Our Recent Experience Selling Comics Through Mycomicshop 23 23

[justinsl]

I, too, recently received my first non-payments, on six items. Wonder if it was just one bidder YOLOing themselves off the platform.

[marmat]

I can only say great thing about Mcs, but I really hope that they will handle the increase in volume better than Cgc. 

I have a submission that was delivered to them Oct 26 and it is still in process

[workingdog]

^{_{Auction bids are binding. Do not bid unless you intend to pay for the item if you are the winning bidder.}}

How do people not understand this?!?!?  This is the second week I've been notified of a gutless deadbeat winner who didn't pay up for one of my auction items! 

@mycomicshop

Conan, the notice says the winning bidder will be banned from participating in future auctions.  What's to stop these deadbeats from signing up using a different e-mail address and credit card number and continuing the cycle?

Edited December 7, 2022 by workingdog
Left out a word

[mycomicshop]

On 12/7/2022 at 11:11 AM, workingdog said:

^{_{Auction bids are binding. Do not bid unless you intend to pay for the item if you are the winning bidder.}}

How do people not understand this?!?!?  This is the second week I've been notified of a gutless deadbeat winner who didn't pay up for one of my auction items! 

@mycomicshop

Conan, the notice says the winning bidder will be banned from participating in future auctions.  What's to stop these deadbeats from signing up using a different e-mail address and credit card number and continuing the cycle?

We do take steps to detect people attempting to get around a block by creating another account. There's no perfect answer. If you make the sign-up to bid/approval process restrictive enough to make it really hard for deadbeats to get back in, you also make it harder so that the much larger number of legitimate buyers become less likely to register and bid.

[workingdog]

On 12/7/2022 at 11:29 AM, mycomicshop said:

We do take steps to detect people attempting to get around a block by creating another account. There's no perfect answer. If you make the sign-up to bid/approval process restrictive enough to make it really hard for deadbeats to get back in, you also make it harder so that the much larger number of legitimate buyers become less likely to register and bid.

Thank you, Conan, for the prompt reply.

[the blob]

On 11/21/2022 at 3:49 PM, Hamlet said:

Are you telling me it’s time for me to start buying cheap drek again? 😀
 

it is always time

[Hamlet]

On 12/7/2022 at 2:46 PM, the blob said:

it is always time

I haven’t been finding nearly as much quality drek in the cheap boxes as I was a few years ago. The price point of everything has been higher in the last couple of years.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Hamlet

[kalanye]

Well, after 50-ish consignments/auctions, I’ve finally run into a deadbeat non-payer. It was actually a Best Offer consignment that I accepted and not an auction which I found surprising. I’m curious if it was an offer through eBay and not MCS directly. No hard feelings from me though, MCS is still a million billion times better than eBay.

[Ryan.]

Based on results I've observed over the past couple weeks, both as a seller and buyer, I'm reminded that December is always a sub-optimal time for auctions. Good buying opportunities though.

[Black_Adam]

@mycomicshop I see raw listings for double cover comics with a single grade. Would this grade be based on the outer cover or the cover in the best condition (usually the interior)? Grades for both covers and/or scans would be extremely helpful for potential buyers as double covers always seem to be priced (by consignors) at a premium.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/23/2022 at 7:33 PM, Black_Adam said:

@mycomicshop I see raw listings for double cover comics with a single grade. Would this grade be based on the outer cover or the cover in the best condition (usually the interior)? Grades for both covers and/or scans would be extremely helpful for potential buyers as double covers always seem to be priced (by consignors) at a premium.

I have a question for you @Black_Adam

I tried to search mycomicshop for cgc double cover, to avoid the raw factor, but all that comes up is a list of comics starting with the letter "d" and I assume because of the word "double."

Is there something im missing? Even searches for Mark Jeweler are difficult, and I'm wondering if it is even possible?

Edited December 24, 2022 by ADAMANTIUM

[MetalPSI]

I've been wondering why the next in line bidder doesn't win if the original winner doesn't pony up.

[mycomicshop]

For double covers, the grade assigned to the item is the grade of the inner cover, same way CGC does it. We aren't going to do additional scans of the interior covers but will start noting the grades for both the outer and inner covers.

There's not currently any way to search our inventory for double covers. We could add support for that at some point.

[mycomicshop]

On 12/23/2022 at 8:29 PM, MetalPSI said:

I've been wondering why the next in line bidder doesn't win if the original winner doesn't pony up.

I'm not against that in theory, but there are multiple complications.

1) If the winning bidder doesn't pay, usually at least a couple weeks would have passed since the end of the auction. Consignors already don't like bidders who are slow to get their payment in. Many consignors will not want to wait even longer for the second place bidder to be given the option to take the item, then wait for them to pay (if they even agree to wanting it).

2) Some bidders will react negatively and with suspicion if you offer them a second chance at an item they got outbid on. The winning bidder causes the second place person to get driven up to their max bid and then flakes out--if you now offer the item to the second place person some people will think the seller is shilling or you're trying to cheat them.

3) What's the fairest price that the second place bidder should have to pay? As an example, let's say the third place bidder's max on an auction was $100. The second place bidder and the first place bidder duked it out with the second place bidder ending at a max of $200, and the winning bidder winning at $201 but then failing to pay.

Should the second place bidder be offered the item at his max, $200? This is unfair to the second place bidder since he got bid up to the max by somebody who flaked out.

Should the second place bidder be offered the item at what the bidding would have ended at if the original winning bidder had not participated? This would be the third place bidder's max plus one bid increment, so maybe $101. This might be appealing to the second place bidder (get something at $101 that he was willing to pay $200 for), but would be upsetting to many sellers. It might be that there were other bidders that would have joined in between $101 and $200, but the activity already got driven up past their range by the second and first place bidders.

It's just a thorny issue, and plenty of cases where either the second place bidder or the consignor can be unhappy with what you're doing. It requires a lot of manual communication to find out if both parties are interested in a second chance offer and at what fair price, and often isn't worth the hassle, so in most cases it's simpler and fairer for an unpaid auction to be canceled, and then the seller can relist in a new auction if they wish.

Edited December 27, 2022 by mycomicshop

[workingdog]

@mycomicshop

Hi Conan,

I just received a call from my bank and I was told a Stop Payment was put on my most recent consignment check.  Along with a $15 stop payment fee.  I immediately called Este and she transferred me to someone who handles these kinds of matters.  Come to find out, I'm not the only one this is happening to.  However, it shouldn't happen anymore moving forward.  So a check has been re-issued along with an additional $15 to reimburse me for the stop payment fee (thank you very much).

Said consignment check was a nice little chunk of change and to have it stopped out of the blue is a bit disconcerting.  May I ask what is going on with your bank?

Thank you.

[mycomicshop]

On 12/30/2022 at 11:59 AM, workingdog said:

@mycomicshop

Hi Conan,

I just received a call from my bank and I was told a Stop Payment was put on my most recent consignment check.  Along with a $15 stop payment fee.  I immediately called Este and she transferred me to someone who handles these kinds of matters.  Come to find out, I'm not the only one this is happening to.  However, it shouldn't happen anymore moving forward.  So a check has been re-issued along with an additional $15 to reimburse me for the stop payment fee (thank you very much).

Said consignment check was a nice little chunk of change and to have it stopped out of the blue is a bit disconcerting.  May I ask what is going on with your bank?

Thank you.

It's a combination of two things:

One, we use a system from Chase called Positive Pay that's an anti-fraud measure because previously we've had problems with people trying to pass forged checks against our account. With Positive Pay, we report to Chase the details of each check we issue, so only checks we approve can proceed.

That by itself isn't a problem, but when we recently ordered a new batch of checks, somebody specified the wrong starting number for the new batch of checks. I'm not clear on the exact details, but that meant some of the new checks we received overlapped/interfered with older check numbers. As a result some of our checks issued between Nov 25 and Dec 22 were blocked by Positive Pay and didn't go through. Anything that was affected we've canceled and issued replacements.

[workingdog]

On 12/30/2022 at 2:46 PM, mycomicshop said:

It's a combination of two things:

One, we use a system from Chase called Positive Pay that's an anti-fraud measure because previously we've had problems with people trying to pass forged checks against our account. With Positive Pay, we report to Chase the details of each check we issue, so only checks we approve can proceed.

That by itself isn't a problem, but when we recently ordered a new batch of checks, somebody specified the wrong starting number for the new batch of checks. I'm not clear on the exact details, but that meant some of the new checks we received overlapped/interfered with older check numbers. As a result some of our checks issued between Nov 25 and Dec 22 were blocked by Positive Pay and didn't go through. Anything that was affected we've canceled and issued replacements.

Thank you, Conan, for the prompt reply

[dover]

@mycomicshop

This is just my opinion, measure it against your goals. Your website has moments where the use of the command "about:blank" (and other applicable coding) would be very helpful. This command, when used on websites opens a new page in a new browsing tab rather than over writing the same tab. For instance, when looking at a book on your site, there is a tab for E-Bay. However, if I click on that link, your site goes away and E-Bay opens up. I think in this case it would be better to open a new browsing tab so that I can easily get back to where I was on your site. And I understand the "back button" but that gives less control of what page you want to view. Some people hate having a new tab open, I like it. 

There are other times that this applies when I am searching your site. I am just giving my opinion and data point. Changing the code for the website could be a nightmare. I understand. I do our website and it has far fewer pages than yours by about a 1000 factor. 

 

On another topic: I am trying to build a comprehensive Neal Adams data base. Your site is quite unbelievable in the detail and information available. Hand entering it into my Excel sheet has been exhausting. I cannot imagine what your people go through to keep this up. Thank you!!

 

 

[jimjum12]

On 12/31/2022 at 11:13 AM, dover said:

On another topic: I am trying to build a comprehensive Neal Adams data base. Your site is quite unbelievable in the detail and information available. Hand entering it into my Excel sheet has been exhausting. I cannot imagine what your people go through to keep this up. Thank you!!

.... I often wonder when the idea first manifested and the work began .... my God ... how many, many hours it must have taken. It is one of the best reference tools on comics in the world, I've used it often. GOD BLESS... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[thehumantorch]

On 1/1/2023 at 12:01 AM, jimjum12 said:

.... I often wonder when the idea first manifested and the work began .... my God ... how many, many hours it must have taken. It is one of the best reference tools on comics in the world, I've used it often. GOD BLESS... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

A few years ago we bought a large CA/MA collection of about 90 shorts.  Tons and tons of variants.  As a GA to BA guy I was a little lost and mycomicshop was an invaluable aid to figure out what was what and what was worth what.