A number of years ago whilst writing my script I bought another set of M.A.S.K. comics from Ebay. The plan was to use the second copy for reference and then to pass them onto my son when he is old enough. Since then, I receive regular updates on my phone when new items are posted for sale.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of Non-M.A.S.K. items to sift through - such as items relating to The Mask, The Mask of Zorro, etc. Once I do manage to find find what I'm looking for I'm surprised at the following -
- The lack of knowledge that some vendors have
- The misinformation that some vendors provide
- The price
- The poor condition of some items
From experience, I've bought issues where I've asked beforehand the condition of them and I was told they were perfect. No tears, no missing pages, etc. The only thing that made them not 100% perfect was the Newsagent Box Number/Name handwritten on the cover - which is to be expected in a UK comic.
Once received, the comics were quite often not in the condition as advertised - luckily, as I paid through Paypal, it was easy enough to dispute through Ebay/Paypal to have a refund.
Every now and again, I see items for sale on Ebay and think to myself - "WTF?" Like the person who was trying to sell a Preview issue for £75 when other copies weren't selling with starting bids of 99p.
Currently the following items are for sale on Ebay and I'm a bit confused by them.
The first lot seems normal enough - three issues of Eagle and M.A.S.K. comics.
That is until you look at the price. Buy it now £19.99 (or best offer) plus £4.19 P&P.
I'm not too sure what you readers feel, but to me that seems a bit excessive. You can clearly see in the photo that one issue was 30p and the other two were 32p each.
A total of 94p - now £19.99? If my maths is correct, that is more than a 2000% increase and that's not taking the cost of the P&P into consideration.
Not that long ago, I bought the full collection of Eagle and M.A.S.K. comics to complement my second set of M.A.S.K. comics and paid around £6 including P&P.
I'm maybe not the best judge of comic prices as I'm not a trader, but I know from past experience that IPC/Fleetway comics never used to hold any value. Perhaps, due to the low value of these comics, many may have been destroyed and now are worth the money this vendor is asking?
The next item seems to be a bit of mismatch of a comic and five figures in one job lot.
Jacques LaFleur is pictured with Matt Trakker's Arrow Mask, whilst Matt Trakker is pictured with Bruce Sato's Clone Mask from Dynamo.
This item has a price tag of £49.99 or best offer and again £4.19 P&P.
£49.99? £49.99? £49.99?
I'm sure that price may seem reasonable to some but I, on the other hand, think that is far too much.
There are plenty of figures for sale on Ebay going for a couple of pounds so this seems far too excessive - but again, I'm not an avid collector so I may be wrong.
Next item is another 32p comic and this time with Vampire (doesn't look complete but can't really tell from the photo) with Floyd Malloy, Ace Riker and their respective Masks.
Like the item above, this is also £49.99 or best offer and again £4.19 P&P.
The Next item on the list is a whopping £79.99 or best offer with £4.19 delivery charge.
The item is described as
"M A S K Job Lot. 3 x Figures with Masks, 3 x Vehicles and 3 x Comics."
In the second lot above we have Jacques LaFluer with the wrong Mask and Bruce Sato's Clone Mask with Matt Trakker.
This lot sees Bruce's clone with Jacques' Miraj Mask.
To say we have 3 vehicles might be a bit of an overstatement! We only have half of Meteor and I can't quite make out if Bandit (Bullet) is complete or not. From what I can make out, Condor seems to be complete asides from no Brad Turner nor Hocus Pocus Mask.
As well as the mix-up with the clone figure and Mask, I'm not sure why the vendor wouldn't have put Ali Bombay and Ace Riker as part of this lot as their respective vehicles (or part thereof) are included in this lot.
The next lot features the first combined issue of Eagle and M.A.S.K. with Iguana, Julio Lopez and Bruce Sato with their respective Masks.
I recently bought Iguana with Lester Sludge and Mudslinger for about the price this vendor is looking for just for the P&P on this item.
Again this item is in at £49.99.
The last two lots, again £49.99 each and both come with one comic, one vehicle and two figures with their respective Masks.
The condition of Firefly isn't great - missing at least the front two tyres and I'm not sure about the condition of Dynamo in the other lot as Split Seconds aren't my speciality.
So here's the thing - we have Lester Sludge in the auction with Firefly rather than Iguana. We have two Julio Lopez's in separate auctions (or has the vendor got confused and imaged the same one twice?) but neither are with Firefly. We also have Bruce Sato in one lot, his clone in another, the clones Mask in a third and his vehicle, Dynamo, in another auction.
It would appear to me that either the vendor's knowledge of M.A.S.K. isn't that great - or perhaps he's trying to be clever in attempt to force someone into buying all the lots to get all of the right figures and vehicles together.
My thoughts - sell the comics as one lot and the vehicles as individual lots with their respective vehicles - oh, and for a hell of a lot cheaper than advertised.
If you are going to sell combinations of comics and toys, would it not also be an idea to have the comic with Lester and Iguana on the cover being sold with the respective toys?
