General discussion thread - keep the other threads clean 29 29

[Buzzetta]

On 7/8/2020 at 11:20 PM, mattn792 said:

I gotta say, the latest HoS poll motivated me to go read some of the stories behind the past inductions, and man is there some wild stuff.  Great way to kill time and get educated after lighting up a beer and cracking open a fire in the backyard.

Schtaaaaaaaaap... I know you were here for 'the great go fund me so I can buy more toys escapade' of the mid 2010's.

[mattn792]

14 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

Schtaaaaaaaaap... I know you were here for 'the great go fund me so I can buy more toys escapade' of the mid 2010's.

Technically yes, but in those first couple formative board years of mine I wasn’t nearly as tuned in as I try to stay now.  I can only imagine such joys like following part 1 of Gabe’s journal in real time.  Better late than never though 🎉🎉

[DR.X]

10 hours ago, mattn792 said:

Technically yes, but in those first couple formative board years of mine I wasn’t nearly as tuned in as I try to stay now.  I can only imagine such joys like following part 1 of Gabe’s journal in real time.  Better late than never though 🎉🎉

This place had more Whoppers than Burger King. Wish I could remember them all.

[Number 6]

The following post isn't about a board transaction, but does involve someone who is a Board member.

Part of the reason of this post is to ask for some outside eyes on this situation and suggestions on what, if anything, to do.  Mostly, it's just to vent, so bear with me.

(I'm not going to out the seller or post pictures of the books as neither is really material to the question I'm asking)

I couple of weeks ago a seller listed some raw books I needed to complete my run.  No pictures were listed, but this seller has a stellar reputation with me and most here on the Boards, one of the few I would feel comfortable buying raw books from sight-unseen.  It's been a while since I last ordered raw books from this seller, but had no reason to think anything had changed with regard to his grading.  His packing skills, in my opinion are just ok, there was a CGC book that bought from them years ago that was damaged in transit (because of poor packing IMO) but he took care of re-holdering the book.  He's a stand-up seller.

So I order nearly a dozen raw books, all listed as NM+.  The books arrive last week, packed well, but as I'm flipping through the books I notice two things: 1, that the most expensive book (relative to the others) is missing and 2, that one of the books, to my eyes, is not NM+, looks more like NM-/NM.  Still, not way off, and one out of a dozen is within reason.  

So I contact the seller about the missing book, he checks and finds the book, accidently missed putting it into the shipment, and says he'll get the book in the mail to me the next day.

While I'm waiting for the missing book to arrive, I take the other books, which I had only given a cursory glance to, and start looking them over more closely.  I now notice that not just one, but about 5-6 out of the dozen aren't really what I would consider NM+.  Their close, in the NM range, but not really up to this seller's usual snuff.  And I haven't even taken them out of the bags yet so who knows what surprises are waiting for me on the back cover.

So now I'm kind of regretting saying anything about having the missing book sent as I kind of feel like I want to send all of these back...or at least half of them...for a refund.  But now the seller has paid out of pocket to send me the missing book so I feel kind of like a heal if I say I want to return anything.

So today I check the mail and I find this:

 

 

OK, clearly the box has been abused by the post office.  But the reason it's smashed up so bad is because there's only a few wads of newspaper inside, nothing to really provide any rigidity to the box.  I was pretty upset when I saw this, but I held on to the hope that if the seller secured the comic between to really stiff pieces of cardboard, it might still have a chance at surviving unscathed.

This is what I pulled out of the box:

 

The cardboard sandwich is made of two thin, hacked-up pieces of cardboard...and both pieces have a crease bend from the box they were originally cut from.  So the sandwich easily bends where the creases are.  You really can't see it in the picture, but when I pulled this sandwich out, it had a pretty good curve to it.  And the comic is sliding around unsecured inside the sandwich.

So now the question everyone is going to ask is: did the comic survive?  That's the main thing, regardless of the packing.

Well, it's hard to say.  It's got about 3-4 noticeable spine stresses.  I feel like NM+ is kind of if-y for this book.  But based on the other books in the shipment, maybe that's the way it looked when they shipped this.

I think what infuriates me the most about this I kind of feel like the seller got mad that they messed up and had to ship the missing book on their dime, so they just slopped this package together to be rid of me.

Look, I totally understand, it sucks as a seller when you make a mistake, I've done it a couple of times and ended up loosing money to make it right both times.  And the total on this purchase was less than $200 so I'm sure paying the shipping for the missing book probably stung.  But in this situation, why should I get shoddy packing and (possibly) a damaged book because they goofed?  What was I supposed do?  Say 'well, I guess I'll just have to eat the $55 loss because I certainly don't want to inconvenience the seller.  I might get dumpster packing.'  I mean, seriously, there's fly-by-night flippers on eBay that pack better than this.

 

So what should I do?  Should I say anything to the seller?  They'll probably just blame the post office, and granted, they do share some of the blame on this.  I'll probably get the "We're a BSD seller, everybody loves us, you're the only who's complained about our packing"

At the very least, the seller is going to ask: "What do you expect us to do for you?"

Fair question.  My gut says I'd like to just return all these books and wash my hands of it, but reasonably all I can probably expect back is the price of the books less the cost of double shipping to me plus the cost of shipping the books back to the seller.  That's a pretty big hit, it's probably just be cheaper to keep the books even though I'm not very happy with them.  

At they very least, I'd like the seller to take more care packing books in the future so books don't get damaged, but again, I think they're just going to treat me as a minority whiner since everybody loves them.  And honestly, this is left a really bad taste in my mouth.  I always thought of this seller as a great resource, but honestly, I think I'm pretty much done with them.

So I just wanted to ask how guys might approach this situation, or if you would do anything at all.  Mostly, I just wanted to vent as it was really bugging me.  Thanks for listening.  

[Pitboss]

[NP_Gresham]

9 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Spoiler

 

The following post isn't about a board transaction, but does involve someone who is a Board member.

Part of the reason of this post is to ask for some outside eyes on this situation and suggestions on what, if anything, to do.  Mostly, it's just to vent, so bear with me.

(I'm not going to out the seller or post pictures of the books as neither is really material to the question I'm asking)

I couple of weeks ago a seller listed some raw books I needed to complete my run.  No pictures were listed, but this seller has a stellar reputation with me and most here on the Boards, one of the few I would feel comfortable buying raw books from sight-unseen.  It's been a while since I last ordered raw books from this seller, but had no reason to think anything had changed with regard to his grading.  His packing skills, in my opinion are just ok, there was a CGC book that bought from them years ago that was damaged in transit (because of poor packing IMO) but he took care of re-holdering the book.  He's a stand-up seller.

So I order nearly a dozen raw books, all listed as NM+.  The books arrive last week, packed well, but as I'm flipping through the books I notice two things: 1, that the most expensive book (relative to the others) is missing and 2, that one of the books, to my eyes, is not NM+, looks more like NM-/NM.  Still, not way off, and one out of a dozen is within reason.  

So I contact the seller about the missing book, he checks and finds the book, accidently missed putting it into the shipment, and says he'll get the book in the mail to me the next day.

While I'm waiting for the missing book to arrive, I take the other books, which I had only given a cursory glance to, and start looking them over more closely.  I now notice that not just one, but about 5-6 out of the dozen aren't really what I would consider NM+.  Their close, in the NM range, but not really up to this seller's usual snuff.  And I haven't even taken them out of the bags yet so who knows what surprises are waiting for me on the back cover.

So now I'm kind of regretting saying anything about having the missing book sent as I kind of feel like I want to send all of these back...or at least half of them...for a refund.  But now the seller has paid out of pocket to send me the missing book so I feel kind of like a heal if I say I want to return anything.

So today I check the mail and I find this:

 

 

OK, clearly the box has been abused by the post office.  But the reason it's smashed up so bad is because there's only a few wads of newspaper inside, nothing to really provide any rigidity to the box.  I was pretty upset when I saw this, but I held on to the hope that if the seller secured the comic between to really stiff pieces of cardboard, it might still have a chance at surviving unscathed.

This is what I pulled out of the box:

 

The cardboard sandwich is made of two thin, hacked-up pieces of cardboard...and both pieces have a crease bend from the box they were originally cut from.  So the sandwich easily bends where the creases are.  You really can't see it in the picture, but when I pulled this sandwich out, it had a pretty good curve to it.  And the comic is sliding around unsecured inside the sandwich.

So now the question everyone is going to ask is: did the comic survive?  That's the main thing, regardless of the packing.

Well, it's hard to say.  It's got about 3-4 noticeable spine stresses.  I feel like NM+ is kind of if-y for this book.  But based on the other books in the shipment, maybe that's the way it looked when they shipped this.

I think what infuriates me the most about this I kind of feel like the seller got mad that they messed up and had to ship the missing book on their dime, so they just slopped this package together to be rid of me.

Look, I totally understand, it sucks as a seller when you make a mistake, I've done it a couple of times and ended up loosing money to make it right both times.  And the total on this purchase was less than $200 so I'm sure paying the shipping for the missing book probably stung.  But in this situation, why should I get shoddy packing and (possibly) a damaged book because they goofed?  What was I supposed do?  Say 'well, I guess I'll just have to eat the $55 loss because I certainly don't want to inconvenience the seller.  I might get dumpster packing.'  I mean, seriously, there's fly-by-night flippers on eBay that pack better than this.

 

So what should I do?  Should I say anything to the seller?  They'll probably just blame the post office, and granted, they do share some of the blame on this.  I'll probably get the "We're a BSD seller, everybody loves us, you're the only who's complained about our packing"

At the very least, the seller is going to ask: "What do you expect us to do for you?"

Fair question.  My gut says I'd like to just return all these books and wash my hands of it, but reasonably all I can probably expect back is the price of the books less the cost of double shipping to me plus the cost of shipping the books back to the seller.  That's a pretty big hit, it's probably just be cheaper to keep the books even though I'm not very happy with them.  

At they very least, I'd like the seller to take more care packing books in the future so books don't get damaged, but again, I think they're just going to treat me as a minority whiner since everybody loves them.  And honestly, this is left a really bad taste in my mouth.  I always thought of this seller as a great resource, but honestly, I think I'm pretty much done with them.

So I just wanted to ask how guys might approach this situation, or if you would do anything at all.  Mostly, I just wanted to vent as it was really bugging me.  Thanks for listening.  

 

 

Return the books and state why.

If they don't grade and ship better, they will lose a lot more than your order.

A good seller can address the issues going forward, but only if you give them the feedback.

[crassus]

1 hour ago, NP_Gresham said:

11 hours ago, Number 6 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The following post isn't about a board transaction, but does involve someone who is a Board member.

Part of the reason of this post is to ask for some outside eyes on this situation and suggestions on what, if anything, to do.  Mostly, it's just to vent, so bear with me.

(I'm not going to out the seller or post pictures of the books as neither is really material to the question I'm asking)

I couple of weeks ago a seller listed some raw books I needed to complete my run.  No pictures were listed, but this seller has a stellar reputation with me and most here on the Boards, one of the few I would feel comfortable buying raw books from sight-unseen.  It's been a while since I last ordered raw books from this seller, but had no reason to think anything had changed with regard to his grading.  His packing skills, in my opinion are just ok, there was a CGC book that bought from them years ago that was damaged in transit (because of poor packing IMO) but he took care of re-holdering the book.  He's a stand-up seller.

So I order nearly a dozen raw books, all listed as NM+.  The books arrive last week, packed well, but as I'm flipping through the books I notice two things: 1, that the most expensive book (relative to the others) is missing and 2, that one of the books, to my eyes, is not NM+, looks more like NM-/NM.  Still, not way off, and one out of a dozen is within reason.  

So I contact the seller about the missing book, he checks and finds the book, accidently missed putting it into the shipment, and says he'll get the book in the mail to me the next day.

While I'm waiting for the missing book to arrive, I take the other books, which I had only given a cursory glance to, and start looking them over more closely.  I now notice that not just one, but about 5-6 out of the dozen aren't really what I would consider NM+.  Their close, in the NM range, but not really up to this seller's usual snuff.  And I haven't even taken them out of the bags yet so who knows what surprises are waiting for me on the back cover.

So now I'm kind of regretting saying anything about having the missing book sent as I kind of feel like I want to send all of these back...or at least half of them...for a refund.  But now the seller has paid out of pocket to send me the missing book so I feel kind of like a heal if I say I want to return anything.

So today I check the mail and I find this:

 

 

OK, clearly the box has been abused by the post office.  But the reason it's smashed up so bad is because there's only a few wads of newspaper inside, nothing to really provide any rigidity to the box.  I was pretty upset when I saw this, but I held on to the hope that if the seller secured the comic between to really stiff pieces of cardboard, it might still have a chance at surviving unscathed.

This is what I pulled out of the box:

 

The cardboard sandwich is made of two thin, hacked-up pieces of cardboard...and both pieces have a crease bend from the box they were originally cut from.  So the sandwich easily bends where the creases are.  You really can't see it in the picture, but when I pulled this sandwich out, it had a pretty good curve to it.  And the comic is sliding around unsecured inside the sandwich.

So now the question everyone is going to ask is: did the comic survive?  That's the main thing, regardless of the packing.

Well, it's hard to say.  It's got about 3-4 noticeable spine stresses.  I feel like NM+ is kind of if-y for this book.  But based on the other books in the shipment, maybe that's the way it looked when they shipped this.

I think what infuriates me the most about this I kind of feel like the seller got mad that they messed up and had to ship the missing book on their dime, so they just slopped this package together to be rid of me.

Look, I totally understand, it sucks as a seller when you make a mistake, I've done it a couple of times and ended up loosing money to make it right both times.  And the total on this purchase was less than $200 so I'm sure paying the shipping for the missing book probably stung.  But in this situation, why should I get shoddy packing and (possibly) a damaged book because they goofed?  What was I supposed do?  Say 'well, I guess I'll just have to eat the $55 loss because I certainly don't want to inconvenience the seller.  I might get dumpster packing.'  I mean, seriously, there's fly-by-night flippers on eBay that pack better than this.

 

So what should I do?  Should I say anything to the seller?  They'll probably just blame the post office, and granted, they do share some of the blame on this.  I'll probably get the "We're a BSD seller, everybody loves us, you're the only who's complained about our packing"

At the very least, the seller is going to ask: "What do you expect us to do for you?"

Fair question.  My gut says I'd like to just return all these books and wash my hands of it, but reasonably all I can probably expect back is the price of the books less the cost of double shipping to me plus the cost of shipping the books back to the seller.  That's a pretty big hit, it's probably just be cheaper to keep the books even though I'm not very happy with them.  

At they very least, I'd like the seller to take more care packing books in the future so books don't get damaged, but again, I think they're just going to treat me as a minority whiner since everybody loves them.  And honestly, this is left a really bad taste in my mouth.  I always thought of this seller as a great resource, but honestly, I think I'm pretty much done with them.

So I just wanted to ask how guys might approach this situation, or if you would do anything at all.  Mostly, I just wanted to vent as it was really bugging me.  Thanks for listening.  

 

 

Return the books and state why.

If they don't grade and ship better, they will lose a lot more than your order.

A good seller can address the issues going forward, but only if you give them the feedback.

I agree completely with this. Consult the return policy, if any. That said, it is better to recoup as much as possible than keep books that will serve only as a constant visual reminder of your unhappiness with the transaction. I think probably all of us, at one time or another, have eaten money and reservations about a product because it just seems easier to "live and learn" and move on than go through the potential drama of a return. But Bill is absolutely correct, a good seller is going to make right a reasonable request, and your concerns are more than justified. And there is no reason you need to eat this cost for books that are not up to the standards advertised. 

[crassus]

I also agree about informing the seller about the packing and shipping. I have been lucky (I guess) to have had very few bad experiences with this here on the Boards, however, to use only one crazy example, many years ago a seller shipped me a slab which arrived packed only inside a large brown paper envelope, not even with bubbles inside, with the slab only protected with two undersized pieces of flimsy cardboard, not even securely attached to the slab. When it arrived the slab was actually sticking out one end of the envelope. By some miracle, and miracle is not too strong a word, the slab was completely undamaged, not even a scratch. I contacted the seller, told him that the book arrived, the book was safe and sound, but frankly that he could not ship slabs that way again if he ever hoped to succeed at business in this hobby. I never got a reply, but it had to be said. If something is not shipped properly, the seller needs to be told. 

[THE_BEYONDER]

3 hours ago, crassus said:

 If something is not shipped properly, the seller needs to be told. 

I've had a few packages arrive recently that seemed "under-packed" to me.   Books arrived safely, so I couldn't really argue their method.

[NP_Gresham]

There was a boardie experiment once, where a slab had postage slapped on it and was shipped with no protection.

I think it went around a few times before being completely destroyed.

Edited July 13, 2020 by NP_Gresham

[porcupine48]

4 hours ago, NP_Gresham said:

There was an boardie experiment once, where a slab had postage slapped on it and was shipped with no protection.

I think it went around a few times before being completely destroyed.

That was fun!It was a Detective was it not? I remember folks signed it as they got it too.I was pretty new here so didn't participate but that really sticks out as a great board memory.

There's an old thread somewhere,maybe BUTM has it on speed dial.

Number 6 that really stinks.I've had a very similar situation happen to me here with a well liked seller-even gave them another go around and still got the dirt end of the stick.I kept quiet publicly about it-just don't deal with them anymore.Sorry that happened to you and hopefully you coming forward helps get this resolved.

[steveinthecity]

I recall the Kamandi comic that had a Captain America drawing on it(known as “Cap-n-Mandi”) that went around to different boardies for a time, and more recently the Kraven action figure. @CAHokie - did Kraven ever make it back home?

[DavidTheDavid]

14 hours ago, steveinthecity said:

I recall the Kamandi comic that had a Captain America drawing on it(known as “Cap-n-Mandi”) that went around to different boardies for a time, and more recently the Kraven action figure. @CAHokie - did Kraven ever make it back home?

That'd be fun. Send the figure around, everyone posts a pic of the figure at their LCS or wherever.

[NP_Gresham]

I guess backing out of a 'take it' and trying(failing) to delete it is ok around here now? The seller was fine with it - so no foul I guess.

How long before the Ebay excuses arrive?

Training my cat to hit  ...... 

[telerites]

42 minutes ago, NP_Gresham said:

I guess backing out of a 'take it' and trying(failing) to delete it is ok around here now? The seller was fine with it - so no foul I guess.

How long before the Ebay excuses arrive?

Training my cat to hit  ...... 

Where was this 

[NP_Gresham]

33 minutes ago, telerites said:

Where was this 

Changed my mind is the new "take it"

[SushiX]

1 minute ago, NP_Gresham said:

Changed my mind is the new "take it"

I was looking at this as well...smh. 

[DR.X]

1 minute ago, SushiX said:

I was looking at this as well...smh. 

I was looking at the books $100 and up with no grades. And this " Nah, I backed out " is special.

[comicsyte95]

I said I’ll take it afterwards after he said he didn’t want it.and reniged.I will step back or I will buy the book.I don’t want to step on any toes.Please I don’t want no one mad at me.

 

 

[Buzzetta]

On 7/12/2020 at 5:13 PM, NP_Gresham said:

There was a boardie experiment once, where a slab had postage slapped on it and was shipped with no protection.

I think it went around a few times before being completely destroyed.

9.0 Batman or Tec IIRC