kbmcvay

On 9/6/2022 at 2:45 PM, Bronty said:

I know right?   You might even need a $400 discount to bother. 

Only if he lies about it.

On 9/6/2022 at 2:21 PM, Bronty said:

Unless the unscrupulous character gave a $300 discount, of course.

But how can he possibly cover his replacement cost by doing so?

On 9/6/2022 at 2:21 PM, Bronty said:

Unless the unscrupulous character gave a $300 discount, of course.

Not even then.

On 9/6/2022 at 1:41 PM, thehumantorch said:

I can understand that you think his prices are too high and the increasing of prices is frustrating but none of that matters.  Replacement cost isn't relevant  The price he had it last year or yesterday isn't relevant.  He doesn't care if his valuations are perfect, there's no such thing.

If he followed your advice and set a reasonable price on that FF4 Annual page or sent it to auction it would have sold years ago for a fraction of what it's worth today.  Same for any of his quality pieces.  He understands this hobby better than anyone and he knows he has quality one of a kind inventory, that's almost irreplaceable, and that's increasing in value.

I know you don't like it but how do you not understand it?

 

 

I understand what he's doing and it's fine, he can do what he wants. If he wants to raise prices and lie about it that's his business and his choice. He can do whatever he wants and people can choose to buy from him or not. I think he is an unscrupulous character for a myriad of reasons and I'm happy to not buy anything from him.

On 9/6/2022 at 12:52 PM, Rick2you2 said:

I don’t dislike the guy. I disliked the fact that he said he never raises prices on inventory, which, virtually everyone here has said is BS. It means I will take whatever he says with an “extra grain of salt”. The rest of this discussion sped off on its own.

It all kind of goes together...Like a cross between Pinocchio and Steve Donnelly.

On 9/6/2022 at 12:36 PM, Bronty said:

He can price his stuff however the heck he wants.   Replacement cost, cost base, or indexed to the price of cheddar cheese.    Its his choice.

You, as potential buyers, can choose to walk away if you don't like the price.   

I agree with this completely. I thought you said he couldn't lower the price at all because of replacement costs earlier with the $3K example.

On 9/6/2022 at 12:22 PM, Will_K said:

Even at today's crazy prices, I don't consider $3,000 comic art to be a low cost piece. 

Agreed.

On 9/6/2022 at 12:10 PM, Rick2you2 said:

The simple reason that he won’t take $2,700 is that comic art is, to a fair extent, an impulse purchase by people who have the money to spend on impulse purchases. Why give away $300 when a dealer knows most people will throw in the extra 10% or 5% or whatever? For higher priced pieces, some dealers will throw it in, regardless, figuring it promotes good will, some won’t. But, that logic may not work for a low cost piece where demand is likely to be low. Unsurprisingly, Anthony’s will deal. 

Exactly. I agree fully.

On 9/6/2022 at 11:08 AM, Bronty said:

And the point which you seem to be missing entirely is, if he's trying to stay in business selling vintage art, that revenue (on its own, without consideration of replacement cost) does not much matter and focussing on maximizing revenue without considering replacement cost is a good way to erode your inventory over time and eventually go out of business.

 

Also, is Mr. Mustache the only dealer with replacement cost considerations? If not, then why is every other dealer I've worked with willing to negotiate to close the deal on 4-5 figure pieces? Are Albert Moy and Glen Brunswick on the verge of going out of business by not standing firm?

On 9/6/2022 at 11:08 AM, Bronty said:

And the point which you seem to be missing entirely is, if he's trying to stay in business selling vintage art, that revenue (on its own, without consideration of replacement cost) does not much matter and focussing on maximizing revenue without considering replacement cost is a good way to erode your inventory over time and eventually go out of business.

 

All of these valuations are completely arbitrary. He can try to maximize revenue all he wants but if nobody buys the page does replacement cost even matter since he's stuck with it? Let me ask you a question: does anybody think that FF Annual 4 page is worth $28,500 in today's market? Is a replacement cost of $28,500 warranted for that page? The "replacement cost" doubled overnight when he raised the price on this page arbitrarily? Also, if his prices are so reasonable why not take some of this stuff that sits forever to auction? His valuations are so perfect that he is sure to get what he wants, right? 

On 9/6/2022 at 10:55 AM, Bronty said:

1) You can dislike the guy all you want.   I've never had any interaction with him and have no comment on his personality.    

2) Disliking the guy doesn't mean he's wrong in his approach.    In your example of holding out for 3k instead of 2700, why would he sell below replacement cost?   If 3k is a fair replacement price (separate discussion) then selling for 2700 *IS* losing 300.   His cost base, whether its a hundred dollars or a billion dollars, is irrelevant.

You assume it is below replacement cost. How can you know this? It's an example based purely on revenue. 

On 9/6/2022 at 9:09 AM, Bronty said:

If we turned that same critical eye towards every buy, sell, and listing you’ve ever made, I wonder what we’d uncover?  

Yawn. Why don't you start an investigation on it?

On 9/6/2022 at 9:09 AM, Bronty said:

 It’s easy to throw stones but at the end of the day guys like Bechara and Moy have great inventory because they saw value, they saw it early , and perhaps most important of all they delayed gratification - they did NOT take the first shiny nickel they were offered.      They waited for more.    Which brings us full circle.    You get typically get ONE chance to sell this stuff because it’s usually impossible to buy back.    You make the most of it, or you leave money on the table.    

I don't think anybody has even mentioned Moy in a critical manner in this thread and I actually was very complimentary of him in this thread and others. You're right it is easy to thrown stones at Mr. Mustache because his website is garbage, he's a jerk in real life and his pricing practices are what they are. If he bought a page for $100 and then priced it at $3,000 and somebody offered him $2,700 for it he would turn them down because in his mind he was losing $300 not making $2,600. 90% of something is better than 100% of nothing which is what it is when it doesn't sell. Ever. He can do what he wants and some people will buy from him but I never will.

On 9/5/2022 at 6:16 PM, Bronty said:

 

Call me crazy but I'm going to go with the idea that after selling for decades guys like Mr Mustache might have learned a thing or two.   

 

 

I guess he learned that if something doesn't sell for $14,000 just double the price because eventually some sucker will come along to buy it maybe some day (this particular example is still unsold many years after being listed on his site at the original price). Original Comic Art by Jack Kirby | Fantastic Four Annual 4 P14 | Nostalgic Investments From the margin notes "There are just not enough Kirby/Sinnott Fantastic Four pages to go around to all that want them." This may be true but nobody is banging down the door to buy this page. They weren't at $14K and they still aren't. "How often are you going to see the Human Torch battle the Golden Age Human Torch?" Every time you visit your website by clicking on that link is how often because even if it sells by some miracle it will likely never be removed from your website.

I wish he'd learn how to have a website that loads properly so you can see all of the artwork as opposed to what it does now which is show random pages by an artist and then repeats half of those pages again when you go to the next webpage of artwork. I also wish he would clear off sold thumbnails so when you click on them it doesn't give you an error that it doesn't exist. Page Not Found | Nostalgic Investments Even better, actually remove the stuff that is sold and solve the problem completely.

On 9/5/2022 at 11:43 AM, Rick2you2 said:

 Mr. Mustache (I love that) has some stale pieces, too.

He also has some stale jokes in the descriptions of these stale pieces too.

I just moved out of the area. Was in Leesburg until June.

On 9/1/2022 at 8:53 PM, grapeape said:

In the sixties a fifth Beatle. Today a third Donnelly? Good grief!!!

When Paul was the Walrus he would have looked great with the 3rd Donnelly bro's 'stache on his upper lip.

On 9/1/2022 at 11:56 PM, AnkurJ said:

And lets be honest.  We are guilty of going back to to those dealers when they have something we want. If it bothered enough people that their business was impacted, this type of behavior would stop across the board.

I can only speak for myself but I've never bought a page from Romitaman or any of the 3 Donnelly Brothers (Rich, Steve, Burt Reynolds) and I'm confident I never will. If people want to buy from these guys that's their business and plenty of people do (like the $100k Italians). I've bought from plenty of dealers that I have had good experiences with (I want to buy a page, you want to sell a page, let's make a deal) and I'll name them: Glen Brunswick, Albert Moy, Anthony Snyder and Will. Politeness and good customer service matters.

On 9/1/2022 at 6:10 PM, Rick2you2 said:

The OP didn't say it. I did. And actually, saying it is something a reasonably smart person would say. Since the piece had already been purchased, offering it at a higher price than before, when it wasn't sold, instead of a lower price because it is old stock, is counter-intuitive. When stock sits around, stores lower their prices to increase their cash flow. They don't hold it on the theory that newer, say, refrigerators will cost more. Moreover, admitting to raising prices is essentially telling the potential buyer: "I see my inabiltiy to move this piece as an opportunity to increase my profit margin at your expense." As to whether it is disprovable, how? Go to the Wayback Machine and try to find it? Who would bother?

You might say to yourself: "Ah, but art is an investment, not a refrigerator." Well if have that kind of free money, and are so confident it will sell, go ahead, raise the prices, I won't buy it. And neither did any other real person. It's now with a different dealer, where it sits in all its glory, until Heritage needs to be contacted in a few years.

As for me: "I don't wanna be a pinhead no more, I just met a nurse that I could go for."

I pretty much said it too based on what the OP wrote. Seemed obvious to me. My first experience with Mr. Mustache was around 2005 at the Baltimore Comic Con where he was bragging about buying the Fawcett Crowley collection for $3 million. My opinion of him is he is an arrogant, smarmy person who is ethically challenged.

On 9/1/2022 at 3:29 PM, delekkerste said:

100%

The notion that anyone would claim to never raise prices from where they first offered something after buying it for resale makes so little sense that I'd definitely want to hear Bechara's side of the story before jumping to any conclusions. Seems to me like this is far more likely a case of him misspeaking, something being taken out of context, and/or some other kind of miscommunication. I mean, even if he said it, I would bet he didn't mean it quite like the OP thinks he meant it. 

People can think whatever they want of Bechara, but, one thing he isn't is stupid. The Bechara I know would never say something so easily and immediately disprovable by anyone with an IQ over 60 with the intention of getting one over on someone. Unless he thought that person actually had an IQ under 60, which I don't think would apply to anyone here...  

Plenty of smart people are poor and plenty of rich people are dumb. Burkey says he went to West Point (I have no reason to believe this isn't true) so he must be pretty smart. That didn't stop him from bragging about ripping people off on this very board with his shill bid antics. This was incredibly stupid on his part. Arrogant people say stupid stuff all the time regardless of how smart or dumb they are. Both Burkey and Mr. Mustache fall into this category.

As far as raising prices goes Bechera does it all the time. He has a bunch of Kirby FF pages that he has pumped up the price on multiple times. When I pulled the trigger and got one I didn't buy it from him even though he has plenty. He says on his website all prices are firm and if somebody wants to pay a 40%-100% markup on a price from a few months ago they can be my guest. I don't like getting fleeced by a guy who treats people like trash when they ask him a question at a con.

On 9/1/2022 at 6:18 AM, batman_fan said:

I was more focused on whether the crossbow included bolts. 

If bolts were included I hope they had +2 enchantment bonus.

On 8/30/2022 at 6:42 PM, underw0rld said:

You STILL paid CASH for the piece. There was no trade. Your little story was a 100% lie.

Were you the other party in this transaction?

On 8/30/2022 at 9:39 AM, jaybuck43 said:

I know for a fact he is lying.  He has had this piece for almost a decade at this point.

(It looks much nicer in person, this is a copy from the fanzene it was published in).  I passed on it at $1,500, I passed on it at $2,500, and I passed on it this weekend at $6,500

He's just waiting for the right customer to come along.

On 8/29/2022 at 9:20 AM, Stefanomjr said:

I noticed them and they weren't speaking Italian. At one point she was behind the table taking some photos of some expensive pieces hanging and speaking to one of the men with her (who remained on the other side of the booth).. Language definitely not Italian.

They were speaking Pig Italian.

On 8/29/2022 at 8:49 AM, Buzzetta said:

I see plenty of bids being placed at the last minute if not seconds before a ComicLink auction is about to close.  I have learned on auction nights to have one screen open for comiclink and another screen open on my computer for a movie or TV with an alarm in the background to alert me as certain books and pieces are ending as I watch both throughout the entire night.

My experience as well. Tons of activity in the last minutes of the auction.