Montreal Comic Con Review - w-pics!!!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

So where's the damn Gerry Ross story?

 

Also, and pardon me for my xenophobia, but are prices in Canadian or US dollars there? What do the big US dealers do?

 

And finally, BTW, check out my sig line, if you have Canadian cover priced books, please let me know.

Prices are in CDN. I frankly have no clue what the US dealers do. I mean the exchange rate is so close these days that it makes no significant difference for most books. I guess it only comes into play when you're talking $100+ for a book.

 

Are the CDN price variants the ones with nothing but the CDN price indicated? I'll take a look. I mean heck, the books were printed here in Montreal for the longest time so I must have some or at least access to them.

 

Cheers!

 

 

[goldust40]

haha. I think you're right. I love this picture! haha!!

 

More LOU. I don't think he liked having photos taken of him free of charge. Too bad!

 

 

He does look like he's about to turn green...

[capt_comics]

haha. I think you're right. I love this picture! haha!!

 

More LOU. I don't think he liked having photos taken of him free of charge. Too bad!

 

 

He does look like he's about to turn green...

 

He should be happy anybody WANTS to take a picture of him.

 

 

[dikran]

Great job Brad, glad to have met you!

 

Had my own experience with Gerry Ross but it was actually rather positive

So, you bought the GL #7? I hope it's the real thing.

 

I look forward to seeing you and the wife again!

 

Yeah

 

He came to show it to me at work, and it was the nicest one I'd seen in 2 years of looking, I couldn't resist. It didnt break the bank so even it is restored, tant pis, as we say. He gave his word it wasn't for what it's worth.

 

 

[Designer Toast]

GREAT shirt!

 

 

Cool shirt!! (thumbs u

[davidpg]

It didnt break the bank so even it is restored, tant pis, as we say. He gave his word it wasn't for what it's worth.

 

 

Oh boy.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

So where's the damn Gerry Ross story?

 

Ok, ok, don't twist my arm

 

Well, here it is in a nutshell.

 

Some context first.

 

He and I have spoken several times over the phone during the last few years in response to ads on CRAIGSLIST. However, every time I realize it's him (he always blurts his name out first and that money is no issue - talk about classy) I politely terminate our "transactions" for one reason or another. Never have I come across someone with the bad reputation he has, so I simply refuse to do business with him as a buyer.

 

This past summer he answered one of my ads for a FANGORIA collection I had for sale. No clients on my end so I just wanted to flip them (part of a larger collection with SAVAGE SWORD, EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA, etc...) and he was the only taker so I reluctantly did business with him. He came over to my place, but I refused to let him in - we did the transaction out on the balcony during a nice summer evening.

 

Now it gets interesting. For a man bragging about his wealth he's reluctant to pony up actual cash. I mean he wanted to give me a cheque for the $400.00 I was asking. I of course insisted on cash, which he made a big deal about explaining that he had to do paperwork as a result and give me a receipt and yada-yada... So, I got my cash and that was that, until last week-end.

 

Towards the end of the con he comes walking up my aisle (wearing track pants, a baseball hat, work gloves and carrying a briefcase) talking out loud to everyone, but no one about how he has $10K to spend in the next 30 minutes.

 

So, here I am about to rush over to the CGC to make a submission before they packed it up for the week-end and along comes the "Doctor" telling me he's about to be my best customer of the week-end, although he had no clue who I was despite having been at my place. I of course know a transaction is never going to happen between him and I once he asks to see all of my early SA MARVELS, but I decide to humor him. He grabs a stack tells me he'll offer $800.00 for what is "about $1,000.00 sticker price" and proceeds to tell me to feel free and add it up myself. Gee, thanks for the permission to tally my own books.

 

Can you guess what the sticker price total came to? Over $1,600. Yeah, great deal Gerry. So now, he's pulling the old swap and exchange while trying to pull a fast one me and at this point I'm getting annoyed because he's wasting my time. The kicker in all this is that despite his bragging about $10K he doesn't even have $1K on him to cover the "final" deal between us, which for the record I still wasn't going to accept. At that point I asked for it in cash and he said he only had his company cheques. I then said "cash only". He called my bluff by pulling away and I simply said thanks, but no thanks for the cheque and I took my books back. He seemed shocked and left. PHEW just enough time to hit the CGC booth!

 

About half an hour later a stranger approached me, shook my hand, and congratulated me for refusing his cheque. According to him Gerry was fuming and couldn't believe that I turned him down. News of this went through the con in minutes. My girlfriend was extremely proud of me. Of course I could use $1K, but why give him 50% off the cream of the crop? My books were selling just fine as is.

 

So that's it in a LARGE NUTSHELL!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

It didnt break the bank so even it is restored, tant pis, as we say. He gave his word it wasn't for what it's worth.

 

 

Oh boy.

Hey, where were you last week-end?

[davidpg]

Hey, where were you last week-end?

 

Tell me about it...

 

The one weekend where we had rented a chalet in the Townships with 8 friends (3 months in advance BTW), and the biggest Con ever in Montreal is held.

 

...and you know I go to ALL the shows here.

 

 

[thehumantorch]

Hi,

 

Surprisingly, CGC sales were almost non-existent. I sold ONE all week-end. A common 9.0 ASM in the 170s range. A few folks inquired about WHAT CGC is, but no one seemed interested in paying any sort of premium for a graded book...

 

 

We had a similar experience in Edmonton and Calgary. I don't think we sold a single slab in Edmonton and perhaps 3 or 4 in Calgary. There is only one LCS in Edmonton that carries slabs and he only has a handful. We did have a fair number of collectors actually ask what they were and some collectors that wanted to look at a slab because they had never seen one in person.

 

Most seemed to think that a slabbed book would be very expensive. We had one guy come to our booth looking for ASM 124. Brian/500club had a CGC 9.2 copy but the guy didn't want it because he thought it would be too expensive. When he found out he could get it for Overstreet guide he grabbed it.

 

We spent a lot of time explaining the benefits of CGC and the risks of buying raw. Especially considering all the badly overgraded keys and semi keys we saw for sale in Calgary.

[thehumantorch]

So where's the damn Gerry Ross story?

 

Ok, ok, don't twist my arm

 

Well, here it is in a nutshell.

 

Some context first.

 

He and I have spoken several times over the phone during the last few years in response to ads on CRAIGSLIST. However, every time I realize it's him (he always blurts his name out first and that money is no issue - talk about classy) I politely terminate our "transactions" for one reason or another. Never have I come across someone with the bad reputation he has, so I simply refuse to do business with him as a buyer.

 

This past summer he answered one of my ads for a FANGORIA collection I had for sale. No clients on my end so I just wanted to flip them (part of a larger collection with SAVAGE SWORD, EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA, etc...) and he was the only taker so I reluctantly did business with him. He came over to my place, but I refused to let him in - we did the transaction out on the balcony during a nice summer evening.

 

Now it gets interesting. For a man bragging about his wealth he's reluctant to pony up actual cash. I mean he wanted to give me a cheque for the $400.00 I was asking. I of course insisted on cash, which he made a big deal about explaining that he had to do paperwork as a result and give me a receipt and yada-yada... So, I got my cash and that was that, until last week-end.

 

Towards the end of the con he comes walking up my aisle (wearing track pants, a baseball hat, work gloves and carrying a briefcase) talking out loud to everyone, but no one about how he has $10K to spend in the next 30 minutes.

 

So, here I am about to rush over to the CGC to make a submission before they packed it up for the week-end and along comes the "Doctor" telling me he's about to be my best customer of the week-end, although he had no clue who I was despite having been at my place. I of course know a transaction is never going to happen between him and I once he asks to see all of my early SA MARVELS, but I decide to humor him. He grabs a stack tells me he'll offer $800.00 for what is "about $1,000.00 sticker price" and proceeds to tell me to feel free and add it up myself. Gee, thanks for the permission to tally my own books.

 

Can you guess what the sticker price total came to? Over $1,600. Yeah, great deal Gerry. So now, he's pulling the old swap and exchange while trying to pull a fast one me and at this point I'm getting annoyed because he's wasting my time. The kicker in all this is that despite his bragging about $10K he doesn't even have $1K on him to cover the "final" deal between us, which for the record I still wasn't going to accept. At that point I asked for it in cash and he said he only had his company cheques. I then said "cash only". He called my bluff by pulling away and I simply said thanks, but no thanks for the cheque and I took my books back. He seemed shocked and left. PHEW just enough time to hit the CGC booth!

 

About half an hour later a stranger approached me, shook my hand, and congratulated me for refusing his cheque. According to him Gerry was fuming and couldn't believe that I turned him down. News of this went through the con in minutes. My girlfriend was extremely proud of me. Of course I could use $1K, but why give him 50% off the cream of the crop? My books were selling just fine as is.

 

So that's it in a LARGE NUTSHELL!

 

 

Nice story and report. It would be a bad move selling early SA Marvel for 50% of your price. They are hard to replace cheaply.

 

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Hi,

 

Surprisingly, CGC sales were almost non-existent. I sold ONE all week-end. A common 9.0 ASM in the 170s range. A few folks inquired about WHAT CGC is, but no one seemed interested in paying any sort of premium for a graded book...

 

 

We had a similar experience in Edmonton and Calgary. I don't think we sold a single slab in Edmonton and perhaps 3 or 4 in Calgary. There is only one LCS in Edmonton that carries slabs and he only has a handful. We did have a fair number of collectors actually ask what they were and some collectors that wanted to look at a slab because they had never seen one in person.

 

Most seemed to think that a slabbed book would be very expensive. We had one guy come to our booth looking for ASM 124. Brian/500club had a CGC 9.2 copy but the guy didn't want it because he thought it would be too expensive. When he found out he could get it for Overstreet guide he grabbed it.

 

We spent a lot of time explaining the benefits of CGC and the risks of buying raw. Especially considering all the badly overgraded keys and semi keys we saw for sale in Calgary.

That's a good point. Some people saw my 9.8s on the wall with the attached price tags and probably assumed all the other slabs were just as pricey. Several folks (casual attendees I'm guessing) asked the price of several of the high grade COPPER slabs and got excited because they "had the same books".

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Hey, where were you last week-end?

 

Tell me about it...

 

The one weekend where we had rented a chalet in the Townships with 8 friends (3 months in advance BTW), and the biggest Con ever in Montreal is held.

 

...and you know I go to ALL the shows here.

 

I'll tell ya what. Next time you can man my booth for a 10% cut of the profits while I get to enjoy the chalet. Sound good?

 

At least you're ok. I was wondering what would keep you away from this one!

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

So where's the damn Gerry Ross story?

 

Ok, ok, don't twist my arm

 

Well, here it is in a nutshell.

 

Some context first.

 

He and I have spoken several times over the phone during the last few years in response to ads on CRAIGSLIST. However, every time I realize it's him (he always blurts his name out first and that money is no issue - talk about classy) I politely terminate our "transactions" for one reason or another. Never have I come across someone with the bad reputation he has, so I simply refuse to do business with him as a buyer.

 

This past summer he answered one of my ads for a FANGORIA collection I had for sale. No clients on my end so I just wanted to flip them (part of a larger collection with SAVAGE SWORD, EERIE, CREEPY, VAMPIRELLA, etc...) and he was the only taker so I reluctantly did business with him. He came over to my place, but I refused to let him in - we did the transaction out on the balcony during a nice summer evening.

 

Now it gets interesting. For a man bragging about his wealth he's reluctant to pony up actual cash. I mean he wanted to give me a cheque for the $400.00 I was asking. I of course insisted on cash, which he made a big deal about explaining that he had to do paperwork as a result and give me a receipt and yada-yada... So, I got my cash and that was that, until last week-end.

 

Towards the end of the con he comes walking up my aisle (wearing track pants, a baseball hat, work gloves and carrying a briefcase) talking out loud to everyone, but no one about how he has $10K to spend in the next 30 minutes.

 

So, here I am about to rush over to the CGC to make a submission before they packed it up for the week-end and along comes the "Doctor" telling me he's about to be my best customer of the week-end, although he had no clue who I was despite having been at my place. I of course know a transaction is never going to happen between him and I once he asks to see all of my early SA MARVELS, but I decide to humor him. He grabs a stack tells me he'll offer $800.00 for what is "about $1,000.00 sticker price" and proceeds to tell me to feel free and add it up myself. Gee, thanks for the permission to tally my own books.

 

Can you guess what the sticker price total came to? Over $1,600. Yeah, great deal Gerry. So now, he's pulling the old swap and exchange while trying to pull a fast one me and at this point I'm getting annoyed because he's wasting my time. The kicker in all this is that despite his bragging about $10K he doesn't even have $1K on him to cover the "final" deal between us, which for the record I still wasn't going to accept. At that point I asked for it in cash and he said he only had his company cheques. I then said "cash only". He called my bluff by pulling away and I simply said thanks, but no thanks for the cheque and I took my books back. He seemed shocked and left. PHEW just enough time to hit the CGC booth!

 

About half an hour later a stranger approached me, shook my hand, and congratulated me for refusing his cheque. According to him Gerry was fuming and couldn't believe that I turned him down. News of this went through the con in minutes. My girlfriend was extremely proud of me. Of course I could use $1K, but why give him 50% off the cream of the crop? My books were selling just fine as is.

 

So that's it in a LARGE NUTSHELL!

 

 

Nice story and report. It would be a bad move selling early SA Marvel for 50% of your price. They are hard to replace cheaply.

The funniest part of it all was when he told me how much he disliked CGC books. Could it be because they identify resto?

[Monkeyman]

I heard that Ferrigno walked away with $15,000 selling photos at $30 each. In Toronto I heard that Leonard Nimoy made $85,000 selling signed photos at $60 each. Unfortunately, I can't confirm either of these numbers, but 2,500 people attended the Montreal show so if 20% bought a photo $15,000 makes sense.

 

I saw the guy with the nice slabs in the blue bag twice on the first day. He was turned down by two dealers because he was asking very high prices. I'm not sure who eventually bought them, but he must have lowered his asking prices a lot.

 

Mike M

[dikran]

Yeah I saw him too... Maybe he hasn't heard of eBay or any of the other comic auction sites... Why sell keys to a dealer when you can BE the dealer?

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Yeah I saw him too... Maybe he hasn't heard of eBay or any of the other comic auction sites... Why sell keys to a dealer when you can BE the dealer?

Because there's no paper trail!

[topofthetotem]

Maybe they are stolen or trying to avoid the taxes for a cash only deal.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

Maybe they are stolen or trying to avoid the taxes for a cash only deal.

Who knows, but one the buyers told me they knew him as a GOLDEN AGE collector and these could have been some of his undercopies of these SA/BA keys.

[topofthetotem]

Maybe they are stolen or trying to avoid the taxes for a cash only deal.

Who knows, but one the buyers told me they knew him as a GOLDEN AGE collector and these could have been some of his undercopies of these SA/BA keys.

By the way great report. (thumbs u