Calamerica

Even the Trolling is lame these days. Troll all your heart and time you can waste to your desires, but the ONE thing that was poroven right 100%: I was told over a decade ago by a BIG BIG BIG shot Comic Dealer/Distributor: " You have NO BUSINESS going on any public Forum. You might get a deal here and there, but there is NO upside; only downside". That was true on the eBay Chatboards, and even more true here. I don't see the reasonable ones here anymore; they must have gotten the message and left/lurk, etc. They actually pay people to look at that nuclear plant in Japan that had that meltdown years back. I should send the MODS( they call themselves Mods) a bill for my services for checking on this wasteland. CAL who still checks out the Gold/Silver Sales Thread - the only value left here( and don't worry the Trolls just haven't figured out a way to ruin this feature...yet)....

Wow. Now this Trolling is so bad, I have to help the Troll. I feel the need to save the unsavable.... crisco37: The Troll you are Trolling besides me is "MODOK", not "Modock". Now I am off to other things. I will be back to see the trainwreck(s). Been there done that seen it all before. CAL who insanely thinks that there can be improvement here on the Forums at things can only go up....

PM sent

Thanks for the kind words! CAL who is awestruck at the MIRACLE of two Boardies granting kindness in one day!

Block the insufficiently_thoughtful_person: "harti-willi". Total jerk and LOSER! CAL who had a separate thread about this clown but it was removed by the Mods for some unknown reason...

Thanks for the support. You won't be forgotten! CAL who has great memories of the good ones that were here...

I was going to participate this year, as this was the FIRST year in the 15 I have been here( I was here three different times in 2003) and had a GREAT unique gift you don't see everyday on the 'Bay. As my time here is uncertain I decided not to participate. Once that "other" case is decided, I will be leaving the Boards for good. CAL who is playing George Harrison's 3-Disc CD set: "All Things Must Pass".

I DID sneak my 3rd-person schtick w/ Godfather comment! If I sounded more reasonable thatn I may have failed partially... CAL who no longer cares what they think of me; just getting in the licks/swipes/get-backs I can before impending outcome...

general lack of class that any decent points within them are lost. I have enough class that has carried me to this station of life so far; if you can see anything meaningful in Stu's "similar"posts/style you just don't WANT to see the same in mine. When the one CEO calls for raising the minimum wage he is a hero, but when the OTHER CEO does it he is a profiteer. You've been called out. he may have kept his thread alive long enough to get the answer There was PLENTY of time for that Q to be answered; especially since he started ANOTHER Thread with MY personal details re: eBay while the thread YOU bring up here was still on fire( Flame War). I had to set this record straight. offered out Transplant for a fight I never did such a thing! I am a Senior Citizen in his 60's and would NEVER challenge a man bigger than me and half my age or younger! I am out of shape and haven't been in a slugfest for a few months let alone the Gym. My wife is lucky I take out the trash I am so out-of-synch( but if I didn't she would hit me with a frying pan or the first dangerous object available). I haven't been thrown out of a bar/club/other establishment in a few months! I promise I am telling the truth! I really wanted to speak to the person and try to see where he is coming from. Get HIS side of the story; see why he "dislikes" me so much. That's all. I CAN be fair. I'm the nicest person on the planet! Honest! Going to log off for a while, get some great food. Turkey Day. For the Turkey. Covfefe. I admit a few of the people are right about a FEW of my not-so-desireable traits yet are still wrong about me overall: I just cannot resist throwing out some stuff, to see what sticks. Sit back and watch the fireworks. I loved the Godfather Poster when it came out in early 1972; a Man holding the puppet strings. CAL who might stick in the Godfather today and yes I am half Italian but NO they are NOT my relatives....

Thanx a zillion! CAL who is glad that there are a FEW Select people in this world that has what it takes....

What vacation? CAL who has NO CLUE what someone who "assumes"...

What would you say if I told you: 1) I emailed the "cat" and asked him " Why R U buying my stuff? I can't grade, I'm a blowhard, etc. What's the deal?" and he never responded. That was the first day. 2) He buys the 2nd day, and I had some RARE Strange Tales auctions that bidders wanted, still no response, so I HAD to block him as I had 28 left to go that day....I could not take the chance that he would run up $1,000 of stuff and NOT pay, which has happened to me from CGCers THREE times as well as the Negative Feedbacks... 3) I get his contact info days later and he does not pick up the phone; 4) All I see on THIS Forum is how I somehow have shill bidders despite auctions going off with two or one minute to go for all of them( how can one set that up? Tell me so I CAN make more $$$$) started by the "cat" in question; 5) I sell the SAME items all the time. I have BOXES of ASM 58, IMSM 1, What If 1, X-men 96, Beatles Dell 1,.... 6) This "cat" starts the thread about that What If 1 w/ stock photo, and YOU can check that feedback - see for yourself what Feedback I did receive; 7) This "cat" received the books from me Nov 20. No word, yet; 8) This SAME scenario of getting Negatives slammed on me has happened to me TWICE before because of CGC members; 9) and while we are "at it" Not ONE person has come forward to say that slamming another Forumite's eBay is wrong, but CAL is wrong for posting "personal info" but when OTHERS post MY personal info, no one says anything? 10) What do YOU think of my "settlement " proposition??? CAL gotta run...

Nice pick up!!!

Disagree. I am NOT that hard to understand. But you are a Newbie. That explains a lot. CAL still walking the high-wire....

The "Sacrificial Lamb" concept: all in the furtherence of the goals in life. I suffer, but as long as I can do what I do( and do well), some suffering is expected. Putting things in place is my specialty. But truth be told, I don't suffer myself that much. I tolerate myself FAR MORE than the clueless in the real worlds out there. I have to be very careful what I post as the Mods have me on a short leash. I need to at least LOOK like I am behaving until I can get that settlement with one of my arch enemies( Yes, THAT Arch may be considered an Arch Enemy or at least I think he would admit he does not like me) which I feel is pending soon.... CAL who really does not suffer Newbie fools....

The PERFECT Analogy for the theme of my post; one SANE poster asked a very neutral question re: right v. wrongdoing, and it is INSANE of me expecting the answer to magically appear on this Forum. In regular-speak: if the shoe fits, wear it proudly. Don't be proud for no reason.... CAL who still suffers no fools, even on Turkey days....

89,000 is pretty good for very part-time! CAL who knows about selling as well as buying on the 'Bay....

Jason Ewart? he of micro-trimming shame( not fame...). I recall most of that train-wreck AND heard of it before it was posted here... CAL who back in the day had the connections that counted....

No the Question was never answered, despite MANY here already know the answer. Trying to get supposed "men" to be forthright here is like getting a circumcision at the age of 30. Oh, FWIW, I NEVER said that I was NOT going to send the opposition the books he bought off me on the 'Bay. I have no idea how that got "gossipped" or twisted/spin/spun/whatever to the point that I was NOT going to send him the books. That would have been an instant victory for him, as a non-performing Seller can get kicked off the 'Bay. Delivery Confirmation of those five( 5) auctions he bought off me: on Nov. 20th. I don't know if he is riding out 50 more days before he slams the Negatives on me, or what else he has planned. I feel much better about the situation, for reasons that should be obvious. Notice the key word, "should". At any rate, I won't be posting much anymore, as I have been advised to stop completely. I am pondering a possible "settlement" with him: If he can post me all 5 Star Positive Feedbacks, I will QUIT the Boards forever. Here is where Transplant and other haters can actually channel their hatred of me into something good. The Mods will love you for accepting this "settlement", Harshen will for sure love you, heck, I might ask him to give you voters 3 free submits if this is a success. I do have some Lobbying skills, and hard to believe that I need those skills here on a Comic Book Board. Oh well, that Charles Manson case would have NEVER been solved if not for that one girl having withdrawal 3 months into her jail sentence for a unrelated crime and she sang like a canary and got that wheels of Justice moving( I don't understand all the fascination of Manson but MILLIONS were mesmerized by the "hold" he had over his little cult). Sometimes unlikely events turn things out better than what you THINK they are going to turn out. CAL who wishes MOST here a Happy Thanksgiving and see you later....

I was in Tom's a few times. VERY clean, VERY nice place! Good food too! Just no customers to speak of.

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There was ONE complete non-smoking Casino: Tom's. Lasted a short time. No business. Gamblers smoke. I clearly remember when Tom's closed my Uncle on my Mother's side worked there. No business; gamblers smoke. 1987: Maryland was the FIRST state to push the health kick: non-smoking. CA tries to say they THEY were the first State to implement the non-smoking ban, but having maintaned residences in both states for years I can attest that CA is misinformed. No one really challenges this too much. Back to MD, Jan 1 1987 the ban on smoking started. We went from 18 Poker tables and 12 blackjack tables ALL FULL SEATING with wait lists that went until 11PM( closed at midnight) to ONE poker table and ONE blackjack table. The Asians went to the MD Legislature to bring back the smoking. March that year that ban was overturned. Went from the ONE table per section to FULL tables with wait lists that ran from 112 AM to 11 PM, the old standard. During the slowdowns, I had to send people home every day as there was no work. Some gambled at the tables until the State said that they could not compete against the customers( the GOOD Dealers/Floormen/Chip runners or Brush) wiped up the felt tables almost every night and the crybabies complained), so there was 34 places they had to play at - just not where THEY worked. FWIW, the proper term for a newbie starting out in the Casino business, yuor job was literally named, "BRUSH PERSONNEL". You made sandwiches, Valet vehicles, took out the trash, set mouse traps, cleaned the poker/blackjack chips( they get incredibly filthy from all the people eating food then handling the old clay-based chips), cleaned the cards, fixed short decks( cards get bent, etc.), BRUSHED the green felts off regularly, changed light bulbs, fixed microphones, sat customers to their seats, worked the "Board" where the new customer arrives and signs up for the game of his/her choice, and other duties assigned. That's how I started, and we had the old Maxim Personnel and Barbary Coast people that had relatives in Jersey. They were the SMARTEST people on the planet, and maintained the lowest profile imaginable. The few times TV/newspeople tried to get "heat" for some bull story as fodder, those old Wise Guys shown them the door EVERY time. Of course when the rooms got bigger, the Feds stepped in and forced them to hire "others" based on quotas, etc. The Top Brass filtered each department down in Sub S Corps to keep the number of employees less than 50( not exactly sure as it has been since the late 1970's), to which any "unwanteds" would never pass the dealer's auditions( to which I am a firm believer in even to this day). I can't tell you how many of their "girlfriends/mistresses" I had to hand-hold for YEARS because they could not do the job but they were pretty, thus the bosses forced them on us. Those girls rarely ever auditioned, and the few that did "miraculously" got approved by the top brass. Their "protected species" as I STILL refer to them to this very day as, they were NOT firable unless the cameras caught them stealing, and that is how I eventually got rid of most of them. Spent many an unpaid hour just biding my time knowing that on the slower days they would always be tempted; they were used to "knocking down" 300 per day( tax free, 1977 to 1986) and on the slow days when they were faced with the "Under-a-Buck" meaning less than earning $100 for that one shift, that temptation would rear its ugly head. Almost always does. Once we had the Security Managers( who were NOT employees of the MD Casinos of those days), the top brass were forced to remove the girls. At first they would make them waitress staff, but the Gaming Commission got stronger and stronger. Real jerks would "snail-mail" names, dates and times to which the top brass bristled, suspected, even questioned, but like J. Edgar Hoover, never DARED fire certain Managers because of the fear of them running to the IRS( Nixon/Ford's biggest 2 by 4!). We managers were ready for the Gaming Commission to buckle under the pressure from the Owners any day and was prepared to "walk" but that day never came. Being so close to Wash. D.C. probably helped but we were younger and did not make that connect at that time. D.C. was always breathing down our necks to justify THEIR jobs! Gov. Glendening with ONE stroke of the Governor's ink pen closed all the MD Casinos down May 24, 1997. Most got "busted" not paying Louie Goldsteins' ( Comptroller of MD in those days) State Taxes. Now the MD Casinos are back again, but no more mom-and pop operations; large conglomerates only. The MD taxes come off the TOP GROSS and if there are errors that is just too bad! Your Governments at work to ensure that you stay small, eliminates competition. Really bad in CA. The biggies have all the available Licenses locked up for another generation, via Moratoriums, etc. 1995 I started working in CA. The most selfish, self-important crybabies and wanna-be's I ever seen fill the Casinos up. MORE "juice jobbing, girlfriends/mistresses" and the ilk that made MD look like the JV teams. A BIG difference is that the CA patrons tend to have a LOT more money. In CA, I found that there were FEW life bannings for punching others, spitting on others, stealing, drug deal scorings, pimping, etc. The CA managers always say" We need their business". Back in MD we would kick them out and most of the time for LIFE and word got out, they behaved. NV? They used to be stricter too. I saw that coke-fiend Stu Ungar get thrown out of the Showboat just like you see on TV: right on his face-first. " You can't do this to me! I'm Stu Ungar and your Tourist beat me with two rag cards!". Some lady played two small cards and cracked Stu's pocket Aces. The lady made a lucky two pair. He went ballistic. He cursed the old lady into tears. Everyone there wanted to kick Ungar into the next century. We did not have cell phones in those days or else I would have taken that photo. But I have associates today that tell me that the current NV Management has "instructed" their Floor staff to be more "diplomatic". Money is King, so the bad behavior is getting tolerated everywhere. Glad I am out of that business. The NV cardrooms, poker mainly, have not been all that stable. Many a room closed like at Excalibur, Gold Coast, Treasure Island, and even Harrah's did in 1998, but they reopened during the 2002 - 2005 Boom because of the ESPN and four other TV channels showing the games. My niece used to work that the gift shop at Harrahs when they turned that old poker room into the gift shop and fired her when they re-opened the poker room a few years later. I am told that Treasure Island AGAIN closed their poker room. I was at the LV Hilton( now renamed Westgate) myself this past August and they told me that they were closing their poker room for football TV screens. I'll ask my other( Cinema) friend when he calls me this week. CA survived the non-smoking bans ONLY because the restaurants, all other public places adopted the same "blanket health" public policies, or else there would have been far more pushback against the CA State legislature than what there was at the time. CA put the "death sheds" in strategic places not too far away from the gaming so as not to miss too much action. Remember, money talks, bull walks.... An associate of mine was the Poker room manager at Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, CA( north of Santa Barbara). One day the Indians came to him and told him that he had ONE YEAR to train "suzie Q" or whatever her name was, but she wanted off the Tribal lands and wanted to take her shot at a regular job. He trains her. They give him a decent severance package. He gets on some kind of "list" for Casino Management jobs. They called him five times per day. I know that this is true because they STILL call ME( who never opted for this list) even to this day. But the jobs are NOT CA, they are Michigan, Iowa, AZ, Riverboats, etc. My friend took a Riverboat job in Mississippi, then one day the boat got beached on a sandbar and the top brass had to blame/fire someone, so they fired my friend and put it in the newspapers, even though the ship crew was employed by tugboat companies and he had NO SAY in navagatable waters procedures! At my advice we got him the names of some savage New Orleans attorneys, but before the wagons got circled a mysterious "severance package" appeared in his mail and my friend was so satisfied he vowed to never work in that cutthroat business ever again. I can't recall exactly, but that Riverboat was seized by the Feds and have long been out of business. If you are a bad Manager in ANY business, the old saying goes" Your sins will find you out". There is no truer saying in life. Years ago there was a dealer that kept popping up here who kept telling ME about the Gaming business, he did this, he did that. Then he started railing against me about Comic Books too. He knew more than me AND others here, how little I knew about Comics. Yes I let this ride for the longest time. I rarely corrected him. I never see him here anymore, and he never gave me his name in case I got lucky and DID get my casino license. I liked to hire the "knows-more-than-the-people-who-lived-it". Why? So I can "school " them WHEN they fudge up. They always do. CAL who never smoked anything in his life...ever

Here's that Spawn 1 before you call me a liar.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/17-01055-Spawn-1-1992-NM-MINT-9-8-Spawn-2-movie-in-the-works/292247831656?hash=item440b540468:g:u2UAAOSwFdJZtKvQ

The ASM 362 NMT+ 9.8 I sold for $62-something has expired off the searches. But I DID find that Spwan # 1 that went over $51.00 something. that is still searchable. Very high prices is what I am after as a seller. I don't need kmknitpickers that want free shipping/insurance. TRUTH. CAL who does not like to hand hold....

Love that pic!