ExNihilo

Just for reference, from personal experience, any idea how many books roughly equal 1 lb (for shipping costs).

On 1/24/2024 at 11:35 AM, Galen130 said:

Still not submitting to CGC until they overhaul that entire chit-show.  They can.....

Honestly, this announcement is great since I still like to submit for the occasional signature/remark.  But by and large, fully agree in that I don't plan on submitting any blue label books until CGC has proven that they've made positive changes in their QC.

Here's my uneducated take on this.  I don't know how this electric cabinet works, but as soon as you said "electric", I had the following concern.

I have a wine fridge which serves to keep the wine climate controlled, both in terms of humidity and temperature.  The biggest concern is the potential for failure.  If something should happen and the fan or cooling stops working, the electric motor powering the device (which generates heat) might still be working.  And without any active cooling, it turns the wine fridge into a hot box, and the air heats up beyond that of the ambient room temperature.

Now, I realize a wine fridge and the electric cabinet are different.  But I mention it because if there is an element to the cabinet that generates heat, because it's a confined space, anything inside will be subjected to higher temperatures in the event something breaks.

On 1/23/2024 at 7:25 AM, awakeintheashes said:

Dooku killed her when she sacrificed herself to save Quinlan Vos, so before RotS. Unless this is a flashback, which I doubt, she will have had to been resurrected by some Nightsister magic. 

On 1/22/2024 at 7:57 PM, awakeintheashes said:

I'm kind of afraid for those double episodes.  The way I see these episodes laid out is reminiscent of Andor where they used a 3 episode arc structure where all the big things happened in weeks 3 and 6.  If it follows that there are two episodes followed by a mini-movie, then I fear what could happen in those 40ish minutes.

On 1/22/2024 at 4:54 PM, awakeintheashes said:

Pretty sure the Ventress resurrection is going to tie into Thrawn’s plans to reanimate the dead stormtroopers. Her body was placed in the waters of Dathomir by Quinlan Vos after she perished. 

When we last saw Thrawn he was heading to Dathomir with all the dead stormtroopers. It’s possible his plans include those same waters. 

I've never read Dark Disciple, partially because I childishly told myself if I didn't read it, then it wasn't true.  So I don't know where those events fall in the timeline.  But is it possible that Bad Batch occurs prior to Dark Disciple?  In which case no resurrection needed and the dark future I try to avoid potentially remains a possibility?

On 1/22/2024 at 11:09 AM, Sorensen7 said:

After reading the updated article over the weekend, I filed with my credit card and it looks like they are going to refund me all my money.  I had an asm 40 from when I was a kid and I bought my kid an asm 300 and venon vs carnage 2 from ebay a little over a year ago.  I mailed 3 books to hero restoration for pressing and sending off to cgc back in november of 22.  They charged me 130 after they got the books.  After a while of trying to respond to get an update on books I received another bill for 270 from hero restoration in march of 23 and they said the books are going to be shipped to cgc.  I paid that.  After a while of sending emails and getting automated responses I knew my books were probably gone.  After reading this article I called my credit card company.  I saved all the emails from the 2 books I bought and the 2 bills I got from hero restoration.  The credit card company said they would issue me a refund and file a claim with company.  If hero restoration decides to refund books or send me a credit than the credit card company will bill me the amount.  It looks like I will get about 1k back which is better than getting nothing back.  If anyone is in this situation and have emails saved it looks like you could get some money back.  My first purchase in this ordeal was 9/22.  I should get everything back except for the price I paid for the asm 40 that i bought when I was a kid.  I hope this helps out any of you that are in this situation.  Thanks

Several things:

1) i'm not sure how the credit card claims department is going to handle it, but under normal circumstances, the credit card issuer will find that you should only be compensated for any amount paid to Hero Restoration.  The eBay transactions were fulfilled properly as they were delivered to you.  I know the credit card companies will issue a temporary refund while they investigate, but I would expect that amount to get clawed back.  If not, you got a claim investigator who was really kind and/or didn't care about their job since it's "not their money".

2) most credit card issuers will only allow you to file a claim within X number of days of the transaction.  Some are better than others, but I've found that 6 months seems to be the high end.  For you to file a claim for something dating back to 2022 is quite incredible.

Who's the card issuer?

On 1/22/2024 at 12:06 PM, awakeintheashes said:

@Buzzetta @ExNihilo and others who held out hope...watch the last few seconds of the trailer...

My reaction to watching the trailer can basically be summed up like this:

I had no idea this was going to be the final season, nor was I expecting the season to premiere in just a month.  Needless to say, I am absolutely hyped to see how this gets closed out and I just hope Filoni doesn't pull TOO much from Dark Disciple.

On 1/16/2024 at 12:02 PM, Sauce Dog said:

GUYS THIS IS GETTING CRAZIER. Mike has contacted me! He can't get into his account here for the moment, so maybe a post from him later.

Apparently some of those sold listings were cancelled by him (but still appear as sold under ebay searches) when he noticed the mistake. Apparently he has his own comic collection, and with everything going on lots of them have been mixed up with customer books - so when he lists an item for sale he is 'getting books mixed up' but once he catches the mistake (finding the right copy he owns) he cancels the sale (which is what happened with this tales of suspense).

@ZappedMoose9995 Your book is still in his possession!!! I will get him your invoice and he will have it put together for return as your customer notes he lost on it.

Also, as I thought...the meth claim is false, and apparently well...better you read it from the horses mouth:


 

How convenient of him to turn this into some sort of alibi when it turns out the books are in fact missing.  Now he'll just plausibly deny selling the books because they were stolen instead.

On 1/4/2024 at 10:04 PM, drotto said:

6. Most comic collectors are either not aware this is going on or only somewhat aware. Those of us posting here, obsessing over the details, and acting like the sky is falling, are the minority.

I've been on holiday since this whole thing exploded and there's no way I'm reading nearly 300 pages to get caught up on it.  I get the gist of it though...someone found a way to open cases, swapped to lesser books, sent for reholder, and rinsed and repeated.  How this was all figured out is lost on me.  As are any other deeper points.  At this point...

...i'm too afraid to ask.

On 12/16/2023 at 10:17 AM, Cat said:

"Anything else you'd like to say?" 

"I have nothing but contempt for this court." 

"That's the 15th time you've said that." 

"Because I think you lacked understanding the first 14 times I Said it."

On 12/14/2023 at 12:11 PM, ThomasTrain said:

https://www.linnsheriff.org/jail/adults-in-custody/view/?id=852052

Uhhhh....wow.  Like, I shouldn't be surprised by this...yet somehow I am.

On 12/14/2023 at 9:11 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

Catching up here. Has any effort been made to reach an agreement with Mike to send a small group to his location to take possession of the books, who can then distribute to the proper owners?

He gets the responsibility off his plate and people get their books back. Seems more efficient and likely to get results than legal action, threats, etc.

Yes, in the original thread, several boardies offered to help cover shipping costs.  When he said he didn't have time to press books, answer emails, follow the thread, AND send out books, several boardies offered to help package and ship books.  Each time was met with belligerence from Mike.  The boards showed him more kindness than he deserved, and each time was met with excuses and animosity.

On 12/8/2023 at 1:49 PM, Steviehuv66 said:

I did file a claim through the Oregon Department of Justice and they contacted me today via email.  They attached a letter to the email.  See below.

I'd probably send this person a list of all aggrieved parties that we're aware of along with estimated dollar amounts.  Something I know others were trying to collate in this thread.  They might not be able to do much for one person, but I imagine if you can show that there are a number of aggrieved parties with assets totaling in the hundreds of thousands, they might take this more seriously or assign it to someone willing to take on your case.

On 1/1/2023 at 1:05 PM, ExNihilo said:

My most realistic goal would be finally pulling the trigger on 2000+ mylite/fullbacks from eGerber and re-bagging my entire collection.  Maybe finalize organizing my collection which would include creating labels for dividers.

This might actually be the year I stop with monthly subscriptions as my interest has waned as there are fewer and fewer titles/events that I'm interested in.

Otherwise, continue the long-term/multi-year goal of saving up for AF15 and Jim Lee Hush OA.

I did finally buy the mylites/fullbacks and I've slowly bagged about 70% of books.  Organization-wise, it feels like everytime I sort a pile of books onto the shelves, a new pile emerges.

I have a somewhat complicated indexing system for my books, one of the steps being to catalog all my books and their location on my shelves in Excel.  The objective is to then print a table of contents and tape it to the front of a plastic dividers on each shelf to help identify what is on each shelf.  I've basically done this for my DC books, but Marvel makes up some 60% of my collection.

Which segues into my second goal which was to possibly limit or stop monthly subscriptions.  Yeah...that didn't happen, the number of monthly titles is about the same as what it was at the beginning of the year.  The thought of stopping though continues to grow while the space available for books continues to shrink.

On 12/3/2023 at 7:15 PM, mattn792 said:

@Cantina201 - can you modify this thread’s title to mention that victims of Hero’s are invited to report their losses  for possible legal action?

Might be better to start a new thread?  OPs post history is basically the start of this thread and they haven't logged on in 2 weeks.

I've considered this, but a part of me still wants to collect to see the diversity of titles.  As costs mount and space diminishes, I'm constantly thinking it might be time to downsize and keep only a handful of issues, but I can't get myself to do it.

As others have mentioned, you can read the issues digitally and then buy the ones you like.  I know it sucks that you might miss a book that pops off as a result, but you're likely saving yourself hundreds in the long run.  Like why bother spending $75/month on books that will be forgotten in the hopes that maybe one or two a year will be worth keeping?  Might as well just read the books digitally and then buy that one book inflated to $60 on the secondary market while saving money on everything else.

On 12/1/2023 at 8:29 AM, D2 said:

Look, I hear you. 

You took time, cherry picked books to get the best you could find. A true collector's mentality for sure, and one that buyers appreciate, of course.

Problem is, as I'm sure you know while selling them, is that, buyers, rarely take into account any of that stuff... Best bang for your buck. Best condition for the dollar.

Message boards and members on here, like talking and connecting, and showing off their collection, much to what you're describing... but buying? That's a different beast.

I agree with you, try not to assume the worst in people, and assume you're some jerk trying to screw you, but from someone who has bought books over the years, that's exactly what I've purchased in terms of raw books. Overpriced, overstated, overgraded raw books. Not saying that's you. I'm saying that's the general situation. 

Sounds like the Mile High approach.

As someone who is beginning to build an ASM run, I'd like certain books to be a certain grade.  For example, all modern books I'd like to get NM, and NM books are more readily available.  But the older the book, the less fussy I am about grade.  I'm presently completing issues 200-250.  If someone has a NM copy for $10 and someone has a VF copy for $3, I'm gonna take the VF copy because many of those books aren't special keys.  They're books that I imagine has little demand, so it doesn't matter much to me whether it's NM or not.  It needs to look nice enough and not be falling apart at the staples.  If there's a small color breaking crease, no biggy, it's just going to sit on my shelf anyways so I can say "I have a collection of ASM vol 1".  Increasing the price of books reduces the number of collectors you're catering to.  He values money over time and he's really just looking for one collector who values the opposite: time over money.  Someone who is looking for the convenience of finishing off a collection hastily and has the money to do it.  For a lot of us, I don't think that's how we operate.  There's a "thrill of the hunt" of finding these books at reasonable prices.  If I have $9k, I'm certainly not buying issues 400-700 like BA777 was quoted.  I'm putting that money towards a graded ASM1 of AF15.  

On 12/1/2023 at 4:06 AM, BA773 said:

Lol this guy is a madman i asked him how much he want for 400 to 700, and he give me a price of 9k...

Man, glad I didn't waste my time inquiring about his collection.  Sounds like it would have been a good laugh at least.

On 11/30/2023 at 8:38 AM, fastballspecial said:

Can you think of anyone who would fill the role better then Taylor?

I'm not one for fancasting, but when that one was first thrown out there, I thought "oh my god, that's perfect.  Taylor and Ryan are already friends anyways so this seems like a no brainer"

On 11/30/2023 at 8:38 AM, fastballspecial said:

The fan base is insane.

Haha.  I'm well aware.  

Sigh...guess I should bump this book up my "want list".

On 11/30/2023 at 6:39 AM, waver99 said:

Imma shake it off!

You misunderstand...as a Swiftie, I'm now concerned I'm gonna have to fend off others in an increasing market.  I guess I should buy it soon.

On 11/18/2023 at 7:24 PM, fastballspecial said:

Dazzler 1 VF/NM 9.0 small pencil mark back cover - $14.00 SOLD
My last copy I think. Taylor Swift has caused me to sell out of 
this book. Been awhile since I have seen someone so right for a
part.

, is that a legitimate thing I need to worry about?  Swifties driving up the prices of Dazzler 1?

On 11/29/2023 at 12:23 PM, BrightSide77 said:

Like Tinder for comics?  Good idea. 😁 Just looking for a way to share collection lists with each other and came up with this for now.  Saves posting individual issues or searching want lists, etc

Kinda on the path to what you might be looking for.  You can set to List View and get the titles, then expand that to see the issue numbers.  Similarly, you can leave it in the default view and see the different covers.

Ex_Nihilo's Comic Book Collection | League of Comic Geeks