Anyone have any luck with Metropolis "Make an Offer"? 3 3

[Hudson]

Earlier this week, I was on the Metropolis website and saw a book I was interested in purchasing.  There was a BIN price and a "make an offer" option.  In order to make an offer, I had to enter all my information, to include credit card information.  I made the offer and Metropolis immediately sent what I assume was an automated message saying that they were giving themselves 2 days to review the offer.

The two days came and went and I have not heard back from them.  They did not accept or reject my offer.  They did not counter the offer.  They simply ignored me.  I spoke with another collector who indicated he had the same experience with Metropolis in the past. 

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the Metropolis "make an offer" option OR is this just somethign they put in, so they can then list the "highest offer" under the book and try to entice others to pay full asking.

IMO it is rude not to respond to potential customers and a sign of poor customer service.

Given this lack of customer service, I personally would not want to utilize Metropolis to sell my books.

On a positive note, I also made an offer on a book on the Superworld website.  Ted and his crew responded in less than 24 hours.  They even provided me with additional photos.  Kudos to the team @Superworld

[HighRadArt]

On 1/26/2024 at 9:26 AM, Hudson said:

Earlier this week, I was on the Metropolis website and saw a book I was interested in purchasing.  There was a BIN price and a "make an offer" option.  In order to make an offer, I had to enter all my information, to include credit card information.  I made the offer and Metropolis immediately sent what I assume was an automated message saying that they were giving themselves 2 days to review the offer.

The two days came and went and I have not heard back from them.  They did not accept or reject my offer.  They did not counter the offer.  They simply ignored me.  I spoke with another collector who indicated he had the same experience with Metropolis in the past. 

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with the Metropolis "make an offer" option OR is this just somethign they put in, so they can then list the "highest offer" under the book and try to entice others to pay full asking.

IMO it is rude not to respond to potential customers and a sign of poor customer service.

Given this lack of customer service, I personally would not want to utilize Metropolis to sell my books.

On a positive note, I also made an offer on a book on the Superworld website.  Ted and his crew responded in less than 24 hours.  They even provided me with additional photos.  Kudos to the team @Superworld

Why have the "make an offer" choice if they're not going to respond?  Maybe it's just to get all of your information.  On a side note,  the spinner rack gif is pretty cool.

Edited January 26 by HighRadArt

[Hudson]

On 1/26/2024 at 12:39 PM, HighRadArt said:

 On a side note,  the spinner rack gif is pretty cool.

Thank you.  I cannot take credit for the photography on that (just the books).  My brother did the photography work (he is really good at stuff like that).

He actually did a few different ones for me.

[rlextherobot]

I did, five or six years ago. I made an offer, they countered I accepted the counter offer. Then I waited three weeks for my shipment, only to have a kind of rude person from Metropolis call me to tell me that one of the books in my order was out of stock. No explanation why it took 3/4 of a month to send me the books they were able to find. If I recall correctly, when I did finally receive them, they were fairly overgraded. That was the last time I did business with them. 

[crazyhips]

On 1/26/2024 at 6:44 PM, rlextherobot said:

I did, five or six years ago. I made an offer, they countered I accepted the counter offer. Then I waited three weeks for my shipment, only to have a kind of rude person from Metropolis call me to tell me that one of the books in my order was out of stock. No explanation why it took 3/4 of a month to send me the books they were able to find. If I recall correctly, when I did finally receive them, they were fairly overgraded. That was the last time I did business with them. 

Yeah. It’s been my experience that they price things closer to what the actual grade is, not the grade they advertise. Getting a NM at a VF price is because it’s probably a VF. 

[KCOComics]

I did 4 or 5 years ago. 

No issues. I made a reasonable offer on a HOS92. They accepted. 

I had read horror stories about how long they take to ship, but I got it within a few weeks. It was a graded book, so no problem with grading. 

Honestly, it's probably the last book I've bought from them. I had a good experience, I just don't like their site and never seem to find what I'm looking for. 

[DougC]

I will echo the same sentiment as most; I have made offers in the past that were ignored. I have made offers there were accepted; but took multiple weeks to ship. I have had comics with grades I think were spot on, but mostly over graded which is why I stopped buying from them. It is unfortunate but they are one step away from grading like MHC but do enough business that it doesn't really matter.

[Phicks]

I won 2 auctions with Metropolis last summer that mysteriously came in at exactly my maximum bid.   I authorized payment, and heard nothing for a month.  Then I emailed and phoned them, and eventually was told they couldn’t find the books I won.  They are unresponsive con men, and will get no more money from me.

[JollyComics]

Three things Metropolis Comics turned me off:

1. 7 out of 9 books I offered were counter-offered by 1.5 times.  My offers were accepted but both books were overgraded by 2 points off.

2. Whenever I bid, I hate when they could see my secret bid.  The bidding extended 3 more minutes.  They kept outbidding me. 

3. Their new website sucks.  They started with BP in 2019.   I totally lost my interest in MC.

 

I do have some raw books from MC.  I received 3 graded books back from CGC.  MC grade vs CGC grade:  1. 8.5/7.5  2. 9.2/8.5  & 3. 9.4/9.0 with Neal Adams' signature.   I bought the last copy from MC in 2017.

Edited January 27 by JollyComics

[comicartfan]

I never buy from them. I find them more expensive for CGC books that I can almost always find elsewhere for a better price or higher grades for the same price. 

[october]

They must have a big rolodex of old school deep pocketed collectors, because all I hear is sub-par comments everytime their name gets mentioned. Over grading, slow shipping, bad attitudes. 

[Sauce Dog]

Metropolis Make-an-Offers are down there with Heritage Auction offers (though in many cases I at least get a rejection eventually on HA, even for books I'm offering 3-5x the GPA price for. HA offers seem to just be collectors wanting to publicly show off the price of offers without actually ever intending to sell the books).

On a positive note, the last big raw book I bought from them turned out to have restoration on it when I sent it to CGC several years after the purchase. I contacted Metropolis and they actually issued me a partial refund even through it was years after I bought it from them. 

Edited January 27 by Sauce Dog

[Jaylam]

Some of the books offered on their site are consignment items that they don't own or have possession of. On those books it's up to the owner to respond to your offer through their site. What I don't like is that the listings on their site make no discernment of what items are theirs or are being offered by consignors. If you don't get a response to an offer, I'd call customer service to press them on the issue to find out what's going on. I have usually gotten very prompt responses when I have reached out to them directly.

[Shadow]

I bought from them a few times years ago and had similar experiences. Over-graded, poor customer service communication, website is hard to navigate. Every now and then I check them out thinking maybe it's a better site. 

[WolverineX]

On 1/27/2024 at 10:59 AM, Jaylam said:

Some of the books offered on their site are consignment items that they don't own or have possession of. On those books it's up to the owner to respond to your offer through their site. What I don't like is that the listings on their site make no discernment of what items are theirs or are being offered by consignors. If you don't get a response to an offer, I'd call customer service to press them on the issue to find out what's going on. I have usually gotten very prompt responses when I have reached out to them directly.

yes,  this is the reason why you rarely hear back

[Hudson]

On 1/27/2024 at 10:15 AM, Sauce Dog said:

Metropolis Make-an-Offers are down there with Heritage Auction offers (though in many cases I at least get a rejection eventually on HA, even for books I'm offering 3-5x the GPA price for. HA offers seem to just be collectors wanting to publicly show off the price of offers without actually ever intending to sell the books).

On a positive note, the last big raw book I bought from them turned out to have restoration on it when I sent it to CGC several years after the purchase. I contacted Metropolis and they actually issued me a partial refund even through it was years after I bought it from them. 

I don't know for certain, however, I believe the HA offers is something HA set up in hopes a buyer of a book might be willing to sell a book they bought IF the price was right.  I don't think the books on there have actually been offered up by the owners.  In many (maybe most cases) I do not think the current owners of the books are even aware that HA is accepting offers on them.

The reason I believe this is because about 3 years ago I purchased a book from one of their auctions for $1,900 (plus premium - so $2,280).  It was maybe 6 - 8 months later they sent me an email stating that someone wanted to buy the book for $4K.  They said I could accept, reject, or make a counter-offer.  I had no interest in selling the book so I replied as such.  I had never told HA that I was interested in selling the book or made any indication that I was interested in even entertaining offers.  I think they were just hoping I would accept, so that they could take their commision from the sale.

[Sauce Dog]

On 1/27/2024 at 12:35 PM, Hudson said:

I don't know for certain, however, I believe the HA offers is something HA set up in hopes a buyer of a book might be willing to sell a book they bought IF the price was right.  I don't think the books on there have actually been offered up by the owners.  In many (maybe most cases) I do not think the current owners of the books are even aware that HA is accepting offers on them.

The reason I believe this is because about 3 years ago I purchased a book from one of their auctions for $1,900 (plus premium - so $2,280).  It was maybe 6 - 8 months later they sent me an email stating that someone wanted to buy the book for $4K.  They said I could accept, reject, or make a counter-offer.  I had no interest in selling the book so I replied as such.  I had never told HA that I was interested in selling the book or made any indication that I was interested in even entertaining offers.  I think they were just hoping I would accept, so that they could take their commision from the sale.

Yeah, it is most often an automatic thing based on a persons account settings I think (by default I think it is on, as many sold sold books don't even have the option to make an offer on). There are different offer types on HA,  "Make Offer to Unverified Owner" / "Make Offer to Active Owner" / "Make Offer to Inactive Owner".

Regardless, it makes it frustrating for buyers when you don't even know what is legit or not. It means owners of the books get to sit back and watch a list of publicly made offers build on the sold listing page for everyone to see - which they can point to at a future date as being the bare minimum they will accept if they choose to sell (even if the offer was made by a crazed fan with too much money at that moment - as I have done a few times, such as a 3k offer on a 1k book)

Edited January 27 by Sauce Dog

[Dick Pontoon]

On 1/27/2024 at 1:42 PM, Sauce Dog said:

Yeah, it is most often an automatic thing based on a persons account settings I think (by default I think it is on,)

Yup, absolutely correct. The default is on. You have to opt out in your account settings.

[Courageous Cat]

I have purchased a few GA raws from them in the past and in my experience they overgrade by at least 1 point if not more but they are generally nice to deal with as far as customer service. Much better options out there

[comicjack]

Never had luck with those