I've had no issues at all with E-Bay over the years.  The last 12 months have been the best I've had by double in terms of sales so I'm not going anywhere in terms of the old E-Bay.

If you have forty books to sell, you can list them individually on ebay, pack and ship each of the forty books, sweat out returns, and pay paypal fees on each sale or you can ship one box to MCS, let them list them for you, let them deal with shipping , let them deal with returns, let them eat the paypal fees and get regular checks. MCS lists every book on ebay so you get the ebay exposure plus being listed on the largest comic dat base on the internet.

I'm not sure that E-Bay is still the way to go. In fact, I don't see any advantage to listing my own books on ebay. It's more work for less money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OuterboroGuy]

A related discussion with some helpful info posted by MCS:

Prior Thread: Best Venue for Selling Expensive Books

[1Cool]

On 9/3/2021 at 9:42 AM, shadroch said:

If you have forty books to sell, you can list them individually on ebay, pack and ship each of the forty books, sweat out returns, and pay paypal fees on each sale or you can ship one box to MCS, let them list them for you, let them deal with shipping , let them deal with returns, let them eat the paypal fees and get regular checks. MCS lists every book on ebay so you get the ebay exposure plus being listed on the largest comic dat base on the internet.

I'm not sure that E-Bay is still the way to go. In fact, I don't see any advantage to listing my own books on ebay. It's more work for less money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I looked over MyComicShops's consignment specifications and it doesn't look as straightforward as you say.  Isn't there a $50 minimum for books to be consigned with them (I'd say half my books wouldn't meet that standard)?  I would agree it probably makes sense when you are dealing with 40 high dollar books but when you have 1,000 books of varying prices then I find having an E-Bay store the way to go (but with a ton more work then consigning them).

[pemart1966]

On 9/2/2021 at 5:47 PM, evilskip said:

To quote Renfield from the 1931 Dracula: "Be guided by what he says".

Renfield was a certified lunatic      

[pemart1966]

On 9/3/2021 at 8:44 AM, Arkham said:

I sold very little, but have stopped completely after my experience on eBay. 

Frankly, it even sucks as a buyer now… eBay has imposed some fantasy “import charge” that I have to pay for an eBay purchase, that I don’t have to pay when I buy a book from anywhere else. 

Yeeeeahh… let’s do this

Yeah...and since when is eBay a registered tax collector for foreign countries???

[Ablation Steve]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Sounds like I should have investigated MCS a long time ago. 

The only advantage I see with ebay is being able to write your own titles that might be more enticing than other people's...but that's a small something to give up for the security I hear MCS will offer.

S

[Robot Man]

On 9/3/2021 at 5:37 AM, 1Cool said:

E-Bay is still the way to go for people who have a bunch of books to sell.  I'd sell books valued at over $600 on ComicLink or possibly ComicConnect (depending on the book) but for books under $500 I've had no issues at all with E-Bay over the years.  The last 12 months have been the best I've had by double in terms of sales so I'm not going anywhere in terms of the old E-Bay.

Although my sales have been above average in the past year, I have also had more returns last year than in all of the 22 years I have been in there. 

Latest one was a complete set of 1966 Batman gum cards. Received them back a month after delivery with no notice. Seller just asked for a refund. I told him he had to open a case because of EBay’s new “managed payments” policy, they now control my money. He didn’t like that but did it using the reason that he didn’t want them. I went through the cards and discovered he had pulled out a bunch of my cards and substituted a bunch of lower grade cards. eBay just dipped their hand into my bank account and refunded him...

[Robot Man]

On 9/3/2021 at 7:55 AM, Ablation Steve said:

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Sounds like I should have investigated MCS a long time ago. 

The only advantage I see with ebay is being able to write your own titles that might be more enticing than other people's...but that's a small something to give up for the security I hear MCS will offer.

S

Again. Consider selling here on the boards. There is a rabid and hungry audience of people who just want to buy books at a fixed price. Honest buyers and sellers with no fees, or hassle. 

You don’t have to just sell keys and expensive books. Pretty much everything sells if priced accordingly. 

I have had nothing but good experiences as both a buyer and seller. 

[shadroch]

On 9/3/2021 at 7:17 AM, 1Cool said:

I looked over MyComicShops's consignment specifications and it doesn't look as straightforward as you say.  Isn't there a $50 minimum for books to be consigned with them (I'd say half my books wouldn't meet that standard)?  I would agree it probably makes sense when you are dealing with 40 high dollar books but when you have 1,000 books of varying prices then I find having an E-Bay store the way to go (but with a ton more work then consigning them).

I'd suggest you call them. They are very easy to deal with. 

[Pat Thomas]

On 9/3/2021 at 11:01 AM, shadroch said:

I'd suggest you call them. They are very easy to deal with. 

According to their newsletter this week, Buddy had a stroke over the weekend. I believe it was considered to be a mild one, but there's no such thing as a harmless stroke. He should be able to get mostly back to normal with rehab over time, but his son, Conan, said Buddy has decided to go ahead and retire. From what I've seen from Conan, he is very sharp, but MCS is the way it is because of Buddy. I do believe Conan is responsible for the awesome, user-friendly website, though.

[shadroch]

On 9/3/2021 at 9:47 AM, Pat Thomas said:

According to their newsletter this week, Buddy had a stroke over the weekend. I believe it was considered to be a mild one, but there's no such thing as a harmless stroke. He should be able to get mostly back to normal with rehab over time, but his son, Conan, said Buddy has decided to go ahead and retire. From what I've seen from Conan, he is very sharp, but MCS is the way it is because of Buddy. I do believe Conan is responsible for the awesome, user-friendly website, though.

I've only had contact with Buddy twice. Once at a trade show many years ago where he very much impressed me with his speech and then a few years ago, I met him and Conan while they were on a buying trip.  Most of my dealings are with Este, who is in charge of consignments and auctions. Conan has been very helpful on the few occasions I've contacted him.  Once, I'd put a book in their auctions and requested it to have a reserve. Conn okayed it and to my dismay it sold well below the reserve.  To my surprise and to his credit, Conan recognized the error was on their end, paid me the minimum I'd asked, and even waived the fees on it so I ended up with more than I'd been asking. 

I'm on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Buddy, but neither of us let it enter into our business dealings. I hope he enjoys a long retirement if he goes that route.

Edited September 3, 2021 by shadroch

[djzombi]

On 9/3/2021 at 1:10 PM, shadroch said:

I'm on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Buddy

Ditto, which caused me to withdraw from my dealings with MCS.  Without getting into a political debate, and keeping the answer as "yes" or "no" or as simple as possible, does anybody know if Conan shares Buddy's leanings?  I would feel better about resuming business with them if he does not - or at least, does to a much lesser degree.  

[Number 6]

On 9/3/2021 at 7:55 AM, Ablation Steve said:

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Sounds like I should have investigated MCS a long time ago. 

The only advantage I see with ebay is being able to write your own titles that might be more enticing than other people's...but that's a small something to give up for the security I hear MCS will offer.

S

Let me just get a plug in for consigning with Bob Storms (Highgradecomics.com).  Last time I checked, he has a $25 minimum for books consigned (I think MCS has $50 minimum which rules out a lot of my books:  worth just enough to not blow out on Craigslist but not worth enough to hit the MCS’s threshold). 
 

It’s been awhile since I consigned with him but I found him easy to deal with. 
 

If you have slabbed books or high-dollar raws there’s a lot of good alternatives to eBay.  I think the only attraction to eBay is being able to move lower dollar books and getting you money immediately (well, at least until they instituted Managed Payments)

 

Full disclosure:  I myself have completely checked out of eBay for selling, but I’m just a collector trying to thin and focus my collection. 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Number 6

[The Lions Den]

On 9/3/2021 at 11:24 AM, Robot Man said:

Although my sales have been above average in the past year, I have also had more returns last year than in all of the 22 years I have been in there. 

Latest one was a complete set of 1966 Batman gum cards. Received them back a month after delivery with no notice. Seller just asked for a refund. I told him he had to open a case because of EBay’s new “managed payments” policy, they now control my money. He didn’t like that but did it using the reason that he didn’t want them. I went through the cards and discovered he had pulled out a bunch of my cards and substituted a bunch of lower grade cards. eBay just dipped their hand into my bank account and refunded him...

There's a reason it's often referred to as Fee-Bay...    

[Lpgk]

On 9/2/2021 at 2:47 PM, shadroch said:

I sell very little to MCS.  I consign to them and set my price. I'm not all that concerned about what they grade the book, as long as I get my price. A MCS VG will sell for more than most Ebay Fines.

Then again, the great majority of ebay buyers do not know how to grade. An ebay NM is a CGC boardie VF. I find as long as you take a lot of pictures of raw books, the buyer can make their determination on their own grade assumption. Sadly, ebay is probably the best place to sell. If you think ebay has a lot of  , you should try posting on FB and/or IG. It's much much worse there, especially with no policing. 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Lpgk

[Lpgk]

On 9/2/2021 at 5:31 PM, thehumantorch said:

Recently shipped 17 books to mycomicshop and very happy with the results.  Planning to document my results in a thread soon.

Please do share your results here. I am curious what the experience at MCS is like. I may consider selling there. 

[Lpgk]

On 9/2/2021 at 4:14 PM, wormboy said:

For slabs the Shortboxed app is great.

I would also second this. Have been selling a few on SB and it's been a great experience. Also, they pay for the shipping to the customer. 

[shadroch]

On 9/3/2021 at 12:58 PM, djzombi said:

Ditto, which caused me to withdraw from my dealings with MCS.  Without getting into a political debate, and keeping the answer as "yes" or "no" or as simple as possible, does anybody know if Conan shares Buddy's leanings?  I would feel better about resuming business with them if he does not - or at least, does to a much lesser degree.  

I don't know and don't really care. I've heard he was among the ones who convinced Buddy to remove the politics from the newsletter, which is a good idea no matter what views one holds. 

As far as the $50 minimum, it is a suggestion, not a rule. I got a check one week for $11 which was one book at $16 minus their minimum fee. 

You can also group books together- a BA Iron Man may not qualify but group six together and you have a lot that is eligible to be auctioned off. 

I've moved a number of mini-series with their auction lots. You need to do your research and see what sells.