Puppies and Bunnies A story about being careful what you bring home.

[mar-vell]

but how about metro's subsequent "behaviour" regarding this book. do u condone it?

 

i think everyone would be if they dont condone it...Silver Surfer you have every right to feel with Metro...if that happened to me, I will post it here in the boards for all people to see what Metro is really like.

 

i think u mean if they DO condone it. i can't tell if ur using the term correctly.

 

to condone is to give tacit approval to something (to not object to something). thus, if FFB condones metro's behavior, it means he does not criticize it.

 

maybe they should just put a condom on their behavior

[benz]

but how about metro's subsequent "behaviour" regarding this book. do u condone it?

 

i think everyone would be if they dont condone it...Silver Surfer you have every right to feel with Metro...if that happened to me, I will post it here in the boards for all people to see what Metro is really like.

 

i think u mean if they DO condone it. i can't tell if ur using the term correctly.

 

to condone is to give tacit approval to something (to not object to something). thus, if FFB condones metro's behavior, it means he does not criticize it.

 

thanks for the correction and edited the post...Metro should be for what they did.

[FFB]

I suspect this might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Silver Surfer should have checked the book better before sending to CGC.

 

I believe that's irrelevant in this case.

 

I obviously disagree.

 

And that's very high and mighty of you to take Metro's side and blame this on Pete.

 

You obviously are having trouble reading. I didn't take Metro's side and I am not "blaming" Pete. I just said that Pete's failure to check the book before sending it to CGC (and missing enough "rat chew" on the back cover to drop the book to 7.0) was a part of the eventual problem. Like I said, I've gotten overgraded books from Metro before and had to send them back. It sucks. But Pete could have sent the book back if he had checked it more carefully before sending it to CGC.

 

If thats not blaming Pete, I dont know what is. You're basically saying: this whole situation could have been averted if Peter had been more careful. If that's not blaming Peter for the situation , then what is? And your silence regarding Metro's behavior in all this is deafening.

 

And something else that might not have been said: Peter tried to contact Metro after receving the CGC grade and Metro ignored him. I'm sure Peter would have been willing to eat the grading fees for his "error", but he never was given the chance to.

 

I'm not "basically" saying anything other than what I've said. If you disagree with me, fine. You are entitled to your opinion. But don't get "high and mighty" with me and try to shove yours down my throat.

[drsone]

This is total compostable_fertilizer.

 

It is hilarious to me that this company has been trying to promote comics like stocks for the past decade would do things like this. They are just like every other comic dealer when it breaks down. When you buy stocks, bonds or gold do you need to check to make sure the items are decent shape? Do you have to go through a massive ordeal to make things right when they *spoon* up? What a joke.

 

A .5 grade difference is certainly acceptable, a 1.0 grade difference falls under the "well, I'll be a nice guy and ask to return it"category. The fact that they rebought (I made a new word hehe!) from you is disgraceful, and shows that they ARE NOT investment advisors, they are like every other dealer in that they took time and effort to scan ebay and purchase a book with the sole intention of possibly making $200 profit at most or $100 in a sale.

 

I would never, ever deal this organization again if I were any of you, same as heritage to me but different reasons.

[Theagenes]

once again metropolis shows it's motto should be-

"Customer service? Bah! If we put the customer first how could we be #1 !!!?"

 

I have had no problems in my dealings with them in the past but man, I'm pretty pi$$ed off at them right now. I'm still waiting for a book that was paid for on 9/29 - over a month ago!

 

I ordered the book, paid for for it with Paypal. Three weeks went by - no book. I emailed them - no response. Second email - they said they never received my payment. A week of email exchanges with Metro and phone calls to Paypal go by and they finally tell me that they did receive payment but had internet troubles and didn't receive notification. My book would ship right away and I would receive tracking info shortly. Another week goes by!! No tracking info, no book. I send another email. This time they say my order has been delayed due to high volume!!! Finally a couple a days ago I get my tracking info and it should be here Monday.

 

I just want my book, dammit! When you pay FMV++ from a big name dealer, you shouldn't have to put up with unprofessional eBay-type BS like this.

 

Edit: Sorry, but I just needed to a little bit.

[Norrin_Radd]

"Everytime I've thought about buying something from Metro, I read something like this and it makes me think twice."

[Dad&Son-migration]

I have to completely side with FFB's point of view on this one. I'm sorry for Pete's experience with Metro. I have bought blind copies of raw books from Metro because the price point was set accordingly, for 3 Boston pedigree ST's. When I received the books. I maticulously looked the books over to ensure I was completely satisified. If I wasn't I was going to be on the phone to Frank. But they passed my grade. I then sent them to CGC and received a 9.0, 9.2, 9.2. They were advertised by Metro as 9.2, 9.2, 9.4. It is truly a case of buyer beware when making internet purchases. You have to do your homework.

As for Metro buying and reselling it. That's the symptom of a capitalistic economy. Each collector must take owness in the situation. It sucks to be burned but much of it can be avoided with patience and doing your background work before getting excited and buying. Again I'm sorry that it would happen to Pete but it's a lesson learned the hardway.

[BEAUMONTS]

Be careful Ze-man, criticizing Metro is kind of like dealing with the Soup Nazi.

"No Soup for You" they will ban you at the drop of a hat.

This is a very sad state of affairs when, regardless of the initial dispute, being grade related. Don't get back to Silver Surfer, but however do have time to peruse ebay in search of more comics to "crack out and overgrade" again for there website.

I think the grade difference is really the second issue here, the real issue is the no response- buy back-crack-overgrade issue. This really shows a companies ethics and morals and should be taken into consideration when purchasing again. I always wonder how much tighter there grading is when purchasing comics.

For instance it would have been nice to be a fly on the wall when they were purchasing and grading the stolen comics from the "D" collection. Hey, more ethical and moral distaste. And so it goes.............

[joe_collector]

I simply cannot believe that people are standing up for what Metro did, and essentially stating that the buyer was at fault.

 

Talk about morally-bankrupt.

[tilleycs]

This is total compostable_fertilizer.

 

Agreed. This is about as low-class as you can get. This is downright shameful. There tends to be no shame from companies like this, though.

 

I would never, ever deal this organization again if I were any of you, same as heritage to me but different reasons.

 

Agreed. Buyer beware. Big-time.

[Mr. Zipper]

I just said that Pete's failure to check the book before sending it to CGC (and missing enough "rat chew" on the back cover to drop the book to 7.0) was a part of the eventual problem. Like I said, I've gotten overgraded books from Metro before and had to send them back. It sucks. But Pete could have sent the book back if he had checked it more carefully before sending it to CGC.

 

I agree with this part. There are basically 2 matters in play here.

 

The first is the intial discrepancy between CGC and Metro's grading. Here, Peter essentially forfeited his right to complain about a rat chew and subsequent 7.0 because he didn't check the book himself when he had the opportunity.

 

Doesn't Peter have some responsibility to check a $1,000 book before he sends it off to CGC? In the other thread, he basically shrugs it off by stating [paraphrasing] "I didn't see the rat chew because I don't like touching a $1,000 book. So, I sent it off to CGC because they are the pros."

 

Personally, I can't imagine paying $1,000 for a raw book and not carefully inspecting it page by page immediately on receipt. If Peter had exercised a bit of due diligence here, he could have returned the book and the whole situation would have been avoided.

 

(I don't intend to flame Peter... he seems like a nice guy. Unfortunately, his failure to properly inspect something he purchased can't be overlooked in this situation.)

 

The second matter is the issue of Metro rebuying the book, cracking the slab and relisting it as an 8.0.

 

I can understand why collectors would find this behavior disturbing. Granted, Metro has a right to grade the book whatever they want... they don't have to submit to CGC's opinion.

 

However, it does seem somewhat hypocritical when dealers hyper-price when they get the [high] GCG grade they want, yet disregard CGC grading when the grade isn't what they were hoping for.

[awe4one]

The added layer to the problem here is Metro's silence to Surfer when he inquired about the CGC grade but are ready to jump when the same comic is offered on eBay. It's like "we don't care about you buying our overgraded comic but would happily buy it back for 60% of your cost so we can overgrade again and screw some other chump"...

 

Jim

[Red Hook]

I agree with Zip on this one.

 

The first question I have is how aggressively did Pete try to contact Metro in the first place? If it was a single unanswered pm, I don' t think that was enough. I would have adherred myself to Metro's back until I got a human on a phone line.

 

There is obviously the issue of the swing in the grade given the book.....but before going further I'd like to get clarification on the extent of Peter's queries.

 

I'd also like to hear Metro's side of the tale.

 

 

Red

[jimm94]

I think sellers have an obligation to accurately represent what they are selling (or in this case, selling again). At the same time, though, I believe the burden ultimately falls on the buyer to determine whether or not they are satisfied with a purchase. Pete was too afraid to inspect the book himself, so he sent it to CGC. I personally think that someone buying books that expensive should be more comfortable with their own grading and book handling skills than he seemed to be, but at least he was saavy enough to send the book off for a second opinion.

 

Where the transaction really appears to fail is that it doesn't seem like Pete pursued his dissatifaction with the purchase nearly aggressively enough. According to his posts, he sent a PM to metro on the boards. I have no idea what he said in the PM or how detailed it was, but although it should have garned some response from Steve or Vincent, I honestly don't believe this was the appropriate channel of communication to address an issue of this nature. If I felt badly about a transaction and possibly had some recourse, I would PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL SOMEONE. I wouldn't care if it's long distance or halfway around the world. I would keep calling until I was speaking with the person who could address my issue. Trying to conduct business or resolve an issue via PM is just not the way to go for an off-forum transaction. Again, Steve or Vincent should have responded to the PM, but it really appears that Pete gave up too easily out of disgust.

 

Once he lists the book on eBay, I think it's fair game to anyone. I don't always like it when a seller overgrades or cracks and overgrades, but it happens all the time. I generally support a person's right to disagree with a CGC grade or another collector/dealer's grade for that matter. But this time Metro got caught, and unfortunately Pete was so disappointed that he ended up being the one left holding the bag.

 

 

-Jim

[tth2]

I then sent them to CGC and received a 9.0, 9.2, 9.2. They were advertised by Metro as 9.2, 9.2, 9.4. It is truly a case of buyer beware when making internet purchases.

If this is somehow supposed to be an example of shoddy grading, I don't think you picked a very good example. Metro's grades were within 0.2 of CGC's grade for two of the books and right on on the other. I don't think that's bad at all.

[Dad&Son-migration]

I then sent them to CGC and received a 9.0, 9.2, 9.2. They were advertised by Metro as 9.2, 9.2, 9.4. It is truly a case of buyer beware when making internet purchases.

If this is somehow supposed to be an example of shoddy grading, I don't think you picked a very good example. Metro's grades were within 0.2 of CGC's grade for two of the books and right on on the other. I don't think that's bad at all.

 

God no!! I was saying in my post that I was pleased when I received the books and the grades received reinforced that. I was trying to show the other side of the coin of doing my homework and ensuring I inspected the books to my full satisfaction upon receiving them.

[Flaming_Telepath]

I then sent them to CGC and received a 9.0, 9.2, 9.2. They were advertised by Metro as 9.2, 9.2, 9.4. It is truly a case of buyer beware when making internet purchases.

If this is somehow supposed to be an example of shoddy grading, I don't think you picked a very good example. Metro's grades were within 0.2 of CGC's grade for two of the books and right on on the other. I don't think that's bad at all.

 

 

To be honest, that is pretty damned impressive. I'd be happy if I got that from the vast majority of dealers....which I usually don't.

[Anfield Fox]

Silver Surfers bad deal, gone worse.

 

This was buried in the Grading forum, so it might have not been seen. Am I missing something, or did SS get chumped, and should we be really peeved at Metro?

 

Please take a look, read the WHOLE thread and offer your take on the facts as presented.

 

If all the facts are NOT known, then feel free to state your case, that was my main purpose in making this thread

 

And for those too lazy to read.. here is Silver Surfers cliff note version of his experience

 

Just to summarize the history on this book:

 

- Bought raw for $1,000, listed as an 8.88888+++.

- Had it graded, came back as a CGC 7.0.

- PM'd Metro to just ask about their feedback on the grade as their was some rat chew noticed on the book, no repsonse at all.

- Was sick of the whole transaction so I decided to list it on EBay with a best offer option.

- Received a $600 bid and because I wanted to purge muself of this book accepted it. Didn't relaize until I sent the invoice that the buyer was actually Metro.

- Few weeks late the book appears to be back on the website, cracked out of the slabb and now listed as an 8.0 and for $800.

 

 

I posted about this when he had the book for sale and felt sick but he said he would update us. Pete is a nice guy who doesn't like making a fuss so he took it on the chin. NOW i see a new chapter in the story "Few weeks late the book appears to be back on the website, cracked out of the slab and now listed as an 8.0 and for $800." and i've gone from sick to gobsmacked. Anyone who can condone Metro's behaviour is simply insane. No better word for it.

 

I will never deal with Metropolis after this. I might not be the $300,000 lawyer that fits their normal clientele but it’s about standing up for what you believe in and voting with your wallet.

[Red Hook]

I would also like to say, that Metro could choose to score some big PR points here if they took the high road on this one.

[Sal]

i guess i don't find Metro at fault on principle, but i am disappointed that they weren't able to do the right thing in Peter's case, as opposed to the "we are under no obligation to do anything and you can't make us" thing.

 

it's called "customer service." as in "the customer's always right."

 

all of the above doesn't of course take into consideration Metro's side of the story, only because they haven't given it.

 

i wonder how much $$$ Peter is going to spend with Metro in the future vs. how much $$$ Metro made in the sale, repurchase and resale of this one book