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MCS Grading and My Experiences
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62 posts in this topic

I've had great experiences with MCS when I buy gold or silver. Always undergraded. I got a Mystery Tales 14 from them that they graded a 4.0 that is easily a 6.5. The gloss is so striking that you can see reflections on it.

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3 hours ago, ygogolak said:

At the time I bought these they were selling for a lot more, so I wasn't concerned with returning them.

So wait - you're raising issues on a messageboard but didn't go to the vendor?  What prompts one to do that?  Seriously man - that's a little nuts to me.  If I have a problem with a vendor, I go them, give them a chance to resolve.  They likely sell hundreds of thousands of books a month - mistakes happen.

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8 minutes ago, roach04 said:

So wait - you're raising issues on a messageboard but didn't go to the vendor?  What prompts one to do that?  Seriously man - that's a little nuts to me.  If I have a problem with a vendor, I go them, give them a chance to resolve.  They likely sell hundreds of thousands of books a month - mistakes happen.

And I clearly said that in the first post.

My issue is that I brought this up before, on here, MCS responded asking for proof. So here you go.

 

What were my options in contacting them?

1. I send them back for a refund. Waste of my time and theirs for $5 books. I can sell these and break even. It's a chance you take with any buy/sell transaction.

2. I raise the issue. They refund my money and tell me to keep it. Then I sell them, profiting off of a zero dollar investment. I don't think that's very ethical, do you?

The issue was never about the money, it was about the grading.

Edited by ygogolak
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Clearly there are two different camps here. Count me in with the pro MCS group.

My experience purchasing and consigning through them has been second to none.

On the rare Instance that there has been an issue both Buddy and Conan have been more than fair while demonstrating phenomenal customer service

 

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I've had a couple hundred transactions with them. A few problems but every single one was resolved  to my satisfaction. 

After winning a 2.0 Avengers 1 at one of their auctions, I had it sent to CGC where it was graded a 4.0. MCS had dinged it heavily because of writing on the cover.  CGC notated something like" Tommy and Bob " written on cover.   One book I disagreed with their grade when I consigned it and I asked them to send it to CGC.  It was an early Panther appearance( maybe FF 53). I thought it would get a 7.5-8.0.

They called it a 4.0.  CGC called it a 6.5. 

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4 minutes ago, NoMan said:

I assume when they take a raw book for consignment that MCS assigns it a grade, right? They don't take the consigners grade assessment do they?

Haha, there's already a thread running now about the consignors' prices being out of control. Can you imagine if consignors set the prices and the grades? :ohnoez:

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2 hours ago, ygogolak said:

And I clearly said that in the first post.

My issue is that I brought this up before, on here, MCS responded asking for proof. So here you go.

 

What were my options in contacting them?

1. I send them back for a refund. Waste of my time and theirs for $5 books. I can sell these and break even. It's a chance you take with any buy/sell transaction.

2. I raise the issue. They refund my money and tell me to keep it. Then I sell them, profiting off of a zero dollar investment. I don't think that's very ethical, do you?

The issue was never about the money, it was about the grading.

And that needed a whole new thread?  You're clearly very important.  Both options you raise are better than whining on a messageboard.  Good luck with your future purchases.

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38 minutes ago, Martin Sinescu said:

Haha, there's already a thread running now about the consignors' prices being out of control. Can you imagine if consignors set the prices and the grades? :ohnoez:

I think it'd be rad in a comedic worldview although perhaps a black-eye to the MCS brand.

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My biggest complaint about MCS is akin to keyword spamming on ebay. However, rather than include terms like “CGC it!” for raws or “Like CGC” for other companies, they use “1st Series." For example, let’s say I want to search for a copy of "Fantastic Four #1." I don’t get listing just for copies of that book, I get EVERY issue between 1-416 that MCS has listed, hundreds and hundreds of listings, pages of books besides #1 because they all say “1st Series” in the title and the search engine reads the “1”.

I know I can run a filtered search minus MCS, but that’s a PITA to me.

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16 hours ago, Ryan. said:

<3 MCS.

Me too.  I've spent and consigned thousands through them.  I've been pleasantly surprised far more times than I've been dissatisfied.  There are a handful of smaller online dealers that are on my list for undergrading but most other online dealers are steaming piles of when it comes to grading.  I can live with their quick pass grading on small value books.  

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6 hours ago, Pontoon said:

My biggest complaint about MCS is akin to keyword spamming on ebay. However, rather than include terms like “CGC it!” for raws or “Like CGC” for other companies, they use “1st Series." For example, let’s say I want to search for a copy of "Fantastic Four #1." I don’t get listing just for copies of that book, I get EVERY issue between 1-416 that MCS has listed, hundreds and hundreds of listings, pages of books besides #1 because they all say “1st Series” in the title and the search engine reads the “1”.

I know I can run a filtered search minus MCS, but that’s a PITA to me.

I don't believe they're spamming with that, I think it's just following the same title format they use on their site. If they were intentionally spamming, the would put "Batman" in all their Detective Comics listings on eBay, but they don't, which is why I have to make sure I do searches for both Batman and Detective listings. I didn't realize that for a long time and I'm sure I missed plenty of good stuff not running a second search for "Detective". However, if I'm listing an issue of Detective for sale, I'm definitely putting "Batman" somewhere in the title. Maybe even "L@@K" if I have space.

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Hi guys,

Late to the thread but have some info.

The book ygogolak posted was new in summer 2016, and we have tightened our handling of new release books since then. Currently, all new release books get exactly the same grading as non-new books. For example, if you go to our new release page for any of the past few weeks you'll see plenty of VF graded books mixed in among those graded NM. Any new release book that we'd grade FN or below we don't list.

As always, if you receive a book you believe to be incorrectly graded you can return it for a refund, but for your sake and ours we'd rather get you a book you're happy with from the start so you don't have to mess with a return. You can also PM me if there's a problem with your order you'd like me to look at.

Part of the reason we have tightened our handling of new releases (aside from always striving for more accurate grading in general), is that damaged books coming from Diamond have become a lot more common than they used to be. Whether it's due to cheaper paper stock, rougher handling, or both, we get many more non-NM books fresh from Diamond than was once the case.

 

About our grading more generally--many of you have seen this info before but I repost whenever our grading is discussed: We employ two tiers for our grading: the letter grade scale NM, VF, FN, etc, and the ten point scale 9.6, 9.4, 9.2, etc.

Ten point grading is generally used for books published before 1980 or valued roughly $10 or more, some new release variants, and all consignments.

Post-1980 books valued less than $10, and many TPBs, will be graded on the simpler letter grade scale. Within the lower value books graded on the letter grade scale, the grade "buckets" are bigger. On the letter grade scale, a NM means it's closer to NM than VF but doesn't mean it's strictly equivalent to a CGC 9.4. It could be on the high end like a 9.6 or 9.8 or on the low end like a 9.2 or sometimes down at the NM/VF border around a 9.0.

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On 2/14/2018 at 9:00 AM, Pontoon said:

My biggest complaint about MCS is akin to keyword spamming on ebay. However, rather than include terms like “CGC it!” for raws or “Like CGC” for other companies, they use “1st Series." For example, let’s say I want to search for a copy of "Fantastic Four #1." I don’t get listing just for copies of that book, I get EVERY issue between 1-416 that MCS has listed, hundreds and hundreds of listings, pages of books besides #1 because they all say “1st Series” in the title and the search engine reads the “1”.

I know I can run a filtered search minus MCS, but that’s a PITA to me.

It's certainly not intentional search results spamming. It's a carry-over from how we organize and distinguish one series from another on our own site, eg all the Punisher series listed on this page: https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=punisher&tsw=p

Thanks for the feedback on that, I've never heard that particular concern reported before. I think that's probably something we can address.

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On 2/14/2018 at 10:00 AM, Pontoon said:

My biggest complaint about MCS is akin to keyword spamming on ebay. However, rather than include terms like “CGC it!” for raws or “Like CGC” for other companies, they use “1st Series." For example, let’s say I want to search for a copy of "Fantastic Four #1." I don’t get listing just for copies of that book, I get EVERY issue between 1-416 that MCS has listed, hundreds and hundreds of listings, pages of books besides #1 because they all say “1st Series” in the title and the search engine reads the “1”.

I know I can run a filtered search minus MCS, but that’s a PITA to me.

I agree with others who have said this is not intentional.  It's clearly pulled from the same database that drives their own web site.

That said, it's funny you use this example because I recently tried setting up a search for FF #1 (and a few other single-digit FFs) and found it to be utterly pointless.  I get dozens and dozens of false matches, only some of which are MCS.

I believe this problem can more fairly be pinned on eBay, which doesn't use a "whole word" approach, at least not when it comes to numbers.  Try searching for "Amazing Spider-Man 9" (for example) and you will get every ASM book that is graded 9.0, 9.2, 9.4, ... and so on.  If eBay matched "1" only to the whole word "1," then we wouldn't be getting matches against "1st."

Edited by Sweet Lou 14
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MCS and Conan have been nothing but great. Every book I've ever bought has been much nicer grade than described.Just my two cents , but surely they have so much inventory selling every day, there's always a chance to miss something. I have never had that problem though.

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On 2/14/2018 at 7:00 AM, Pontoon said:

My biggest complaint about MCS is akin to keyword spamming on ebay. However, rather than include terms like “CGC it!” for raws or “Like CGC” for other companies, they use “1st Series." For example, let’s say I want to search for a copy of "Fantastic Four #1." I don’t get listing just for copies of that book, I get EVERY issue between 1-416 that MCS has listed, hundreds and hundreds of listings, pages of books besides #1 because they all say “1st Series” in the title and the search engine reads the “1”.

I know I can run a filtered search minus MCS, but that’s a PITA to me.

On a related note:

I don’t think this is technically “key word spamming” but I wish they would get their non-comic items in the correct category. 

For example, I search for “Star Trek”, narrow the search to “comics” - even narrowing to “bronze” - and there’s hundreds of MCS Bantam/Pocket Star Trek novel listings to sift through. 

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I was just looking at MCS listings on eBay, and they're using stock images for GA:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Action-Comics-DC-66-1943-VG-FN-5-0/132511348952?epid=85449161&hash=item1eda4ab8d8:g:IVEAAOSwicpai4kJ

I hope this isn't going to be a common practice.

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