quicksilver

What legal avenues ?

There’s clearly no money left…

On 3/24/2024 at 12:33 PM, Point Five said:

Even by the standards of this thread, that is shocking. I am so sorry.

 

Thank you, it was a very stressful experience, and I’m relieved it’s over with.

The fact that I’ve lost over $65,000 just has to be put behind me.

On 3/24/2024 at 11:29 AM, KCOComics said:

How did he remove the trimmed designation? Leaf casted new material?

He calls it “Dry Grafting”. I don’t pretend to understand the process though.

The Batman # 1 referenced earlier in this thread was mine. It was a poor looking 5.0 with trimming (not CGC), and Mike did a decent job on it, inc removing the trimmed designation, something that I had no idea could be done.

However, the problems posed my Action # 7 & # 10 have been very badly treated, and in fact made much worse now to the point where they are unsalvagable. They look as if they have been washed to within an inch of their lives.
Bearing in mind he received these books in 2017, it looks like he was experimenting with techniques he was certainly not a master of. Either that or his mind was deteriorating so much that he began to do all the wrong things to these books, because they are a disgrace now.

On 6/23/2023 at 9:45 PM, mattn792 said:

I assume he didn’t say anything about returning your $12,275?

Yes - he said it was impossible.

And that he was filing for bankruptcy, and I would have the opportunity to apply for some restitution when contacted by the trustee.

Not a lot I can do from this distance I would think.

On 6/23/2023 at 5:41 PM, L'Angelo Misterioso said:

Can we get a list of who has comics that are still being held hostage by Mike, and who has books that have so far been returned by Mike? I've completely lost track of which books are items of dispute, except NP's Amazing Fantasy #15 (doubtful it's been mailed to NP)

Well, here are mine :

Action # 7 & # 10

Detective # 29

Cost price was $53255 including $550 for a More Fun # 38 as a donor back cover for the AC# 7

I paid $12275 to Hero, and the last I heard from him was April 10th, saying that he would return the books via a trusted third party, as I’m in the UK.

How do you tell whose page someone was viewing ?

I got my Batman # 1 back last year after six years. It looked really nice , I was surprised it only got 7.0…

On 6/20/2023 at 10:14 PM, wombat said:

So if all these books have been there for over 5 years who exactly has been getting books finished/returned the last 5 years? People who submitted before that?

On 6/20/2023 at 7:08 PM, L'Angelo Misterioso said:

Which books?

Action # 7, # 10, Tec # 29.

I have three books with them, two of which have been there about five years…

On 10/13/2022 at 6:48 PM, podboy66 said:

just got this one in the mail....

My old copy…congrats !

On 10/11/2022 at 6:04 AM, lou_fine said:

Yes, but for long term collectors like you and some of the other boardies here, you definitely can't complain when you not only get a lifetime of fun and enjoyment from your chosen hobby, but hopefully also a big financial payoff from it at the end.  

Yes a new house in a nice part of Spain seems like a good trade off, but I can’t help wishing I could have saved some of them…

On 10/9/2022 at 8:10 PM, lou_fine said:

Did you purchase a lot of these GA books back in the day when restoration was seen as adding value to the books, similar to how undisclosed pressing and cleaning nowadays is seen as adding value to books?  

 

Isn't this the absolute best of both worlds when your hobby can also go a long ways to funding a good portion your retirement? 

 

No, I actually only started buying GA seriously about ten years ago.

I knew I could never get all I wanted without buying restored copies, so I couldn’t afford to worry, apart from the SA books.

Yes, it definitely is the best of both worlds…I’ll miss them though.

On 10/7/2022 at 5:05 PM, Forbush-Man said:

How did you do? Well, I hope.... 

Well enough I think…will take a little time what with the time payments etc, but a decent retirement pot for this area of Spain…

On 9/27/2022 at 11:21 PM, Forbush-Man said:

That's good news for me because I will be the "King of PLOD's" in Comiclink's October Focused Auction.  

That was me in the latest CC auction…almost all my GA was purple, but hey, at least I had them…

Yes, many books were restored (pretty sure the two big keys were - in fact I think I remember him telling me DC # 27 had a recreated cover, so that would have been incomplete), and just plain low grade.

On 6/17/2022 at 8:17 PM, Terry JSA said:

I tried to get my hands on it at the very least, but $84k isn’t all that bad since this book hardly comes up. 

There’s another one in the next CC auction, same one that sold in March…

https://www.comicconnect.com/item/947406

How do you think I feel ? 😅

Yes, it is rather sad, but thIs was always the plan…property is very expensive in this part of Spain, and you can’t take it with you…

I hope there may be one or two pieces in there that interest you Peter, it would be nice to think that they could go to an appreciative home…

Shame about the # 29 still not back from Hero….

On 4/14/2022 at 5:48 PM, VintageComics said:

Thank you! 

I brokered the deal. I worked on it for some time before we could finalize it. 

I have to say, it's pretty surreal to turn a hobby I always loved, and used to get bullied and beat up for in grade school and middle school and turn it into something like this. 

Back in the 70s and 80s it wasn't cool to be a comic geek. It was considered fringe. We were thought of as losers and nerds and I even got beat up for it at times as a kid. My parents never understood it as they were always throwing my comic books out. 

I never backed down and always stood my ground, though and it's a little surreal now. 

My dad passed away in 2004 and before he passed he even apologized for taking such a negative view on my comic books. I suppose if he could see my life now he'd be impressed. 

Funny the things we carry with us. 

I do appreciate it very much. 

That’s really interesting to hear Roy. My early experiences of comics are certainly very similar to yours, except that in my circles comics were hugely popular at school, and trades of single books, even sales of whole collections became became fairly common by the mid seventies. However, my father, like yours, held no truck with all this as a business, and he was already too far gone to recognise any kind of satisfaction or success that I eventually had.

And many congratulations on being a part of such a massive transaction Roy…