ivegotneatstuff

so...I should send these back to Marvel?

just sent this to Mark Haspel

curious to know what he has to say...

Office copies, and review copies. Marvel used to have a free circulation list of well over two hundred back in the DeFalco era.

At one point, every Marvel employee could get a copy of every book, and they would also send out packages of books to writers and artists that they were cultivating.

Advance review copies were B&W photocopies, as the books were on sale within a day of being printed.

When longtime DC employee E. Nelson Bridwell died, his collection included thousands of Marvels with similar stamps so Marvel might have been sending comp copies across town, or perhaps Bridwell did some horsetrading with his Marvel buddies.

I've got a couple of dozen myself. Some from Carole Kalish, or Lou Banks or Tom DeFalco and some I bought when Bridwells collection was sold by Phil Levine.

 

Holy crapola! your depth of knowledge gives me vertigo when i stand on its edge! thanks

I have no idea either... can I ask where you got these? I wonder if these were early preview copies or something?

These are part of some original owner collection I am selling.. The owner grew up in lower Manhattan.. beyond that I don't know where they came from..but I'll ask him

Can anyone shed some light on these? Were these promo copies? I know it prob has no special significance..but just curious..

Some have "Not to be Sold" stamped on them and some have "Complimentary Copy"

when 2 full cgc boxes of detective comics were stolen from UPS while in transit from me to clink, we actually found them because the "new" owner tried to register them into the cgc registry...

 

once we contacted the new owner, he of course had purchased them from someone, and promptly cracked all of them out from the cases and had them raw...

 

now, while I had scans of the books, etc, with them not being in a cgc case any longer (he later changed his story to "he bought them raw" ,even though I knew that was a lie) the legal process at that point made recovery of the stolen books, more costly than walking away with the loss!

this was out of Jersey right?

True, sometimes time is critical in getting a lead on a stolen item. Getting the word out quickly is essential to recovery. I am sure police reports are filed differently in each jurisdiction. If the poster does not have a police or postal report "in hand" (ready to upload), maybe you could have a "pending official documentation" status.

I like this - Pending Official Documentation status - I think I will use it.

I would see this web page as more of an anonymous tipster site...people who see the book at a show or a local comic book owner who is offered the book could anonymously tip the owner (thru the site by email). For example: "Hey, this is Dealer X I think someone offered me your book today.. I was at the YYY show in Anytown, USA and this guy with a Strawberry Shortcake T-shirt and swollen ankles came up to me and..."

yup...thats exactly what it is....and I will probably have a phone number on there, because the chance to recover a book is quite fleeing. I suggest telling the person presenting the book 'Wow - this is a cool book! I can probably offer you money for it. Let me just check out what its going for in the back room and I'll be right back" - and then check the site. or.... "I need to scan it so I can grade it later.. will only take a second" or whatever ruse they can think up..

It would be unfair to expect someone to confront the thief directly. Not only could it be dangerous, but the crook might bolt and dump the book if they think someone knows their identity.

definitely dont do this.. just get their contact information and tell them you are definitely interested in buying..then get the police involved.. I have to put my story up of what happened to me with this FF 49 it involved 5 police, 3 postal authorities, 2 carriers, 2 comic book shops, a "stake out" and lots of patience..and it took 2 or 3 months.. all for a book worth $150 hahaha

but WE WON! and the crook got away scott free

Would you be willing to file a police report? I'm confused why you wouldn't? Also, isnt this postal fraud?

 

If the book was never reported stolen, then it isn't technically stolen property..as far as authorities are concerned. I say this thinking of a scenario.. lets say I put it on the website..and somebody finds it at some convention and notifies us. The police won't get involved unless there is actually a police report showing it has been stolen...at least in my experience....during which time the person who discovers it is sort of stalling the thief saying "hey...I've got the stolen book right in front of me.. send the police to confiscate it.." right?

 

It would be cool if everyone chimed in here.. I mean.. I believe what you are telling me is true... .....but what if it is actually found? How would you legally get it back without a police report?

 

This all happened in 2003. Over the years, I've always scanned auctions and posted scans in various places just in case the book surfaced.

 

It never really occurred to me to file a police report for something that I willingly shipped to someone. I can't imagine the local police getting involved in something like this. I had all my documentation through Paypal and I did file a report with the Postal Service if I recall correctly.

 

In retrospect, I probably should have just to have a paper trail as you suggest. Now, all I have are my emails with Paypal and letters from the NYS AG, etc.

Have you called the police to ask them how long you are allowed to file a police report? How about the USPS for mail fraud?

.. I was at the YYY show in Anytown, USA and this guy with a Strawberry Shortcake T-shirt and swollen ankles came up to me and..."

I can actually picture this guy

ps..if i dont respond..its because we are having a lightning storm right now and i'm shutting off my computer till its over sorry

Good stuff.

 

I shared this info on the CBCA forum. (thumbs u

 

BTW, a FF 1 was "stolen" from me through a fraudulent PayPal transaction (it was charged back later as "unauthorized use.")

 

I don't have a police report as it happened through an ebay/paypal transaction. Is this something you would post?

 

Thanks! nice of ya

 

I would need more information regarding the details of this.. can you send me a private PM (unless you dont care..then just put it here

 

Did you buy a ff1 which was never shipped to you? or, did you sell it to someone and they never paid for it? I'm confused

 

 

I shipped a FF 1 to a buyer. Book was delivered per delivery confirmation and positive feedback was left. 45 days later I got a Paypal charge back claiming someone unauthorized used the Paypal account and I had to give the money back. In effect, someone used a Paypal account to steal a FF 1 from me. I can PM further details.

 

Would you be willing to file a police report? I'm confused why you wouldn't? Also, isnt this postal fraud?

If the book was never reported stolen, then it isn't technically stolen property..as far as authorities are concerned. I say this thinking of a scenario.. lets say I put it on the website..and somebody finds it at some convention and notifies us. The police won't get involved unless there is actually a police report showing it has been stolen...at least in my experience....during which time the person who discovers it is sort of stalling the thief saying "hey...I've got the stolen book right in front of me.. send the police to confiscate it.." right?

It would be cool if everyone chimed in here.. I mean.. I believe what you are telling me is true... .....but what if it is actually found? How would you legally get it back without a police report?

You may want to contact board member walclark. Here's a link to his thread from this past April.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3938024&fpart=1

 

Big time GA books stolen (More Fun 52, Tec 38, Flash 1, More Fun 54, etc...) from his home in Tennessee.

 

I never heard if there was a resolution.

Thanks - I will do that!

Nice idea, but this could be an unintended playground for mischief...

 

I have not looked the site yet, but I would recommend that only stolen books where there is filed police report or open postal investigation be allowed to be listed.

 

I can just imagine some unscrupulous person posting book that are, in fact, NOT stolen on the site -- just to give the rightful owner a hard time.

 

My 2 cents:

I would also recommend that the person filing the stolen book post fully identify themselves and the circumstances of the theft. The poster should list their full name, address and contact information either publicly or, at least, to the site's admin. That admin should authenticate the poster's story and, only then, should the book be listed.

Thanks - I am thinking along those lines too. I am also listing everything as "reported stolen" ... but with that being said, I think, all in all, people reporting comics stolen are pretty honest....and the site obviously is not an official go to source to report something stolen... the police are. I can't see how someone can benefit by reporting something stolen here that actually isn't...as it isn't a place an adjuster will use to pay a claim on, etc. The only way to benefit financially is to actually complete a police report - and in that case, if they did it fraudulently, they would be committing a crime.

In my case (the FF49 on the site was stolen from me), the police response was very slow and ... lets just say it could have been better (they pulled the thief over in his car while he had the book in his car...and the police did nothing about it..despite knowing it was there..they just took his word for it). The postal authorities took days to call me back, if at all. I feel like we (the collecting world) do a much better job of policing in these cases than sometimes the proper authorities do - and don't get me wrong, I love the police - I just think they are usually quite busy dealing with much more important cases than to chase down comic books.

The reason I might not require a police report is that it often takes a fair amount of time to get one done...during which time the thief is pawning off their priced books. I might make it a requirement to get a police report to me within 48 hours or something - or the books will be removed from the site - what does everyone think of this?

and thanks for your suggestions

Good stuff.

 

I shared this info on the CBCA forum. (thumbs u

 

BTW, a FF 1 was "stolen" from me through a fraudulent PayPal transaction (it was charged back later as "unauthorized use.")

 

I don't have a police report as it happened through an ebay/paypal transaction. Is this something you would post?

Thanks! nice of ya

I would need more information regarding the details of this.. can you send me a private PM (unless you dont care..then just put it here

Did you buy a ff1 which was never shipped to you? or, did you sell it to someone and they never paid for it? I'm confused

good idea! I'm gonna write my FF49 story..its a page turner! haha

I'll qualify my comments upfront as I collect OA and not comics.

 

If a CGC comic is stolen and someone cracks the slab, how can anyone verify that it's the stolen comic if reintroduced into the marketplace at a much later date?

 

I'm sure on a super rare high end book, (i.e., Action #1), a new copy being introduced into the marketplace after one is reported stolen would raise a few eyebrows. However, a more available comic might be harder to detect. How would you recover a stolen comic then?

 

Cheers!

N.

 

 

That's a good question. I had this book stolen from me over a year ago (there was a thread or two about it). It was mailed to me and the postman who was substituting for my regular carrier thought he would "help me out" by leaving the package by the elevator door instead of leaving a slip in my mailbox like he was supposed to. The next day, the woman who cleans the building (who knew me luckily) found an empty box with my name on it in the garbage can of a different floor..and just decided to show me it. It was the box my book was shipped in, with tracking...etc.

I had a scan of the book, which I immediately sent to all the comic book stores in the area. My thoughts on this were, there is no way the person who opened the box knew what was in side of it when he opened it. In fact, the book was sent in a used laptop box, so he probably thought it was a computer. This told me he wasn't a comic book expert, and would probably try to pawn the thing off to a comic dealer...identifiable bar code and everthing. Here is the scan (I added the circles showing the defects which could identify it afterwards):

Sure enough, a couple days later, the thief brazenly walked into one of the comic book shops and tried to sell it. I called the police to tell them, and since I had stupidly not filed a police report yet, they couldn't do anything. By the time I finished the report...the thief had left. There is much more to this story (including a couple parts where I pretended to be an interested buyer and called the thief and spoke to him) but the long and short of it is, he figured out the barcode was probably a bad thing, and he broke the book out of the case (did a surprisingly good job actually) and tried to sell it at yet another comic book store, where it was once again recognized...(thanks to those identifying marks..and it was the same guy) and a bunch of brave comic book store employees basically ganged up on him, holding the book behind them, and said "we believe this book to be stolen - you can either leave now and we will return it to the rightful owner, or you can wait for the police and explain your story to them."

I wouldn't recommend anybody do this, but regardless, it worked..and I got my book back.. It was clearly the same book - as the marks were identical in every way..

To further answer your question, when somebody has a book stolen, and if it is of any value, they have hopefully made a very good scan of it before hand. If not, the CGC might very well have a scan of it. If not that, it is possible the previous owner has a scan of it....or eBay might if it was purchased on there...etc, etc..

The book would be uploaded to the stolencomic.com database - and would remain there until it was reported as found...even a year later - or 10 years later.

The great thing about the comic book community is, they are sort of a self policing unit..and find looking for stolen books a fun pastime - as evidenced by the sort of detective work I have seen on these very boards..especially ones like what was just posted on this thread...

If the books do happen to be different...(like...someone sees a book on ebay which appears to be the one which was reported stolen..and they both have the bottom right hand corner nicked in the same exact place) that's for the two parties to decide and contend amongst themselves... Stolencomic.com is just a database service...for now anyway.

i was agreeing with you.

AAHHHH!! Sometimes I have a tendency to misinterpret.. especially on comic book threads haha sorry

My post changed to dancing banana instead

I think we have to be careful we don't turn this into a "Danny Dupcak advice thread".. and all that implies

 

no effin duh. if you're not going to contribute, then STFU. be a part of the solution, not the problem.

I think we have to be careful we don't turn this into a "Danny Dupcak advice thread".. and all that implies

i'll donate this book. danny boy scammed me out of $150 when this came back from CGC:

 

- perfect source of funds for a donation!

ahhh....memories

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/22/nyregion/memorabilia-sale-helps-victims-of-store-swindle.html?scp=1&sq=daniel+dupcak&st=nyt)

Mark - Do you have eBays full cooperation as far as what they are disclosing. I assume they are giving you info only under court order?

...and more importantly, can we film this court proceeding? I think it would make for great viewing. I can see it now at the next comic convention!

Room 101 - Interview with George Lucas - 10:30 AM

Room 102 - Pressing comics - Restoration or not? - 11:00 AM

Room 103 - Danny Dupcak Family Court Proceeding highlights - 12:00 to 2:30 PM SOLD OUT!

I can think of no better (and ironic) way to support this cause then with my previously stolen then recovered Fantastic Four #49 - and I'm broke! (This was a 7.5 before the thief cracked it out of the case) Currently NOT slabbed

Estimated value $125? I'll cover shipping..

Why is that only a 9.0? Crease on Spidey's foot by staple?