On 9/16/2024 at 3:10 AM, Buzzetta said:

As soon as I saw that books were disassembled and parts were all over the place, I quietly questioned whether or not some people's books were parted out to become donor books to more easily restorable candidates.

Got a copy of AF15 that's a rag and has been remaindered?  Donate that centerfold and two inner wraps to another book. 

Interesting, that would explain a lot.

On 9/13/2024 at 4:21 AM, Detective781 said:

Recovered books are evidence and need to be retained until the court process is over.  There is a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.  After the hearing we will have a better idea of where the court process is heading.  I am still looking through all the recovered books to see if they belong to people who have already made reports to me.  My priority right now is to complete reports on the cases that are currently charged, and reports for new cases that came in after the arrest on 08/14/24.

I wish I could tell you how long this will take, but I just do not know.     

     

I'd consider becoming a cop myself, if I could specialise solely in comic book fraud investigation.

On 8/25/2024 at 1:21 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

Maybe he sold his equipment and people's books to buy drugs. Drugs make people do crazy chit.

I have no doubt of that.

On 8/25/2024 at 9:45 AM, Domo Arigato said:

This board member made a single post and never responded again.

At the time, I thought the story was just so crazy that it could actually be true.

With all we know now.....I believe every word of it.

 

Holy cow, he's far more of a POS than we realised.

On 8/24/2024 at 4:09 AM, Neo "The One" said:

"Not a violent crime"

Did you see what he did to those 2 early Action Comics???

Whose comic will he sell to raise the $10K bail?

On 8/22/2024 at 1:47 AM, SpineTic said:

https://herorestorationcomic.com/

Mike DeChellis Arrested!

Note, we are not associated with Mike DeChellis  HeroRestoration.net or HeroRestorationComics.com

 

 

 

 

I wonder if he's still blaming everyone but himself for his own ... "shortcomings" from the comfort of his jail cell.

On 8/20/2024 at 4:07 PM, Magickyak said:

Honestly it was as easy a job as you could get. It was a UF4 Variant that just had a non color breaking crease on the cover and some unfixable spine dings. I had it at 8.5-9.0 when it bought it raw but a 9.2-9.4 after a press. I press 90% of my own books but moderns can be screwed up real bad if you’re not careful. So given the value of the book I thought I would send it to be professionally pressed. I had sent books to Hero in the past (when they were actually a real business) and was happy with the service I got. That’s why I was comfortable using them again with a bigger book not realizing “them” was now just a single delusional man losing his grip on reality.

So yeah- he did a good job taking a year to do something an amateur could likely also have accomplished. The book came back a 9.6 (I received it back raw from Mike and submitted it myself) which I honestly felt was overheated. It’s a solid 9.4 realistically. I was definitely one of the lucky ones

Glad to see you got a decent result, despite the long wait. Seems he was OK on easier jobs, but got all flustered on bigger projects.

On 8/20/2024 at 3:15 PM, Magickyak said:

Wow! Finally, Wow! I’ve been checking this thread every few weeks hoping to hear news of his arrest and it finally happened! So glad to see this was taken seriously and that tool is where he belongs. 
 

It really makes me wonder though… I had a book with Mike. He gave me the same runaround he gave everyone else. “It’s in the next box” “I’ve been busy, I’ll have it out in the next week or so” always an excuse. But then in the midst of all of this, it suddenly showed up in the mail one day about 6-8 months ago. So why did I get mine back? It was a $3,000 book at the time, raw, easy to sell. It was even packaged extremely well. I don’t know what his thought process was when it came to the books in his possession, but I’m grateful I had a quicker ending than most will see.

I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this story develops further

Did he do a good job on it?

On 8/20/2024 at 11:36 AM, Neo "The One" said:

So - started branching out and found posts on CBCS, Reddit etc.  Came across a video from "You're Boy" (Not mine) GEM MINT.  Boy how times have changed... 

THEN:

 

How to DEgrade comics with Hero Restoration, more like it.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:16 AM, Buzzetta said:

I wish death on Christmas to people on Rte 110 that drive 20mph, or the people that slow down on the Northern State Pkwy to look upward through the windshield to see where the rain is coming from, or the people the guy riding in a lane on the Southern State Pkwy on an eBike (saw that over the weekend), or the people that pause at the bottom of the subway steps to look at their phone with everyone else behind them, or the people that wait until they get to the counter at the pizza place to START looking at a menu while the guy behind the counter shakes his head in disgust and I just want to pick up a pie... 

 

You get the idea... 

People who ride recumbent bikes in traffic, although they'll probably get weeded out by their own antics.

On 8/18/2024 at 6:13 AM, thehumantorch said:

The most logical reason to shelve projects for many years is because he just wasn't skilled or knowledgeable enough to finish the job.  I think he overestimated and oversold his abilities.  He started posting here many years ago showing his early efforts and experimentation.  I don't believe he ever worked for any of the restoration experts in the hobby and I suspect he was entirely self taught. 

After seeing what he did to those two early Action Comics, his extreme incompetence is not in question. He also told a guy that the centerfold of his Hulk #1 was married in. That was easily found to be BS as well (this is also detailed on that Swagglehaus video that everyone hates).

On 8/18/2024 at 12:58 AM, KCOComics said:

Yikes- I haven't seen this before (I don't have Instagram).  What was even trying to do with those Actions? He destroyed them. 

Yes, this may be tied into the drug and alcohol abuse that's been mentioned on this thread. Unless the guy was just straight out malicious.

On 8/18/2024 at 12:33 AM, KCOComics said:

He fell, unraveled and then jumped. 

There is no excuse for any of this and he deserves everything he's going to get. 

But you can see how this unraveled. It played out in front of us. He over reached with his business and failed spectacularly. And it wasn't because of a lack of demand,  it was because of him. He couldn't manage time,  resources, costs,  and finances.  He was a bad business person. 

The money he took in was gone, people were asking for refunds he couldn't provide. For some reason he stopped doing the work (that's the really puzzling part).  

Then we watched him dissolve the business. The drinking and alleged drug abuse.  And when he didn't see a way out,  he said "fudge it".  He started taking in orders (and money) for work he had no intention of doing. He stopped communicating and eventually started selling the only valuable asset he had access to... other people's comics. 

 

I don't think Mike set out to play the long con. I think things went bad and he didn't have the maturity and ethics to do the right thing, and eventually went all in on doing the wrong thing. And for that- I hope he goes to prison for a long time. 

 

He also did an appalling job. There are a couple of early Action Comics that he totally destroyed. Saw the evidence of this for the first time on this Swagglehaus video earlier today. See from 7:39 onwards.

On 7/19/2024 at 10:25 AM, grendelbo said:

Doing it this way will.

 

Is this CGC staff? Would explain the current 'bend' scandal'.

On 8/11/2024 at 10:58 PM, Dave616 said:

Mine is the one he highlighted towards the end. 

Oh OK, I recall seeing your name in the comments now. I saw your video as well.

On 8/11/2024 at 10:57 PM, Ninja0215 said:

The two books I cracked looked like the inner well was just a chunk of plastic; like a sleeve with tougher ends. 

 

I wasn't looking for and curving though when I cracked them . 

Yes, it's not something I've ever even considered looking for. I'll be checking all of my CGC books when I get the nerve to do so. Most of mine go back a few years (in terms of being slabbed), whether that's good or bad I don't know at this stage.

On 8/11/2024 at 10:53 PM, Ninja0215 said:

I agree with him , sort of. I dont belive that there is a ton of damage the inside but it shouldn't curve like that at all. Cgc needs to get this fixed. 

I used to be under the impression that the comic was sandwiched quite firmly between the 2 halves of the slab. I can't believe there are several millimetres of leeway for bowing to occur.

On 8/11/2024 at 10:49 PM, Ninja0215 said:

I'll leave this here. You guys can draw your own conclusions.  

 

 

Yep, this video is what alerted me to this latest situation.

On 8/6/2024 at 3:14 AM, Stefan_W said:

That type of thing can be found in some holders even a few years back. 

Expanding the inner area of the case would be a massive undertaking that would take months to go through a re-design, manufacturing, and testing process. 

"Testing?? We don't have that policy here."

On 7/30/2024 at 12:01 AM, MadGenius said:

The curved inner well being "normal" and "within tolerance" is CGC trying to cover their rear ends.

On 3/19/2024 at 11:54 AM, Hepcat said:

 What it most certainly was not was a "sale".

Yes. Again, that's the entire point. Because of that, it appeared to the bean counters that the affected books were not selling (in fact they were being stolen prior to distribution instead of being legitimately made available for sale to the public) and consequently some of them were cancelled.