jools&jim

The Nuge!!!

(thumbs u

Have you seen him recently? I haven't, and really don't know what to expect these days...

Would also love to see Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Rush and Joe Satriani live.

Just saw Maiden back in June. I'm still getting used to the 3-guitar thing, but it was a VERY strong show...Bruce Dickinson, amazingly, still sounds as good as he did back in the '80s...

Dave Grohl is the coolest person in the universe...

I think even Dave Grohl would agree that Lemmy is cooler than him...

Did someone just diss the Foo's??? I saw them live a couple weeks ago and it was KILLER!!!! Best hard rock show I've seen in a long time...better then Van Halen....better than Bon Jovi.....Better than Rush....Almost better than Air Supply.

 

Dave Grohl is the coolest person in the universe and a freakin comedian too. Yes, I know, all these bands I mentioned are old. But so am I.

 

Counting Crows in a few weeks with Maroon 5. The Crows are probably my favorite live band. Adam is so disfunctional and the songs are super-heartfelt but when they need to rock, they can, better than most.

I've played Long Road To Ruin about a 10 times tonite. Man I love that song! I just learned to play it on the guitar too. Great tune!

Sigh...the Foo Fighters go on..and on...and on, while one of the greatest Rock-and-Roll bands in the world can't get arrested over here these days and finally (and sadly) decides to call it quits.

All hail the pride of Stockholm, the mighty muthereffin' Hellacopters...!!!!!

Super kudos to HighVoltage for a couple of really sweet looking SA Caps...nice upgrades for me, shipped fast and VERY securely. Great seller! Thanks, Jeff! (thumbs u

1. Mikeyriffhard who believes owning and reading the book is only part of the enjoyment from comics. The other part being the challenge of working through the bullet-proof bunker that is his shipping! Thanks for the beautiful mid-grade Conan #1!!!

 

"bullet-proof"...

Thanks man, glad you liked it!

Best,

Mikey

BAD day for the 'riffer...my old '70s Luxman stereo receiver (a whopping 120W per channel) just died. I can't hack the thought of too many days without some loud-@ss Rock-and-Roll LPs blaring down here in the basement of wonders, and it's gonna cost me some bucks to repair or replace the receiver, so I'll be selling a small batch of choice Marvel SA and BA tomorrow (Monday) night--including some high grade books and several keys--to cover the costs. See ya then!

I was into art when I was a single man.Since I got married,kids and work,take all the time. Here's one of the last pieces I did,from 1995. Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.All pencil with airbrushed background...

Wow! Incredible pencil work!!!

Kinda OT...but here's some "photo-realistic" pen-and-ink stuff I did back in the late '70s/early '80s (at the height of my Beatles obsession) when I was in high school. They were in storage for years, but my wife finally convinced me to dig them out and display them in my music room...

mikeyriffhard for a great group of Action Comics at a really nice price.

(thumbs u Glad you liked 'em!

they just plain stink at...mail delivery.

I use their free shipping option with all my orders, and have never had a problem. It's a little slower now than it was before they stopped offering UPS Ground as one of the free options...but it's still free...

Coming up tomorrow night around 8:30 EST or so: a fairly large batch of late SA, BA and CA DCs, including a few complete (and important!) mini-series, and a mixed bag of other stuff ca. 1970 - 1985 or so -- and maybe a fairly nice GL #76...depending on how many beers are in the fridge!!! And as usual, everything will be priced to MOVE! Hope to see ya then!

I know Buddy has been in business for a long time...

I think that's a big part of the problem: Buddy was active in fandom back in the '60s when "tight grading" wasn't really much of an issue, and he probably still grades very old school like lots of other collectors and dealers who have been doing this for 40+ years, and sees nothing wrong with it.

For better or worse (and I can see valid arguments on both sides of the debate), CGC ushered in a whole new era of grade-consciousness. Some old schoolers have adapted, and some haven't. The bottom line for me is that a high volume operation like Lone Star is NOT the kind of place where I'm likely to shop for HG material. But when it comes to mid-grade fillers in bulk at good prices, they've always been great for me...

Interesting read. I for one would not think about doing business with Lonestart (never heard of them prior to this thread). However, some observations.

 

1) trade vs cash is usually 50% so I understand that part of their thinking. Policy or not, there is a lot of precedents for that.

 

2) Broken Shakespear said he would not discuss this on the phone with them when they offered to call him, because he has limited time to spend with his wife and kids. Are you kidding me? Seriously folks. One phone call to resolve a dispute? Put the wife and kid on your lap while you talk. Geesh! You found time to post here and to package, mail, peruse and pick out comics on there site, etc.

 

3) In any business, there are unhappy customers. Most of the time you do the right thing, and bend over backwards to make them happy. HOWEVER, sometimes there are customers that know this and try to take advantage of it, so sometimes you as the seller, have to take a stand, regardless of the bad publicity that particular customer might generate your way. It is principal.

 

4) It seems to me that LoneStar (according to what I have read here and keeping in mind that "they" have not posted here) did take offense to their grading being trashed. Many do, including "us". Understandable. We have not seen the product referred to as being wrong.

 

5) If you are not buying CGC (notice I did not use the term professionally graded. That was intentional), you take the chance that the book may not be within 1 1/2 grades of where you thought it would be. Grading is subjective, especially through an online service. CGC and other companies can disagree that much, and they do it as their sole business.

 

6) One hundred dollars is not a lot of money to ANYONE. The principal does matter, but if 100 is a big deal to you, then you need to quit buying comic books and save.

 

7) Broken Shakespear also runs a "business". He states that he buys collections, sells the keys for a profit (at least twenty percent) and then sells the junk for whatever he can get or for trade. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, but he does say that it is junk. Would anyone expect to get 100% for comic book junk? If so, I have about twenty "Deaths of Robin" I will sell you at cover price.

 

8) being a retired cop, I can only say that in most situations, there is fault on both sides of every dispute. I see faults on the part of both parties here.

 

Still, the majority of the fault IMHO is on the part of LoneStar. Broken is a small business and LoneStar is much larger, therefore LoneStar should take the initiative to satisfy this particular customer in a reasonable manner and take the "loss" (miniscule to them) rather than have Broken take the loss (a little more than miniscule to him I guess). It is good business.

 

Of course, I ain't the brightest light on the Christmas tree, so maybe I am totally wrong, but I don't think so. If I had both of these parties in a room and I was mediating this situation, it would have been solved in minutes, to the satisfaction of both parties, with the exception that I believe they would both still want to do business with each other from now on. I think that Broken does and I bet that LoneStar might want to, if certain guidelines could be agreed upon.

 

If someone steals 5 bucks from me, I will do everyting in my power to make them regret doing that. But, if someone askes me for 5 bucks, then I will probably give it to them (heck, I know for sure I would) as how can you not give when asks for help, and live with yourself. That does not mean that ya'll can PM me or post, and ask me to send you five bucks. I ain't a fool and can tell when someone is attempting to make me look like a fool or they are genuine. So, don't even go there.

 

Bottom line. You should have taken the phone call Broken Shakespear, for starters, and gone from there. IMHO

 

I am glad that it worked out as it did, and I believe "they" will be doing bisiness with each other again in the future. It is like ex-wifes. They are never truly out of your life. (no, I don't have an ex. Been with my darling for 43 years

and if people are letting it slide because of "good" prices they are wrong also.

I hear what you're saying, and definitely agree that if everything we're hearing here is true then Lone Star needs to do the right thing. But in the case where I disagreed with Lone Star's grading, I didn't let it slide because the prices were good; I let it slide because some of the other books in that same order were significantly under-graded, and also because it just wasn't worth the hassle to return what amounted to a handful of dollar books that, to me at least, were still priced right for their actual grade.

And for what it's worth, my : Lone Star is, basically, a big box on-line retailer. Whenever I deal with businesses like that (for comics or anything else), my expectations regarding customer service are generally pretty low. That doesn't mean they should get a free pass to rip people off, or be unreasonable and unyielding when dealing with customers...but given the nature of their business, the huge inventory, the number of people who handle it, and the high volumes involved, I say you pays yer money and takes yer chances when ordering from them, and hope that the big selection and click-and-buy convenience outweigh the hassles when something inevitably goes wrong...

Anyway, good luck with the resolution. I hope they get it right for ya!

I've also bought lots of books from them over the past 5 years or so (mostly BA Marvels). Some of their NMs were on the weak side, but since most of them were only $1 - $2 apiece, I let it slide, and continue to be very satisfied with the books I receive (many of which are under-graded) and their service. What I don't understand is why you kept ordering from them if you didn't like their grading...

Probably bad timing due to the VCC and other factors, but what the hell...it's Sunday night, it's Father's Day, I'm grooving to a little Pat Travers Band on the Hi-Fi, sinking some beers, and feeling good, so I'm planning to list a bunch of SA and BA DC's in a few hours (probably start around 8:30 or so): Action, Superboy, Superman, and Lois Lane (maybe a few others). And, shockingly from me, a bunch of them are higher grade....

Kudos to mikeyriffhard for my Cap Marvel

 

Got here nice and fast in it's BOMB PROOF packaging (thumbs u

(thumbs u back atcha! And thanks for the fast pay!

Tonight at my usual time (8:00 PM or so EST): More SA Marvels, including at least two affordable (minor) keys, and maybe some BA DC, too...

Kudos to pinball for a nice, lower grade X-Men #94...accurately graded and shipped fast!

Coming up later this evening (around 8:00 or so): More SA Marvels from my stash, including a run of VERY early Iron Man appearances in Tales of Suspense!!! See ya soon!

Kudos to The Resurrection for a nice batch of mixed BA books from his recent sales thread -- packed well and shipped VERY fast! (thumbs u

Re: the whole auction debate -- I don't care if sellers want to try it for fun or to maximize their profits maybe, but as a potential buyer, it turns me off: I simply don't enjoy competing for books, keeping track of the bidding, etc., etc. I'd honestly rather overpay for a BIN item than deal with bidding wars, thrill bidders, shills, and all the other garbage that makes eBay such a nightmare, and the current FS Forum such a refreshing alternative.

No muss/no fuss (well, mostly) straight-ahead sales (among other things) are what makes the Marketplace unique. I've spent lots of $$ on comics here in the past few years, and exactly ZERO bucks on eBay. I'd hate to see that change...

"Kudos!" to mikeyriffhard for a nice Strange Tales #125.

(thumbs u Thanks!