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When selling on ebay, is it now okay not to grade them anymore?
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140 posts in this topic

I see this more and more now. Seller puts a picture up and says things like I am not a professional graders. Or see image for defects.

 

Is this lazy? Lack of experience? Or just the easiest way to get out of grading a book?

 

Puts the buyer in a position where they have to look at a few crummy pics and make a decision.

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

 

Nothing wrong with a bit of detailed screening.

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

 

Your mileage my vary but I've never had someone try to make a return based on a given grade on Ebay. I've sold a decent amount over the years, too.

 

Not giving a grade to me is lazy and/or done by people who aren't confident in their grading. That's fine, but unless you're grading is terrible, you shouldn't be getting *lots* of headaches.

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

 

Your mileage my vary but I've never had someone try to make a return based on a given grade on Ebay. I've sold a decent amount over the years, too.

 

Not giving a grade to me is lazy and/or done by people who aren't confident in their grading. That's fine, but unless you're grading is terrible, you shouldn't be getting *lots* of headaches.

 

Or, you could look at it like grades are the lazy buyer's way of letting someone else decide how they see things.

 

There is no lazy way and one way isn't better. I've sold my share on ebay and find putting a grade on elicits more interest. When I have a book I'm not sure is near mint I'll just tell the buyer to look at all the beautiful pictures I've posted. Those usually take longer to sell though.

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

 

Your mileage my vary but I've never had someone try to make a return based on a given grade on Ebay. I've sold a decent amount over the years, too.

 

Not giving a grade to me is lazy and/or done by people who aren't confident in their grading. That's fine, but unless you're grading is terrible, you shouldn't be getting *lots* of headaches.

In all fairness my grading was terrible when I started selling on ebay now I'm gun shy I guess. But I have heard of others giving accurate grades and meeting that picky buyer so I just would rather stay away from giving a grade.

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I like getting at least a ballpark grade. I appreciate it when someone says "I think it's a VF, but please judge my hi-res scans for yourself". Also, there are some sellers I keep going back to because they have proven to be good graders.

 

Pointing out flaws in the scans is great too. I wish more sellers did this.

 

You can also ask the seller for more info, but this puts the onus on the buyer to make more effort.

 

This was a (seemingly) nice lot of Bronze Capt. Marvels I almost bid on, but at the end I thought the seller was too vague about grade. Specifically the first issue is the one people are going to care most about. He says "average VF-", but if #1 is a VG, and the rest are NMs, it's not as good a deal.

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I like getting at least a ballpark grade. I appreciate it when someone says "I think it's a VF, but please judge my hi-res scans for yourself". Also, there are some sellers I keep going back to because they have proven to be good graders.

Pointing out flaws in the scans is great too. I wish more sellers did this...

 

I agree I don't expect perfection, but it gives something to go by. They have the book in there hands. There are a lot of defects that no matter how you scan a book they wont show up.

 

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I used to give grades. Nothing but headaches. No one agrees on grade, so why give one? I just use good pics and describe every single flaw. By describing minute flaws the buyer may have missed in the scan, I earn his trust. Haven't had any problems with this approach.

Grades = headaches

no grades = no problems

 

+1 I rarely sell or buy on the bay any more anyway. I much prefer these boards for comics.

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I see this more and more now. Seller puts a picture up and says things like I am not a professional graders. Or see image for defects.

 

Is this lazy? Lack of experience? Or just the easiest way to get out of grading a book?

 

Puts the buyer in a position where they have to look at a few crummy pics and make a decision.

I see this more and more now. Seller puts a picture up and says things like I am not a professional graders. Or see image for defects.

 

Is this lazy? Lack of experience? Or just the easiest way to get out of grading a book?

 

Puts the buyer in a position where they have to look at a few crummy pics and make a decision.

 

I recently bought a pulp from a long time dealer recently with a similar crappy photo and "acceptable" as a description. Turned it out it had some bad amature resto with pieces added. My bad. I got it real cheap so I just kept it and left him a strong neutral. I won't ever buy from him again.

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If it is Good or lower, I just leave the grade out or write Low Grade. I am one of those who have a hard time distinguishing between a 1.5 and a 3.0.

 

I left out the grades once for a full auction of moderns with corner dings and got feedback of "Accurate Grading!!"

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If it is Good or lower, I just leave the grade out or write Low Grade. I am one of those who have a hard time distinguishing between a 1.5 and a 3.0.

 

I left out the grades once for a full auction of moderns with corner dings and got feedback of "Accurate Grading!!"

 

Yeah I can see that with 1.5 to 3.0 ton of problems there, but I would think it would plague on an expensive book.

 

If its a $5 then I grade this 2.5 for these defects. Maybe add a note talking about 1.5 to 3.0 grades.

 

It only matters when the book is a big $$$ book most of the time I would think.

 

Ive never faulted a seller when it looks like they did their best. Once in a blue moon I will send an email back telling about something else I saw and leave it at that especially if I think its a new seller.

 

 

 

Edited by Fastballspecial
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I always give a grade with large scans of front and back cover. I try to grade as accurately as I can, but when you get in the mid grades (vg/f to vf-) It can get very subjective. I give a grade so the buyer can get an idea of how I grade. If they buy a book and are happy with the grade, hopefully they'll come back for more.

 

I don't like sellers that just say look at the scans, because i have scanned several books that I have graded vf/nm or nm- but they look nm in the scan. If I give a grade of nm- then the buyer knows there's a minute flaw that keeps it from being a nm so they won't be surprised when they receive the book and find a small stress line that didn't show up in the scan.

 

I've also seen several sellers give a grade of nm and you can see obvious flaws in the scans. This will let you know not to trust the grades given.

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I know of one seller that grades the most horrific books as NM and he has 100% FB

His scans also cut the top and bottom of the books-a real head scratcher.

Edited by kav
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