Hey Tomega... (Odd Development)

[sterlingcomics]

what's your matter? the man tell you he work for U.S you are not beleving why?

 

you try to scan identity for why so you can fraud.

 

maybe you should tell sorry to Mr. Alexandru because hes a serios ebay you will see when.

 

That are gud tread. I hve now seen.

[BronzeBruce13]

Hey Bruce,

 

What's going on w/ your website?

 

John

 

Still in development, but delayed due to the programmers schedule and other matters. Keep the faith though.

[BronzeBruce13]

what's your matter? the man tell you he work for U.S you are not beleving why?

 

you try to scan identity for why so you can fraud.

 

maybe you should tell sorry to Mr. Alexandru because hes a serios ebay you will see when.

 

That are gud tread. I hve now seen.

 

 

the Ebay will contact you too, you will see Mr. Alexandru is serios seller!

[chrisco37]

what's your matter? the man tell you he work for U.S you are not beleving why?

 

you try to scan identity for why so you can fraud.

 

maybe you should tell sorry to Mr. Alexandru because hes a serios ebay you will see when.

 

LMAO!!!! That was the most hilarious post since Scarface's. Post of the Week, Andrew!

 

Chris

[BronzeBruce13]

I'd second that... first I read Tomega's post (again) then AK's follow up made me bust out!

 

Someone should bump Tomega's original again for a good laugh.

 

 

[chrisco37]

A blessing from the Godfather!

 

Yeah, I when I read it for the first time....Second time too.

 

Chris

[BronzeBruce13]

Here's an odd twist.

One of you forumites (or an evil lurker) must be messin' with me with info posted here and maybe in the XM 94 post too... OR this is another scam on top of the prior one.

 

This email was sent to me last night by Comgeek? The email was from... t0ychef@yahoo.com (not his "aol" addy: toychef@aol.com). The only thing that looks different in the front end is either a capatalized "O" or a zero instead of a lc "o"? I even responded last night with "WTF ??" thinking Steve must have seen this post and was having fun or something. Like he would sign his email Comgeek or sell that book for $4200 (the auction was not won either). The link takes you to the bid history, not the auction itself as well.

 

I just got off the phone with Steve, he does not have a yahoo account and claims not to be the sender. Very odd. Steve's not too happy someone is using his "toychef" email name with another provider.

 

 

What do you make of this?

 

 

Dear Bruce,

 

You have shown interest for my " X-MEN # 94 CGC NM+ 9.6.....Oh So Close". The winner of my auction gave up on buying it for some personal reasons.

 

If you are further interested in buying it, please let me know. My offer is now $4,200. Please answer me asap because I will go to Europe tomorrow.

 

I look forward hearing from you.

Regards,

comgeek

 

>--------------------

>

>Question from: comictradingpost

>Title of item: X-MEN # 94 CGC NM+ 9.6.....Oh So Close to....

>Seller: comgeek

> Starts: Jan-11-04 17:04:00 PST

> Ends: Jan-18-04 17:04:00 PST

>Price: Starts at $1.00

>To view the item go to:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=2217407248

>

>

>Visit eBay, The World's Online Marketplace TM at http://www.ebay.com

 

Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!

[OldGuy]

Not a good idea messin' wit da Godfather.

[chrisco37]

I think you're right. It's just someone messing with you b/c of the thread.

 

Chris

[COI]

 

That's hilarious. I've got to give these guys credit for thinking "outside the box". The plan kind of falls to shreads once "comgeek" tells you to send payment to a prison in Romania, but I've got to commend the effort. Now, if they only put that much thought into making an honest buck, maybe they wouldn't have to try this garbage in the first place.

[garthgantu]

Yeah, everyone knows he wuz sprung by da boys a week ago? Ain't no clink in Romania gonna hold comgeek!

[BronzeBruce13]

 

That's hilarious. I've got to give these guys credit for thinking "outside the box". The plan kind of falls to shreads once "comgeek" tells you to send payment to a prison in Romania, but I've got to commend the effort. Now, if they only put that much thought into making an honest buck, maybe they wouldn't have to try this garbage in the first place.

 

 

That's what makes it so ridiculous. If you have the intelligence and time to take it this far... why not go legit?

 

If you consider what DD could accomplish if he wanted to walk the straight road, there would be no limits. I bet in the "Good DD" alternate universe he would have become a top 3 dealer and one of the most respected guys in the hobby. He would have been an Overstreet Advisor, maybe started CGC or something similar, could have written extensively on a variety of subjects, run a legit resto business (and championed a different attitude towards it) and could be raking in $$$ in a number of ways (not to mention the pressing orders on CGC resubs, etc.) In short, he could be spending the same amount of time, have an even larger, legit income and the respect of the industry.

 

Am I wrong?

[fantastic_four]

He would have been an Overstreet Advisor, maybe started CGC or something similar, could have written extensively on a variety of subjects, run a legit resto business (and championed a different attitude towards it) and could be raking in $$$ in a number of ways (not to mention the pressing orders on CGC resubs, etc.) In short, he could be spending the same amount of time, have an even larger, legit income and the respect of the industry.

 

Am I wrong?

 

About the income level, yes, you're almost certainly wrong. Have you thought about how much his yearly revenues are? Somewhere north of $200K; hard to say where exactly. Or how high his profit margin has to be? None of those ventures you mentioned would earn him anywhere near to what he earns on the comic-keys account.

 

His ComicsPriceGuide.com forum profile has a "favorite quote" section that says it all..."consequences, schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich." (Daffy Duck)

[COI]

Because going legit takes work, as you well know. While running scams also takes work, they tend to be shortcuts compared to the work involved in succeeding legitimately. For the majority of us who are never really given anything, it takes serious dedication and focus to be successful in any field, regardless of the level of talent or intellect a person may have. You can have all the tools at your disposal but if you don't have the drive to get you through, combined with a basic sense of value and morality, all that talent and intelligence is useless.

They've decided to live their lives always looking for a shortcut. For all their intellect and ability, they're pu$$ies spawned from a culture that always wants immediate gratification and something for nothing. The concepts of hard work, dicipline, morals and dedication are lost on these losers. It's a shame and a waste of healthy bodies and sharp minds.

[COI]

About the income level, yes, you're almost certainly wrong. Have you thought about how much his yearly revenues are? Somewhere north of $200K; hard to say where exactly. Or how high his profit margin has to be? None of those ventures you mentioned would earn him anywhere near to what he earns on the comic-keys account.

 

I doubt that he makes as much as it seems. Many of the big $$$ books have been relisted several times, meaning that he's had to give refunds. And everytime he gives a refund, he's losing fees. I would also bet that a number of his auctions have been won by shills in an attempt to raise prices. In those cases, he would also be liable for fees. All this would be taken out of his profit. I'm sure his bottom line is still in the green, but I highly doubt it's making him "rich".

[fantastic_four]

You exchanged e-mails with him. Didn't you notice how verbose and outgoing he is in private communications? He claims he does more business privately than he does on e-bay, and based upon the 100+ e-mails he and I exchanged a few years ago, I believe it. Every week or so he'd send me a new scan of early Marvels he had "just gotten in from an original owner."

[COI]

You exchanged e-mails with him. Didn't you notice how verbose and outgoing he is in private communications? He claims he does more business privately than he does on e-bay, and based upon the 100+ e-mails he and I exchanged a few years ago, I believe it. Every week or so he'd send me a new scan of early Marvels he had "just gotten in from an original owner."

 

Yes, he is very outgoing in private. But I think he overstates the amount of private business he does. I actually started communicating with him a while before I bought the Avengers 1. When I thought he was legit, I was very eager to do business with him privately. We had a few exchanges, then I started asking him to see lists of what he had, which I never recieved. I then sent him a broad want-list of my own, and never got much of a response. He would say he was going to look his inventory over, and get back to me. He never really did. Shortly after, I won the Avengers on Ebay.

 

For someone who does so much business privately, I would think that I could have gotten a deal done with him long before that auction. I had thousands of dollars I was willing to spend, and would have compounded that amount if he did indeed deliver the goods. The only conclusion I can draw is that his inventory, and the amount of private business he does, is greatly overstated. How much private business can he possibly be doing? He claims to have some very loyal repeat customers, but how possible is that? To be a repeat customer with him you'd have to be spending some serious money on the hobby. And I would think that any serious, long term spender would know better than to deal with him, and would have caught wind of his actions by now. Just the existence of CGC alone ensures that a loyal big spender is virtually an impossibility. His hyperbole dosen't add up, and as far as I can tell it's his "gift for gab" that's gotten him where he is, creating the illusion of a wealth of books and cash that dosen't really exist. The fact that you think he is getting "rich" off this operation is a testament to that. Not only do I not think this is making him rich, but I would even be willing to wager that this little operation of his is not his main source of income.

[BronzeBruce13]

He would have been an Overstreet Advisor, maybe started CGC or something similar, could have written extensively on a variety of subjects, run a legit resto business (and championed a different attitude towards it) and could be raking in $$$ in a number of ways (not to mention the pressing orders on CGC resubs, etc.) In short, he could be spending the same amount of time, have an even larger, legit income and the respect of the industry.

 

Am I wrong?

 

About the income level, yes, you're almost certainly wrong. Have you thought about how much his yearly revenues are? Somewhere north of $200K; hard to say where exactly. Or how high his profit margin has to be? None of those ventures you mentioned would earn him anywhere near to what he earns on the comic-keys account.

 

His ComicsPriceGuide.com forum profile has a "favorite quote" section that says it all..."consequences, schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich." (Daffy Duck)

 

 

Good points, but keep in mind he at one time was said to have the best inventory around and probably had more opportunity being in that position, especially when people wanted to sell. In addition, he obviously had the ability to locate and acquire prized collections and key books and clearly amassed multiples of the biggest keys ever... at least as far as I understand.

 

Assuming he was "Good DD", he could have built upon that position, reputation and advantage and created a MileHigh style business... or better. If he was on the "right" track, would you doubt that he could be a top 3 BSD company today? All's he needed was a solid, legit business plan and motivation. He had the ability IMHO.

 

Consider if he never restored any of that stock we saw in that photo of his store... and had the sense to hold some of the major keys he had in duplicate. Sure some may have been bought restored, but I doubt all were. He could have cashed in big time with the CGC craze with just a handful of those. Surely some of the books he owned were not restored when he acquired them...

 

What If?

 

 

[Aman619]

it would be interesting to find out just what happenned to all thosee book sin his old ads. Perhaps they were sold to pay for lawyers. Maybe he still has them...and more.. But as curious as I am sometimes, lets face it, 75% of them had already gotten the Danny treatment in the back room, so who cares....

[fantastic_four]

What If?

 

Yep, what if. He definitely has the intelligence and will to have accomplished quite a bit. I kept repeatedly asking him to "rejoin the collecting community" in these forums and via private e-mail...he just thought I was taunting him, but I meant it. His knowledge is of great value to us all...those guys on the ComicsPriceGuide.com forums have good reason to be impressed by him. Such a shame...