Tales of Suspense #56 - I got screwed, right? 1 1

[WPPJames]

8 hours ago, joeypost said:

When I see the disclaimer that we are not professional graders, I start looking elsewhere. 

I really don't let that in itself deter me. I mean, most of us aren't professional graders. Grading is subjective. I use that "disclaimer" sometimes myself when selling on Ebay. But I try to give my best guess as to the grade. And I always disclose any interior defects. For example, "I grade the comic to be in the VF/VF+ range, but you view the scans and make your own determination. Has a 1/2" spine split at bottom front cover not visible in photos. No other interior damage or flaws."

[The Lions Den]

16 hours ago, WPPJames said:

Yes, I probably wouldn't buy a more expensive book that wasn't slabbed. But not really feasible on low to low/mid price books. These are the ones I've had the best luck with reselling later on. You take your chances. And not really sure what cheap lesson I learned other than sometimes you get ripped off and a 100% feedback rating on Ebay doesn't mean as much as some people would think. 

I certainly wish you the best of luck...   

Edited August 14, 2019 by The Lions Den

[Krismusic]

welcome to the comic buying game 

[ThothAmon]

20 hours ago, DR.X said:

Those splits are going to knock it down to 3.5 at most.

fixed that!

On 8/12/2019 at 10:54 PM, WPPJames said:

Am I wrong to feel I was shortchanged?

I’ll be your huckleberry. You didn’t get screwed you just didn’t look at the photos well enough. Big spine split certainly noticeable in the pictures. Good news is a VG 3.5 with a badly popped staple sold for a couple bucks more than yours did recently. Proving ... that you paid about right for a sharp looking 3.0. Don’t leave negative feedback.  No one ever promised you a rose garden  

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TALES-of-SUSPENSE-56-FIRST-APPEARANCE-THE-UNICORN-STORY-AND-ART-BY-LEE-amp-HECK-/123835113371?hash=item1cd525df9b%3Ag%3AD30AAOSw5uJdKpSH&nma=true&si=NbCWsShwiFBmOkgFqjE0JPpoGs8%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[WPPJames]

9 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

Big spine split certainly noticeable in the pictures.

I'm impressed with your eagle eyesight. A 2.5"-3" cumulative spine split isn't "certainly noticeable" to me in the photos. And the description states "small spine split at the bottom of the book". Do you consider 2" to be small? Top split not disclosed at all. And the price paid / value is irrelevant.

[ThothAmon]

22 minutes ago, WPPJames said:

I'm impressed with your eagle eyesight. A 2.5"-3" cumulative spine split isn't "certainly noticeable" to me in the photos. And the description states "small spine split at the bottom of the book". Do you consider 2" to be small? Top split not disclosed at all. And the price paid / value is irrelevant.

I agree wholeheartedly that the description was terrible. The seller should be called out for it with a negative feedback if you must. But the price paid is totally relevant in showing that even if you didn’t notice the split other bidders did.  You really did pay about what a book in its actual grade is worth so it’s hard to be too mad. No?  Incidentally, The  photo of the inside back cover is where I saw the split most clearly and the weakness at top staple. I feel that a seller who has “parttime” in his name and otherwise has perfect feedback can be cut a little slack. Went to look at bidding history and noticed this was a private listing and I can’t see it.  Not sure why sellers use that?

Edited August 14, 2019 by ThothAmon

[WPPJames]

3 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

I agree wholeheartedly that the description was terrible. The seller should be called out for it with a negative feedback if you must. But the price paid is totally relevant in showing that even if you didn’t notice the split other bidders did.  You really did pay about what a book in its actual grade is worth so it’s hard to be too mad. No?  Incidentally, The  photo of the inside back cover is where I saw the split most clearly and the weakness at top staple. I feel that a seller who has “parttime” in his name and otherwise has perfect feedback can be cut a little slack. 

I would have cut him some slack if he had responded better when I complained. This was the first negative feedback I've EVER left for anyone on Ebay, so it's not like it's my mission in life to ruin other people's reputation. But I do see your point. And not sure that the price paid (high bid) is necessarily an indication that the other bidders did see what I didn't. Sometimes you can get lucky and get a good price on an auction item. Especially if they schedule it to end at the wrong time of the day. Also, it's much easier to see a defect if you already know it's there. You knew there was a major spine split before you looked at the photos. As will anyone else here who does the same. It's kind of like "Hey there is a 2" spine split at the bottom of this comic. Can you see it in the photo?". "Uh yea, now that you mention it I guess I kind of can".

But I've wasted too many people's time in this forum on this minor book already. So just a "thanks" to everyone who shared their feedback. I'm going to try and return the favor later tonight by providing input on other grading question posts. Not that my opinion and grading skill is all that valuable, but nothing worse than a person who joins a forum just to ask a single question and then disappears without contributing back. I don't want to be "that guy".

[10cents]

25 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

I agree wholeheartedly that the description was terrible. The seller should be called out for it with a negative feedback if you must. But the price paid is totally relevant in showing that even if you didn’t notice the split other bidders did.  You really did pay about what a book in its actual grade is worth so it’s hard to be too mad. No?  Incidentally, The  photo of the inside back cover is where I saw the split most clearly and the weakness at top staple. I feel that a seller who has “parttime” in his name and otherwise has perfect feedback can be cut a little slack. Went to look at bidding history and noticed this was a private listing and I can’t see it.  Not sure why sellers use that?

+1 I can totally see the split in pictures 2 and 4. I couldn’t tell if there was a split at the top though. 

It also looks like there’s a small tear on the bottom front cover under the lamp, that may have had tape there. 

I would just negative (for his reply) and move on, I think it’s a decent price for a reader. 

[DR.X]

2 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

Big spine split certainly noticeable in the pictures.

Are the pictures on page one pics that were in the auction, or pics you took after receiving the book? If not link to e bay item.

edit. okay and pulled up the listing and the splits are definitely noticeable in the scans. the description sucks for the sure as he says cover is firmly attached which it is not looking at picture no.3 there is a severe tear at the top staple.

Edited August 14, 2019 by DR.X

[WPPJames]

4 minutes ago, DR.X said:

Are the pictures on page one pics that were in the auction, or pics you took after receiving the book? If not link to e bay item.

Pics I took after receiving book. ThothAmon has already linked to the original Ebay auction.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TALES-of-SUSPENSE-56-FIRST-APPEARANCE-THE-UNICORN-STORY-AND-ART-BY-LEE-amp-HECK-/123835113371?hash=item1cd525df9b%3Ag%3AD30AAOSw5uJdKpSH&nma=true&si=NbCWsShwiFBmOkgFqjE0JPpoGs8%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[DR.X]

5 minutes ago, WPPJames said:

Pics I took after receiving book. ThothAmon has already linked to the original Ebay auction.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TALES-of-SUSPENSE-56-FIRST-APPEARANCE-THE-UNICORN-STORY-AND-ART-BY-LEE-amp-HECK-/123835113371?hash=item1cd525df9b%3Ag%3AD30AAOSw5uJdKpSH&nma=true&si=NbCWsShwiFBmOkgFqjE0JPpoGs8%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

I edited my post. Thanks.

[Drew Stair]

Honestly I think it's in poor taste to leave a negative on this but it's your prerogative. The larger spine split is certainly visible in the photo and the extra 1/2" at the top doesn't change the grade by any real amount relative to what you paid. This is why I don't sell cheap books on eBay.

[Liza761]

ebay will take action against seller for selling an item that was not descripted correctly, just return and get your money back via ebay resolution centre and definitely leave neg feedback as any prospective buyers in future can see this feedback and it will stop the same thing happening aga8n. FYI please wear gloves whilst your handling your comics friend. 

[Krismusic]

3 hours ago, Liza761 said:

ebay will take action against seller for selling an item that was not descripted correctly, just return and get your money back via ebay resolution centre and definitely leave neg feedback as any prospective buyers in future can see this feedback and it will stop the same thing happening aga8n. FYI please wear gloves whilst your handling your comics friend. 

I've never worn gloves while handling my comics.... 

[DR.X]

2 minutes ago, Krishosein said:

I've never worn gloves while handling my comics.... 

[Krismusic]

1 minute ago, DR.X said:

I am not to sure if your joking or not but I will go with joking

[WPPJames]

2 hours ago, Krishosein said:

I've never worn gloves while handling my comics.... 

I had a CGC submission come back a long time ago with notes referencing fingerprints. So...

That said, I don't typically put on gloves to handle every comic I touch. Maybe I should. But then my hands would be all wrinkly and clammy like my grandmother's 

[ROBTOTHEC]

You should have immediately asked to return it.  That is perfectly within your rights and his grading on it was atrocious.  It's probably a 3.0/3.5. 

[WPPJames]

14 minutes ago, ROBTOTHEC said:

You should have immediately asked to return it.  That is perfectly within your rights and his grading on it was atrocious.  It's probably a 3.0/3.5. 

Lots of differing opinions on this. Perhaps depending on whether you are more of a buyer or a seller? And the seller did offer to accept the return, but not cover the shipping cost. So I could have returned it. And probably a lot of people will say I'm an insufficiently_thoughtful_person for not doing so. But as I stated before, I'd prefer to offer it back up via auction and hope someone feels like they received a good deal than get $6 back after return shipping. I mean, regardless of whether I got a fair price at the actual grade, that's not the grade I wanted. But, as they say, opinions are like a**holes. Everybody has one.

That said, I did still feel guilty about the negative feedback. So I sent this to the seller earlier this evening:

===============
I personally still feel your listing was misleading. At best. But I posted this question on a comic forum and opinions were split. Much like my comic book spine. Anyway, I've never left negative feedback before and I don't want to be the one responsible for ruining your 100% positive feedback.

"When a buyer posts negative Feedback accidentally, you can ask them to change it using the Request Feedback Revision page. If there is no response from the buyer, you can go to the Report Feedback page and explain the situation directly to eBay so they can handle the negative Feedback removal."

If you'd like to do the above I'll remove the negative feedback.
===============

So...

Edited August 16, 2019 by WPPJames

[WPPJames]

1 minute ago, WPPJames said:

insufficiently_thoughtful_person

Wow. Apparently the word "insufficiently_thoughtful_person" gets automatically "corrected" to insufficiently_thoughtful_person. I can't even call myself an insufficiently_thoughtful_person I guess. That's OK. I have a wife for that.