All-About-Me Page For walkinwillie [0]
Letting you get to know your fellow eBidders a little more.
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eBid Member Since 13 May 2008
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Some Information About walkinwillie
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Who Is This Walkin' Willie Guy? Walkin' Willie's Comix Auction and Store Item Terms
This page is intended as information to all potential bidders and buyers of Walkin' Willie's auctions and store items - especially those of you who have not dealt with me in the past. Basically, listed below are the terms of all auctions that I place on eBid. It is important that you read these terms carefully - as bidding on any of my auctions or purchasing one of our store items signifies that you accept these terms. The vast majority of them are basic common sense - however, some of the items below are ones that you might not have run into before or might fit in that "Frequently Asked Questions Category". There is also some philosophy of "selling comics" which comes into play and might help you decide if the books I have up for sale - especially the Silver and Golden Age books - are what you are looking for or not. Enough with the chatter, lets get to the gist.
"Best Offer" Philosophy
If you are the winning bidder/purchaser of one of my auctions/store items, you will be contacted within three days - more often than not, one or two days - with my shipping address and other information. Payment for auctions is expected within 10 days of notification (15 days for international customers) unless other provisions are made. One example of such a provision is combining auctions to save on shipping - I welcome this but please e-mail with what you are wanting to do such as waiting until the end of the week and settling then, etc. One other thing, please refrain from asking me to e-mail you when payment is received - I run a lot of auctions and that is an administrative burden that I do not choose to bear. However, if you are in that wondering mode, just e-mail me a few days after you send payment and I will be glad to let you know the status of your package.
Yes, the vast majority of the books that I sell on the auction format have no reserve on them - start 'em at a penny and let you folks go at it - extremely rare circumstances that I will ever use a reserve. I think I have used a reserve price three times in over 6400+ auctions. Don't like reserves any more than you do. One thing though,
if I have nice book on the block and eBid goes down anytime within the last five hours of the auction (and particularly within the last hour of the auction), I have the right to refuse to sell and will relist the book at a later date if at all. I don't mind taking a "no reserve" risk but I gotta have a level playing field.
Between grading a comic book and shipping charges, I am unsure as to what stirs the passion more. I am not a seller that
tries to recoup the eBay charges by asking for enormous shipping and handling charges. I have two basic philosophies here - one is that I do not want to make money on shipping but I sure as heck don't want to lose any either! The second is that I try hard to get within 75 cents of what shipping actually costs me and what I charge you, the bidder. Most of the time, I charge $3.50 for shipping one comic book which includes Media Mail shipping with a Delivery Confirmation. Shipping will vary for lots, combining several auctions and so forth. As an example, when you get to three books, the cost is $3.75 for shipping (still a deal). Media Mail for U.S. customers is still available for multiple auctions wins but I will include Delivery Confirmation with those as well.
Before I explain how my shipping costs break down, let me explain how I ship books. All books are shipped in a bag and board and placed between two sheets of corrugated cardboard. The book is then placed in a shipping carton especially designed for shipping comic books. It is secured in the carton and then the carton is completely sealed in tape to prevent any moisture intrusion. CGC books are shipped by first enclosing the plastic holder with bubble wrap and then placing it in a Priority Mail box surrounded completely by styrofoam peanuts. My philosophy is that I want you to receive the books exactly as described with no damage due to transit - I won't say that a book that I package can't be damaged but the postal employee that damages it has to try really, really hard to do so.
Now how do I come up with the shipping charge? Here is how it breaks down:
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Postage Shipping Box Tape Bag and Board Delivery Confirmation TOTAL |
$2.23 $0.42 $0.07 $0.08 $0.18 (if using PayPal) $2.98 |
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Some explanation of the above charges. The $2.23 is the Media Mail rate.The box is especially made for shipping comics and I buy them in lots of 500 to get the cheapest price. "Tape? Ya gotta be nuts, Willie! Why, the cost of tape must be miniscule!" Well, I buy that stuff by the case of 36 rolls and it costs me $1.47 a roll shipped and I get approximately 20 packages out of one roll. I buy the bags and boards by the case and it comes to 8 cents per set. Now when I throw in the actual quality of the package itself, I think the buyer is getting a bargain! If you want Priority Mail - fine, but it will cost you $6.00 and I am taking a slight hit with that. And no, I won't use the free priority mail boxes because I would then have to buy the styrofoam peanuts to ship them with and there is cost in that too. I think when you compare my shipping charges with those all over eBay (especially the software folks), I think you will find them extremely reasonable. One other thing - I use the United States Postal Service - if you send me the proper address, your package will be shipped safely to you 99.99999% of the time. One last (I promise) "one other thing" - I will NOT under pain of torture ever ship C.O.D. - that has got to be the #1 postal hassle in America - it is just plain flat hard on everybody and confusing as heck - I could go into more depth on this subject but I will climb off my soapbox.... Now - how long does it take for Media Mail vs. First class and Priority Mail? |
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Priority Mail First Class Media Mail |
2 to 3 working days 2 to 3 working days 2 to 7 working days |
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Some explanation here - the time for receipt of a package depends on how close you are to my home in Rock Hill, SC (just south of Charlotte, NC). As an example, a package I mail book rate to Charlotte, NC on Monday morning will be there by Tuesday afternoon while a priority Mail package to Oregon will take three days. I have shipped over 5000 packages in the last four years on eBay and the above chart is pretty accurate by my experience. Feedback Another passionate area - if you are new to eBid, welcome. No matter if you are the most despised person in your city, town, bethel, school, job site, theatre cast or whatever, this is your opportunity to establish a positive reputation - a clean slate no less! How many times in life do we get such an opportunity to, well, start over? Here it is so don't blow it! My philosophy on feedback: Once the transaction is complete, it is up to the buyer to initiate feedback if they so desire and, of course, if they are satisfied with transaction. If you are happy with the transaction and leave positive feedback for me, I will be more than happy to reciprocate with positive feedback. Why do I expect the buyer to initiate the feedback? The buyer is the one who makes the final call on whether the transaction was a successful one or not - they are the ones buying the merchandise. If I leave feedback first saying that the buyer was a prompt payer and then their check bounces or they are not happy with the product, etc., now I am left feeling a little awkward about already singing their praises. By the way, sometimes it takes me awhile to respond on feedback as I do it in bunches - but I never miss one so you are assured you will receive feedback. Negative Feedback: I rarely if every do this and prefer to work out a win-win solution with the customer. Believe me, you will get every chance in the world to honor your winning bid, but if you choose not to, I will alert eBid of your failure to honor your bid. The feedback system on eBid is not perfect but I would hate to imagine what eBid would be like if we didn't have it. International Customers Love 'em! However, please understand that shipping costs are higher - I will usually ship Airmail Letter-Post but other options such as Global Priority Mail and book rate surface are available. Just remember that packages sent Airmail Economy Letter-Post or Global Priority Mail will be received within 7 to 10 days while an economy surface package can take up to six weeks - one package that I sent to Austrailia took NINE weeks! I have electronic scales and will always try to get it close for you. Payment is in U.S. dollars only and must be by international money order, bank check or - at your own risk - cash. Refunds If you are dissatisfied with your purchase, your winning bid amount plus return shipping will be refunded to you once I receive the product please e-mail me for return instructions prior to shipping the product back to me. All return merchandise must be shipped in its original packing materials - NO EXCEPTIONS! I do however expect a knowledgable reason for the return - as an example, if the book doesn't meet a specific grade in your opinion, then please tell me why. It isn't good enough just to say "Well, I just didn't like it". Even if I disagree with you, you will get the refund. The bottom line is that your satisfaction is guaranteed. NOTE: CGC graded books are NON-REFUNDABLE!!! Credit Cards While I am not setup to take credit cards directly, you can use PayPal, a completely free, secure online payment system that uses your credit card to pay anyone with an e-mail address - this is really one of the best ways to pay and gets your merchandise to you the quickest! FINAL NOTE PLEASE - if you have any questions about any of the above policies and philosophies, e-mail me PRIOR to placing a bid on one of my auctions or store items. While I don't camp out on my e-mail, I will try to answer your question as soon as possible. Remember, placing a bid on one of my auctions or store items signifies that you agree with the policies on this page. Comments are always welcome! |
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It is indespensible. If you need a copy of Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide, which is also extemely indespensible, you can also get this from Amazon for only $19.77 plus shipping - just click 
As far as modern books go, they are off the shelf NM - I guess what some call MINT although I'm one of those that doesn't believe in MINT books - you can always find something wrong with a paper product. My bottom line on grading is this: Would I, the dealer, buy the same book in the grade that I have established for it? In other words, if I graded a book as a FINE, would I buy the same book if it was presented to me graded as FINE - if the answer is yes, then I think I have come pretty close to an accurate grade for the book.