I need cash - prices dropped again - Keys: Thor, Iron Man, Vision, Falcon, Kang, and some golden, etc... 16 16

[Dr. Balls]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:06 AM, vaillant said:

people assume that someone is dishonest just because he/she does not reply to messages in a week or so, is really NOT great.

I think that the concern came to head because he was here on the boards and not responding to PMs or the thread. I've seen boardies have sympathetic concerns with people who just up and vanish in the middle of a sales thread (the guy who has family in the Ukraine comes to mind).

I have no dog in this fight, but with personal or life problems or even no problems at all - if I had pulled the pin on a book, paid for it and my PMs were not being responded to while the seller was active on the boards, I'd be doing exactly what was going on in this thread.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Dr. Balls

[Cornelius The First]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:27 AM, Dr. Balls said:

I think that the concern came to head because he was here on the boards and not responding to PMs or the thread. I've seen boardies have sympathetic concerns with people who just up and vanish in the middle of a sales thread (the guy who has family in the Ukraine comes to mind).

I have no dog in this fight, but with personal or life problems or even no problems at all - if I had pulled the pin on a book, paid for it and my PMs were not being responded to while the seller was active on the boards, I'd be doing exactly what was going on in this thread.

Have to agree. You don’t have to be a ‘bleeding heart’ about everything…I do not have a dog in this fight either, however, if I was in that circumstance I’d be extremely frustrated. I’ve completed many transactions with a multitude of board members, included is one who I trusted after clearing their name on the probationary list. We are talking thousands of dollars. If you’ve got the time to send messages to collect payment, but not so much to respond to inquires, even after a few days, then why are you selling? Put this into context of ‘general business practices’ How frustrated would you be if you paid The Home Depot for a workbench and then they ignored your calls, didn’t respond to your inquires for tracking, and so on…also why no comment here clearing the air?? Your word as a buyer and seller here is your BOND, it’s the only true security measure we have…so to me he acted not as a professional, but as an amateur, just due to lack of basic common courtesy. Stop with all the bleating about how everyone ‘jumped’ to judgement. You would likely be very stressed as well, and the simple lack of 5 seconds to say ‘I’m working on it’ to all your concerned buyers is abysmal. Don’t have anything PERSONAL against the individual, but I choose to conduct business with likeminded PROFESSIONALS. I wish people (especially those without much into it monetarily) would stop feeling so personally attacked by everything, and we could go back to regular common sense and reason. Maybe we will achieve this lofty goal again someday. 

[RobHW]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:27 AM, Dr. Balls said:

I think that the concern came to head because he was here on the boards and not responding to PMs or the thread. I've seen boardies have sympathetic concerns with people who just up and vanish in the middle of a sales thread (the guy who has family in the Ukraine comes to mind).

I have no dog in this fight, but with personal or life problems or even no problems at all - if I had pulled the pin on a book, paid for it and my PMs were not being responded to while the seller was active on the boards, I'd be doing exactly what was going on in this thread.

Amen.

[ramithard]

Have to agree. You don’t have to be a ‘bleeding heart’ about everything…I do not have a dog in this fight either, however, if I was in that circumstance I’d be extremely frustrated. I’ve completed many transactions with a multitude of board members, included is one who I trusted after clearing their name on the probationary list. We are talking thousands of dollars. If you’ve got the time to send messages to collect payment, but not so much to respond to inquires, even after a few days, then why are you selling? Put this into context of ‘general business practices’ How frustrated would you be if you paid The Home Depot for a workbench and then they ignored your calls, didn’t respond to your inquires for tracking, and so on…also why no comment here clearing the air?? Your word as a buyer and seller here is your BOND, it’s the only true security measure we have…so to me he acted not as a professional, but as an amateur, just due to lack of basic common courtesy. Stop with all the bleating about how everyone ‘jumped’ to judgement. You would likely be very stressed as well, and the simple lack of 5 seconds to say ‘I’m working on it’ to all your concerned buyers is abysmal. Don’t have anything PERSONAL against the individual, but I choose to conduct business with likeminded PROFESSIONALS. I wish people (especially those without much into it monetarily) would stop feeling so personally attacked by everything, and we could go back to regular common sense and reason. Maybe we will achieve this lofty goal again someday. 

 

Amen

Edited March 23, 2023 by ramithard

[Randall Dowling]

On 3/23/2023 at 9:27 AM, Dr. Balls said:

I think that the concern came to head because he was here on the boards and not responding to PMs or the thread. I've seen boardies have sympathetic concerns with people who just up and vanish in the middle of a sales thread (the guy who has family in the Ukraine comes to mind).

I have no dog in this fight, but with personal or life problems or even no problems at all - if I had pulled the pin on a book, paid for it and my PMs were not being responded to while the seller was active on the boards, I'd be doing exactly what was going on in this thread.

 

On 3/23/2023 at 10:24 AM, Cornelius The First said:

Have to agree. You don’t have to be a ‘bleeding heart’ about everything…I do not have a dog in this fight either, however, if I was in that circumstance I’d be extremely frustrated. I’ve completed many transactions with a multitude of board members, included is one who I trusted after clearing their name on the probationary list. We are talking thousands of dollars. If you’ve got the time to send messages to collect payment, but not so much to respond to inquires, even after a few days, then why are you selling? Put this into context of ‘general business practices’ How frustrated would you be if you paid The Home Depot for a workbench and then they ignored your calls, didn’t respond to your inquires for tracking, and so on…also why no comment here clearing the air?? Your word as a buyer and seller here is your BOND, it’s the only true security measure we have…so to me he acted not as a professional, but as an amateur, just due to lack of basic common courtesy. Stop with all the bleating about how everyone ‘jumped’ to judgement. You would likely be very stressed as well, and the simple lack of 5 seconds to say ‘I’m working on it’ to all your concerned buyers is abysmal. Don’t have anything PERSONAL against the individual, but I choose to conduct business with likeminded PROFESSIONALS. I wish people (especially those without much into it monetarily) would stop feeling so personally attacked by everything, and we could go back to regular common sense and reason. Maybe we will achieve this lofty goal again someday. 

 

On 3/23/2023 at 10:30 AM, RobHW said:

Amen.

 

On 3/23/2023 at 10:48 AM, ramithard said:

Have to agree. You don’t have to be a ‘bleeding heart’ about everything…I do not have a dog in this fight either, however, if I was in that circumstance I’d be extremely frustrated. I’ve completed many transactions with a multitude of board members, included is one who I trusted after clearing their name on the probationary list. We are talking thousands of dollars. If you’ve got the time to send messages to collect payment, but not so much to respond to inquires, even after a few days, then why are you selling? Put this into context of ‘general business practices’ How frustrated would you be if you paid The Home Depot for a workbench and then they ignored your calls, didn’t respond to your inquires for tracking, and so on…also why no comment here clearing the air?? Your word as a buyer and seller here is your BOND, it’s the only true security measure we have…so to me he acted not as a professional, but as an amateur, just due to lack of basic common courtesy. Stop with all the bleating about how everyone ‘jumped’ to judgement. You would likely be very stressed as well, and the simple lack of 5 seconds to say ‘I’m working on it’ to all your concerned buyers is abysmal. Don’t have anything PERSONAL against the individual, but I choose to conduct business with likeminded PROFESSIONALS. I wish people (especially those without much into it monetarily) would stop feeling so personally attacked by everything, and we could go back to regular common sense and reason. Maybe we will achieve this lofty goal again someday. 

 

Amen

You're all entitled to your opinions on the subject and I appreciate you sharing them.  For the record, very few people buying and selling on these boards are "professionals" but as a "professional" in my chosen career, I can tell you that "professionals" do not rush to judgement.  They do not assume things on short notice and react strongly as it is far too easy to be wrong and damage one's reputation in doing so.  This is a community of collectors that have busy family and work lives and the rules for the marketplace have been set up with that in mind.  And as of this moment, the seller has not violated any of the rules of this marketplace.  This  is not Amazon.  This is not Home Depot.  This is a group of people offering their books to fellow collectors instead of selling them to dealers or listing them at auction sites.

Some of you have maligned the seller in this thread pretty badly and if all of these transactions complete successfully, I believe you owe him an apology.  At the very least, you owe him an apology.

In the future, please do not claim any books in my sales threads.  I'm not interested in doing business with anyone that would act like this under these circumstances.

[Dr. Balls]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:26 AM, Randall Dowling said:

In the future, please do not claim any books in my sales threads.  I'm not interested in doing business with anyone that would act like this under these circumstances.

Got it.

[Cornelius The First]

On 3/23/2023 at 12:26 PM, Randall Dowling said:

 

 

 

You're all entitled to your opinions on the subject and I appreciate you sharing them.  For the record, very few people buying and selling on these boards are "professionals" but as a "professional" in my chosen career, I can tell you that "professionals" do not rush to judgement.  They do not assume things on short notice and react strongly as it is far too easy to be wrong and damage one's reputation in doing so.  This is a community of collectors that have busy family and work lives and the rules for the marketplace have been set up with that in mind.  And as of this moment, the seller has not violated any of the rules of this marketplace.  This  is not Amazon.  This is not Home Depot.  This is a group of people offering their books to fellow collectors instead of selling them to dealers or listing them at auction sites.

Some of you have maligned the seller in this thread pretty badly and if all of these transactions complete successfully, I believe you owe him an apology.  At the very least, you owe him an apology.

In the future, please do not claim any books in my sales threads.  I'm not interested in doing business with anyone that would act like this under these circumstances.

You seem to be missing the point as well. I’m not a comic dealer. I would be considered pretty professional in my career as well, of which is not worth getting into. So what are the characteristics of a professional? How about clear and frequent communication? Follow through (which as you stated, and hopefully occurs) accepting Constructive Criticism? Solid personal and business ethics? Work-life-integration? If you wouldn’t like me to pursue purchases from you because I hold these values in high regard AND stated without personal condemnation that this SITUATION was handled extremely poorly. Then so be it. I don’t sell books before I travel, why? Because I can’t promptly ship them…simple. If I know I'm going to be busy, I would inform the buyers or not collect money prior to shipment ability. So to answer the question of apology, that’s a big no, because I didn’t judge him personally as a human being, and I do understand life difficulties…I judge his professional treatment of HIS sales thread. Different, sometimes people need to be made aware of deficient conduct, to improve themselves. Best wishes to bill/bob/tom/jim and whoever he is as a person. Not a great approach as Mr. Hog…the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. 

[Changer]

Tough situation but still why not communicate to save everyone some heart ache,

personally if too busy to communicate then shouldn’t sell books. I would be grateful if I needed money and people are buying my big books, but then again that’s me 

of course could be major emergency life events in which one cannot get to communicate, hospital / death in family / etc, which can be understood , which makes PayPal a best option for such larger transactions 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Changer

[ramithard]

On 3/23/2023 at 9:26 AM, Randall Dowling said:

 

 

 

You're all entitled to your opinions on the subject and I appreciate you sharing them.  For the record, very few people buying and selling on these boards are "professionals" but as a "professional" in my chosen career, I can tell you that "professionals" do not rush to judgement.  They do not assume things on short notice and react strongly as it is far too easy to be wrong and damage one's reputation in doing so.  This is a community of collectors that have busy family and work lives and the rules for the marketplace have been set up with that in mind.  And as of this moment, the seller has not violated any of the rules of this marketplace.  This  is not Amazon.  This is not Home Depot.  This is a group of people offering their books to fellow collectors instead of selling them to dealers or listing them at auction sites.

Some of you have maligned the seller in this thread pretty badly and if all of these transactions complete successfully, I believe you owe him an apology.  At the very least, you owe him an apology.

In the future, please do not claim any books in my sales threads.  I'm not interested in doing business with anyone that would act like this under these circumstances.

Got it.

[RobHW]

On 3/23/2023 at 12:26 PM, Randall Dowling said:

In the future, please do not claim any books in my sales threads.  I'm not interested in doing business with anyone that would act like this under these circumstances.

What a laugh.  Who wants to do business with you when you think it's ok to take money for no books and radio silence.  Tell you what though, if I do a take on one of your books then go ahead and ship it to me and I'll pay you and talk to you when I feel up to it.

[Gaard]

@Randall DowlingAgreed, no rules were broken. No communication from the seller for a week is usually of no concern at all. However, if the seller has been on the forums multiple times and not answered PMs or posts, not only would I be concerned (especially if I had some of my hard earned money invested), but I would not have any qualms about 'voicing' those concerns. Frankly, I have no idea why you (or anyone) would have an issue with it.

[skypinkblu]

A few comments.

First of all, I try to answer immediately if not sooner, no matter what, if I'm in an airport, I check my phone. Whatever the circumstances, If I owe someone money, or if I have someone's money, I think it's the right thing to do. It was different before we were all walking around attached the the internet on a phone.

The buyer who was upset in the beginning was part of a transaction 4 days before he posted looking for the OP. We don't know when that buyer  paid. I'm not sure if he paid and didn't get an acknowledgement, or he expected the book. It escalated from there.

I've had a few problems here ..eons ago, but they were unexpected and I wanted to trust the people...I'm more cautious now, so I understand the concern...but  it seemed to rev up fairly quickly. I don't know if he sent the OP a note, tried to call or anything else.

The biggest problem I see is we have not heard from the seller. If there was a reason (other than Spring break, which doesn't make a lot of sense, unless he joined the forum when he was underage), I would like to hear it.

Even if he was just overwhelmed for some reason, an open apology and explanation would be helpful. If he choses not to post (and hopefully that won't happen because of the dramatic posts) then that's different, but I think he deserves a chance to explain. @Mr. Hog Please post something.

[CAHokie]

Maybe the pile on was quick and that’s worthy of a debate, but I don’t blame people for being annoyed. He needs money, I wanted an Avengers 1. That’s a 3Kish book. Not life changing money but enough that if times are hard, check in.

To recap, he logged in last Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. There were a lot of comments about “where is he” by then. People don’t think he saw them? They aren’t worthy of one post saying that I’m with the kids, not ghosting anyone, be back in a week?

It’s Spring Break, not emergency surgery. How do we know? He replied in a pm to someone that it was Spring Break. Take that 30 seconds to post in the thread as well. Not for sure why some think that is too much to ask for. 

Remember, he’s the one that needs money.

[ExNihilo]

On 3/23/2023 at 2:20 PM, skypinkblu said:

The biggest problem I see is we have not heard from the seller. If there was a reason (other than Spring break, which doesn't make a lot of sense, unless he joined the forum when he was underage), I would like to hear it.

I think the seller mentioned that it was Spring Break and that his family (son?  daughter?) had returned home.  I assumed he was spending family time.  Not that the seller themself was going on Spring Break.

[CAHokie]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:40 PM, ExNihilo said:

I think the seller mentioned that it was Spring Break and that his family (son?  daughter?) had returned home.  I assumed he was spending family time.  Not that the seller themself was going on Spring Break.

I read it that way too. That would imply they are college aged and most likely not attached to his hip. Hard to believe 2 minutes didn’t become available. Maybe not enough time (I guess…..) to reply to pms but surely enough time to check in and drop a post. 

[Ryan.]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:44 PM, CAHokie said:

I read it that way too. That would imply they are college aged and most likely not attached to his hip. Hard to believe 2 minutes didn’t become available. Maybe not enough time (I guess…..) to reply to pms but surely enough time to check in and drop a post. 

Disagree. I have visual evidence of his spring break trip.

[Dr. Balls]

On 3/23/2023 at 2:58 PM, Gaard said:

@Randall DowlingAgreed, no rules were broken. No communication from the seller for a week is usually of no concern at all. However, if the seller has been on the forums multiple times and not answered PMs or posts, not only would I be concerned (especially if I had some of my hard earned money invested), but I would not have any qualms about 'voicing' those concerns. Frankly, I have no idea why you (or anyone) would have an issue with it.

I think this is all I really pointed out (along with most others). I was a previous customer of Randall's and obviously never had a communication problem with him at all, because he's a solid seller. I'm not sure what the logic is in telling people not to conduct business with him due to a circumstance he would never subject his customers to.

I don't feel that thinking a seller should communicate - and who is active on the boards during his sales thread - is all that much to ask for over a few week's time (and it seems that the consensus is exactly that). But, to each their own and if someone wants to publicly call me out and tell me they don't want my business - well, I must have been off the day they taught that method of professionalism in my previous career. I figure the 'ignore' feature is good enough without that kind of posturing.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Dr. Balls

[Randall Dowling]

On 3/23/2023 at 4:49 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I think this is all I really pointed out (along with most others). I was a previous customer of Randall's and obviously never had a communication problem with him at all, because he's a solid seller. I'm not sure what the logic is in telling people not to conduct business with him due to a circumstance he would never subject his customers to.

I don't feel that thinking a seller should communicate - and who is active on the boards during his sales thread - is all that much to ask for over a few week's time (and it seems that the consensus is exactly that). But, to each their own and if someone wants to publicly call me out and tell me they don't want my business - well, I must have been off the day they taught that method of professionalism in my previous career. I figure the 'ignore' feature is good enough without that kind of posturing.

It's not posturing.  I don't think you're seeing how this whole thread looks.  I don't want to do business with anyone that would act this way.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's ideal to visit the boards and not respond to pms.  But I don't know the whole story behind the seller's circumstances.  And as I said before, it was less than a week before the torches and pitchforks came out.  You may think that's a reasonable response.  I think it's a pretty dramatic overreaction.  The foundation of this marketplace is trust and I don't see much of that here.  What I saw, was an immediate presumption of guilt.

This whole thread is a bad look for the boards.  If this is the way things are going here, I'm not sure how much I want to sell or buy here. 

I'm sorry you don't have any respect for my position.  You've always been good to work with and frankly, I was surprised to see your posts here.  But that's your position and you have a right to it.

If you look for an enemy, you'll find an enemy.  I'm not into that but YMMV.  I've had more success with trust and patience.

[Cornelius The First]

On 3/23/2023 at 6:17 PM, Randall Dowling said:

It's not posturing.  I don't think you're seeing how this whole thread looks.  I don't want to do business with anyone that would act this way.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's ideal to visit the boards and not respond to pms.  But I don't know the whole story behind the seller's circumstances.  And as I said before, it was less than a week before the torches and pitchforks came out.  You may think that's a reasonable response.  I think it's a pretty dramatic overreaction.  The foundation of this marketplace is trust and I don't see much of that here.  What I saw, was an immediate presumption of guilt.

This whole thread is a bad look for the boards.  If this is the way things are going here, I'm not sure how much I want to sell or buy here. 

I'm sorry you don't have any respect for my position.  You've always been good to work with and frankly, I was surprised to see your posts here.  But that's your position and you have a right to it.

If you look for an enemy, you'll find an enemy.  I'm not into that but YMMV.  I've had more success with trust and patience.

Is cutting off buyers from your product for presumptions of intent in less than a day not included in your patient posture? Is it at all possible that you overreacted and immediately presumed that we were all gunning for his head when simply we pointed out a lack of response as deserved criticism? Believe me, it’s easy to presume you are in the right…if you read through, and notice there isn’t a ton of agreement to your position, that maybe, just maybe your reaction is over the top as well? Although, as you pointed out…that’s your right. I’d be willing to concede at least partially, before I just told everyone they weren’t worthy of association due to spirited, and hardly egregious conversation and debate. Worth a thought. There has hardly been any outright nastiness involved. 

[skypinkblu]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:40 PM, ExNihilo said:

I think the seller mentioned that it was Spring Break and that his family (son?  daughter?) had returned home.  I assumed he was spending family time.  Not that the seller themself was going on Spring Break.

I didn't see that post. Thanks for sharing.