Number 6

Regarding the part in bold: I'm not saying your wrong or trying to be snarky, I'm genuinely asking so I can better understand - how is it that e Bay doesn't get a cut of the shipping? Because my understanding is that e Bay calculates their fee to the sellers based on the total amount that the buyer pays: item price, taxes collected and amount collected for use on postage. Even if you're using Pirate Ship to actually print the shipping label, the cost for shipping would have to be part of the listing and therefore part of what the buyer pays, which is used to calculate the fees to the seller.

I was the underbidder on the #180. When the listings first went up he had a negative feedback for inflated shipping and refusing to combine but the seller successfully had it removed not long after the listings went live. He had a couple books I was interested in the - the #179 and 180 - but there’s nothing in his listing regarding his combined shipping policy so in light of the poofed feedback I messaged him and asked him what his policy was. He never responded. His listing states he ships via Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate box which is $17.10 and he’s charging $25 so he’s already gouging on shipping. The refusal to combine just takes it over the top. The guy is a tool but I decided to bid and just adjust my bid from what I was willing to pay down by $25. I wasn’t really bothered when I got outbid but I thought to myself the other guy is going to be in for an unpleasant surprise. Sorry it ended up being you. Edit to add: When the listing was live it was showing Priority Medium Flat Rate box but now I see on your invoice he switched the shipping method the Media Mail. $50.00 for Media Mail shipping. What an absolute piece of work. Also add: weird, when I look at his profile on a desktop it shows only positive feedback, but when I look at his profile on the app it shows him as having a 100% feedback score but you can still see the negative feedback he had removed,

Sounds like filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but without the threat of ending up on a "bad business" list. Unfortunately, it does sound like a dead end.

Agreed. Not to pile on, but wasn’t there someone just a couple pages back who sent a book back as ME for this very thing and CGC returned it with the same bent label. CGC’s response makes it sound like they just now discovered this was a problem. How many times do people have to say “Your hair is on fire! Your hair is on fire!” before you finally acknowledge ‘oh, hey, that’s why it’s so hot in here’.

Hang on, you're taking my words out of context. I was speaking to the notion that collecting information from the affected customers might be the first step in eventually getting some legal pressure applied. At no point did I suggest that this effort to gather information would have any kind of impact on new customers submitting books. It's pretty easy to see how a new customer would be completely unaware of what's being discussed here.

Quick bump for the survey.

Sure, they willingly sent him the books. But if I start an organized operation to induce people to willing send me their property under what turns out to be false pretenses, refuse to return their property when repeatedly ask to do so by the owners and then limit or cut off communication altogether - that sounds like defrauding people of their property. I’m not a lawyer and I’m not up to speed on the laws in HR’s locality, but I’m pretty sure fraud IS a crime. Now, if people are only sending me $5 comics then yes I could see that getting brushed aside as a civil matter. But the kind of money we’re talking about here? Again, not a lawyer, but I would have to think there’s some thresholds that have been hit for criminal charges.

While it would be nice if this were true, I’d be willing to guess he’s been keeping up the developments in this thread. Seems like yet another stall tactic, an attempt to dissuade the aggrieved customers from coming forward because ‘he just might actually follow through this time if I just lay off him’. But I guess we’ll see.

Well, that and the fact that in the locked thread there’s a rambling, profane post from Mike in which he outright threatens to shoot anyone who comes to his door. Granted, people can say anything on an internet message board, but at the same time, probably not something to be taken lightly either.

I understand what you’re saying. I remembered that there was mentioned earlier that a number of books were shipped back. But not knowing the value of those or what remained, I was trying to err on the side of non-hyperbole.

Yeah, you’re probably right, that is a better way to put it. I was just thinking “how much more liability can there be than outright theft”? Well, like the other posters have said, I’m not super confident that Matt approaching this guy is actually going to result in getting books back. But I do think/hope that it IS an important first step to eventually getting someone in authority over there to confirm what is and isn’t there, how much stuffing needs to hit the fan and whether the fan needs to be turned on high-speed.

He’s already effectively stolen tens of thousands of dollars of books and the money paid to restore them. Clearly, “liability” doesn’t seem to be a major concern for HR.

Since you’ve read the linked thread you now probably have a better idea of who I was referring to but just to be absolutely clear: I was referring to Chip, not Cat. While I don’t necessarily agree with Cat’s impression of Chip’s status, I think Cat relayed that information in good faith and without any attempt to deceive.

While those unaffected may not completely comprehend what's it's like to struggle with depression, conversely, because you weren't here for all the "brouhaha" you may not fully appreciate how your sympathies might possibly be played upon and manipulated. Again: no one and nothing is stopping him from participating in discussion.

As others have said, there's nothing actually stopping him from posting. IIRC what landed him in hot water last time wasn't even anything with buying/selling here, it was him telling a sob story to get people to contribute to his GoFundMe and then misused the funds to buy more stuff. There's always been a sad story and there's a long history of using that as a foot in the door. There's probably been a fair number of new members who've joined since he was added to the HOS (or were here and weren't aware of what was going on) and wouldn't be aware of the history. At this point, there's a sufficient track record that I think he needs to stay on just to keep everyone on a level playing field.

That's been my "strategy" since 1992.

No doubt. And that's probably how Heroes Restoration has been able to get away with this for so long: his customers acquiesce to his delay tactics and verbal abuse because they know (and he knows) that as individuals there's really nothing much legally they can do to pursue this. If they try and push him, he can just tell them to off. What are they going to do? But I would think this time it's going to be different. Because now the information of all these individual customers has been brought together, now all these individuals are going to be aware of each other and how much money/property is involved in total, and when Matt approaches HR with this solution, he's representing these customers as a group. Based on HR's previous profanity-laden, self-serving, blame-shifting responses it's probably very likely he'll just tell Matt to off just like he's always done in the past. But I suspect that this time the consequences for doing so will be a little more dire. Because while the individual grievances of these customers may not be enough to get law enforcements attention, as a group it may be a different story. I get what you're saying and I'm not overly optimistic. But at the same time, there's been too much capitulation to this guy's shenanigans, at some point there has to be some serious push, because one thing is crystal clear: HR is never going to get this taken care on his own. I hope when he's approached, he can swallow his pride (and keep whatever personality disorder he has in check) and see this for the opportunity to get out of this mess that it is.

I know @CGC Mike has already addressed your question about where else to post this, but what about starting another dedicated thread where the purposes of gathering information is clearly stated in the title and first post? Possibly even having it temporarily pinned? Currently this request for information is on page 7 of this thread. I could see someone affected by this seeing the thread for the first time, reading a couple of pages and get discouraged concluding that it’s just business as usual for Heroes Restoration and click out of the thread without ever making it to page 7. Granted, there’s this thread and the locked thread, so I could see why Mike might be hesitant to allow a 3rd thread about this. Just a thought.

That’s awesome work. I bought a reissue of the Mummy kit and I’ve stalled because I’m so discouraged with my lack of painting skill.

So the “rookie” phenomenon in non-sports is completely governed by the precedent set in sports regardless of what’s actually rarer. Interesting. (As you can probably tell, I’m highly skeptical of “rookie” being applied to non-sports cards and think it’s just another ploy to hype cards)

That was my thought as well. As far as getting money back, I have a feeling whatever money is sent to him instantly evaporates and it sounds like this may be a case of trying to squeeze blood from a turnip (though I’m not discouraging any of the victims from trying). I would think the priority would be trying to get the books back as it seems like that’s the one thing he still does have (though his excuses for why he hasn’t sent books back that have been clearly requested back is giving my pause). Once the books are safely back, then try and recoup whatever funds you can. But then again, if pursuing this through law enforcement or insurance, all-or-nothing be the way victims have to go

Kind of surprised the sticker didn’t sell for more than the card because with the issue of gum stains and printer roller marks, the population on the sticker is going to rise much slower than on the card. But the whole “rookie” label being applied to non-sports cards is a porting over from sports cards which (talking old-school sports cards) don’t have comparable speciality cards like stickers so I guess that’s why the card is given priority. Crazy prices either way.

While it’s disheartening and frustrating to hear this, I honestly can’t say I’m at all surprised to hear he’s been taking new work. My memory is that in the previous thread HR came in all hot and bothered because he felt the discussion was impeding his ability to keep his business afloat and complete the backlog of work he had been paid for. And he was very adamant that he thought the way to do that was to take on more work to keep things running. And he dug in on that despite having it explained to him numerous times and ways by several people that that was a bad idea and would only dig the hole deeper. And I also remember him making veiled threats: do a charge-back, you don’t get your book back; push him too hard and he has a heart attack and nobody gets nothin’. Complete with legalese that supposedly gave him carte blanche once he gets ahold of the book. So his mentality was always very much ‘my way or the highway’. I’m sorry to hear there now at least two more books being held hostage I guess there’s nothing in the “agreement’ that precludes him from soliciting more business. How is he still getting his name out there as a going restoration business? He certainly can’t afford to pay for advertising in any meaningful way I would think.

I’m looking for a copy of Wonder Stories October 1933 in Fine or better condition.

Off-topic: excellent “gaslight noir” btw, highly recommend if you haven’t seen it. Warner Archive has a really nice blu-ray release. Lansbury’s first role and her character is pretty saucy.