Online Comic Store Report Card

That’s one issue with card stock covers, they’re not as forgiving when they do get bent slightly over the normal covers.

PCK Comics: Got a large order in today and man the packaging was perfect and everything arrived minty fresh with really no way to have the comics damaged unless they ran it over several times

The 616 Comics: Got my 3 Nottingham #1 Exclusives today and they arrived packaged very well and minty fresh. These are a print run of 200 and signed by Matt Dalton except these were not signed… I was concerned I might not be able to get signed ones now. I emailed them and they responded a few hours later saying they will be sending me my 3 signed copies and I can keep these 3. Very impressed and very grateful

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Buyer beware of Guaranteed Comics (guaranateedcomics.com)!!!

From their website:

HOW IT WORKS
Pretty simply actually. At Guaranteed Comics, the raw comic book buying experience is super simple.

First, a seller lists a comic book for sale, inputs the grade of the book, describes the book and sets their price.

Next, a buyer selects that book and purchases the book at checkout. Once the buyer goes through the checkout process, the seller is notified of the sale of his/her book via email and sends his/her book to Guaranteed Comics using our shipping standards.

Once the book arrives at Guaranteed Comics, we do an initial inspection for obvious/common sense disqualifiers. If the book passes this stage, it then gets hand delivered to our third party (CBCS-Comic Book Certification Services) to get authenticated and graded.

Once the third party gives the book the final grade, the book is then sent to the buyer (if it passes the grade the seller initially input) or it gets sent back to the seller (if it doesn’t reach the grade the seller initially input). That’s it!

I thought I would give it a try. They had a seller offering a newstand ASM #252 guaranteed to be graded a 9.2 or better. I purchased… fingers crossed that I would get a 9.4. Less than a week later I get a shipping notification. I opened the package to find a book in a sealed mylar bag that has a CBCS 9.2 sticker on it. WTF is that? I didn’t even know that you could get a book graded and not slabbed. Why would anyone do that?
Does anyone else think this is misleading?
There’s also a few other details that really get to me. The book that I received was a direct edition. The listing photo was a newstand. Ugh! Also, I’m thinking there is no way that the seller shipped the book and Guaranteed Comics had it graded in this time frame. They had the book sitting there ready to go.
I argued my case to the owner. He offered a refund, less 15% if I paid to ship the books back.

CBCS does do raw grading (which is what it sounds like you got), where for less money/less time they’ll do basically a pre-screen type grading and give the comic a grade and then seal it in a bag with a label. But unless you got it directly from CBCS or from a store you know and trust it’s pretty easy for someone to remove comics from those bags and put different ones in.

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I want to give a shout-out to @RipCityGamer and crew. I had a smaller order arrive from TFAW to my home in MN when I was in FLA. I missed my Ring cam showing the package dropped on my front door steps, so it sat there for 2 days. Of course, a MASSIVE storm came through with high winds, major rain, and hail the day it was delivered. It sat there, completely saturated for 2 days until I realized it was there. I had a neighbor grab it, open it up, and air out the books. Thankfully, the books were bagged/boarded and somehow stayed dry, even though the mailer was soaked. I’m finally back to MN, and the books are amazingly in great shape.

Maybe this was just luck and had nothing to do with TFAW. Or it’s just a good reason to bag/board everything you order. Either way, the books survived, so thanks!

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I have a fair amount of those CBCS graded, sealed, raw books. I got a very good deal on a lot from a seller.
The ones I have used a tamper type resistant seal on the mylar. I don’t know how you could alter that seal without it showing some change/damage.
The grades themselves all seemed accurate and I actually like the presentation. I actually sent a couple to Cgc as is, and the cases, books/grade came back the same.
I know it’s a far cheaper price…you just don’t see many of them now.

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Is Tfaw still experiencing backup? Did a live chat an emailed them on the 4th about my ASM 55 ratio mix up
.

It should be getting better. Bringing in more people on the warehouse side, and also (finally) have another CS rep to help respond to tickets. If you haven’t heard anything I’d ping them again on live chat or phone and they can check on what’s going on with it.

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Still waiting to have my similar case resolved as well. Tried chat the other night and Kyle was manning it - he straight up said he was backlogged. My situation is by no means an emergency, but… :frowning:

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Exactly I get the backlog… send me the correct copy or refund me. Just the waiting. I’ll give it another week.

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I got 3 comics from TFAW in those terrible mailers. Just like last time all books are slightly bent and have half a dozen creases on 2 of the 3 books. Also paid over 5 for shipping. Ever book I have gotten in those mailers are nicked up. I also have 2 star wars higher Republic #1 still pending so I have to pay for postage again. Not sure why they wouldn’t include it with this order given the SWHR #1 came out in January. Geez why not move to gemini holder?

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Frankie’s with another win. Packaging is great books are pristine. Forgot I even ordered this. Damn add to cart button.

Frankie’s packs good but takes an eon to ship some of the stuff I order from them.

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The last book I received in one of those strange mailer boxes with the fold over flaps arrived in great condition, but I looked at the box and said “how!?”

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I’m exactly 50/50 on those types of mailers from Frankies and Scotts. Both have sent me two things that arrived perfect, and both have sent me two things that arrived totally loose and wrecked. I honestly don’t see the appeal to them beyond having your store branding printed on them easier. They don’t seem like they’re that much more time efficient than gemini style mailers if you want to put the extra time into sending something.

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So far mine have been great. Have about 6 more orders waiting.

Been waiting a week and half for my my order to ship. Hopefully the additional warehouse workers help. Been waiting almost a week for Santorum as well

94 Star Wars High Republic #3 from Westfield Comics for .99 cents each all arrived just fine. Wrapped tight enough in magazine size bags so they wouldn’t shift around much and then surrounded by popcorn peanuts on all sides inside the box. It is definitely worth having some orders be cancelled to have them come through on orders like this. It’s just a matter of being one of the first to see the sale and put your order in fast. I ordered 100 so I assume I got the last 94 they had in stock.

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So that’s where my copies went that got cancelled :stuck_out_tongue:

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wowzers

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