The perils of buying comics online

[MegoSteve]

I found an auction house that was offering some Golden Age books both live and through LiveAuctioneer (where you can bid online live), so I watched and saw some things going pretty cheap, so I started bidding on a few things I probably wouldn't have otherwise bought.

One of the books I won was Batman #9, which has a classic black cover with Robin and Batman in a yellow spotlight. It was described as VG-F, but the picture looked really great.

Flash forward to this Saturday when I received the comics. I bought a Superman #18, too, and it was on the top of the pile when I opened the box. It appeared to be a solid VG, so I was happy, until I flipped to the next book in the stack...



I pretty much freaked out. It ruined my weekend, because I never dealt with the auctioneer, and I know a lot of those guys are pretty hard-nosed about their "AS-IS" policy. I set the whole box aside and didn't look too closely at the rest of the comics I bought for fear of "disturbing the evidence." And then I had to wait from Saturday afternoon through this morning with worst case scenarios playing out in my head.

Fortunately, they were actually quite nice when I called this morning and showed them the picture, and offered me a refund.

What a shame, though, because other than the horrific tearing and fold at the top, the book is in excellent, flat, unwrinkled shape.

The good news is the rest of the books were as expected, and I'm thrilled with the Superman #18. Here's what I got:

[toyman]

Thats a good looking comic lot,congrats.

[JediJaida]

I ordered a copy of What If #10 from my comic shop, but they sent me the wrong copy.

I ordered the copy of "What If Jane Foster Gained The Power of Thor", and they sent me a copy of "What If The Punisher's Family Was Never Killed".

I have already let them know about the mix up, and they will probably get back to me tomorrow.

[EMCE Hammer]

Seeing that iconic cover like that is a little heartbreaking.

[Bizarro Amy]

That's one of my favorite poses for the Dynamic Duo. That photo makes me sad.

[MegoScott]

So was it damaged in packing or the damage was undisclosed in the auction? I'm confused. It really sucks, though, I know how excited you were to win that.

[MicromanZone]

Most professional auction houses will offer refunds in cases like this. The main difference between pro auction houses and eBay is that pros care about the long-haul while lots of folks on eBay are into the short-sell and not much else. Happy it worked out and you ended up scoring some nice stuff!

[MegoSteve]

It was either damaged in packing or damaged during the auction preview. The photos have no indication of that extent of the damage, and the other books I got were accurately described, so I cannot imagine someone missing that.

Previews where just anyone can come in and pick everything up always make me nervous... I went to a Golden Age auction earlier this year held in a rural location in Pennsylvania, and the auctioneer just had the comics (which had been what I call "raw" books... unbagged and not from a modern day collector... kind of like finding Megos in the wild) put in gallon sized plastic food bags in groups, just laid out on tables in his auction hall. The people there for the preview were just manhandling them as they pulled them in and out of the bags and flipped through them.

And then the helper who was showing off the comics and walking up and down the aisle as they were being auctioned was pinching the books really hard and fanning them out like playing cards... just pawing them all up.

My friend and I were wincing the entire time.

[johnnystorm]

Oh, yeah, I see that all the time, and not just with comics. The runners love to hold out comics like a fan by the bottom and let them flop all over the place. I truly hate seeing any old items being treated like junk, and old paper goods always get the worst of it.
It's ridiculous to see people thumbing through piles of vintage magazines, comics, newspapers like monkeys digging out grubs from a log. Comics stacked in boxlots are the worst. Yet see how they handle those Fire-King casserole dishes! Another story altogether!
Auctioneers really should have someone there to police the merchandise to prevent damage. I've been to some where they do just that, but most could care less. These are the same guys who could get a bit more from the merchandise if they did 5 minutes worth of google search and could identify an item's value. But I guess I shouldn't complain too much there, as that's how bargains get had.
And what about how runners & house employees shouldn't be allowed to bid during an auction they are working at! What a scam for shill bidding!

[Adam West]

I have had my share of problems with comics and sports programs. It isn't unusual for those selling either to crop out the problems or take pictures from an unusual angle that makes the item look better than it really is. I recently bought quite a few Redskins programs from someone who literally sells thousands of them and way overgraded the condition. Most were described in excellent condition yet all had at least slight center creasing which isn't unusual with sports programs but should be disclosed. The worst was a program with some spine damage and the staples missing altogether. I did contact the seller about the issue and hopefully make it into a win/win. I didn't spend a fortune on any one program but it did come out to quite a bit of money. The seller offered to give me a refund of about 10% across the board or pick out another program. I ended up picking another program since I was able to pick out a higher priced program than the refund offering. He also made some point about it taking me too long to contact him regarding condition to which I informed him that the programs arrived on a Wednesday and I contacted him Friday evening (two days later as I wanted time to go through each one). I know I could have returned everything and just said forget it but decided that it wasn't worth it because it wasn't a huge sum per program as mentioned but I will definitely keep his grading problem in mind when I look for additional sports programs.