Our Recent Experience Selling Comics Through Mycomicshop 23 23

[Nick Furious]

On 7/11/2022 at 7:48 PM, KirbyTown said:

Thanks for the info, I've never used it as a seller and still probably won't!

I should clarify.  I said I don't use it anymore but I still have best offer on 5 of my listings.  Some books sell so rarely that it's hard to price them properly without pricing highish and letting buyers make offers.  Books with restoration on them or uncommon Golden age books are two examples.  

[Black_Adam]

Have had nothing but good experiences buying and selling with MCS for the last seven years, but things kind of went off the rails in the last month...

First thing to go wrong was a missing order worth $372 including a nice DC 100 Page Super Spectacular #4 (Wrightson cover). The strange thing was that according to tracking, the order never left MCS. Anyways, a refund was issued.

Second thing to go wrong was a missing Fantastic Four #3. I had bought the comic from MCS five months ago graded a 2.5 and, being in Canada, it was easier for them to send it direct to CGC for slabbing. The good news is that it came back as a blue label 3.5! The bad news is that the reason it was missing is because MCS had somehow got their wires crossed and, when the comic returned from CGC, didn't realize it belonged to me and sold it. 

Anyways, a refund was issued.

The final thing to go wrong (so far) is that two more orders have gone missing (and tracking still shows them as never leaving MCS). These orders totaled $1,250 and included Green Lantern 76, Superman 233, and Detective Comics #411. Anyways, another refund was issued.

 

MCS customer service with all of these issues was first class as always (with the FF #3 they threw in an extra $50 on top of the amount they sold the comic for), and I appreciate the nearly $4k in refunds, but I would have rather received the comics! In addition to the cash paid, time and emotion are invested in every auction win. These were all comics I was looking forward to adding to my collection and to lose out on them, frankly, sucks. I have had many dealings with MCS over the years and have had consignment sales near six figures, but these recent issues have definitely shaken my confidence in them. 

[mycomicshop]

We are absolutely responsible for getting items you've purchased to you, from us to your door. However, we can't physically transport the shipments to you ourselves, it's UPS, it's the USPS Postal Service, it's Canada Post, etc. When you're looking at an order where the tracking info never updates with an intake scan and doesn't show anything beyond "label created", it's natural to assume that means we messed up and didn't get the package to the shipper. Although that does occasionally happen, in my experience investigating these kinds of problems, 95%+ of the time they are shipper errors--something that happens after the point we've handed off a pallet full of packages to the UPS truck at our dock. It's still a problem, and it's still our responsibility to investigate and pressure our shipping partners to improve/figure out what's going on, my point is that it's often not something we directly caused ourselves or directly have the power to fix. We don't like losing money paying refunds any more than you like getting a refund instead of the comics you ordered--so I totally agree with you it's a priority for us to address it.

I can say that over the past 3-4 months shipments to Canada have had a higher incidence of problems like you're describing than usual, and it's something we've been looking into even prior to your post. It's not a problem affecting all international destinations equally, it's Canada in particular. In talking to our UPS shipping account manager, we understand that stuff we're shipping to Canada is all going through a specific local hub. The fact that Canadian shipments are impacted at a higher rate than other countries leads me to believe that the problem most likely involves UPS operations at that hub, rather than an alternative explanation in which somebody or something on our end is selectively stealing or misdirecting only packages going to Canada--for many reasons I think that's unlikely. Unfortunately I don't have any clear answer or resolution on it yet, other than to say we don't like missing shipments either, and we're doing what we can to monitor, investigate, and follow up with UPS.

The Fantastic Four #3 you mentioned is entirely our fault, and I apologize about that. Este let me know about that problem last Friday. It was a dumb error we shouldn't have made, and we've already taken some steps to make it harder for us to make that error in the future.

Thanks for your understanding with these shipping problems, and your ongoing purchases and consignment sales with us. We appreciate you!

[Nick Furious]

Last Wednesday my weekly consignment check was issued.  Unfortunately my largest sale to date had not yet shipped so I was disappointed to see that it wasn't on the check and I would have to wait another week.  The next day the book shipped and a second check was issued immediately...so this week I received 2 MCS consignment checks on 2 consecutive days.  Thank you for that, I imagine it's a lot of extra work but wanted to let you know that it was noticed and appreciated!  Another sign of the exceptional customer service.  

[ttfitz]

On 7/13/2022 at 7:13 PM, Black_Adam said:

MCS customer service with all of these issues was first class as always (with the FF #3 they threw in an extra $50 on top of the amount they sold the comic for)

Glad to read they paid you the amount it was later sold for, as I had wondered about that earlier in your message when you said they gave you a "refund." Sorry to hear about all your problems, that's really a bad string of luck.

[KirbyTown]

 

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by KirbyTown

[ttfitz]

From this week's newsletter:

"On our website, we've been working on two new features that we hope to debut in the near future. One is combined shipping, which will allow you to order some comics, keep them on hold with us, and order more comics later, and wait to ship them all together to save on shipping costs. The other update we'll be rolling out soon involves some improvements to our want list notification system. We got some great suggestions from customers that inspired these changes. The want list changes will make it easier for you to review all newly listed comics that are on your want list, and also allow you to be notified when comics on your want list are reduced in price. I'll have more to say about both of those updates soon."

Bravo, Conan!

Glad to see @mycomicshop not just listening, but acting on what has been said.

 

[Nick Furious]

I just got the weekly email with the plans to give added exposure for consignment items when we discount them.  Very excited about that, it will be motivating for price reductions.  Also, not being dependent on the "New Listings" tab for exposure means we won't have to worry about what time of day we do markdowns.  

I'm wondering if it's possible to consider giving a  fresh start to listings when a sale falls through and doesn't get paid for?  It's not the most important thing as it doesn't happen all that often.  But it would be a kind of a consolation prize to at least get to relist the book as new with zero days in stock and zero price history.  If I have to lower the price to get new exposure after a non-payment, it feels like I'm playing into the hands of the non-performing buyer.  Just a thought to consider.    

[KirbyTown]

Can anyone share some reasons why a blanket reset might be a bad idea?

I can only see a fresh start as benefiting everyone. How many sellers might be able to move shelf-worn inventory at a price closer to their original list, now that every interested buyer will be notified from the very first reduction? How many buyers will learn about books they've wanted but never realized had been available the whole time? And how much more money does Lone Star stand to make when items sell for higher prices?

Edited July 20, 2022 by KirbyTown

[MattTheDuck]

Something has to be done about Canada.

[MetalPSI]

On 7/20/2022 at 12:59 AM, MattTheDuck said:

Something has to be done about Canada.

I won 10 books in the last auction and absolutely dreading the next two weeks

[Nick Furious]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:30 PM, KirbyTown said:

Can anyone share some reasons why a blanket reset might be a bad idea?

I can only see a fresh start as benefiting everyone. How many sellers might be able to move shelf-worn inventory at a price closer to their original list, now that every interested buyer will be notified from the very first reduction? How many buyers will learn about books they've wanted but never realized had been available the whole time? And how much more money does Lone Star stand to make when items sell for higher prices?

Those of us consigning books would love it, but I could see a couple issues.  The first being that people sign up for email alerts for price decreases and initially get a bunch of alerts on books that have actually increased in price.  The second is that the consignor making a 10% commission is more interested in turning books as quickly as possible than in getting a higher price and selling them slower.  Part of the value of the new program for MCS is encouraging consignees to discount from the current asking prices in order to receive the additional exposure.      

[KirbyTown]

On 7/20/2022 at 2:23 AM, Nick Furious said:

The first being that people sign up for email alerts for price decreases and initially get a bunch of alerts on books that have actually increased in price.

Thanks for these considerations.

To your first point, I imagine that most buyers who click the emails won't recall which books had gone which direction and what the prices may have been. Who knows the last time they even received a notification on that book, so the email might be a good reminder of availability in general.

On 7/20/2022 at 2:23 AM, Nick Furious said:

The second is that the consignor making a 10% commission is more interested in turning books as quickly as possible than in getting a higher price and selling them slower.  Part of the value of the new program for MCS is encouraging consignees to discount from the current asking prices in order to receive the additional exposure.      

I see what you're saying, but unlocking the reset ability doesn't mean that anyone would necessarily use it, it just becomes an option for those interested. I'm sure many sellers won't see it as a benefit or may even find it counterproductive. We could also be overestimating the importance of the want list notifications' part in making the sale at all, though the update could change that.

I don't know if I'd alter my own discounting decisions because of this change, but when I type in the new price I'll probably feel less resignation.

Also, I wonder if Conan could add a quick-discount button that would autofill the next whole dollar minimum.

 

[Nick Furious]

When the markdown notifications go into effect, I'm hoping that MCS will consider making notifications the norm and then allow people to opt out of them.  That way we can start marking down right away and know that the notifications are going out to a significant number of potential buyers.  If buyers have to opt into the notifications, it could be months before a given book has a meaningful number of opt-ins.  

[djzombi]

After reading the glowing reviews here, I've sent my first small batch of consignment CGC-graded books to Mycomicshop.  I've been a buyer for years, but have never sold through them (or to them).  Fingers crossed.  

[KirbyTown]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:37 PM, djzombi said:

After reading the glowing reviews here, I've sent my first small batch of consignment CGC-graded books to Mycomicshop.  I've been a buyer for years, but have never sold through them (or to them).  Fingers crossed.  

Did you use the quick submit option for slabs? You don't have to wait for approval, you just enter in what you're sending and then print the form to put into your box. Very convenient and you can ship whenever you're ready.

[KirbyTown]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:24 PM, Nick Furious said:

When the markdown notifications go into effect, I'm hoping that MCS will consider making notifications the norm and then allow people to opt out of them.  That way we can start marking down right away and know that the notifications are going out to a significant number of potential buyers.  If buyers have to opt into the notifications, it could be months before a given book has a meaningful number of opt-ins.  

Opt-out as default, I agree 👍

[djzombi]

On 7/21/2022 at 3:48 PM, KirbyTown said:

Did you use the quick submit option for slabs? You don't have to wait for approval, you just enter in what you're sending and then print the form to put into your box. Very convenient and you can ship whenever you're ready.

I did!  It was super convenient.  

[Hamlet]

It looks like MyComicShop has added an Ebay tab to each comic’s listings that shows the copies of that book that are currently listed out on Ebay.  I haven’t been looking at much recently so I have no idea how long it has been there.  I just noticed it.  That’s an interesting feature to have included- I would think most sellers would be reluctant to link to a venue that is probably one of their biggest competitors.

I wonder if they’ve got any agreement with Ebay about the sales that get generated by the traffic they send to them?
 

[KirbyTown]

On 7/21/2022 at 11:34 PM, Hamlet said:

It looks like MyComicShop has added an Ebay tab

Hi! They announced this feature in their 2/22/22 weekly newsletter:

"I'm pretty proud of this--there's a lot going on behind the scenes to make this possible. We are confident in our own offerings and know that you'll continue to purchase tightly-graded and fairly priced comics from us, but if you find a good deal from an eBay listing that fills a hole in your collection, by all means go for it (and we'll earn a small percentage of the sale). We can't have everything in stock all the time, and no inventory is bigger than eBay's. Just remember to exercise caution when you're buying unslabbed comics on eBay, since many eBay sellers are much looser with their grading than we are here."

I hope the above answers your question; I'm not an agent of Lone Star, only stan them ❤️

Edited July 22, 2022 by KirbyTown