gcstomp

Invest in solid tires on hand truck, I learned that inflatable tires blow out when hauling boxes of mags, trades/hard covers. Keep expenses low, if doing lots of shows, own the cargo van. There is more than 1 way to skin a cat. Key for me, turnover, and opportunity windows, as in move more books, and do more shows. I do more than 2 dozen shows a year, be it the big well advertised one that draws wall to wall people for 4 days, or the small show, with little foot traffic, in a less developed area, and to me every show holds value. It is not enough to just set up, the profit lies in working the room, buying from depressed vendors or walk ins, in being approachable and making some bulk offers, or being open to someone trying to bundle your material, be it vendor or customer, and in following up with developing contacts with want lists.

My 1st dealing with Richie was maybe 25 years ago, in a small show in a holiday inn in Wantagh NY. Richie had turned down cash from someone for full sticker price with vendor next to him. He was engaged in a serious argument with his booth neighbor about not having to make a sale to someone if he doesnt want to. Neighbor said you have to take the cash for the item at the marked price. Richie asked, how about if the cash is counterfeit. Neighbor says of course not, you dont take the cash. Well, then the cash is questionable, I do not even have to see it, and no required level of proof has been set, so no likey you, no sale. Nuts right, at a show, having this kind of hypothetical talk? IMO, turning point for Richie regarding 3rd party grading was more personal. I was set up across from his booth one show, I believe it was last years TBCC, maybe year before, and Richie was busy ignoring his customers, but it wasnt a newspaper this time. He and Steve B were sitting and chatting, with Richie alternating between scowling, waving his hands in cartoon fashion, laughing, and nodding. This post will go poof, as my prior posts have been, but that wont change anything. They were talking for a good couple of hours, every once in a while Richie would swiftly grab a book making some important point, but when Steve B left, after having an open and honest talk about slabbing done for whatever the "right" reasons are, I would have laid down a mega bet that Richie was a convert from that point on.

Gabe, you have exposed yourself to a group of people who are mostly well intentioned here, but as you have mentioned you have some mental issues/learning disabilities, as well as memory black outs. The thread readers here are not trained mental health professionals, this is not a safe and nurturing environment for you to treat it as a confessional. There has been some negative piling on, because people tend to want to use their example as they had it rough, worked hard,and now do well. Which is fine, and I am sure you heard that. I urge you to not let any negative piling on in this thread destroy you, as your voice sounds very much like a troubled cousin I had who sadly is no longer with us. Life is hard, for some unbearable, for those who have various social and mental challenges, the 1st step would be to get out of this spotlight, this thread. Get yourself some help, just a safe environment where you can open up, as you clearly yearn to do, without fear of ridicule from those who cannot possibly understand the unique hell you may be in. A one on one with a mental health professional or a weekly group session with like diagnosed people will fill the need you have to share your struggles without the negative baggage.

Space looks great Jason. Best of luck!

Sounds like you are in a fortunate situation. I know David Pike on these boards had a similar good situation and posted his beginnings of shopping for space, then setting up the store, then the various promotions he held at the location. It was interesting to see the evolution of the space, and he has always been very sharp about what is hot right now in terms of shiny modern drek. He also always had a good well paying job in addition to store. I have logged my years doing hundreds of shows, like you, a good 2 per month. That particular experience gives you great insight into current market trends, and more buying and selling opps than any sleepy town store could dream of, but has the downside of physically breaking you being on the road. Long time contact of mine had 2 stores in my area at one time, then one, then closed shop and just does ebay. He does 500 fresh auction listings a week, and when I asked him about that vs store he said he does 10 times better than when he had the mountain of store expenses. Another type of business model I know about we can call G, who travels as a customer to shows, is very savy bulk buyer always plugged into gpa. He will spend thousands at a show for material to press and grade and then its about plugging those pieces into various auctions. He also always had a good job as well as being a family dude. If I was smarter I would go that path, as the setting up at dozens of shows a year after you are on wrong side of 40 absolutely breaks you physically, at least for me it leaves me beat up.

Very sad to hear of Howard passing. Much too young to go. I had a number of dealings with him over the years, and the past couple he did mention letting go of some treasures due to his health, but of course I did not realize it was terminal/hospice level cancer type of health issue. Really makes you examine your own life.

Forgive my fashion innocence, Roy what are those strappy leather things on your jeans? Are they chaps, or some kind of western motif product holder or pants reinforcement?

I was no great fan of the Affleck DD, but I loved the Kingpin casting of Michael Clarke Duncan. No other known actor at the time could have filled the role of what was supposed to be such a massive and powerful, bulky figure. I totally would buy that Kingpin throwing a punch, missing DD, and cracking the brick wall he hit. Just a giant of a man that committed to the role. Netflix DD way better material all around, the show is seriously best quality superhero run I could hope for. But the physical factor of an overwhelming bull of a man is not there in Kingpin, though the guys acting makes up for it, imo.

Binge watched this over 3 days. Just beyond impressed, the fight scenes, the character development and casting, really impressive. I have a bit of anxiety having finished it and not having new material to watch tomorrow of this world. The Kingpin quirks with speech, and outbursts and layers of various issues from his childhood foundation all make sense. The Daredevil outfit feels more like a piece of true combat real world gear than form fitting look at me spandex that provides zero protection. Man, I love this series.

Rupp is the man, . I knew that was what he meant by lots of open threads, and there are no guidelines saying old open threads can be disregarded. Start the clock! Off with their heads! Yea, be cool if we had a little more flower child love and a way slower trigger finger, I dont think adding someone to the list who had prior to the "Ill take it" sign said in the pm to the buyer he was not going to sell it even at the full asking which he felt he made a booboo and was too low. Adding him to the list is a technicality, equal in weight to the refusal to sell the CGC 9.8 WD 1 for $600 in an open thread with no prior sold posting.

TMNT 1 is a 30 year old book that has had a wide base of rabid fans for every bit of that time. In terms of top books of the past 30 years it has to be a top 10 book, in virtually any kind of metric you can think up. I see a single hyper vocal poster who feels TMNT 1 is a bubble book. Great, noted. But how many posts from that 1 poster do we need to know their position?

Nope, small dollar, $40 something. Just things like this cause me a mental short circuit, like someone taking my lunch from the fridge at work. Who freaking took my sammich, as I go desk to desk looking to rip someones head off. Did you touch my chicken salad you sick weasel?

Is this a case where I am just scroogled? I bought from a boardie. Item sent with delivery confirmation showing as delivered on 12/17. But I didnt get the item. I was home all day, so I know item was never dropped off at all. I am sure it was not stolen off porch, it just was never delivered. I am not sure how to proceed, will head to the po tomorrow but I cant imagine it will go well. Look forward to fitzing around on the busiest po day of the year asking for a supervisor who will mock my efforts to find a needle in a haystack. I have done a few hundred buys on this board, and at least 1000 buys on ebay and I have never had an item scanned as delivered but it wasnt until now. I assume no matter what seller is clear because online shows as delivered?

Jeez Rupp I would be pissed at that. From experience I know you lose your arse on shipping those large lots, to compound that loss with a return seems overly harsh. Not sure how 2 soft corners on sealed hb's is justification for buyer needing to return the entire crate of 15 to 20 packaged poodle toys. Looks like uptight buyer to me. I know I wouldnt return one of your lots unless I opened the box and a live spider monkey popped out and stole my car keys.

All around stinks for both of you. You know seller sent item, you have no doubt, you can see his tracking # to the wrong address. You have waited now almost 3 months, on CGC slabs that should not have been sent media mail in first place, to arrive. It takes a minute to update paypal with correct address. Overlooking that step gummed up the works for months. I see both sides, would say you need to file paypal claim but at this point seems you are well past deadline to do so. And you gave the seller a heads up like 10 days ago that you would be outing them unless they refunded you, and there was no response, so its time.

I agree that a small membership fee would cull some problem people, and the ones that do stay would be very much traceable via credit card on file. I cant think of a good reason for a $500 - $700 annual membership like Cal would like, unless there was a serious goody bag of free submit vouchers, a hefty bag of mylar from the CGC receiving room (what do they do w/all that mylar from submissions?) and a meet and greet with Batman.

BCW has done an admirable job of staying cool under fire in what is a faceless mob, empowered by group rumblings. Numerous jabs, calls of "what is your name", thinly veiled insults "you could be the BCW janitor". I have no doubt if a name was provided there would be a detective job done and postings of 6th grade truancy back in 1974 from a google search would be produced in 8 minutes flat, further muddying the waters. Note, Hotflips, a very well known and respected member of the boards has wisely stayed out of the fray, in what can only be called a no win situation. Ultra Pro, Miller, BCW, Hotflips all produce a similar product in the 100 board per pack coated board that sells cheap, and is used in the poly bags that are also sold cheap. These supplies house the comics that fill long boxes all over the country, until such time that the collection is sold off, if moderns then very likey for less than the initial investment in the supplies themselves. EGerber produces a different product, which sells at a multiple of the the cost point of the CB's. The different product not surprisingly has different results in the pH test.

Pure physical strength, modern interpretation, Hulk is strongest. WW Hulk. Silver age, of course it was Supes, there was no upper limit as he was pushing planets out of the way of giant meteors.

Another stat fudger Calligraphy guy. Sure, Eman rolled 4 18's out of 6 stats on your sheet. Did anyone play with straight 3 dice rolled per stat, from top to bottom, and play it out? That may have been the flaw in DnD was the character gen system. A point buy in may have been better, like they use in the online games now. I havent played in 20 years (ouch, Im old) but I still have fond memories of those gaming sessions.

Geez that episode brought back memories. One of my group was amazing with painting the Ral Partha figures. At one point he entered contests, and his pieces would sell for like $50 and a $100 each, and he had a waiting list of months for people wanting to buy them. Real lead, not plastic or whatever they use now for Heroclix mini's. I vividly remember playing module Tomb Of Horrors, and our entire party wiped out, characters that took us years to build. Wonder where my old books are.

Picked up a large batch of Deadpool from USCMitch. Awesome lot of books, all bagged and boarded and he threw in nice freebies. I will definitely look for his next thread.

Have to say I am with Boscoe. You should post if you catch seller in a lie, as in you find out he is selling those exact books. But you do not ninja his sales threads with insinuations of wrongdoing, and post on prob thread on top. Can you imagine how pissed seller must be, having paid you to take his books essentially, and still suffer words from you? ( I am 100% sure you did not receive books, so not misunderstand me. I am talking from seller viewpoint) Again, unless you know he is lying.

Thats an ugly situation. I know in my early days I shipped a low cost package, without delivery confirmation, customer claimed I never shipped. I suffered paypal reversal and a negative, as well as an urge to break something. But packages are swiped off front door steps all the time, so who knows what really happened? Maybe post books and CGC serial numbers, if they are out there, this group will find it in a minute.

If the only good that comes from this is that Dupcak has to ante up and pay a fair amount of child support, that in itself seems like something. At least for the mom and child.

Sot, the actions you outlined clearly suggest you are being set up for theft. Kid wants the refund and the book. I hope some legal eagle on board chimes in, cause it is clear to me what is going down.