This review is not for the store per se as I have not set foot in it (Nor will I), but rather for its owner, Kevin, who sets up annually at the Motor City Comic Con here in Michigan. Still, it should serve as a cautionary tale...
In May of 2016, I purchased a copy of Amazing Spider-man #9 at the Motor City Comic Con from The Comic Interlude. They were firm on the price at $450 and said it should grade out between a 5.0-6.0. I looked at the book and its front and back covers and flipped through a few pages and it seemed fine. I did not count the pages, NOR SHOULD I HAVE TO, as it is NOT up to the buyer to make sure the seller is telling the truth but, rather, on the SELLER to know what he or she is selling. Happy at the time with my purchase, I put it in my box when I got home and thought nothing of it. It wasn't going to be a reader at that price and I have an Essential Spider-man paperback that covers the first 25 issues for when I want to read Ditko-era books.
Fast forward to this year's Motor City Comic Con. I always get a couple books graded and this year I decided to get my ASM #9 slabbed. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box from CGC and it came back a 0.5. At first I thought maybe I got the wrong book or it was mangled in the mail, but that was not the case. It was definitely the book I had submitted. The notes on the label said that page #12 was missing, doesn't effect story and that the book was incomplete. It also mentioned there was tape inside.
I immediately fired off an e-mail to Kevin on Saturday, June 17, 2017, explaining what had happened and hoping he could somehow make it right. I received no answer.
I called his store that following Monday, when he claimed he had been set up at a convention that weekend and hadn't read his e-mail. After a lengthy conversation, he concluded that there was "no chance in hell" that he could have missed all of that stuff being wrong in a book and that it must have been CGC's error. Mind you, he did allow for the fact that a page could have been xacto'd out and he also said he got them all from one collection of Silver Age books that were in roughly the same shape. He suggested I contact CGC as he was convinced that they either put the wrong label on the book or sent the wrong book. So I did.
Upon calling CGC, their salesperson Bree suggested I send the book in for a grading review and that if they had to crack it open to verify (Which they obviously had to as the issues were inside) and it came back the same grade, I would be charged a reholder fee. She also strongly suggested that there was no way CGC could have made this mistake either. I kept Kevin abreast of the information as I got it via text message and he said it was all very strange. He also said that he had received back 3 books out of the last 100 he submitted with wrong labels, so in his mind it was definitely possible. This was on June 24. This was also the last time I have heard from him.
I got the book back in early July and, sure enough, it WAS missing that page and it DID have tape in it and it WOULD come back a 0.5. Then I was charged a beholder fee of $33 by CGC, bringing the total I spent with them up to $96, after spending $450 on the book itself. I texted Kevin on three different occasions (7/7, 7/10, 7/18) to let him know I followed his advice and went back to CGC and they said that grade was accurate and what did he suggest we do now. I have not heard from him at all and it has been over a month.
So I have Kevin from The Comic Interlude telling me this isn't his fault and I have Bree from CGC telling me it's not their fault either. It's certainly not MY fault. AT ALL. The Comic Interlude received their money and CGC received their money. I followed Kevin's advice and all that did was put ME out an additional $33 for a book that's not even worth $33. Someone needs to stand by their products and make this right. It should NEVER be on the customer to pay for someone else's mistake. read more