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Quality Comix vs. Greg Jortner - Important Information For The Community
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Started by esquirecomics,

324 posts in this topic

esquirecomics

esquirecomics

Posted
Posted

I wanted to alert the comic book community to certain activity undertaken (or failed to be taken) by comic book seller Greg Jortner (comicexpert72@yahoo.com) so that everyone is aware of what has taken place. Many of you may recognize Mr. Jortner's name as he has been recently acting on behalf of Gus Poulakas of Silver Age Comics, which itself has been the subject of significant controversy in the last few weeks.

 

In my legal capacity I was retained last year by fellow board member and comic dealer Brent Moeshlin of Quality Comix to pursue an uncontested debt owed to him by Mr. Jortner. The information below is being released with Brent's approval.

 

On November 5, 2007, Mr. Jortner was sent the following letter:

 

*************************

VIA E-MAIL

 

Greg Jortner

ADDRESS

 

Dear Mr. Jortner:

 

My firm represents QualityComix and its owner Brent Moeshlin and I am writing to you today regarding a comic book collection that you jointly purchased in Atlanta on September 1, 2007. As I understand it, Mr. Moeshlin advanced $10,000.00 to purchase the collection, and the agreement was that you were to split the profits after Mr. Moeshlin recouped his initial investment.

 

Following the purchase you took possession of over 100 books out of the collection. I have been informed you have already sold and received payment for these books on E-bay and, on or about September 16, 2007, netted approximately $3,990.00 after all associated fees were deducted. On September 29, 2007, Mr. Moeshlin, however, only received payment of $2,000.00. Despite multiple good-faith attempts by Mr. Moeshlin to collect this debt you have reneged on meeting your financial and legal obligation.

 

I am aware that you recently, on your own initiative, sent Mr. Moeshlin a variety of Silver Age books, presumably to partially satisfy your debt. These books are currently being held as collateral but will not be accepted as payment. At this time I am respectfully requesting you immediately send Mr. Moeshlin the full sum of $1,990.00 as agreed. Upon receipt of the actual funds, Mr. Moeshlin will return the Silver Age books to you.

 

Please be advised that your failure to meet your obligations by on or before November 19, 2007, will result in Mr. Moeshlin initiating an action to recover this debt through whatever means are available in either Alabama or Connecticut. I am well aware, as a part-time comic dealer myself, how to assist clients recover relatively small debts from out-of-state residents (and if you are wondering why a D.C. attorney is involved, I happen to also be licensed to practice law in Connecticut). I strongly recommend you seriously consider the ramifications within the community, as well as for your own credit rating, of having another dealer file a claim against you for an unpaid debt.

 

It would seem quite unfortunate to allow what started out as a very promising business relationship to sour so quickly, and I trust you will take the correct action. You may send the payment to Mr. Moeshlin directly.

 

Sincerely,

 

/s/

 

Mark S. Zaid

 

cc: Brent Moeshlin

 

*************************

 

On November 6, 2007, Mr. Jortner responded via e-mail:

 

*************************

 

Mr. Zaid,

 

I will be able to put together enough money to pay Brent by November 9th. I sent the comics as an advance and I also sent a check for $600 with some additional comics that Brent has claimed he didn't receive. I have told Brent all almong I had full intention of paying him back. I assume Brent has been screwed before because he has been aggressively coming after me for the money for over a month. He is familiar with the situation that due to a paypal and EBAY mess, I got left holding the bag and already paid $2,000 in cash.

 

Regards,

Greg

 

*************************

That same day I e-mailed in response:

 

*************************

Mr. Jortner, thank you for your prompt response. Full payment by November 9th is perfectly fine under the circumstances.

 

Do you have any tracking information for the $600/comics you indicated you previously sent? By what method was this sent?

 

Thanks.

 

Mark

*************************

 

No response was ever received from Mr. Jortner. Not surprisingly, no payment was received either.

 

Unfortunately, as many of you likely know, chasing out-of-state debtors is logistically difficult and often times not worth the time or money it requires. The matter was essentially stayed until Mr. Jortner's association with Silver Age Comics came to light.

 

For those of you not familiar with the recent controversy, which I will not even attempt to summarize, it can be found here:

Gus'? Action 1 on eBay....

 

The allegations surrounding this auction and the fact that Mr. Jortner was tied to the business led me to send a second letter. On April 7, 2008, I e-mailed him:

 

*************************

April 7, 2008

 

 

VIA E-MAIL

 

Greg Jortner

695 Hunting Ridge Road

Stamford, Connecticut 06903

 

Dear Mr. Jortner:

 

This is a follow-up to my last letter of November 5, 2007, regarding the acknowledged debt of $2,000.00 that you owe my client QualityComix and its owner Brent Moeshlin. Per your e-mail of November 6, 2007, you agreed to provide full payment by November 9, 2007. Needless to say, no payment has been received notwithstanding the luxury of the additional months you were afforded to compensate my client.

 

I understand you are now collaborating with Silver Age Comics which has had quite an impressive array of valuable books offered recently on E-bay. Indeed, according to my sources you have personally been quite aggressive in attempting to recruit potential consignors for this business. At this time I am admittedly not clear as to whether you are an employee, a partner or an independent contractor with Silver Age Comics but it would no doubt be unfortunate were it necessary for me to involve the company, whatever the relationship might be, in my efforts to enforce this debt (and by the way, I am licensed to practice law in both New York and Connecticut).

 

If Mr. Moeshlin does not receive full payment via bank check or money order by Friday, April 11, 2008, I shall not only take the necessary steps to initiate litigation against you but will also ensure the comic book community, of which I am a very active member as a dealer in my own right and an Advisor to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, is fully aware of the details of your refusal to repay a well-known and respected comic dealer a debt you have already admitted in writing to be completely legitimate. The choice is yours.

 

I trust you will make the right and intelligent choice given the circumstances. All checks should be payable to QualityComix and send to [ADDRESS].

 

Sincerely,

 

/s/

 

Mark S. Zaid

 

cc: Brent Moeshlin

Gus Poulakas

Silver Age Comics

*************************

 

Mr. Jortner did not respond to my e-mail, but interestingly I received an immediate e-mail response from someone claiming to be Mr. Poulakas:

 

*************************

To Whom It May Concern

 

Please send all your inquiries regarding this matter to Mr. Jortner and not to me. I do not wish to receive any further emails regarding any transaction that he may have had with you and any money that he owes you.

 

Sincerely

Gus

Silver Age Comics

*************************

 

I responded back:

 

*************************

 

Mr. Poulakas, as a professional courtesy, please be advised that if Mr. Jortner does not make good on his debt, I will seek to garnish any wages or funds you pay him, or attach any comics you might have in your possession that he has an interest in. As far as I know, Mr. Jortner may very well own a share in your business. Thus, your company will be involved in these proceedings due to his actions and this relationship is known to the comic book community.

 

Furthermore, as I have been told by numerous individuals in the community that Mr. Jortner has access to “your” e-mail account and may seek to intercept any communications I send you, I cannot trust such a simple message such as this which cannot be verified. If you wish to confirm to me that you are the owner of Silver Age Comics and do not want advance notice of any action taken against Mr. Jortner, please send me a formal letter either via mail, fax or e-mail with your signature so that I may confirm its authenticity with other comic dealers and collectors.

 

Alternatively, if it is believed your company should not be involved in any litigation or enforcement proceedings against Mr. Jortner you may feel free to have your lawyer contact me to educate me on the legal/financial relationship Mr. Jortner has with Silver Age Comics.

 

Respectfully,

 

Mark S. Zaid

 

*************************

 

That was the last I heard from "Mr. Poulakas".

 

Now, as I said, Mr. Jortner never responded to me but he did contact Brent via text on April 8, 2008, with a message that he would send $2,000.00 worth of Golden Age books as payment for his debt.

 

To make matters even more interesting, on April 8, 2008, someone claiming to be Mr. Poulakas posted his one and only comment on the boards under the username "silveragegus" in the thread Batman #1 on ebay misrepresented???.

 

The post was as follows (although I added the bold):

 

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It appears that Im in in the very strange position of having to defend myself to the comic book community after 17 years of dealing fairly and having a fairly impeccable ebay record of over 4,000 thousand positive feedbacks and negative feedbacks that can be counted on one hand over a 10 year selling track record.This is gus at silverage comics and I have to confess up till now I didnt pay attention to or perused any of the chat boards.I will try to take each allegation that I have read and respond to it.I have been on a buying/consignment spree of late.As with any new venture problems arise,and theres a learning curve involved.To answer the people who say I havent mailed packages promptly,or been there to answer peoples questions concerning on what they want to bid on.In many instances I dont have the book in my possession to give more revealing details to potential buyers,sometimes the owner of the books arent happy about the final selling price and after having to wait a few weeks Im told that they arent going to release the books at auction's end.In every case I deal with people fairly and with respect and do my best to try to make them happy if they are only getting 3 of the 4 books they've won.Concerning the improper grading of books,with the Germany collection the restoration was noted on almost every book,many times the anamolies in grading come from the fact that the owner has optimistically overgraded his book and I try to bring him down to earth by talking about the books defects on the phone and by utilizing his scans that are sent to me.Again if anyone had a severe discrepancy money is refunded or there is a bit of a financial ammendment.To discuss the shiiling aspects,I DONT endorse or encourage this activity,unfortunately I didnt think to police the people who wanted to sell their books thru me.I have immediately pulled some auctions that were suspicious and now I ask consignors what their ebay handle is so can be more on top of activity that is unethical.We have been selling some nice stuff of late and have many more satisfied customers than malcontants.I want everyone to be happy and to bid with confidence when visiting my site.I havent been as available as I would have liked the last 6 weeks because I closed my nyc location because my lease was up and the landlord doubled my rent.Ive been a solid citizen for years,a nice guy easy to deal with.The final point Id like to make is Greg Jortner ISNT my partner nor a part of SilverAge comics.I have to admit that I bought into Greg's vision of making my site a premiere site where everything is truly a 99 cent let her rip affair with no book big,small,rare or common held back.Greg's role is he finds books that I sometimes purchase outright or sets up consignments where unfortunately some collectors think they should get Declaration of Independance type prices which is why I took the consignments because they have irrational opinions of what their books are actually worth.This hasnt worked out to my expectations,fees have been astronomical,I have a larger percentage of books that are unaccounted for after auctions end and I would be more inclined to attribute that to some peoples eyes are bigger than their wallets when they saw the selection offered on my site the last 6 months rather than the widespread shiiling thats being bandied about.I hope Ive satisfied and answered at least a portion of the speculation thats out there,in the future Im going to try to have some of the consignment books in house hoping that alleviates some of the noise as well as continuing to put quality stuff that I purchase....hey like most out there Im a comic fan at heart respectfully Gus Poulakas

*************************

 

No further posts have emanated from "silveragegus".

 

Although Mr. Jortner did claim on April 11, 2008, that he had shipped the books, no comics have been received. Requests for a tracking number have gone unanswered. As this is typical of Mr. Jortner's behavior, whether the books ultimately show up or not it is time that the community becomes aware of his conduct.

 

The next step is to pursue legal action against Mr. Jortner and, if necessary, explore whether a judgment can be pursued for funds/books held by Silver Age Comics.

 

This whole continuing episode gives a black eye to our community, but hopefully it will remain the exception rather than the norm, especially if the community reacts to ensure it does not happen again.

 

I hope this information assists others in reaching an informed decision on whether to do business with Mr. Jortner in the future.

 

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

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Mark,

 

 

Does Mr. Jortner have a website , or an ebay name he sells from or a brick and mortar store?

 

No website that we know of and he has used different ebay handles.

 

One username was/is apparently "purecomics72", but there are no books posted under that name.

 

I am already starting to receive calls from collectors/dealers about other problems/debts with Mr. Jortner. If anyone has had dealings with him, particularly adverse ones, please let me know. There is already close to $10,000 that he allegedly owes to people and the more money involved the more likely I can involve local prosecutors to open a fraud investigation.

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sckao

sckao

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Posted

 

Having just gone through the Small Claims Court on a non-comic related matter (a four-six month process), I'm sorry to hear about this situation. The court costs and time wasted really makes it a long and drawn out process (at least in California.)

 

I hope this situation gets resolved quickly... :wishluck:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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aardvark88

aardvark88

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Posted

$2k should be petty cash to a comic book dealer/flipper. Now Greg Jortner will lose 10 times the revenue in future comic/eBay sales and good will. Hopefully, we won't see fisticuffs at NYC comic-con this Friday April 18/08 in front of the Silver Age Comics booth due to the allegations. :devil:

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Old Fashion PB and J

Old Fashion PB and J

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Posted
$2k should be petty cash to a comic book dealer/flipper. Now Greg Jortner will lose 10 times the revenue in future comic/eBay sales and good will. Hopefully, we won't see fisticuffs at NYC comic-con this Friday April 18/08 in front of the Silver Age Comics booth due to the allegations. :devil:

 

Now I wanna see some action. I know, im bad.

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Mac Man

Mac Man

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"In many instances I dont have the book in my possession to give more revealing details to potential buyers,sometimes the owner of the books arent happy about the final selling price and after having to wait a few weeks Im told that they arent going to release the books at auction's end."

 

Anyone else find this disturbing? He's selling books he doesn't even have in his possession. 1. How the :censored: can he even attribute a grade to the book with any level of accuracy and certainty without physically looking at it? 2. If the people aren't willing to ship him the books before he confirms a sale, then he shouldn't agree to sell those individual's books.

 

Hey, I'm willing to admit that I don't know too much about item consignment. But if you set something up in an auction format, and you don't like the end price, oh well--you took a gamble at either getting more or less and that is the risk you accepted. And as the consigner, he really ought to have this stuff on hand. Just my 2c

 

Hopefully you're able to get Brent his money. I can only imagine the level of frustration he must feel... (and you for having to try to deal with this insufficiently_thoughtful_person)!

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TheBrockley

TheBrockley

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Getting a letter from Mark, where he isn't working on your behalf, is akin to getting a letter of audit from the tax man, either way you better stock up on the KY and do some stretches because you are about to get.......

 

 

 

There are a few posters here who I read pretty much every post they make, either because they are entertaining or infomative, I always find Mark's to be both, as he always has the best interest of the hobby at heart. Rather then a Mickey Mouse Salem witch hunt, I wish more people would follow Mark's example before they sharpen the forks and heat the oil, and have facts and concrete eveidence before dragging someone through the mud. I'm not speaking about anyone or any specific incident just generally speaking about the headhunter mentality we all to often see on the boards.

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