EBAY HAS A LOT TO ANSWER FOR!

john9965 · Post by **john9965** » 06 Oct 2007, 11:38

For what its worth here is my comic history.
I first had the Beano bought for me in Feb. 1972. I also remember having the Summer Special from that year. I also bought the Dandy plus the ocassional copy of the Beezer and the Valiant & Cor. My cousin also gave me a number of annuals from the 60's.

By 1974 I thought I had grown out of those and started having the Warlord for a year or so and then moved onto Bullet. I well remember fights in school between Fireballs (bullet) and the Panthers (a rival mob)!

By '76 I was more into footie so Roy of the Rovers became a must buy for the next 6 years. I also remember buying Scoop at this time.

So by 1982 the comic era was over, all my annuals were sold to fund my new hobby of football programmes and that was it. For some reason I bought the first 50 years Dandy/Beano annual in the late 80's but it was 2003 when I joined Ebay when something re-ignited the madness.

I went on there primarily to buy footie programmes but inevitably I started looking at other categories and the nostalgia in me made me buy the Dandy annual from 1973 (the 1st annual I can remember). I then decided to try & get all the annuals I used to own Dandy, Beano, Beezer, Topper Whizzer & Chips etc.

When this was accomplished after a few weeks I should have stopped but I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some of the annuals I never owned and ended up having virtually every comic annual from the 60's & 70's!

My thirst still not satisfied I moved onto comics starting off with Beano & Dandy. I was quite lucky back then and picked up one or two great bargains eg 52 Beano comics from 1973 for ?12. Doubt you'd get them for that now!
I now have large collections of :-
Beano 68 - 84
Dandy 63 - 83
Beezer 68 - 76
Topper 70 - 79
Tiger 75 - 84
Roy of the Rovers 76 - 86.
Cor 70 - 74
Knckout 72 -73
Warlord 74 -78.

I'm quite happy with what I've got now and although I still buy the odd item I come across, nothing like the obssessive buying of a few years ago. The Mrs doesn't have a problem with it and just lets me get on with it. Needless to say the spare room now has 2 competing forces battling for space, comics & programmes!

helsbels · Post by **helsbels** » 06 Oct 2007, 15:37

Your story sounds all too familiar! As a child/teenager, I read virtually every girl's comic that was published(not to mention boy's comics and the funnies as well). Comics I read on an occasional basis included June, Pixie, Bunty , Mandy , Judy, Debbie and Sandie. Later on my weekly diet(reading, that is!) consisted of Spellbound, Tammy, Jinty and Misty. Misty was my absolute favourite and the only comic I actually collected and saved at the time - though I had some missing.
Fast forward some 26 years later and on registering with ebay I soon completed my Misty collection. Not only that I now have a near complete Jinty collection, all 69 Spellbounds and growing collections of Tammy, Bunty, Sandie, Mandy, Judy, June, Princess, Princess Tina and Debbie.
I now have ever-growing piles of comics, annuals, summer specials and picture story libraries which are getting harder to store, but at least I'm never short of a good read!

felneymike · Post by **felneymike** » 06 Oct 2007, 16:33

"Forget extreme porn and suicide websites, there's only one domain on the internet that needs banning- Ebay! thanks to that website i find myself in a tube station car park at 7:00 in the morning, minus 450 quid and plus one Rover P4 105S ... The Rover (that's a dog's name isn't it?) ... As i near home the calipers start to seize, "so adjust them" you say, well you can't adjust them on the 105S because they're "special", so i don't adjust them, i drive slowly and swear..."

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 06 Oct 2007, 22:43

Rashum Nashum eBay Mumble Moan Expletives. Off topic... Last week I bought a new graphics card, and thought I had a bargain. Turns out I got the wriong kind and what with postage and restocking fees and hassle it's not worth returning. Thirty quid down the drain. A couple of months ago my daughter sold her wheely shoes on eBay. The lady who won the auction said she needed them urgently, before the school holidays. She sounded genuine so we sent the shoes before we received her cheque. We never saw the money. Another thirty five quid lost to eBay. But thanks to the comics I keep going back...

colcool007 · Post by **colcool007** » 07 Oct 2007, 00:30

Before the advent of Ebay/internet, I stuck religiously to collecting 2000AD, Victor and the odd Dark Horse comic that I was into. Plus that was all I could find.

Fast forward 10 years and I now find that I am collecting (takes a deep breath) Warlord, Hotspur, Hornet, Wizard, Action, Victor, 2000AD, Battle, Revolver (completed, thank you Ebay), Commando, Broons/Oor Wullie annuals, Starlord (only got the annuals to go), Tornado and many more should I care to list them at this late hour!

Only been stung once and that was when I tried to buy a Christmas present for daughter No 2. Paid through direct bank transfer. Great for people you trust (Helsbels, you can start blushing now), but pants for Ebay purchase. Needless to say, I am still waiting for present to arrive and have zero expectation of it arriving.

On the plus side, I have to say that Ebay has been an absolute boon to UK comic collectors as many issues have been so much easier to find than trawling through innumerable comic shows where the emphasis has been on US imports and UK comics have almost always been an afterthought.

Still remember my delight and the dealer's discomfort when I found a large pile of Victors at one of the Bristol shows (A rare time of actually finding UK comics at a UK show). I was "Wow, Victors I don't have!" and he was "Well... I...er...bought them off Ebay...er...thought they were a good deal....er...Tell you what, you can have them for what I paid for them!" Cue one swiftly concluded deal and off I walked having splurged my budget for the show, but happy in the knowledge that I was the one walking off with a bargain. (Less than 40p per comic is a bargain in my eyes)

Cap Haggis · Post by **Cap Haggis** » 07 Oct 2007, 01:16

Have to say my opinion of ebay is very mixed - I have bid and won 7 items and of those I have managed to secure 5, however 2 (one for ?11 and one for ?19) failed to arrive - the ?19 one was a scam seemingly (good to knwo 3 weeks after the event) and the ?11 one I paid for twice (once by PO the other time by cheque as I wanted the goods - a batch of 1960s rare Archies) with no results and strill seem to have gotten a bad mark against my name despite being ?41 down - so bugga ebay as far as Iam concerned I'm afraid.

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 07 Oct 2007, 16:16

I must say that I have had good results from eBay so far.A couple of scares when things took longer to arrive than expected but good communications throughout with sellers.One thing narks me though...the discrepancy in postage charges.Some will for example charge ?11(checked package when it arrived and it said ?5.50 post) for say post on an Annual while others will charge ?3 for same article!!I did challenge one vendor on this issue and they said they had to make a few bob lest the bids fell short of what they were expecting(If so greedy-guts,why not charge the true rate when bids go through the roof

)Another said I didn't have to bid!!!

Other than that Caveat Emptor!Also,I am sure the sellers have to register an address before selling,so contact eBay about these shady scamsters,lads!They can be prosecuted!

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 07 Oct 2007, 18:20

Captain Storm wrote:Also,I am sure the sellers have to register an address before selling,so contact eBay about these shady scamsters,lads!They can be prosecuted!

They can in theory, but in practice it doesn't happen, unless the victim has plenty of time and money to burn. This seems to be the number one complaint against eBay: when something goes wrong they de-list the villain then forget about them. Actually I have found that villains are often more scrupulous than eBay. Twice I have ordered something then the seller has been delisted and I have no way of contacting them. Yet both times the seller sent the item anyway, eventually, even though they had no financial reason to. Meanwhile, eBay had washed their hands of the deal and forgotten about it.

Economically it is in eBay's very large financial interest to say the right things ("you can trust us blah blah blah") while not trying hard to chase up problems. They make a cut of everything that passes through their site. If they spent more money on chasing up villains then they would lose revenue, and would be undercut by a less scrupulous competitor.

The other choice is to go direct to the police. But however they rank their priorities (violent crime, burglary, antisocial behavior, terrorism) I bet that "collector loses ?30 by being too trusting on eBay") is always at the bottom of their list.

Lew Stringer · Post by **Lew Stringer** » 07 Oct 2007, 19:04

Captain Storm wrote:One thing narks me though...the discrepancy in postage charges.Some will for example charge ?11(checked package when it arrived and it said ?5.50 post)

That is excessive although if postage costs ?5.50 you'd expect to pay a little more than that to include packaging. Some good quality jiffy bags cost over a quid each for example.

I've had no problems with eBay at all. I did once receive a Radio Fun Annual which had pages missing but the seller hadn't realized and refunded me immediately.

Best bet is to check the seller's feedback. I rarely buy anything off anyone with less than 100% and I certainly wouldn't buy anything off anyone with several negative responses.

Lew

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 07 Oct 2007, 19:36

A bit of a grey area really Lew.In that instant I knew I was kinda being ripped off but wanted the item badly.A lot of sellers seem to know which items are highly sought after and unfortunately not a few capitalize on this by charging extra for "post" even though there must be a set charge for items based on size and/or weight.Alas,until this area of selling is properly policed,we are all at the mercy of the sharks.In defense,a lot of sellers are kosher.

tolworthy · Post by **tolworthy** » 07 Oct 2007, 19:43

Lew Stringer wrote:Best bet is to check the seller's feedback. I rarely buy anything off anyone with less than 100%

And I would add, check the amount and frequency of the feedback as well. The lady who stole our shoes had 100% feedback but only 20 items over three years. Conclusion: eBay was not important to her, she probably didn't know or care about the rules, and she wouldn't care if she got banned.

I have friends at work who are the same. One happily told me how she bid on some gloves on eBay, and was the highest bidder, and won the auction. Then she found the same gloves cheaper at a local shop so she just forgot about eBay. I asked if she got negative feedback? She said yes, but it didn't matter, she was so happy that she had got a better bargain. She was proud of how clever she'd been and clearly didn't see anything wrong with not honouring a contract. She didn't feel the slightest guilt - in her mind the eBay seller was the villain for letting her bid too much.

In contrast, people with a high feedback number know how the system works, and they value their reputation. The only times I've had problems with high numbers sellers is when it was my own fault, when I didn't read the ad properly.

But back on topic, the ability to get old comics so easily... that's amazing. And wonderful!

steelclaw · Post by **steelclaw** » 07 Oct 2007, 21:54

Ive had a few minor problems with items not being described as they said they were, I was sent a Lion annual with the first 16 pages missing, but he let me have it free after not cashing my cheque when I pointed this out, I didn't rant or rage at him and sent him a nice email, some people don't really look or check at the items they sell.

I've also had a few pages of 1 the 8 Wizard comic I bought, But I didn't do anything about it because I started reading them a few months later when I found out

It's mainly annoying things like that.

This was the worst the silly cow described this Lion and Thunder in very good condition and when I opened it it had 2 burnt pages inside.I cancelled my cheque which which she didn't cash in time, she threatened to give me negative feedback if I didn't send the comics or the money,when she found out she couldn't cash my cheque, I still had to pay postage to send them back though.But it was better then the ?5.50 I would have had to pay for 2 comics.
[img:745:1024]http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u283 ... icture.jpg[/img]

But over all I have had some great buys on ebay, and I will continue using it.

chrissmillie · Post by **chrissmillie** » 07 Oct 2007, 22:38

I've had only really one bad incident on ebay and another that wasn't great. The first one was when I sold a bunch of accurately graded items to someone who didn't think they were in the stated condition. Of course, he had no idea what the likes of VG meant in comic grading terms (i.e. he felt an issue wasn't in VG because of yellowing to the paper border). I then had to cope with threats of violence. I notice in his feedback, he has given bad feedback (even when it's positive, the comment is 'satisfied-ish') to practically every annual he has bought. I was his first comic purchase. I did eventually refund his money and canceled another auction he won but wasn't too happy about it. It was in the condition described. Why should I suffer for ignorance?

The other was when someone won multiple 2000ADs and asked for a postage discount. Although he should really have asked for one BEFORE the auction, I was happy to do so. He chose to pay straight away minus the discount asking for another comic to be included. I will say I was under no obligation to do so but included not one but two free comics. As he was buying 2000ADs I didn't want to risk sending him a double so sent issues #1 and #2 of Star Heroes, thinking he may like a bit of unusual UK sci-fi. I got some pretty foul language in return, saying he only reads 2000AD. I would have quite happily have sent him 2000AD in exchange had he been a bit more civil but not with that attitude.

So, one negative feedback out of 7 years (3 comments but all from the same headcase). 99.6% feedback. Help! I don't qualify under Lew's 100%!

brisey · Post by **brisey** » 08 Oct 2007, 19:29

I have had a couple of bad experiences on eBay but not enough to put me off.

Now my collections are now complete I am a seller more than a buyer.

My gripe is with watchers-I at the moment listing various things which have numerous watchers and no bids-and do not know whether to carry on listing or try something else.Hence a wide spread of listings-Jintys tomorrow.Valiants at the weekend.

On the postage front,if it is advertised I feel that it is fair and take it into consideration.People ramp up postage so they pay less in fees and as they have been raised to 9% it is a factor.

Brisey or briseyk at ebay

Captain Storm · Post by **Captain Storm** » 08 Oct 2007, 20:46

Hi Steel Claw,I've PM'd you,cheers,the Cap!

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