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"Sparkle-y" Saturated Scans
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68 posts in this topic

5 minutes ago, BrianHoward said:

I'm sorry you feel this way, but having witnessed sellers getting dragged through the mud here over and over (and having been victim to this myself many times) I'm admittedly not so neutral on such public and damaging discussions. 

I ABSOLUTELY want customer feedback and want to provide the most accurate and comforting scans possible, but a public forum is not the way or place to do that... Direct communication is more efficient and appropriate. I never would have even seen this if 2 different people didn't send me the link because "the boards are smearing you".......

Sorry if my tone or approach rubbed you the wrong way, but it was not directed towards you in any way. I hope this explanation provides a bit of context. 

All good on my part; your response didn't alarm me, and I understand where you're coming from, but just felt you could have handled it better. I won't throw any stones as I mishandle plenty on my own. I think the interpretative filters of your "the boards are smearing you" contacts might be "off" (putting it kindly.) When you get a better/tweaked/different scanner setup, I'm sure your results will be even better for it. Appreciate your taking the time to reply and you did indeed provide context for the better. :)

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1 hour ago, october said:

No one accused you of doing it on purpose, so the only "accusation" was that your scans are amped...which isn't an accusation at at, simply a fact. 

Why does someone have to email you to tell you that your scans should reflect reality? That's pretty basic selling. (shrug)

I had 2 friends contact me to let me know that "they're smearing you on the boards"... I log in and see this exchange:

On 3/26/2018 at 6:54 PM, october said:

Their scans are amped to the point of ridiculousness. Not only do I have no idea what the colors are like, it also makes it next to impossible to see defects. I automatically pass on everything they list. 

 

On 3/26/2018 at 10:13 PM, Gotham Kid said:

This I did not know and as for this I will not bid. On anything.

While it may not have been your intention for your comment to come across as an accusation, clearly some of interpreted it as such. To such an end that one reader claims he will never bid "on anything"... Not "I'll never bid on CGC books"... He will never do business with us because he believes we are intentionally doctoring images to deceive people... on graded books.

I apologize if I have offended you with my post. I do not post here to call anyone out or anything of the sort.. Simply to set the record straight. If your remarks were not an accusation, I will take your word for that but let you know that it doesn't read so clearly for myself or the others who alerted me to this thread.

I care very much about customer feedback and I want our customers to be happy with every aspect of our offerings, but the way to share any criticisms or concerns is direct with the person in question. Not on a public message board where they may or may not ever see it (but anyone who google searches their business for the next 50 years will)...

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1 minute ago, BrianHoward said:

I had 2 friends contact me to let me know that "they're smearing you on the boards"... I log in and see this exchange:

 

While it may not have been your intention for your comment to come across as an accusation, clearly some of interpreted it as such. To such an end that one reader claims he will never bid "on anything"... Not "I'll never bid on CGC books"... He will never do business with us because he believes we are intentionally doctoring images to deceive people... on graded books.

I apologize if I have offended you with my post. I do not post here to call anyone out or anything of the sort.. Simply to set the record straight. If your remarks were not an accusation, I will take your word for that but let you know that it doesn't read so clearly for myself or the others who alerted me to this thread.

I care very much about customer feedback and I want our customers to be happy with every aspect of our offerings, but the way to share any criticisms or concerns is direct with the person in question. Not on a public message board where they may or may not ever see it (but anyone who google searches their business for the next 50 years will)...

I think it'll all work out fine, because good or bad feedback online from others, you cannot (should not try to) control. You can control how you react to it and post in response, which I think you've done well enough, to add appropriate context. Onwards to better scans. :)

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1 minute ago, BrianHoward said:

Side note: If there are any Scanner experts that want to help me trouble shoot this issue I'd be more than happy to compensate you for your efforts (in money or comics). Please email me: brian@sparklecitycomics.com

Maybe ask Robot Man, esp. as he works for a company that makes them. Many scanners have built in programs to correct things when first takes are wonky; I rely on a scanner that does a fine job overall, but I like to login to Photoshop to tweak sharpness, levels and the like. Not to make things unrealistic but rather, to properly reflect reality!

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7 minutes ago, BrianHoward said:

I had 2 friends contact me to let me know that "they're smearing you on the boards"... I log in and see this exchange:

 

While it may not have been your intention for your comment to come across as an accusation, clearly some of interpreted it as such. To such an end that one reader claims he will never bid "on anything"... Not "I'll never bid on CGC books"... He will never do business with us because he believes we are intentionally doctoring images to deceive people... on graded books.

I apologize if I have offended you with my post. I do not post here to call anyone out or anything of the sort.. Simply to set the record straight. If your remarks were not an accusation, I will take your word for that but let you know that it doesn't read so clearly for myself or the others who alerted me to this thread.

I care very much about customer feedback and I want our customers to be happy with every aspect of our offerings, but the way to share any criticisms or concerns is direct with the person in question. Not on a public message board where they may or may not ever see it (but anyone who google searches their business for the next 50 years will)...

I am not offended and I am sorry if my original post was harsh. It stemmed from some personal frustration at seeing the Seven Seas you recently sold or not being able to bid because I didn't feel comfortable with the scans. 

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1 minute ago, october said:

I am not offended and I am sorry if my original post was harsh. It stemmed from some personal frustration at seeing the Seven Seas you recently sold or not being able to bid because I didn't feel comfortable with the scans. 

Next time please email me directly and ask for new pics! I'll never know how to accommodate you unless you notify me. Worst case I'll take some pics with my phone or call you and describe it.

Edited by BrianHoward
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23 minutes ago, BrianHoward said:

I'm sorry you feel this way, but having witnessed sellers getting dragged through the mud here over and over (and having been victim to this myself many times) I'm admittedly not so neutral on such public and damaging discussions. 

I ABSOLUTELY want customer feedback and want to provide the most accurate and comforting scans possible, but a public forum is not the way or place to do that... Direct communication is more efficient and appropriate. I never would have even seen this if 2 different people didn't send me the link because "the boards are smearing you".......

Sorry if my tone or approach rubbed you the wrong way, but it was not directed towards you in any way. I hope this explanation provides a bit of context. 

giphy.gif

 

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20 minutes ago, BrianHoward said:

Next time please email me directly and ask for new pics! I'll never know how to accommodate you unless you notify me. Worst case I'll take some pics with my phone or call you and describe it.

I saw it too close to the closing bell to bother unfortunately.  Next time.

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I guess I will jump in the discussion, but I have to ask why, if you are scanning books and the scans don't look like the book, don't you correct the issue rather than post the inaccurate scans and expect potential bidder to let you know if they look off?  You have the books in hand, you have the scan, why can't you do the QC on what you are posting before posting?

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37 minutes ago, batman_fan said:

I guess I will jump in the discussion, but I have to ask why, if you are scanning books and the scans don't look like the book, don't you correct the issue rather than post the inaccurate scans and expect potential bidder to let you know if they look off?  You have the books in hand, you have the scan, why can't you do the QC on what you are posting before posting?

This will be my last post. I'm more than happy to answer questions or discuss business practices, etc..  but directly: brian@sparklecitycomics.com

We did look at them before they went up, they looked fine. We even re-checked the settings because the scans last week weren't great. In addition we're in the middle of a massive Star Wars auction event through our Neat Stuff Collectibles account, so not a lot of extra time to triple check, etc... 

Edited by BrianHoward
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On 3/28/2018 at 7:27 AM, BrianHoward said:

 

Our scans are not intentionally "amped up"  These are CGC graded books and for some reason we had issues with our current scanner and hard plastic encapsulation. 

This seems to only happen on CGC books.. If we were manipulating scans to make books look better (which we are not), why would we only do it on the books that have 3rd party grades already established...  They are 3rd party graded so that should help reassure buyers as to what they are getting....

Perhaps one day someone will reach out to us directly with this feedback rather than launch public accusations on a message board. 

The flip side of your comment would be "Why don't you fix your scans before posting them and causing people to comment publicly?" Whether intentional or not they are obviously saturated and misleading. Simply taking the time to fix your scanner settings would have alleviated the need to make a bone-headed accusatory response to your customers on a public message board.

Edited by MrBedrock
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Thank you for your post, I believe my previous response, the one directly preceding your post, covers this. To reiterate, We didn't "fix" the scans because they appeared to be fine when we reviewed them before posting. We did check and they looked good before being posted. Not sure what happened, but thankfully someone took me up on my request to continue this discussion directly and reached out to me.. With his help we have already implemented changes that should hopefully fix this. We will do our best to be more diligent. Any further discussion, please contact me directly... I won't be responding to anymore comments here: brian@sparklecitycomics.com 

Good luck with your sales!

Edited by BrianHoward
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3 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

The flip side of your comment would be "Why don't you fix your scans before posting them and causing people to comment publicly?" Whether intentional or not they are obviously saturated and misleading. Simply taking the time to fix your scanner settings would have alleviated the need to make a bone-headed accusatory response to your customers on a public message board.

My take based on his reply to my post is the scans are 100% accurate and the books look identical to the scan he post so you can be 1000% you will get a book that looks identical based on lux and lumens comparison.  You could compare the two using a spyder and they would come out 100% identical out to 3 decimal places (thumbsu

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2 hours ago, batman_fan said:

My take based on his reply to my post is the scans are 100% accurate and the books look identical to the scan he post so you can be 1000% you will get a book that looks identical based on lux and lumens comparison.  You could compare the two using a spyder and they would come out 100% identical out to 3 decimal places (thumbsu

Sorry if I did not express myself clearly. I was responding to your question about why didn't we correct the issue rather than post as-is.. We check scans on the computer before posting auctions and they seemed fine. 

Yes, there is clearly an issue with the scans.

We do have a very lenient return policy and, of course, anyone who is not pleased with the book they receive can return it.

I'm not sure what happened, but thankfully someone took me up on my request to continue this discussion directly and reached out to me.. With his help we have already implemented changes that should hopefully fix this. We will do our best to be more diligent in the future. 

Edited by BrianHoward
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I have done business with Sparkle in the past (buying) and all experiences have been wonderful. It’s been a few years as they kind haven’t had as much GA lately. Like I stated though have never had an issue. I messaged them as I saw a book Speed 28 that I could possibly upgrade my copy and I know a few people who would be interested in my current copy so it seemed like a no brainer. I did email them before I saw this thread and they promptly responded with cell phone pics and an explanation. I will still be bidding it hasn’t deterred me (so get out of my way haha!!) but you can see a huge difference in what they still have pictured in the auction and the cell phone pic. I was blown away by the dripping colors at first glance but now see it looks a bit more like my current copy so will bid accordingly.

40393873194_d30f4c2fa1_b.jpg40393873124_56c72738ac_b.jpg

 

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2 minutes ago, gino2paulus2 said:

I have done business with Sparkle in the past (buying) and all experiences have been wonderful. It’s been a few years as they kind haven’t had as much GA lately. Like I stated though have never had an issue. I messaged them as I saw a book Speed 28 that I could possibly upgrade my copy and I know a few people who would be interested in my current copy so it seemed like a no brainer. I did email them before I saw this thread and they promptly responded with cell phone pics and an explanation. I will still be bidding it hasn’t deterred me (so get out of my way haha!!) but you can see a huge difference in what they still have pictured in the auction and the cell phone pic. I was blown away by the dripping colors at first glance but now see it looks a bit more like my current copy so will bid accordingly.

40393873194_d30f4c2fa1_b.jpg40393873124_56c72738ac_b.jpg

 

Yep.  That's a striking difference.

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5 hours ago, gino2paulus2 said:

I have done business with Sparkle in the past (buying) and all experiences have been wonderful. It’s been a few years as they kind haven’t had as much GA lately. Like I stated though have never had an issue. I messaged them as I saw a book Speed 28 that I could possibly upgrade my copy and I know a few people who would be interested in my current copy so it seemed like a no brainer. I did email them before I saw this thread and they promptly responded with cell phone pics and an explanation. I will still be bidding it hasn’t deterred me (so get out of my way haha!!) but you can see a huge difference in what they still have pictured in the auction and the cell phone pic. I was blown away by the dripping colors at first glance but now see it looks a bit more like my current copy so will bid accordingly.

40393873194_d30f4c2fa1_b.jpg40393873124_56c72738ac_b.jpg

 

Yipes!

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Yes, there clearly was an issue with the scans. I'm not sure what happened, but thankfully someone took me up on my request to continue this discussion directly and reached out to me.. With his help we have already implemented changes that should hopefully fix this. We will do our best to be more diligent in the future. If anyone sees a problem like this in the future, please contact us directly through ebay

We do have a very lenient return policy and, of course, anyone who is not pleased with the book they receive can return it.

Please let me repeat, so that any concern can be alleviated and perhaps we can stop beating this issue: In addition to our already very lenient return policy, Anyone who has purchased a book from us and is not happy with it due to the scan problem can return it for a full refund PLUS reimbursement of return shipping. 

 

Edited by BrianHoward
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