Nick Furious

On 2/22/2024 at 6:51 PM, Dr. Balls said:

A comic book is not a risk factor like a 19-year old driver or a house in a flood plain. Across the board, those 22-32 pages of paper cost the same to insure because the coverage covers the entire facility of books, certain books are not on a sliding scale of cost of coverage - where an Action 1 costs more to insure than an Action 1 Reprint.

If an employee ripped a X-Force #1 in half, and then ripped an AF15 in half, the insurance covers both books for the same premium. They can say that the fees are associated with the insurance, but they're not.

 

You are correct, the pricing is not a function of variable costs.  It's a function of how much value their service will add to the product, and what the market will bear because of that.  That's why I say to ask the question in reverse to get the answer.  They would love to charge $500 per book if they could.  But for most books the service will not add enough value to justify it and obviously the market would not bear it.  So instead of saying that they charge more for more valuable books, we might say that they charge less for less valuable books.  

To find the answer, ask the question in reverse.  Why does a grading company have lower priced tiers for less valuable books?  

On 2/17/2024 at 10:23 AM, Dr. Balls said:

I'm going to call BS on a dealer who says they've never read a comic book - that sounds more like a PR sound bite stunt than being realistic.

He's just trying the sound cool to impress the ladies.  

On 2/18/2024 at 10:19 AM, Axelrod said:

Man, it's stuff like this that just makes you go, hmmmmmmm.

Like, I have to assume these writers are NOT coming up with the story for these movies.  That's got to be some executive/director saying "this is what I want" and then they just go hire some dudes to "write" it.  Which probably involves putting it in proper screenplay format and not a lot else.  There's no way these people would keep getting hired based on their brilliant ideas or the cleverness of their dialogue, or, basically anything creative they might have to do.  They are (probably cheap) hired guns.  Maybe they work fast too.  

lol, they're the guys that go to the reverse-pitch meetings.   

This 15-year-old thread was shared earlier in this current thread.  But for those who missed it previously, every villain has an origin story:

On 2/14/2024 at 3:28 PM, badback83 said:

waiting to find out what the “bombshell” that’s going to make everything worse is.  I have my suspicions.

My guess is the jailhouse cellmate that he burned is now released and looking for him.  Selling customers books is his lifeline.    

On 2/16/2024 at 6:14 PM, comicjel said:

Wouldn't it be ironic if the EBAY sale was a shill sale to pump up the price before actually trying to sell it later??

I enjoy that thought.  

On the other hand, there's a side of me that has no concern whatsoever for anyone who actually bought that book for that price.

Curious if anyone knows what ever became of the Mark Jeweler book that started this whole thread?  

On 2/15/2024 at 10:57 AM, HighGrade said:

It's a battle, we all need to support each other! scammers must not win.

Not disagreeing with you, but the reality is that the bidder/buyer is the only party that doesn't have a short-term financial conflict-of-interest in this battle.  The seller wants to sell, the consignment house wants the consignments, CGC wants it all to go away...and the buyer can't make much happen individually.  The buyers need the bigger players (particularly CGC) to support by setting aside concerns about short-term side-effects and taking the necessary medicine to restore confidence.      

On 2/12/2024 at 2:48 PM, FigaroToe said:

 

 

Appreciate the comments, I'll pass for now and look elsewhere

Do you currently buy from Mycomicshop.com?  Never had an issue with their grading.  

On 2/14/2024 at 1:31 AM, HighGrade said:

That's exactly what I was saying, I was amazed at such baloney, Yeah, they put the onus on the plaintiff, but to compare it to the Charbucks case? might be the worst example they could use and the easiest to prove CGC's case.

Agreed, not only were they selling under the CGC brand, but also under the CGC guarantee.  The fact that CGC is having to compensate buyers in order to maintain their reputation...seems to me that should be pretty good evidence of the misuse of the brand by the defendants, resulting in tangible damages.    

Finally!  A trailer that makes me want to watch another MCU movie!

On 2/11/2024 at 8:02 AM, jas1vans said:

If somebody had one of these mis-slabbed books, wouldn't they be better served keeping the book and filing a suit against the perps and CGC together?

I had an issue with a home purchase and had to threaten a suit against my realtor, the seller, and the seller's realtor. In the end, all three agreed to pay a portion instead of take it to court and sort out who was most to blame.

Couldn't BOTH be seen as liable for the situation? Scammers for scamming, CGC for missing the scam?

Would the book give the owner more leverage to get a solution than sending it to CGC, where they are then at the mercy of CGC's timeline?

Even in the case of the most expensive book, I can't see how the owner would be better of financially by going through the courts rather than taking the compensation from CGC.  Lot's of expenses with no guarantees.  Might just end up losing twice.  

On 2/10/2024 at 2:05 PM, valiantman said:

"hike his prices 50% and then run his 60% off sale" results in 40% off the original price. 

still a hard "pass".  

In addition to scarcity, historical significance is an important component of value.   A baseball is just a baseball until it is hit for a world series winning home run.  Then it contains historical significance.  A gun owned by General Patton is just a gun if owned by someone who's name you don't know.  General Patton added historical significance to the gun by owning it.  Tales to Astonish 13 was just another Tales to Astonish comic until Guardians of the Galaxy.  And then it became the first appearance of Groot...a character of significance, giving the book historical significance.  Historical significance often brings exponential increases in demand.  

On 2/9/2024 at 1:52 AM, lou_fine said:

I find it kind of silly when some boardies here think that Blackstone paid half a billion dollars for CGC which is only the comic book side of the CCG operations when in reality, CGC is just a small fraction of their total operations albeit a growing one

You make a good point.  There are some parts of the collectibles and certification universe where our little pond isn't even known to exist.  The idea that Blackstone is in a panic over hiccups at CGC probably stems from not recognizing that the pond we swim in is not the whole universe.

On 2/8/2024 at 5:54 PM, tmac100 said:

The confusing part though is that I believe that they were fired from CGC in September, but the scammer was still sending in books in December.

That definitely puts some hesitation on the theory that the two parties were working together.    

On 2/6/2024 at 7:45 PM, paqart said:

There is no reason victims of the fraud can't call the FBI themselves.

How could that even compare to CGC taking their accumulated investigation research to the FBI?  If it's agreed that this issue should go to the FBI, then it should go to them through CGC.  

On 2/6/2024 at 5:46 PM, comicwiz said:

CGC needs to do better. A lot better at leaving no opportunity for error, misuse, or failure.

On 2/6/2024 at 6:07 PM, Aman619 said:

But your statement as written,  I agree with you.  It's up to them to maintain our trust.  And on them if they fail through efforts to be better, or through negligence if they feel impervious to errors.  I for one feel they have a healthy handle on their role and business to keep going and tightening up.

As long as CGC owns the monopoly on public trust, they will be a magnet for opportunists who hope to misuse that trust for nefarious purposes.  Perhaps these two latest issues are just a matter of being duped.  If they had happened in a vacuum it would be reasonable enough to just chalk it up to a lack of anticipation on the part of CGC.  But there have been enough "bad look" situations in the past for the general public to start wondering just how committed CGC is to closing the door on those opportunists who wish to misuse their monopoly on public trust.  Can anyone really look at past shenanigans and conclude that CGC is committed, first and foremost, to protecting the hen house and preventing bad actors from gaining access it, regardless of the financial opportunity for CGC?         

On 2/6/2024 at 2:57 PM, ThothAmon said:

My guess/belief is CGCs civil lawsuit will never be answered and assuming the defendants are properly served will result in a default judgment.

That's my expectation as well.  Little to no response.  The legal system is a labyrinth and lawyers are expensive Sherpas.  Those who don't have them dare not enter.  Easier to run and hide.    

Interesting read from back in the day.  I kept having to remind myself not to reply to 20-year-old comments.  

The middle ground between being in on the scam and being duped is "allowing yourself to be duped".  I wouldn't be surprised it turns out that the store owner was not in on it overtly, but also ignored his serious suspicions and allowed himself to be duped.  If he was getting significant financial benefit from the scam (consignment fees, etc.), it would be pretty easy to take a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding where all those valuable books came from.  

On 2/4/2024 at 7:24 PM, PovertyRow said:

you can read MTU #95 a thousand times and you will not see Mockingbird in the book.

She's on the cover.