A New One on Me

[David Swan]

SO I was working on acquiring a new comic for my Captain Marvel Adventure collection and was working on trying to find a price we could both agree on. This went on for awhile and I finally concluded that the seller wasn't going to budge anymore so I went to buy it.

 

To my surprise the seller suddenly jacked up the selling price by $100. I don't know if I pissed the seller off or they figured they could squeeze me for more. I can say I will never give in to some greedy or stupid seller and it's unlikely I'll ever own this comic. I'll be damned before I deal with a seller that pulls that kind of garbage. In all the years I've been buying comics I've never seen anyone pull this kind of stunt.

 

See more journals by David Swan

[Phillip]

I've had this happen many times. More specifically when purchasing already slabbed books. I tend to look at the last sold copies to get an idea when offering a price, and then send my offer. Then i get a response back with a price that is only $2 less than what it is listed for and a response that says best i can do. Frustrating isn't even the word to describe it, but it all boils down to some buyers don't care what the price is and just go for it and that just helps to drive prices up to ridiculous amounts for no reason.

 

I hope you find a seller willing to work with you on the price so that you may own that book. Good luck with the search.

[David Swan]

The point isn't that the seller was inflexible on the price. I get that and that's the sellers prerogative. The problem was it appeared that when I showed real interest the seller suddenly jacked up the price by $100. This was on ComicLink and I know for a fact that the comic was on there literally for YEARS. In fact this particular seller was clearly the owner of TWO 9.0 versions listed because both jumped at the same time. This is a very rare comic so it's pretty amazing this person owns two but I would never deal with an underhanded creep like that.

[Professor Pecora]

Hey David,

 

I can relate to your unfortunate experience.

 

I was watching a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #162 CGC 9.8 WP on eBay for several months until the listing ended. I haven't seen the book relisted in weeks, so I was curious to know if the seller actually sold the book or if it was still available.

 

With that said, I decided to reach out to the seller and make the inquiry. He said it's still available and relisted it for $200 more than the original BIN price (which was already over fair market value to begin with!) I wasn't going to pay $600 for a book that has sold for under $300 on numerous ocassions. So I tried to communicate with the seller and made a point that he should at least "honor" his previous BIN price in which I was watching the book...the same price it was previously listed as that DID NOT sell...and the seller was a total jerk and said "he's not really trying to sell the book because it has a lot of potential." What??? So we exchanged several e-mails and he ended up blocking me from even making a best offer and mentioned that he thought I was being rude for stating that his prices are unfair and misleading to the inexperienced collectors and said that he has books listed over market value for "insurance purposes."

 

What a total Di$! So yeah brother, I refuse to do business with lame sellers like this! At the end of the day, it's the "principle" that counts...they should have "honored" their previously listed BIN prices and not try to take advantage of or mislead us into thinking we'll get the book for it's consistently advertised price! I have sold hundreds of CGC books and I would have never done this! Definitely a POOR business practice!

[BlowUpTheMoon]

What a total Di$! So yeah brother, I refuse to do business with lame sellers like this! At the end of the day, it's the "principle" that counts...they should have "honored" their previously listed BIN prices and not try to take advantage of or mislead us into thinking we'll get the book for it's consistently advertised price! I have sold hundreds of CGC books and I would have never done this! Definitely a POOR business practice!

 

The owner of the book is under no obligation to offer the book at the previous BIN. The owner of the book can set any price he deems fit.

 

Supply and demand, free market, etc...

[Bird]

Hey David,

 

I can relate to your unfortunate experience.

 

I was watching a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #162 CGC 9.8 WP on eBay for several months until the listing ended. I haven't seen the book relisted in weeks, so I was curious to know if the seller actually sold the book or if it was still available.

 

With that said, I decided to reach out to the seller and make the inquiry. He said it's still available and relisted it for $200 more than the original BIN price (which was already over fair market value to begin with!) I wasn't going to pay $600 for a book that has sold for under $300 on numerous ocassions. So I tried to communicate with the seller and made a point that he should at least "honor" his previous BIN price in which I was watching the book...the same price it was previously listed as that DID NOT sell...and the seller was a total jerk and said "he's not really trying to sell the book because it has a lot of potential." What??? So we exchanged several e-mails and he ended up blocking me from even making a best offer and mentioned that he thought I was being rude for stating that his prices are unfair and misleading to the inexperienced collectors and said that he has books listed over market value for "insurance purposes."

 

What a total Di$! So yeah brother, I refuse to do business with lame sellers like this! At the end of the day, it's the "principle" that counts...they should have "honored" their previously listed BIN prices and not try to take advantage of or mislead us into thinking we'll get the book for it's consistently advertised price! I have sold hundreds of CGC books and I would have never done this! Definitely a POOR business practice!

 

You don't really say if you made on offer on the book or not. Did you try and buy the book with a clear offer?

[David Swan]

"I can relate to your unfortunate experience."

 

Here's the crazy thing about what happened. The comic I was looking at was a third highest grade behind a 9.6 and 9.2. There exists three 9.0's and two were for sale. I had no idea that the same seller owned both of the copies for sale so I was working both to see which one would get me a better deal. These comics had been sitting there literally for years with not a single bite and I was interested so I was feeling out the seller. Again, I had no idea I was working the same person twice. After awhile I figured out that I had hit the best price I was going to get and went to buy since supposedly I had 3 days to respond to the sellers counteroffer. To my surprise the link to buy didn't work and I discovered it was because the seller had removed both copies and re-posted them at a significantly higher price with the new verbage, "One of the Top 3 Graded Overall!". So this knucklehead decided that since someone (me) had bitten at his comics that he would jack up the price, a price that no one else showed any interest in for YEARS. And to those who say maybe he didn't want to sell, remember that he has TWO. The other possibility is that I pissed him off by trying to get a deal but I was continually raising the price by decent amounts. It wasn't like I made 30 offers going up by $1 each time. I made maybe 3 or 4 offers per comic getting closer and closer to the counteroffer. I will never knowingly deal with an insufficiently_thoughtful_person like this and he can choke on his comics. There is plenty of other stuff out there and someday I may well come across the other 9.0 or the 9.2 or 9.6.

[Rockblazer]

Sorry to hear about this David. I have had it happen a number of times. One dealer I used to buy off of doubled an Avengers 1 overnight. Now that's a mark up! I have seen him set up at shows but pass by his booth every time. I could possibly see him tomorrow at Buckeye Comicon in Columbus, Ohio. To me his booth is just a vacant space on the floor.

[David Swan]

Hello from a fellow Ohioan now living in Colorado. I miss my home state but work forced my move.

 

Anyway, the craziest thing is that this seller CLEARLY jacked up the price based on my interest. And he has TWO at the exact same grade. Fortunately there are enough other Captain Marvel Adventures out there to keep me occupied for years.

[AJD]

Hello from a fellow Ohioan now living in Colorado. I miss my home state but work forced my move.

 

Anyway, the craziest thing is that this seller CLEARLY jacked up the price based on my interest. And he has TWO at the exact same grade. Fortunately there are enough other Captain Marvel Adventures out there to keep me occupied for years.

 

Don't worry about it. If he gets no takers at the higher price, he might come down in future. Then you can get someone else to buy it for you so there's no face lost.