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abysslord wrote:I may be a strict grader but I ordered probably 50 or so comics from mycomicshop.com and I had to send back probably 10 or so because they weren't NM. First of all, sending comics with no boards is pretty bad if you ask me. But they also had defects to make them VF anyway.
Yes, MyComicShop.com really sucks on comics from the last 10 years that they just seem to grade NM and don't bag/board so they tend to get dinged up and scuffed.
I've gotten so as long as I don't mind getting F/VF as long as it's $1 or so and is filling in a hole in my collection for a hard to find Indie book, then they are fine to fill in those books.
They tend to be good on older books that cost a bit more. Someone actually bothers to grade those properly & bag/board them.
JohnMayo wrote:
I'm not a super harsh grader of comics but I do tend to only order the highest grades from MyComicShop.com because of these kinds of lax grading standards they have.
I go the opposite way with MyComicShop. I find that stuff from the last 10-15 years that is cheap that they call NM is really VF (75% of it, because I don't think they bothered to grade it), stuff they call VF is generally VF too, it's just that something they call VF someone actually looked at & graded.
As a result, If I have a choice between VF & NM, I will buy the VF because I get a cheaper price and in all likelihood I'm getting a book in the same quality as if I paid their NM price.
If you get an F book, it will generally be F. They don't grade something that low unless someone looks at it.
JohnMayo wrote:
I'm not a super harsh grader of comics but I do tend to only order the highest grades from MyComicShop.com because of these kinds of lax grading standards they have.
I go the opposite way with MyComicShop. I find that stuff from the last 10-15 years that is cheap that they call NM is really VF (75% of it, because I don't think they bothered to grade it), stuff they call VF is generally VF too, it's just that something they call VF someone actually looked at & graded.
As a result, If I have a choice between VF & NM, I will buy the VF because I get a cheaper price and in all likelihood I'm getting a book in the same quality as if I paid their NM price.
If you get an F book, it will generally be F. They don't grade something that low unless someone looks at it.
My point was that I don't order below VF from them. Since they don't take good care of the higher graded books, it is unreasonable to expect them to take better care of the lower graded book. Therefore, I order the higher grades knowing they may not be as high a grade as MyComicShop.com claims. I also don't spend a premium doing so. If the VF is noticeably cheaper, I'll get that instead of the NM since the NM probably won't be NM.
You're both right about mycomicshop, I'm sure their newer comics they just grade as NM and put away. My subscriber even told me that when they have new comics leftover that they put them in the back issue section and mark them as NM. They can't grade them all due to the sheer number.
But I find this NM problem happens quite often online. I think it stems from one of two things:
1. People who don't know how to grade, such as non-collectors. They feel if they bought it new than it's NM. I see some auctions where they say "New and unread". Ok, what grade is it though?
2. People who know the grading but just look at the comic from a downward angle with no light glare. Many defects, such as dents/scratches in the cover and/or spine creases, can't always be seen easily until you hold it up and let the light catch the cover. I'm guessing a lot of people don't do this and just look at the comic, see no big lines or creases, and say NM. Hell, I apparently even did this because after going through all my old comics that I graded 10 years ago, many I marked as 9.6 were actually more like 9.0 or even 8.5 due to those defects.
So buying online I never, never expect NM. If its' really bad I ask for a refund. My anal retentiveness for only accepting NM comics is slowly going away thanks to how hard it is to get NM comics from auctions.
I made two purchases off of Comic Collector Live. I signed up with them back when I heard Bob first mention them but never used it. Very happy with my two purchases.
JohnMayo wrote:
My point was that I don't order below VF from them. Since they don't take good care of the higher graded books, it is unreasonable to expect them to take better care of the lower graded book.
I think this is a true statement for books of recent vintage (past 10-15 years). In general, lower grades on something new means it kind of went through a wringer somewhere.
Older books at MyComicShop arevery accurately graded (in 500+ older books I have gotten from them).
Also, I was trying to make the point that regardless of how they handle them, something newer called NM could be just about any grade since that is the generic grade they assign to something they just pitch into a box. If they are calling a book F, there is a pretty good chance someone actually looked at it and determined that this was the actual grade of the book. Pretty meaningless if you want only high-grade books, but I have plenty of books in Fine.
Fellas, it's been a while since I've Ben able to spend sometime on your forum but I find it my duty to get my head back into completing some runs after having a couple of years off. Is there any recommendations for issues in the last 2 year period. Being in Australia the best I can find locally is full US cover price which isn't terrible but I thought I should try and take advantage of the dollar as it swings in my favor quite a bit.
I have used mile high in the past and have not had any problem even with the price. Postage is always around seven days which is fantastic from the states. Thoughts would be appreciated.
frog_brothers_ink wrote:Fellas, it's been a while since I've Ben able to spend sometime on your forum but I find it my duty to get my head back into completing some runs after having a couple of years off. Is there any recommendations for issues in the last 2 year period. Being in Australia the best I can find locally is full US cover price which isn't terrible but I thought I should try and take advantage of the dollar as it swings in my favor quite a bit.
I have used mile high in the past and have not had any problem even with the price. Postage is always around seven days which is fantastic from the states. Thoughts would be appreciated.
