Anyone ever sell to mycomicshop.com?

[Bosco685]

Our next big upgrade will be the addition of a consignment service, which should be out this month.

Who came up with that idea?

It's a pretty obvious extension of what we're already doing.

[mycomicshop]

Our next big upgrade will be the addition of a consignment service, which should be out this month.

Who came up with that idea?

It's a pretty obvious extension of what we're already doing.

 

Hey Nick, I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you were getting at with the original post. I thought you were trying to say we were copying somebody's model or something.

 

Went back and reviewed my PMs, and you and I had a good conversation a few months ago, and you had some excellent suggestions. So--thanks! Sorry for misunderstanding.

[joe_collector]

Who came up with that idea?

 

Someone a few hundred years ago.

[Dale Roberts]

Our next big upgrade will be the addition of a consignment service, which should be out this month.

Who came up with that idea?

It's a pretty obvious extension of what we're already doing.

 

Hey Nick, I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you were getting at with the original post. I thought you were trying to say we were copying somebody's model or something.

 

Went back and reviewed my PMs, and you and I had a good conversation a few months ago, and you had some excellent suggestions. So--thanks! Sorry for misunderstanding.

 

Do you have a response from several well respecter boardies, who I am quite certain know how to grade, who have complained about shenanigans when sending books to you? As I stated, one of my best friends in the business has sold you many book, and he has told me this has happened many times. And I am absolutely certain he grades tighter than almost anyone else in the business. And I know Topnotchman can grade as well.

[NYComics]

[Bosco685]

Our next big upgrade will be the addition of a consignment service, which should be out this month.

Who came up with that idea?

It's a pretty obvious extension of what we're already doing.

 

Hey Nick, I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you were getting at with the original post. I thought you were trying to say we were copying somebody's model or something.

 

Went back and reviewed my PMs, and you and I had a good conversation a few months ago, and you had some excellent suggestions. So--thanks! Sorry for misunderstanding.

Just messing with ya, Conan.

 

It appears the most common complaint about mycomicshop is the grading. The packaging, IMHO, has been super-safe for a little while now. But if the core product arrives safe, but far from the grade expected, it kills the entire customer experience.

 

And I am not kidding about Beth. When Nathan answers the phone, you feel like a valued customer. When Beth answers the phone, you feel like it is a situation where you owe her something. She even strains to be polite.

 

But she has improved slightly. When I called four months ago, she only made me feel slightly less than a maggot. I guess it didn't help when it wasn't going well and I asked if I could speak with Nathan, the Manager of Customer Service.

 

The response was immediate - "NATHAN WORKS FOR ME!" OOPS.

[the blob]

Maybe my comic shops mail man who makes deliveries to them is incredibly rough with the packages, turning all those NM books into VFs?

 

but seriously, are they going to whip out the microscope for 1200 books you mail in that they're paying you 50 cents each for? they probably look at 10 books you've called NM, and if there's a VF in there with a ding they figure they can extrapolate and assume the other 1190 are VFs.

[mycomicshop]

Do you have a response from several well respecter boardies, who I am quite certain know how to grade, who have complained about shenanigans when sending books to you? As I stated, one of my best friends in the business has sold you many book, and he has told me this has happened many times. And I am absolutely certain he grades tighter than almost anyone else in the business. And I know Topnotchman can grade as well.

 

Asking me to respond to "complaints about shenanigans" doesn't provide anything to respond to. If a seller has a specific question, I'll be happy to talk to him or her. If by shenanigans you mean anything dishonest, then my response is absolutely not.

 

If the situation you're referring to is that we graded some books lower than somebody else, it's straightforward. If you like how we grade your comics and want the price offered, you sell to us. If you find that you don't like how we grade your comics, then don't sell to us. Our system does more than anybody else in the business to provide transparency and control to the seller. In some cases, this can be a double-edged sword for us, as sellers end up wanting to argue with us about grading even if they would otherwise be happy with the offer if all they got was a total offer for the lot without an itemized list of how we graded the comics and what you're getting for each one.

 

With a lot of buyers, if you're trying to sell a bunch of comics, you'll get a single offer price for the whole bunch. You won't know how the buyer is grading the comics, what grade he's going to sell them at, or what value is being put on individual comics in the transaction. Many buyers won't even bother to individually grade the items in the lot prior to purchase, they'll just eyeball it and give you a lowball offer. Our system gives you all that detail and lets you decide if you like our grading and the prices we're paying.

 

Some sellers who feel very confident in their grading abilities get offended if we grade something lower than they did. If we downgrade something, it's not personal, and it's not a knock on the seller's abilities. We are a business, and we grade by OUR standards, not according to the grading of each individual seller who chooses to offer something to us for sale. If you don't like how we graded it, we'll return it to you, it's as simple as that.

 

All we can do is strive to be as consistent as possible--the grades assigned when we buy are the grades at which the comics are sold, and we can't grade loose enough to please all sellers while simultaneously grading tight enough to please all buyers.

 

We have enough volume through our system to allow us to run some pretty interesting reports about grading, gauge how a seller generally grades relative to us, and even make comparisons among sellers using our grading as a baseline.

 

Of everything we buy:

- On about 68% we assign the same grade that the seller specified when he listed the item.

- 21% we grade lower than the seller by one letter grade or less. NM to VF is the most common drop.

- 6% we grade lower than the seller by more than one full letter grade.

- 4.5% we grade higher than the seller by one letter grade or less.

- 0.6% we grade higher than the seller by more than a full letter grade.

 

We do upgrade comics, and we pay sellers the higher grade's price whenever we upgrade. Nobody ever complains about that. The fact that the distribution is skewed more toward downgrades than upgrades is a result of the fact that there are a lot of not so great graders out there, plus some sellers who list all their comics at NM to save time without actually grading them--they just want to get something for their comics and put as little effort into the transaction as possible.

[DiceX]

So when you buy comics, you take the time to assign a grade to each and every book?

 

 

[mycomicshop]

So when you buy comics, you take the time to assign a grade to each and every book?

 

Yes--everything sold through the "Sell comics on our want list" option in our online buying system ( http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuycomics) is graded individually before the purchase is finalized. The seller sees how we graded each comic and what price is being offered for the comic in that grade. The seller can pick and choose which comics to return and which to leave in the transaction. Of all transactions submitted to us for sale, 1.8% have one or more comics retracted. Some of those are from non-collectors who find comics in the attic, think they have a gold mine, see big numbers next to NM and list everything as NM, and then are upset when it's actually GD/VG and think we're trying to rob them. We try to weed those types of transactions out before the books are shipped, but some still come through. On the other 98.2% of transactions, the seller accepts our offer for all comics in the lot.

 

Like any dealer, we also make bulk buys outside of our online buying system, and in those cases the books are not graded individually prior to purchase.

[DiceX]

What's the percentage of buyers that return books to you because you overgraded them?

 

Also, how many times does a buyer return books to you that you overgraded do you deem them to be too picky and stop doing business with them? Or do you have some other formula for determining when to stop doing business with them?

 

 

[mschmidt]

Some sellers who feel very confident in their grading abilities get offended if we grade something lower than they did. If we downgrade something, it's not personal, and it's not a knock on the seller's abilities. We are a business, and we grade by OUR standards, not according to the grading of each individual seller who chooses to offer something to us for sale. If you don't like how we graded it, we'll return it to you, it's as simple as that.

 

That's fine & well, but the problem is that you don't grade by your standards when you're selling.

 

If I bought 100 "NM" books from your site and tried to sell them back to you, I can guarantee you that no more than half would be accepted as being NM - saying that you employ the same grading across the board just isn't true.

[User 01001010]

i had no problem with selling my ga daredevils, they actually bumped up the grades on a few of the books i sent. the prices were fair. the only problem i have is the "mail credit" was @ 1/3 of the mailing cost. it cost me $12-13 to mail the books and i got a credit of $3.40

[8milemax]

Some sellers who feel very confident in their grading abilities get offended if we grade something lower than they did. If we downgrade something, it's not personal, and it's not a knock on the seller's abilities. We are a business, and we grade by OUR standards, not according to the grading of each individual seller who chooses to offer something to us for sale. If you don't like how we graded it, we'll return it to you, it's as simple as that.

 

That's fine & well, but the problem is that you don't grade by your standards when you're selling.

 

If I bought 100 "NM" books from your site and tried to sell them back to you, I can guarantee you that no more than half would be accepted as being NM - saying that you employ the same grading across the board just isn't true.

 

Sounds like another store to avoid like the plague.

[Krysia-migration]

That's fine & well, but the problem is that you don't grade by your standards when you're selling.

 

If I bought 100 "NM" books from your site and tried to sell them back to you, I can guarantee you that no more than half would be accepted as being NM - saying that you employ the same grading across the board just isn't true.

 

I have to chime in and say I agree. I'm very surprised if the ones you strictly grade NM, when buying, are the only ones you're selling as NM. I spend a couple of hundred dollars every so often in your store, just to fill in my modern Archie runs, etc., and I often receive items that give me pause (admittedly, I'm not an expert grader). In a recent order (I received in the past couple of weeks), some items I purchased "NM" arrived with obvious spine stresses & corner bends - some non-color breaking corner bends seemed to have originated from the way they were packed (usually, I don't have much of a problem with how you pack, but this time there were some unexpected results from packing over 50 comics & TPB's stacked all on top of each other). Another example, was a particular comic that I purchased as NM that had a small, but obvious piece missing from the top of the spine, as well as some surface wear. Even though it irritated me, I didn't pursue it, as the comic was only $.99. Still, I find it interesting that comics graded - very strictly it seems, when you are buying them - are said to be sold at the same exact grade.

[mycomicshop]

i had no problem with selling my ga daredevils, they actually bumped up the grades on a few of the books i sent. the prices were fair. the only problem i have is the "mail credit" was @ 1/3 of the mailing cost. it cost me $12-13 to mail the books and i got a credit of $3.40

 

To clarify, we don't claim to pay your entire shipping cost. What we say is "For comics sold via Selling Option #1, Want List Buying, we will pay you a shipping rebate that will cover a portion of your shipping cost, or sometimes even all of your shipping cost. The shipping rebate is the amount we will add to your credit or cash total to compensate for the cost of shipping your comics to us. Shipping rebates are calculated based on the value of each comic. Sellers shipping small quantities of common, inexpensive comics will be responsible for most of the shipping cost. In the case of higher value comics, the shipping cost is split between seller and mycomicshop.com. Sellers sending high dollar comics typically see all their shipping costs paid and, in some cases, may earn a shipping rebate greater than their actual shipping cost."

 

From http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuycomics/whychooseus#shipping

and

http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuycomics/shippingrebate

[mycomicshop]

In regard to comments about the grading of comics purchased from us. I appreciate the continued feedback, but I don't have anything new to add since the last time I heard similar feedback from some of the same posters (DiceX ). I understand your concerns and I'm sorry we weren't able to serve you to your satisfaction.

 

 

 

[DiceX]

In regard to comments about the grading of comics purchased from us. I appreciate the continued feedback, but I don't have anything new to add since the last time I heard similar feedback from some of the same posters (DiceX ). I understand your concerns and I'm sorry we weren't able to serve you to your satisfaction.

 

 

 

And until it's addressed, I'll bring it up just to remind you that I'm here.

 

 

[8milemax]

In regard to comments about the grading of comics purchased from us. I appreciate the continued feedback, but I don't have anything new to add since the last time I heard similar feedback from some of the same posters (DiceX ). I understand your concerns and I'm sorry we weren't able to serve you to your satisfaction.

 

 

 

And until it's addressed, I'll bring it up just to remind you that I'm here.

 

 

Dice they don't have a answer for that, that's why they wont answer the question.

[fastballspecial]

Do you have a response from several well respecter boardies, who I am quite certain know how to grade, who have complained about shenanigans when sending books to you? As I stated, one of my best friends in the business has sold you many book, and he has told me this has happened many times. And I am absolutely certain he grades tighter than almost anyone else in the business. And I know Topnotchman can grade as well.

 

Asking me to respond to "complaints about shenanigans" doesn't provide anything to respond to. If a seller has a specific question, I'll be happy to talk to him or her. If by shenanigans you mean anything dishonest, then my response is absolutely not.

 

If the situation you're referring to is that we graded some books lower than somebody else, it's straightforward. If you like how we grade your comics and want the price offered, you sell to us. If you find that you don't like how we grade your comics, then don't sell to us. Our system does more than anybody else in the business to provide transparency and control to the seller. In some cases, this can be a double-edged sword for us, as sellers end up wanting to argue with us about grading even if they would otherwise be happy with the offer if all they got was a total offer for the lot without an itemized list of how we graded the comics and what you're getting for each one.

 

With a lot of buyers, if you're trying to sell a bunch of comics, you'll get a single offer price for the whole bunch. You won't know how the buyer is grading the comics, what grade he's going to sell them at, or what value is being put on individual comics in the transaction. Many buyers won't even bother to individually grade the items in the lot prior to purchase, they'll just eyeball it and give you a lowball offer. Our system gives you all that detail and lets you decide if you like our grading and the prices we're paying.

 

Some sellers who feel very confident in their grading abilities get offended if we grade something lower than they did. If we downgrade something, it's not personal, and it's not a knock on the seller's abilities. We are a business, and we grade by OUR standards, not according to the grading of each individual seller who chooses to offer something to us for sale. If you don't like how we graded it, we'll return it to you, it's as simple as that.

 

All we can do is strive to be as consistent as possible--the grades assigned when we buy are the grades at which the comics are sold, and we can't grade loose enough to please all sellers while simultaneously grading tight enough to please all buyers.

 

We have enough volume through our system to allow us to run some pretty interesting reports about grading, gauge how a seller generally grades relative to us, and even make comparisons among sellers using our grading as a baseline.

 

Of everything we buy:

- On about 68% we assign the same grade that the seller specified when he listed the item.

- 21% we grade lower than the seller by one letter grade or less. NM to VF is the most common drop.

- 6% we grade lower than the seller by more than one full letter grade.

- 4.5% we grade higher than the seller by one letter grade or less.

- 0.6% we grade higher than the seller by more than a full letter grade.

 

We do upgrade comics, and we pay sellers the higher grade's price whenever we upgrade. Nobody ever complains about that. The fact that the distribution is skewed more toward downgrades than upgrades is a result of the fact that there are a lot of not so great graders out there, plus some sellers who list all their comics at NM to save time without actually grading them--they just want to get something for their comics and put as little effort into the transaction as possible.

 

Would you get this type of reply by another other large comic book selling/buying service? Mile High wont, GCC in Chicago?, Midtown?

 

Keep in mind you wont change the mind of several on this board. Every large comic book seller is evil in their eyes in one form or another. Capitalism is bad. I have np with the way you have run your business for years and have ordered from you several times. Not saying I agree every time, but after using every large ordering service for back issues I felt most confident using your system.

 

I think I have sold like 12 books back to you over the years. I was under 3 over 3 and 6 came back the same. Your packing is top notch in my experience and when I have had a problem it was addressed and resolved very quickly I have never gotten that type of service from other large scale buying/selling stores in over 10 years of continually using several to order from.

 

Let the flaming begin