Why I won't buy from Jamie Graham...and why I love these boards!

[Mark 1]

 

 

I could be wrong(I'm not Re reading this whole thing!) but I don't think mark used the word shady until he did a search and read multiple accusations of selling trimmed books (thumbs u

 

 

 

[gaz2810i]

Did I miss something? I just read the whole thread and the second dealer is yet to be ousted or am I wrong

[MR SigS]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

[Mark 1]

 

Again, I can - without much work - get your refund back. It won't be a big deal.

 

Ok, thanks. But how is it you can do this but nobody from his store will call me back and work something out? I'm sure you can see where that seems outside of ordinary business practices and insulting to me. Or how about the fact Jamie posts on here and even posted in this thread and he won't post something to me directly about it. I appreciate your offer ...curious how you can get it done as you did for jerseycomicboy...but why can't Jamie be a decent guy and just call me or have angry John or his staff call me?

 

Also everyone wants to jump on the word shady...To me it implies someone I don't trust. I'm a man of my word. Many board members here have dealt with me. I ask anyone to chime in here and say differently. I expect others to be the same when doing business. They called me back and said to go back to the show and exchange the comic. Then no calls at all despite several calls being nice to the guys too.

 

Give me the benefit of the doubt here for what I'm saying. Make your own choices and buy from who you want. I'm just telling about my experience.

 

 

[Mark 1]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

[Yanell45-migration]

Who was the seconddealer you willnever buy from again? Is he local. I am in Miami and just want to know.

 

[Mark 1]

No I'm pulling a MMehdy and will post that in a separate thread in all caps.

 

(I'll deal with this mess first. )

[FlyingDonut]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

 

You might want to delete that line, as you've just made the entire thread irrelevant. Jamie may be a curmudgeon, but Greg White? Really?

[underthebigw]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

The irony here is just UN-FREAKIN'-BELIEVABLE.

[Mark 1]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

 

You might want to delete that line, as you've just made the entire thread irrelevant. Jamie may be a curmudgeon, but Greg White? Really?

 

You don't understand sarcasm do you?

 

I've never bought anything from him.

[oakman29]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

 

You might want to delete that line, as you've just made the entire thread irrelevant. Jamie may be a curmudgeon, but Greg White? Really?

 

You don't understand sarcasm do you?

 

I've never bought anything from him.

 

Now I get it! HAHAHAHhahahaha

[Mark 1]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

 

You might want to delete that line, as you've just made the entire thread irrelevant. Jamie may be a curmudgeon, but Greg White? Really?

 

 

 

You don't understand sarcasm do you?

 

I've never bought anything from him.

 

Now I get it! HAHAHAHhahahaha

 

At a con a few years ago I heard quite a lot about White. I've never dealt with him...

 

At this point I understand why the show wasn't good for vintage dealers...they all have horrible reputations...White, Graham, Muchin...quite a showing of business minds.

[comix4fun]

What is NOT ok with me is to tell me you'll be there tomorrow when you apparently have a decent idea you won't and then not returning multiple calls. That's not cool (thumbs u

 

Which is absolute & utter speculation on your part with zero basis in reality. But, hey, give Jamie a call - I'm sure he'll let you manage his calendar from now on :thumbsup:

 

Transplant said he immediately knew who this was from the description and that he "has an affinity for not showing up the last day of a show".

 

Is that not true?

 

Side note- it is interesting that most people who haven't filled out their location with "Illinois" agree with mark while those with Illinois as their location think he's being a person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed and jamies a good guy

 

 

I have no idea what Mike's experiences are with which dealer's he's witnessed leave early from a show and which he has noted have stayed until the doors close on Sunday. So it might be true to him, but I have never seen it.

 

I have either been set up at, or attended something in the manner of 40 shows over the years, with a Graham Crackers booth present. I don't know when I have ever seen them not there on the last day.

 

On your side note, the people from Illinois probably have more experience dealing with Jamie, being that he has 9 stores and sets up at the shows here. That gives them perspective from which to speak in an educated manner. There are people with one experience here and there, one might be bad, and that's all they have to go on. People from Illinois may have decades of shopping in his stores, talking to him, dealing with him, and trading with him at conventions. If all of their opinions seem to go in a certain direction, and all those people have more experience with him, that may tell you something...or not...depending on your point of view.

[underthebigw]

Seriously, to call someone shady over this is ridiculous. It implies dishonesty.

 

While it sucks that you had to drive for no reason, have you ever tried to do a show 1000 miles away from home? You expect him to coordinate with a store employee from 1000 miles away on a weekend? And people leave shows for a lot of reasons, especially when it's perfectly clear that nothing can happen that can possibly make the time away from family and business worthwhile. That's inconvenient, not shady.

 

Jaime is, as some have said gruff. He's also honest as heck. He may not be set-up to deal with situations like this as well as he could, but the whole world doesn't have the ability to respond in a day or two, or a week, to handle matters like this. I do business with Jamie regularly, and I often have a hard time getting a hold of him. Some patience is warranted, since he will probably go out of his way to make up for your mistake.

 

And don't hide behind the "trimming". It's a red-herring. When 80% of the dealers in the business, and 90% of collectors can't spot it, implying shadiness is ridiculous. The real tale is how the dealer handles it. It may not always go smoothly or quickly, but as long as they make it right in the end, that's all you can ask for.

[comix4fun]

OT: Did anyone else at the show get some of the money you intended to use on GC's books when you went on day 2, or were you too put off?

 

In fact a dealer did get some of my money for some books for my kids and a poster. Not much though. I had to leave early at 11:30am because we had company coming at 1pm. My wife was PO'd that I even had to drive to Miami again.

 

I only wished Greg White had some of the early JIMs as I would have done business with him.

 

 

 

You might want to delete that line, as you've just made the entire thread irrelevant. Jamie may be a curmudgeon, but Greg White? Really?

 

 

 

You don't understand sarcasm do you?

 

I've never bought anything from him.

 

Now I get it! HAHAHAHhahahaha

 

At a con a few years ago I heard quite a lot about White. I've never dealt with him...

 

At this point I understand why the show wasn't good for vintage dealers...they all have horrible reputations...White, Graham, Muchin...quite a showing of business minds.

 

 

You are on fire today.

[Mark 1]

This is interesting reading...glad the search function is working...

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3693884&fpart=1

[Mark 1]

I was there at the Miami convention. I saw him on Friday and let me put it this way, I got better customer service from Rich Muchin with Tomorrow's Treasures than Jamie. I asked him to see a couple of books and he seemed like he didnt want to be bothered. He was just sitting there talking to Greg White and grading some books.

 

And Jamie wonders why he didn't get business....hmmm.

[FlyingDonut]

It is an interesting read. I'd go to the end result, and read why there was a "problem", which went away.

 

For those who don't know, which I'm assuming is all of you, I am the co-owner of Graham Crackers Comics and I'm the guy who made the call on not refunding a two year old purchase.

 

I'm fairly shocked by the wide range of responses to this situation, but wanted to publicly clarify how/why I came about my decision, be it right or wrong in each of yours eyes.

 

We try our best to treat customers exactly how we feel we should be treated. I try and respond to e-mails as quickly as humanly possible - we prioritize problems with orders to the top of the 'to do" list and try and be as forthcoming and as honest (without being insulting) with each customer we deal with.

 

We do NOT TRIM comics, nor have we ever. Does a trimmed comic slip past us, absolutely this can happen, can a restored book slip past, yes. If someone ends up getting one from us that was not noted - we will of course allow them to return it within a reasonable amount of time.

 

DAVID OAKLEY purchased an FF #49 from us on eBay listed as VF 8.0 2nd app. Silver Surfer for $100.99 on December 7th, of 2007.

 

I felt 2 years later, after David had tried to sell the comic himself and had no luck and recently got it CGC'ed to see if that would help - it was no longer within any kind of fair statue of limitations. Can you return any items that cost $100 2 years later? You ipod freezes up on you 2 years later will someone take it back? You discover a crack in your Halmiton Star Trek collectors plate that you bought that you never noticed - can you return it for a full refund? Evidently a LOT of you feel the dealers should carry the burden of risk entirely, even if it's for 20 years - they should stand behind any book they sell and hope that each of the customers they deal with is honest.

It's a fair opinion, and I try and do that with any and all of our regular customers.

 

DAVID OKALEY bought 1 comic from me in the past 2 years off of eBay. And he didn't stop buying because he felt he got ripped off on a trimmed book - he only just discovered this 2 years later.

 

I had no way of knowing this was still our book, or as someone else pointed out if he wanted to clean it up himself with the trim job, tried to sell it and that wasn't working out, nor do I have access to eBay listings which may or may not have listed the books as trimmed in the description. Again, most of these are MOST LIKELY not the case. Just as I would hope more people would assume a dealer would MOST LIKELY not intentionally sell a trimmed book and then seemingly delight in his tricking someone into buying that book - yet so many people jump straight to that false assumption.

 

Right or wrong, I was the one that made the call that 2 years was too long to be held responsible and decide you want a refund for a book that you haven't had any luck selling or hasn't increased in value as much as you had hopped.

 

Though If David Oakley would like to exchange it for something else on our site or stores for that dollar amount, we'd be happy to accommodate him.

 

--John Robinson

GRAHAM CRACKERS COMICS

16030 S. Lincoln Highway Suite #4

Plainfield, IL. 60586 USA

(815) 254-3410 <-- You can call and yell at me in person even!

http://www.grahamcrackers.com

twitter/gccomics

[Mark 1]

Seriously, to call someone shady over this is ridiculous. It implies dishonesty.

 

While it sucks that you had to drive for no reason, have you ever tried to do a show 1000 miles away from home? You expect him to coordinate with a store employee from 1000 miles away on a weekend? And people leave shows for a lot of reasons, especially when it's perfectly clear that nothing can happen that can possibly make the time away from family and business worthwhile. That's inconvenient, not shady.

 

 

I posted this earlier in the thread...Also everyone wants to jump on the word shady...To me it implies someone I don't trust. I'm a man of my word. Many board members here have dealt with me. I ask anyone to chime in here and say differently. I expect others to be the same when doing business. They called me back and said to go back to the show and exchange the comic. Then no calls at all despite several calls being nice to the guys too. Seems shady to me.

[mschmidt]

This is interesting reading...glad the search function is working...

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3693884&fpart=1

 

Did you bother reading the entire thread?