Is This OK or Not OK? 1 1

[thehumantorch]

On 5/25/2024 at 8:30 AM, electricprune said:

I was recently looking at a dealer’s website. I have purchased from the site before and everything was fine. Several books have front cover scans, but many don’t. I requested a scan for a book I was interested in, and it was emailed to me and posted to the site a few days later.

I liked how it looked and decided to order it. When I went back to the site a few days later, the price was 11% higher. This isn’t a hot book that was underpriced. I doubt there would have been some sort of price check had I not requested a scan.

Obviously, the business and pricing can be set in many different ways by the owner. I don’t think there was any force majeure here to validate the sudden price increase though.
 

What do you think? Would you still have ordered the book and others you wanted from the site?

So the dealer has the right to adjust the price anytime he wants.  He may have done it because he figures the book has gone up in value since he last priced it or he may just be trying to suck more out of you.  The risks he take is that he may alienate a customer to make a few bucks.

I'd message him and tell him I'd take it at the price it was originally listed at when you asked for scans and if he says no I'd move on and avoid him in the future.

[Dick Pontoon]

Yeah, this rubs me the wrong way. He certainly has the right to price books as he sees fit, but raising it in this circumstance is pretty lame. I like thehumantorch's advice.

[Gaard]

On 5/25/2024 at 5:59 PM, thehumantorch said:

I'd message him and tell him I'd take it at the price it was originally listed at when you asked for scans and if he says no I'd move on and avoid him in the future.

Be sure to tell him why.

[thehumantorch]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:18 PM, Gaard said:

Be sure to tell him why.

Some guys want to make a few bucks right away and some want a long term customer.

[shadroch]

Has the price of similar books been raised on his site? Sometimes a coincidence really is one.

[electricprune]

On 5/26/2024 at 1:57 PM, shadroch said:

Has the price of similar books been raised on his site? Sometimes a coincidence really is one.

That was the only one I had noted. While it’s possible, I doubt it’s what happened here.

[jimjum12]

On 5/26/2024 at 3:59 PM, electricprune said:

That was the only one I had noted. While it’s possible, I doubt it’s what happened here.

He'd probably sell for the original price, the increase may be for the next guys if you pass, and a way of taking a discount off the table. Without knowing the book and price, it's all barely even conjecture. How much is the 11%, for example? Is it $16.36 or is it $ 325? Big difference, If you let 2 or 3 weeks pass, the guy may have felt jerked around. Lots of blanks in the equation. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Nick Furious]

On 5/26/2024 at 3:24 PM, jimjum12 said:

If you let 2 or 3 weeks pass, the guy may have felt jerked around.

I think it's a fair point.  OP says in his original post that he got the scans and went back to the site a few days later.  When additional work is requested of a dealer, I can see how they could have a negative reaction towards not getting quick response from their efforts.  Probably checked around for other prices and decided to raise his.  Not as a response to the request, but as a response to the non-sale immediately following his fulfillment of the request.  

[jimjum12]

On 5/26/2024 at 4:33 PM, Nick Furious said:

I think it's a fair point.  OP says in his original post that he got the scans and went back to the site a few days later.  When additional work is requested of a dealer, I can see how they could have a negative reaction towards not getting quick response from their efforts.  Probably checked around for other prices and decided to raise his.  Not as a response to the request, but as a response to the non-sale immediately following his fulfillment of the request.  

...and the vitriol was likely no where near the levels I exuded when someone lowballed me on one of my Clink listings, and I went in and DOUBLED my price. I used to get a hoot out of that. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Edited June 4 by jimjum12

[electricprune]

On 5/26/2024 at 4:24 PM, jimjum12 said:

He'd probably sell for the original price, the increase may be for the next guys if you pass, and a way of taking a discount off the table. Without knowing the book and price, it's all barely even conjecture. How much is the 11%, for example? Is it $16.36 or is it $ 325? Big difference, If you let 2 or 3 weeks pass, the guy may have felt jerked around. Lots of blanks in the equation. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Yeah. It was 10 days before I got back to him. The initial request had some books he no longer had. I wanted to see if there were any other books I may have wanted. 
 

I didn’t mention the price increase to him, so there was nothing outside of normal communication back and forth. Nothing heated at all.

i did leave the amount out as I was looking for responses based on principal and not dollars. Some people might care about 50 cents while others may not. Some might care about $50, while others may not.

[wombat]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:01 PM, Darwination said:

I visited a comic shop in my travels recently.  Ask for pulp (get a dumb look) ask for gold (wut?). Do you have any ten centers??  Sure they're in this box back here.  No prices.   But at least there's a box of gold!  Pulled a stack. Got quoted pretty high prices on most, picked up a couple out of politeness.

HATE unpriced comics.  Pretty common, though. 

Come back a month later on other travels considering picking one I'd left behind up.  They're all on the back wall, priced and marked up a good 30 or 40%.

Glad I could identify your hot books, buddy

I didn't buy or spend much time in the store on that visit

In general, reassessing your books given the opportunity? OK.  Targeting a specific buyer cuz you know they want the book? Not OK.

 

There used to be a place by me like this. They had good stuff, but almost nothing was priced. They pretty much relied on customers to bring up stacks of books and then he would sit there on ebay trying to figure out prices. 9 out of 10 times he would price too high. He wouldn't even bother to put prices on the ones he looked up and you didn't take. If you came back later and saw the same book he would look them up again. Not shockingly they are not around any more. 

[Gaard]

When I was growing up (70s), the shop by my house never put prices on their back issues. Instead, you brought your stack up to the counter & whoever was manning the register at the time would haul out an OSPG and a pencil They would quickly scan the condition of the book and write the price in the ULC of the back cover. I'm not sure what they did if the comic was refused (erase the price and put the book back?)

[ThothAmon]

Is it possible that he raised the price as a result of his effort responding to the scan request?  Not justifying the price increase but his time is worth something. 

[EastEnd1]

Every time I receive an offer on one of my eBay listings, I always check GPA or some other resource to insure that the offer is reasonable before accepting.  On occasion, I find that my original "buy it now" price has, over time, gone way below market.  I reject those offers outright, and reprice the item to market.  If someone exercises the buy it now at the below market price, I honor it.  Having grown up in the financial world, I'm an adherent to the "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered" doctrine.

Edited May 27 by EastEnd1

[Dave2739]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:01 PM, Darwination said:

"Targeting a specific buyer cuz you know they want the book? Not OK."

 

This. There is a local dealer that I suspect was doing this to me a little over 10 years ago, even though I had been a loyal customer for many years. Once I wised up and figured out what was going on, I stopped doing business with this guy. I still see him at shows, but I look right through him like he's invisible. He's dead to me.

[lizards2]

Not OK.

[NewWorldOrder]

On 5/25/2024 at 7:30 AM, electricprune said:

I was recently looking at a dealer’s website. I have purchased from the site before and everything was fine. Several books have front cover scans, but many don’t. I requested a scan for a book I was interested in, and it was emailed to me and posted to the site a few days later.

I liked how it looked and decided to order it. When I went back to the site a few days later, the price was 11% higher. This isn’t a hot book that was underpriced. I doubt there would have been some sort of price check had I not requested a scan.

Obviously, the business and pricing can be set in many different ways by the owner. I don’t think there was any force majeure here to validate the sudden price increase though.
 

What do you think? Would you still have ordered the book and others you wanted from the site?

I don't see a problem at all.  You snooze you loose.

A few days later how can you be mad? 

Edited June 4 by NewWorldOrder

[sd2416]

On 5/26/2024 at 2:59 PM, electricprune said:

That was the only one I had noted. While it’s possible, I doubt it’s what happened here.

Ask for scans of another book and see. 

[Tec-Tac-Toe]

I would not appreciate such an action but would, as others mentioned, ask the dealer if the previous price still holds for me. if not, I would pass on the comic book, and the others as well, as another one almost always comes along, and never purchase from that dealer again because there are more dealers than you can shake a stick at.

I, for example, stopped purchasing from a dealer around five years ago after asking several times, around six, if he could offer a discount; he decided the amount, if any; on a cash purchase of five CGC graded comic books totaling around $3000. After purchasing from this dealer for many years, occasionally getting very modest discounts for large cash purchases, he ignored my inquiries. Apparently, he no longer needed my business and/or thought it to bothersome to deal with me. I'll look at his website a few times a month just to see what is available and, despite having some books that I would like, typically overpriced as is almost every book he lists since COVID-19, I will never again purchase a book from him even if priced on the cheap.

[valiantman]

On 6/3/2024 at 10:16 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

I don't see a problem at all.  You snooze you loose.

A few days later how can you be mad? 

... and how many comic shops have you closed due to "the economy"?