A comic buying story (or not)

[Shield]

So, there's a small dealer online that I purchase from regularly. Most of the time it's small sets of reading stuff, like orders for 15 books for around $150. They normally accurately grade and provide scans of books online. Who the dealer is in this case is mostly irrelevant as I'll continue to buy from them.

 

Ok. Normally they don't get in more expensive books. This time they had in inventory a Top-Notch Comics #9, for $360 bucks or something. The book didn't have an online scan (which they usually do) so I emailed their customer support. I received back a polite email back stating that if the scan wasn't online then they didn't have one.

 

Now, they graded the book a "fair", which could be any number of accumulated defects. I wanted a reading copy, so I didn't care as long as it was complete. I called their customer service last night, and spoke to a gentleman about getting a scan for me. Apparantely a scan had been uploaded within the last 24 hours and while I was talking to him a scan magically appeared on the site. The book looked like a solid VG! I asked him if he could just verify that all pages were present and the book wasn't brittle, and I wanted to buy it. He said it was in their warehouse in the back and he couldn't check it until this morning. I told him I was concerned that someone else might buy the book online before he had a chance to verify the pages.

I asked about their return policy, as I've never returned a book to them, and he said "Well, if you send the book back and we feel like we didn't overgrade it, then we generally don't do refunds. If the book was graded wrong we will refund your money, just as long as you don't abuse returning books". This sounded fair to me, but keep in mind this book appeared to be a VG that they graded 1.0 Fair. I've bought Strange Adventures from the 1950's from them that they graded fair, and occasionally they were missing centerfolds.

 

So we left it that he'd call me this morning with a verified page count and a check for brittleness.

 

Of course (here it comes) I check last night before bed and it appears someone has purchased the book.

 

Sigh. I don't know what else I should've done here. Had I purchased the book and it had missing pages, it'd only have been worth about half of the $360. Had the book been complete but brittle and I tried to return it, they could've said they allow brittle pages in fair and not refunded my money.

 

Sorry for my but I hate it when stuff like this happens!

 

 

My only hope is he pulled the book off their website for me pending the book check.

[Fan4Fan]

I feel your pain... I've lost many books (comics and otherwise) while I thought about it or wanted some part of the deal verified.

[JuliusSeizure]

I would say you did the right thing. Unless you're a millionaire or something, $360 is a lot of money to shell out sight unseen, and without a "no questions asked" return policy. I've bought books as 'Fair' with ads cut out that didn't affect the story, and I'm usually OK with that, if I want a copy badly enough. But the dealer should have been able to tell you that. In your shoes, I would have done the same thing.

[Timulty]

Of course (here it comes) I check last night before bed and it appears someone has purchased the book.

 

[Shield]

Of course (here it comes) I check last night before bed and it appears someone has purchased the book.

 

 

Are you implying you bought the book? Good catch! By the way, what website was it?

[Artboy99]

I agree. Think of it this way: There was definitely a reason the book was graded as a 1.0. You didnt miss out on anything.

 

Artboy99

[Timulty]

Of course (here it comes) I check last night before bed and it appears someone has purchased the book.

 

 

Are you implying you bought the book? Good catch! By the way, what website was it?

 

Just jacking with you Shield. I figure, that would get your goat. I am not going to be collecting any MLJ's for a bit, anyhow.

[Shield]

Of course (here it comes) I check last night before bed and it appears someone has purchased the book.

 

 

Are you implying you bought the book? Good catch! By the way, what website was it?

 

Just jacking with you Shield. I figure, that would get your goat. I am not going to be collecting any MLJ's for a bit, anyhow.

 

I was actually hoping you won it; that way I could "make you an offer you couldn't refuse". I knew you were kidding though...

[Shield]

I agree. Think of it this way: There was definitely a reason the book was graded as a 1.0. You didnt miss out on anything.

 

Artboy99

 

You know, you're exactly right. That's what I have to remind myself. I'll see if I can find a scan in my browser's cache...