SkOw

I was going to wait and hopefully try to resolve this issue without a nomination, but since he has now gone back on his offer AND started a new sales thread of raw books I felt the need to let the board know about what happened. I've had hundreds of great transactions on the boards and really only transactions with Chip Cataldo and one with Dylan (in my defense this was when he was brand new on the boards before everyone new what he was) ended poorly but this one is kind of up there now albeit a step or two below. In the interest of transparency, I am going to include screen shots of our whole exchange so the board can best decide. Please note that I did strip out any personally identifiable information of he or I and that several of his PMs were edited (that is one of the issues) so you are seeing how they look now. Summary before the details: 1) Blackout lists a long box of comics he states has an FMV of 1800 for 1400 on the boards. He says that he will break it into smaller lots after being warned about mystery boxes (In his defense, and I know he is a new seller here, they did used to be able to be sold here as I bought some from a few boardies previously on here.) 2) I had PMed him asking to see some sample pics of the box, and depending on what they looked like was interested. He sent me some pics and offered it to me for 1200. Based on the pictures, I said that as long as it was a full long box of comics with those pictures I would do 1000 on it. He agreed and I claimed the box per PM in thread. 3) I received a box packed by the UPS store weighing 29 pounds (Red Flag #1 as a packed long box is 50+ pounds) 4) I unbox it and it is substantially less books than what was agreed to. I snapped some pictures of them in a "shorter" short boxes and in a long box and sent those to the seller asking if another box was coming as that could easily be the problem. 5) Seller said that something may have happened with UPS, then said that there should have been 180 books there. (Red Flag #2 as a long box is 250-300 packed) 6) I count and tell him there are 169 books there and we agree that it is not UPS' fault at all. I also note that even some of the books pictured are not there though. I ask for a return and he asks for time to think about it. 7) He offers me a return but says I have to pay shipping both ways. I tell him that is unacceptable as he did not deliver what was promised. 8) He offers me a refund (I never asked for that and wanted just to send them back) of 33% of the amount since he shorted me about 33%. I read this and was talking to my wife about it while our family was sitting down for dinner and didn't finish replying. 9) I reply that I will accept it and we can just put this one to bed. But then I notice that he EDITED his refund offer and said he would give me less than half of what he offered originally! 10) I call him out on it, he tries to blame me for it, and we go back and forth multiple times with him saying he would do the refund then backing out again of any refund. There is also a lot of gaslighting that he does IMO but I will leave that to you all to decide on your own. He does a lot of passive aggressively blaming purchasers for things he does. There are also things that he does like editing posts after making an offer and things like I paid close to 100 for shipping when it says on the label it was 71 bucks (and half of that was UPS packing it for you) or here is 33% of your money back now you can flip them and make a hundred bucks when FMV is 1800. I don't know if he took books out of the box before he shipped them or what as only a few pictured books weren't there, but the bottom line is this, he did not deliver what he said he would and what was agreed to, and THEN on top of that went back on a refund offer. At the least I thought the folks on the boards should know who they are dealing with. Pictures to follow......

While I think that is a tad harsh there is a lot of truth in what you are saying. The big thing I would push back on is the 2015 timing. I think the bottom fell out after the pandemic as just before that Dale Roberts, Bob Storm, Ted from Superworld, Reece, and a lot of the great national dealers were always at this show. Only Reece came back after the pandemic.... once I believe. The pandemic really hurt this show, and I know the promoter lost key staff to other promotions. I think it remains to be seen if it is the demise of this show long term as a COMIC show or if that was a temporary step back due to the pandemic. I know I used to buy from Dale, Ted, and Greg/Austin so I feel you on the loss of key comic dealers. What I will say though is that this year Harley has a GREAT consignment collection he is rolling out. I highly recommend checking it out. (I may or may not have already sharked a few books from that but I haven't seen everything .) There are some other really good local dealers that will still be there. Roger and Collector Zone are back after missing a few years and Roger is going to have a VERY impressive wall this year at the show. Make cash offers on multiple books! He also has a good selection of 5 dollar books. Comic Pop had a Startling Comics 49 on his wall last year and I know he has (as of now) a Black Cat 50 so he still has the big golden age books. Geeky Experience is also from Michigan and has good stuff (Jason is the owner and a good dude, he said he will also be at Heroes too). I know he has been buying the past few months. Comicade is a new shop in Michigan, I think it actually opened during the pandemic, but they either got a great collection in or the owner seeded it with his own books because they have a tremendous wall of marvels right now. I'm more into GA right now, but for that crowd there are some good books there. Lawrence is the guy that owns the shop and he is a good dude. Phat daddy has good stuff, I think he is from Ohio and not Michigan actually, but he is a good guy with good books. One last guy I really like is Brad at Brad's comics and toys but like the name sounds he is 50/50 between the two. He has good prices on his stuff and usually a good 1, 2, or 3 dollar selection of books. I guess my take would be that the show used to be an A show and is now a C show, but not an F show. Just my take, I still think it is worth going to, especially with what Harley has, but if you go in with pre-pandemic expectations you are going to be disappointed.

IMO this used to be a top 5-10 national COMIC convention, very much in the same category of Baltimore or Heroes, but it unfortunately has become as much of a pop culture con as some of the other big shows. That said I am stoked and I know that Harley and some of the other local dealers have books from that FANTAST Collection to sell so I think it will be worth it this year. With CGC being back and having a booth this year, I plan on actually sending a few books in. They have not been at Motor City since 2019 before the pandemic, and of course their first time in Michigan in 4 years is right after another rate hike and elimination of the express tier! I'll feel better after I dig through some dollar boxes

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I didn’t see one started for this show so I figured I would start one. Very excited for a true COMIC show!!! The lineup they have announced so far is crazy. Here is just a partial list: BILL SIENKIEWIC CHRIS CLAREMONT STEVE EPTING JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ JOHN ROMITA JR. ALEX SAVIUK JIM SHOOTER CHARLES VESS RON WILSON SKOTTIE YOUNG AL MILGROM JEREMY BASTIAN BRETT BREEDING SCOTT HANNA TONY HARRIS JOE RUBINSTEIN RON FRENZ MIKE GRELL BOB HALL JAE LEE KHOI PHAM BUDD ROOT DON ROSA JIM STERANKO ROY THOMAS

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Take at 50% off

Having C2E2 and megacon on the same weekend is insanity. I think that is a MUCH bigger factor this year. National dealers were forced to split inventory or pick which one to go to.

As someone that has actually seen the books and now owns some, the condition overall is pretty amazing. There are some rags he clearly bought second hand but the books he had multiple copies of off the newsstand are all very nice. For example the stack of SME 15s were all in the 8.0-9.4 range. If Darren allows me to take some pictures and post them I will. I could say a lot more but I don’t want to betray any trust. Let’s just say it is the greatest collection I’ve ever seen and it isn’t even close, and some national auction houses back me up on that claim. Also the family are genuinely good people IMO.

I’d be more mad if you didn’t look so sexy with that lipstick

Well done

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It is unlisted in all the usual sources. However, he did do the front cover to #4 so it is highly possible. Sorry I can’t confirm.

Copy C and Harley. Take per PM

Take both at 40% off

Take at 40% off

Take at 40% off

@lizards2 - you check most of these boxes. What you got?

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