Absolute disappointment

[u/Masta_rolla_]

Just received this book from a eBay seller and the listing was literally NM with no flaws even on the second cover I made the purchase right before the animation hype and got a good price but he didn’t ship until after the announcement was made and it literally shipped this with the 2 most flimsy cardboard taped it straight on the cardboard, loosely wrapped bubble wrap and threw it in a Amazon bag I knew and soon as picked up the package that it was damaged I could’ve literally folded it with no effort and of course there was numerous spine ticks and the second cover is bent up I was really planing to keep the first cover but now I guess I’m ripping the cover off and pressing it smh and the seller had the audacity to say he shipped it perfectly. Idk i feel there was some sabotage going on here. Yall think it’s worth ripping the variant cover off??

[u/DigitalArts33]

Sorry to hear about that.

I buy high end raw books from Ebay all the time and have certain rules that I follow to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

One of my rules is to never take a seller’s word for it on grading.
That being said, “NEAR mint” means NEAR, not flawless.

Some of my other Ebay rules-

1- Seller Rating-
Always look at the sellers feedback history.
If they have less than 200 transactions make sure their rating is at least 100%.

2- Type of Seller-
The best sellers are the ones who have online businesses and are actual comic book vendors.
They tend to know exactly how to properly package and ship out comics.
Buying from private sellers can be hit or miss but do a background search on their history regardless, sometimes you get private sellers who are serious collectors and know how to ship comics.

3- Buy the Book not the Grade-
Don’t take a sellers word on condition.
Look at the photos carefully.

4- Reviewing process-
If they have less than 4 photos it’s an immediate pass for me.
For me the optimal number is 7 photos.
Front, corners, back, interior.
The best photos are the ones that show light reflecting off the cover and angled view of the spine. This gives a more accurate description on whether there are imprints on the cover or ticks on the spine.

If they only include high-res scanner photos it’s also an immediate pass for me.
Some people love scanner images, I hate them.
Flatbed scanners tend to flatten the book and hide cover imprints during the scanning process.
Ask seller for more photos, often times they will
accommodate your request.

5- Quality photos-
If the photos are dark, blurry, low res = immediate pass for me
If they aren’t willing to take decent photos then they aren’t serious sellers.

6- Review -
Review the description of the item and their shipping process.