my last, last i tell you, attempted transaction with metropolis

[kryptonitecomics]

...................and the truth shall set you free lol

[buttock]

Well, one thing this thread has accomplished is that its made me reconsider making an offer on a fairly pricey (for me, anyways) book from the Metro site.

 

Having read this thread, it seems that the most I can hope for is free shipping...if thats the case, why bother?

 

I have to say that I agree with this. I try to keep my bigger (at least to me their big) purchases somewhat quiet, and instead try to buy some things off of clink or ebay. In the last cc auction, I was out of town but put in a bid and won a book. I didnt' have access to my email, so the auction ended on a Sunday I believe (could have been a Saturday tho), and by Wednesday I get home, jump on the computer and am all ready to pay for the book. And I've received 2 emails thus far (not out of the ordinary since I hadn't paid for the book) but when I try paying (again only 3 days after auctions end, unless it was Sat, then its the 4th day) I get an email stating that I can no longer pay for the book, as the "seller" reconsidered.

 

Yup... they'll never get a dime from me, and this past year I've spent about plenty of dimes on funny books.

 

Wow. Would someone from comicconnect like to weigh in on this?

 

 

We have looked into this matter and here is what we have found. The book in question was a high grade Strange Tales #135 which was sold in an auction that ended the evening of 12/14. The high bidder "Cujobyte" had in fact had placed his winning bid near the end of the auction of the evening of 12/14. Within 1 minute after the close of this lot, an automated email went out requesting that the bidder check out on the auction lot. After 2 days, the system sends a checkout email reminder each day a buyer neglects to provide payment and shipping info for an item they purchased.

 

It is now 12/22, 8 days after the auction's close. We have yet to hear any word from the "Cujobyte". No returns emails and no phone calls. We called the phone given at the time the account was opened and found that the number was a non-working phone number. Out of the 100 or so bidders who won items in this auction, the only 2 individuals who failed to respond to checkout requests were from Albuquerque, NM which made us suspect that both bidders were bogus. Both accounts were closed that morning and both invoices were voided. It is important to note that "Cujobyte" was a buyer with absolutely no purchase history with us. We really did feel that the account was bogus and had no reason to believe otherwise.

 

We received an email from "Cujobye" approx. 6 hours later that day (12/22). He stated that he was having trouble logging into his comicconnect account. We sent his the following email in return:

 

"We need a valid phone number on file to reopen your closed account. Your billing and shipping address will also need to match the credit card on file.

 

The item has already been relisted at the original asking price. If your account is reopened, you would have to submit a new offer to the seller."

 

Stated in the original post is the statement that "the seller reconsidered". Not true. We told him why we closed his account and voided the invoice. We even gave him a path to re-open his account in order to purchase the book. And told him that the book was re-listed on the site. In fact, the book was listed for another 3 weeks before it finally sold.

 

The have no evidence that "Cujobyte" made any further to re-open his account. In fact, the closed account still has the original non-working phone number.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for responding!

[benz]

Is anyone bashing Metro again? =)

[Flash105]

First, I believe Metro prices books at top of market not to sell now but to find a willing buyer in 6-12 months. So, declining your offer of $650 implies Metro thinks someone will pay more in the near future even if it takes until the next OPG arrives... most books will sell eventually. The secret to Metro's success is maximizing margins not volume, and having the required patience and capital to do so. Also, Metro gets alot of post-Auction (Heritage/Clink/Mastro) business where underbidders go to Metro to buy the same book for more than auction they didn't win.

 

Fourth, Metro shops at Heritage too. If they win a book, you can be sure its because they feel its undervalued and they will price it accordingly. Yes it hurts when I buy books from Metro that sold for 25% less six months before at Heritage... but I can only ask myself "Would I buy at Metro's price today?".

 

 

If a book sells on Heritage, in my mind that is the FMV of a book. Metropolis wins a book for less than guide, and then proceeds to charge over guide. Then when you inform them that you know what the book previously sold for, they tell you that the book is picking up in popularity, etc, etc. Case in point, I offered them 145% of what the won a book for on Heritage last year. They countered for 157%. I gave it some time, and the book is, of course, still there. I then resubmitted my offer, and the only response I received was that I could still purchase it for the price they had quoted me in the past.

 

This is, of course, extremely frustating being a collector in comics. To date, I have not purchased a book from them. I would be willing to purchase over 10 books for them, to the tune of thousands of dollars, if I could get even a bit of cooperation in my dealings with them.

 

 

 

Heritage=FMV. I would say this is a dangerous assumption. I have seen books where the price is run up by two bidders for no reason other than they have to have it now and the next time around the underbidder or someone else gets the book for half the price. I aso know there are deals to be had. Otherwise, dealers would not buy books on the site. Books slip through the cracks on Heritage just like anywhere else. I have forgotten or got busy and not placed bids on books and they end up going for a song. Just last year at the height of AF15 mania a restored 9.0 Sa sold for the opening bid of 5000 dollars. There is no doubt that book should have gone for double.

[VintageComics]

Wow, I just read this thread for the first time.

 

[mica]

Wow, I just read this thread for the first time.

[VintageComics]

Wow, I just read this thread for the first time.

 

It's true. It's also very revealing.

 

[djpinkpanther67]

I tried making my first purchase with Metro this past week.. No communication whatsoever after multiple emails, offers, and phone calls. Even though they have some cool books, I no longer will be willing to send my money to them

They are probably too busy pimping the Action 1 in their current auction to bother with trivialities such as customer service

[Transplant]

I tried making my first purchase with Metro this past week.. No communication whatsoever after multiple emails, offers, and phone calls. Even though they have some cool books, I no longer will be willing to send my money to them

They are probably too busy pimping the Action 1 in their current auction to bother with trivialities such as customer service

And busy out on the West coast with Wondercon.

[Gone Phishin']

They do have a nice selection of books though

[VintageComics]

I tried making my first purchase with Metro this past week.. No communication whatsoever after multiple emails, offers, and phone calls. Even though they have some cool books, I no longer will be willing to send my money to them

They are probably too busy pimping the Action 1 in their current auction to bother with trivialities such as customer service

And busy out on the West coast with Wondercon.

 

Did all of them go to Wondercon?

[kryptonitecomics]

I think they are real busy right now. I had a payment plan set up with them on a book and I asked them to run the last two payments and send me the book. While I didn't hear back from them they did process the payment, send me the scans of the book I had requested and I got a note saying the book was shipped. So I got what I wanted even if I didn't specifically get a note from them saying ok we will process the payments, thanks for your business

 

So I don't believe I will be scratching them off my list of dealers for being busy but I do understand buyers concerns if they don't even get a response on offers etc....timing can be everything when shows are going on.

[Shield]

. A very wise person once told me "It's only a comic book" and if it's not any fun to collect, then it's just not worth it.

 

That's very kind of you Black_Hand I remember that conversation well. I am not very wise though. Hell, I don't even think I'm wise anymore. Wise- maybe. I think my IQ is hovering around the 80 mark here lately. Living with a pregnant wife does that to you.

[innocuous]

I tried making my first purchase with Metro this past week.. No communication whatsoever after multiple emails, offers, and phone calls. Even though they have some cool books, I no longer will be willing to send my money to them

They are probably too busy pimping the Action 1 in their current auction to bother with trivialities such as customer service

And busy out on the West coast with Wondercon.

 

Did all of them go to Wondercon?

 

I only saw Frank and Vinnie.

[seank]

My LCS owner asked if I got anything good at Wondercon today. I told him I bought two books from Metropolis. He said, "You're buying from Metropolis? I'm going to have to raise my prices."

[agro23]

I tried making my first purchase with Metro this past week.. No communication whatsoever after multiple emails, offers, and phone calls. Even though they have some cool books, I no longer will be willing to send my money to them

They are probably too busy pimping the Action 1 in their current auction to bother with trivialities such as customer service

It actually seemed like they were buying books at WonderCon.

[fishbone]

I think they are real busy right now. I had a payment plan set up with them on a book and I asked them to run the last two payments and send me the book. While I didn't hear back from them they did process the payment, send me the scans of the book I had requested and I got a note saying the book was shipped. So I got what I wanted even if I didn't specifically get a note from them saying ok we will process the payments, thanks for your business

 

So I don't believe I will be scratching them off my list of dealers for being busy but I do understand buyers concerns if they don't even get a response on offers etc....timing can be everything when shows are going on.

 

I've just tried sending and re-sending my e-mails the last 2 days and they usually (eventually) respond.......I guess one has to give them a break with all they're dealing with right now.

[Bruce1971]

Everyone complains how expensive metropolis is but I have found there prices to be decent. Sure if you are going for a book that you rarely see at any dealer they will ask an arm and leg for it, but for other material they are good. I was just recently looking at a certain silver age book in the 9.4/9.6 range and metro had the best price. One of the big popular dealers who post on this site had the same book in the same grade with white pages for $400 vs metros off white to white for $300, both books were CGCd. Now I think page quality matters but not to that degree, there were no centering issues or anything else wrong with either book. I have also seen other board members posting CGCd books for as much or more then on metro. Again this is rare, but Metro is the one with the rep for being outrageously expensive.

 

Another example is I checked out another dealers site who everyone says grades better then Metro on some VG/F fiction house books and found that dealer more expensive for the grade, thereby negating most if not all of the price difference based on the 0.5 I hear a lot of people say metro is off of CGC. Combine that with the cost to ship books, more of an issue as I am Canadian, being able to pick up 8 books with Baker on on the stories I wanted in effect lowered the cost of the books for me even further. Now these may be select examples but they happen to be recent examples I found while looking for books.

 

I would also like to mention I gave frank a list of books I was interested in and the defects I did not want on them. Tape/water stains/faded covers/rusty staples etc and he went through the list and picked out the books that matched. These were not expensive books, only costing around $50 each. Thankfully this was before they just got busy as he got back to me by the end of the next day on all emails, though the last week they have been slow.

 

Bruce

[comicdonna]

My overall experiences with Metropolis have been better than average. I have purchased a few books undergraded, a few overgraded and a few dead on with CGC. Nothing has ever varied by more than .5 either way. I have had problems getting a responce through e-mails. Now, if I ever am interested in a book, I have my wife call Frank. She seems to have great luck getting me scans ect...