Neo "The One"

On 6/6/2024 at 9:21 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

@Neo "The One" by and by...

How much is New York Sales tax specifically? I know you probably have others to where it all adds up.... but just "sales tax?"

Texas is still sizeable 8.25%

so don't feel I'm being insincere!  

Rule of thumb is 10% we get hit with State and local oftentimes. (Diff local counties = dif tax rate)

On 6/6/2024 at 9:12 AM, ADAMANTIUM said:

 Of course! I knew I was missing something

I meant when online people from New York have never charged me sales tax, I don't know if bought from there THROUGH EBAY

But I doubt the 2 are unrelated, as idk New York laws concerning such, but was trying just to give the info I had haha, it might not help much.

Other than to say, maybe ebay gets the same benefits from New York as if you had purchased from an online retailer based there online? That is my only guess, but idk specifics  

I'm in NY - they charge me NY sales tax... Which I might add is SIGNIFICANT! 

On 5/30/2024 at 6:59 PM, Sauce Dog said:

Latest horror story from Hero Restoration that Kenny was trying to fix.

A TEC #29 arrived with SUPER bleached interiors - whiter than the sun - but it was soon noticed that these pages were NOT from that comic but rather a TEC #31....Mike sent the customer someone elses mega grail pages he was working on (so now not only does he have two super damaged Action Comics that Mike destroyed but also he only has the cover for his TEC29 he submitted and somebodies TEC31). 

Kenny reached out to me with the details hoping I could help, and lo-and-behold I was able to figure out who submitted that TEC31 and thankfully I had all his submission contact details in my backup DB! He submitted it way back in 2017 and never got it back, he even sent lawyers after Mike, but eventually had to assume it was lost forever. At least that collector gets a happy ending, as Kenny is going to finish the pages and reassemble the book for him.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7mzcCwvRRA/

 

 

Honestly - I don’t know you guys personally but you and Kenny are Great!  Truly stand up guys! 

On 5/30/2024 at 6:36 PM, thehumantorch said:

Come on guys, don't you know that saying all these mean things will make it difficult for Mike to victimize more suckers turn things around and make everyone whole?

Lmao

On 5/30/2024 at 3:42 PM, revat said:

Without getting into it, I have a career where I have dealt with numerous (and I do mean numerous) victims of fraud and financial crimes.  And even so I'm still shocked by how many people don't come forward, or are hesitant to come forward, even when the truth is staring them in the face OR law enforcement action is taken and their best chance of recovery is actually reporting the crime.

These are some of the factors (in no particular order) that I personally have witnessed of why people hesitate or refuse to come forward and report to law enforcement, especially when they don't think they can recover any compensation.

 

1.  Mistrust of law enforcement or the legal system - don't like dealing with lawyers and/or police.

2.  Embarrassment - people like to believe they're not easily tricked, reporting to the police would be a public and legal admission of it.

3.  Don't want a family member (usually a spouse) to find out about this financial loss, even though they are a victim.

4.  Just don't want the hassle - it was a long time ago: I'm gonna fill out forms, give official statements to police, potentially get subpoenaed or called to testify, not worth it

5.  They've already processed the trauma and don't want to dredge up the negative feelings and stress

6.  They think their best chance of recovery (usually because the suspect has told them so) is to give the suspect more time to complete the project or get more money.

7.  They are afraid of the suspect, either of physical harm or that the suspect can negatively impact their life in some other way.

8.  The victim has done something than they feel is less than ethical in the course of the whole ordeal and would like to stay off of the governments radar - examples include: unreported income on tax forms, physical threats made against the fraudster, and having to answer the question of why they didn't report to the police sooner when they knew this fraudster was hurting people.

9.  They think that there are enough other victims and their involvement or non-involvement won't impact the final outcome.

 

It can be some, all, or none of these reasons.  However if you can narrow in on a reason for hesitancy/reluctance, you can make a plan to allay those concerns, if that is your goal.

Thank you sir!  Wise words. 

On 5/30/2024 at 1:10 PM, boreds said:

Mike should be doing hard time for this. What a world we live in where scamming people out of millions means less than the (other) minor crimes he's committed. I know some have sympathy for the guy, but this entire situation is not right. The way he's acted after the fact doesn't make it any better. The customers lose in the end, and you can't get blood from a stone. Mike was the only winner here. 

You know.  I did have sympathy for him at one time.  Health issues and the like.  But at some point everything starts sounding like an excuse, and now that a ton of books worth large sums are seemingly gone in addition to monies and services NOT rendered, I have lost all sympathy.  

On 5/30/2024 at 12:48 PM, revat said:

I kinda see the logic, but turning over some sort of 'master list' to law enforcement when you may not have all the facts about each victim, and have not vetted them, and other victims trust (but shouldn't trust) their memories instead of documents of the situations is a slippery tactic. 

You should encourage every one to report their issue to law enforcement individually or an attorney individually (it can be the same attorney).  If you, as another victim (or third party) collect and turn in specific information later proved to be incomplete or wrong or unproveable, it can hurt your credibility as a witness and the credibility of the civil/criminal court case (assuming it goes that far).   Think of how it would go on a cross examination by defense in court when they're asking you about a list you compiled based on the word of internet strangers, and the actual documents presented show numbers very very different to the ones you compiled (and not even because of anything nefarious, just because people are trying to remember stuff that happened 5 years ago, and forgetting about 1 book could literally mean $10K difference).  The police/attorney would need to get an individual statement from each victim either way if they were to count it for the case, but if their statement doesn't match the statement you turned in, the police may have to do extra work to sort out the difference.

 

I do understand there could be some good done with a list of missing books for those who wish to share with boardies, but I'm 1000% sure there's plenty of boardies who have read this thread and are victims and have said nothing for one reason or another BUT have reported to the authorities, which would never be counted in whatever helpful list you might be provided by a boardie to the police.

Bottom line:  Encourage folks to report crimes if they believe crimes have been committed.  If the police or an attorney come to you and ask for some specific help, that's a different story.

Cool.  It's funny (but not funny).  Someone else hit me up via the herorestorationcomic.com website - and he was on the ORGINAL THREAD when things went south with Mike.  I sent him the info I have, but it still amazes me that so many people have taken 'non action' and are still struggling with this.  

On 5/29/2024 at 9:44 PM, revat said:

I can’t imagine it’s in anyone’s interest here on boards to track the total amount,  unless they are a lawyer making a civil/criminal claim or law enforcement.  The number is almost certainly a moving target anyways with some books returned, differing opinions on values, and new claims coming to light relatively often, as well as other action occurring privately.  

It’s enough knowing “the losses are enough that it’s SERIOUS by any reasonable measures”, to the extent that anyone reading this should A) try not to do business with Hero Restorations and B) report any losses to law enforcement and C) not expect a quick remedy (though theoretically you could luck into one).  

Any individual here knowing the total losses probably wouldn’t materially impact anyone’s decision making.

Yes Law enforcement is involved. And Hero Restoration is out of business.  I have no idea if Mike or his associates are doing business locally.  Since Law enforcement IS involved and I know of individuals pursuing legal action, I think it would be helpful to come up with a best effort list.  I have not heard of anyone getting anything back from Mike for many many months now.  Basically help Law Enforcement, since there is a lot of moving parts to this whole ordeal.  

Another person contacted me today.  

On 5/28/2024 at 11:48 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

Has anyone kept a tally of the value of known missing books? I assume it has to be well into 6-figures by now. 

Envision people taking their car to a mechanic. The mechanic suddenly closes shop, doesn't return calls and customers don't get their cars back. How long would it take for the police to arrest the guy?

I have not kept a tally - I don't even know if a comprensive list exists - if someone wants to take a stab at it...  Its funny you use the car analogy - I use that all the time to explain the problem to non-comic people.  Dents = creases.  Paint = color touch, etc.  At least with cars there are VIN numbers, title and other ways to help identify that you are the owner.  With comics it may be more difficult.  But I think that the paper trail from submissions and acknowlegement from HR should help in that area.  Postal tracking numbers, past emails that go unresponded from HR etc. 

Got another inquiry from the website (HeroRestorationComic.com) Sent him the contact info for Detective investigating.  I'm leaving out his name for privacy concerns, but looks like he's part of the AF 15 club.

On 5/25/2024 at 8:07 PM, Winsomesixsquid said:

Hi there. I have a book that was at hero restoration. I haven't been able to contact Mike through email. Should I be worried about not getting it back?

DM me.  I'll send you the Detectives name and contact info who is working on this.

On 5/23/2024 at 9:21 AM, themegoguy said:

Kenny's been posting pics of some of Mike's work on Instagram that he's offered to try to help fix:

https://www.instagram.com/sanderson_studios/p/C7Ipj8UsI0e/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/sanderson_studios/p/C7SaUfVvfej/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/sanderson_studios/p/C7S--fYMgY1/?hl=en&img_index=1

Wow - this is Great! (All things considered)...  Now Following!

It is sad, but it brought me to this, which I think is almost reasonable... Real 129

On 5/9/2024 at 11:29 AM, Mgc015 said:

Grading the signatures is idiotic for comics. Will it be a better grade and more expensive if McFarlane uses the whole Todd and not just the letter T in his signature? I can’t control how someone signs. What if someone just has a messy and unpleasant signature, but thats their signature. Are there some signers who can’t get more than a 7.0 because the grader thinks the signature is too sloppy? Do we really trust the graders to give consistent grades for signatures? They can’t be consistent with the books themselves. Hopefully no one falls for this money grab and it just goes away. Remember that the consumers are the ones who drive the hobby. Consumers are the ones who wanted “authenticated” signatures as well as the previous “witnessed” ones. They let it be known by submitting to the other company for this kind of service. Consumers can get rid of grading the actual signatures by not paying for this stupid service. Wait until your signature comes back with a disappointing signature grade and you decide to crack it and resubmit without the signature grade. They will just keep collecting money from all of the resubmits they will get. When does it end?

I give this a 10 for content, a 10 for consistency and a 10 for clarity.  Overall a 9.8 since 10's are unicorns in comics.  (ok 10)

On 5/8/2024 at 8:58 PM, CHWL said:

Thinking of sending this in but awaiting clarification on whether such remark would be deemed to "negatively impact the grade of the comic"...

POSITIVELY IMPACTS THE GRADE - She's Gorgeous!

I have a good one.  How would this be handled?  

On 5/8/2024 at 4:18 PM, jcjames said:

Wait, so are they really grading the quality/placement of the signature in UNverfied signatures only... so wouldn't that make a "5.0" or "6.0" signature more of a "nudge-nudge,wink-wink" as to whether it's actually authentic compared to a "8.0" or "9.0" signature??? 

Meanwhile verified signatures completely obliterating the only face on the cover would still have no such quality/placement grade for the signature???

This sounds so very confusing!

 

ETA: Why would the quality/placement of the signature of an UNverified signature need to be graded anyway??? It's either authentic or not - and it's obvious if it looks bad, sloppy, smeared or terribly-placed. Much more obvious than whether it's authentic.

So again, WHY grade the "quality/placement" of only UNverified signatures now??

This is so true.  I sent in 2 "New Avengers 7" and on one of them Bendis signed RIGHT OVER Spiderwoman's face.  She was really pissed.  And so was I.   (I'm not kidding - well maybe a little)

Not sure applicability in the States, but interesting none the less...  https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/08/no-refund-after-i-was-sold-a-stolen-3300-bike-on-ebay

On 5/8/2024 at 9:52 AM, Bakerbr13 said:

I just find this whole thing disgusting. This is clearly a money grab by creating a service that didn't need to exist. I'll never buy anything that is verified by jsa. Autograph grading...... come on now......

I disagree with the verification part, but agree about 'grading a signature'.  I have signed books I'd like to get graded from the 80's when I was a kid.  I witnessed it, but no one that could verify did!  Been sitting on the fence about grading elsewhere.  I have what I believe to be a 9.8 Punisher 1 Limited Series signed by Carl Potts.  I always wanted it to be graded, but don't like Green labels.  I have Sketched books I'd like to get graded / verified.  My LCS does several signings a year which I've been on the fence about due to grading issues.  I'm happy CGC / JSA is doing this.

@MattM CS Sorry - new to this, but in what cases would art negatively effect the grade of the book?  If you have a link that's fine.  Thanks!

On 5/8/2024 at 2:38 AM, DougC said:

Yes, and you have the opportunity for a grade drop as well due to handling...

I'm always going for grade drops when re-submitting.  And with a CGC press it happens quite often!  yay me.

On 5/7/2024 at 10:35 PM, Flanders82 said:

Can I resubmit comics with a CGC Qualified green label for JSA autograph authentication?

Yes. Autographed comics with a CGC Qualified green label are eligible for CGC x JSA certification. Submit these books under an applicable grading tier and select “JSA Autograph Authentication” as an add-on service. JSA will determine if the autograph is genuine, and CGC will regrade and encapsulate the comic.

So if I submit a qualified label slab, the book will be regraded and I'll be charged a grading fee in addition to the authentication fee? 

This is a good one.  Sounds more like a re-holder to me.  Why regrade?  Unless you think it will get a bump.

On 5/7/2024 at 9:24 PM, Hulksdaddy1 said:

So, for an example, how would this TMNT #1 3rd Print be treated? Verified sigs and sketch? Or just the sigs, not the sketches, which may or may not detract from the grade?

You are grading the book - not the quality of the artwork.  I would say something like "Verified Signature and Sketch"  Same ink, same style. Did it come with a COA?