This guy joined the same day he made this thread and his last login was the very next day! You guys must have scared him off lol

That first day he started two or three theads and started insulting all of us on a couple of them. Believe me he made no friends.

Stickied for your continued pleasure.

You da man.

Wow, lol

squirrel master returns

Hi

For what it is worth, I bought 2 golden age books from metropolis, sent them both in to be graded, each came back 1/2 grade lower than what the grade i bought them at.

Most dealers will not guarentee their grade against CGC and 1/2 grade is within reason,though it can be disappointing to have an 8.0 come back 7.5.

In my experience I am more gun shy about online sellers claiming NM/MT or MT and ending up with VF+ or NM- that are not worth the price of shipping back. Always checking feedback is an important skill to learn.

LOL! I wish I would have been around for this guy.

lol same here.

Me too!

Man!, why does all the fun stuff happen while I'm away?

I clicked his link again and it's no longer about his million dollar plan. LOL It's about his collection and how he's rebuilding it and stuff.

Poor Gobby...

Nothing like those lovable guys who make you feel all warm inside. I really miss him. No, really, I do. I like to hear how CGC is the absolute authority on comic books and how their grading system is the only standard. I like how they charge you based on the book value and grade you give the book before they grade it and only charge you more if they happen to grade it higher. By the way, if you pay them and it grades lower than you suspected they don't give you any money back. I am speaking from personal experience. I wonder if everyone has missed that part about how CGC does not guarantee grades or values of books or sales prices of books either. The system is flawed because CGC has an incentive to grade books higher to make more money. A truely unbiased system would charge flat rates for grading and that would be it.

I've bought from Metropolis on a few occasions. Overall, I don't really like how they conduct their business, so I don't frequent them often. My main problems have been attitudes given to me by sales staff, and their whole "Make An Offer" option, which they might as well not have. One time I was shopping a $200 book and made an offer of $185. They countered with an offer of $199.50. I mean, why bother? I was just insulted by that for some reason, like it was a slap in the face. Then to add insult to injury, the book was on sale for 5% off two weeks later.

But on the times I have done business with them, I feel the books were accurately graded within reason. Delivery was a little slow, but well packaged.

As for comparing to CGC, I don't think you can say any dealer's grade will compare to CGC's grade on any single issue. Not that you can bank on with certainty. I've submitted many Silver and Bronze age books to CGC and there is always a grade that seems to make no sense with each submission. I've sent books that I thought were a slam-dunk 8.5 or 9.0, and get a 7.5 back because of some defect you can only see if you hold it at a certain angle, under certain lighting, and look with a magnifying glass. Then I will get grader notes and find that one grader gave it a 6.0, and two gave it an 8.5, with all three only noting the same defect. So instead of dismissing the 6.0, it somehow gets a 7.5 (average I guess). Or sometimes I will submit a book that in no way would I ever sell as more than an 8.5 and it will come back with a 9.2 or 9.4. I'll post scans of it on the collector's society forums, and they will all agree that there is no way it is a 9.2 or 9.4 (a "gift" grade) because of an obvious defect that somehow all the graders missed (no mention of it in the notes).

I'm not convinced that CGC can even grade the same book twice better than +/- one grade range. They also admit that they grade on a curve for Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Modern. So you can have a 8.5 Gold that looks worse than an 8.5 Silver, which looks worse than an 8.5 Bronze, which looks worse than an 8.5 modern. And some books may actually be Silver, but because they are more abundant, the Bronze curve is applied. Or if they are very rare, the Gold curve may apply. Plus there are other "curves" used. It makes it impossible to determine how a dealer's grades will stack up against CGC.

Supposedly it is cost by book value because it costs them more to insure your book while on their premises and during return shipping. So they can't charge a flat rate because their carry costs are much more on a $10,000 book vs a $10 book.

I don't totally buy that. I know insurance rates on the return shipping do cost more as the price of the book goes up. So I buy that part.

I don't buy the part about on premise storage costs. I'm sure they have a $10 million policy or something like that and pay a fixed rate per year. I'm sure their coverage doesn't fluctuate as comics go in and out, because it would be a book keeping nightmare for the insurance company.

I also think the argument falls apart when you look at price difference for Modern vs Bronze. If I submit a $100 book from 1975 vs a $100 book from 1980, there is nothing to justify a $15 price hike, other than they can.

Everyone know you don't start insulting people for at least three or four months.

Actually, I'm PROUD of dealers for pricing raw books the same price as their CGC counterparts. The grade and case DO NOT make the comic more valuable. As far as the comic coming back a grade lower, grading standards have always changed and I think CGC grading is out of line anyway. It fluctuates according to their whim. I've seen the CGC give books with ugly spine creases a 9.4, and other times give nicer looking books an 8.5. I've seen them give a water damaged book a high grade because it came from a pedigree lot. Their grading is just as subjective as anyone else's grade. I really look forward to the day when it costs them too much to grade a book and they just go away.

My experiences with them have been pretty much the same. The "Click Here To Inquire" button might as well be labeled "Bait a Sucker". Not only did they initially fail to response to my inquiry on one book after 3 months, they priced it three times more than I'd pay for it in ANY condition when they finally did quote a price. I had to complain about their service to get a quote at all. I was very pleased about the grading and price on the things I did buy. I was annoyed they made me sign for a comic delivery. I had to take off a day from work to wait on a comic book. It (banned) me off. That's the main reason I am not buying from them anymore.