For Your Eyes Only they said, but EVERYONE should read this! 3 3

[Larryw7]

Scottish, I hear ya! I have to get up at 5 A.M. every morning, and I just can't do the things I used to be able to. Hell, even when I have the next day off and I'm hanging out at a bar or whatever, I start to turn off around 10 O'Clock, which can be a real bummer.

 

[Larryw7]

Does anyone know if Fischler or Zurzolo(sp?) of Metropolis have made any statements, public or otherwise, about the accusation that they sold Nick Cage restored books? I haven't heard a thing so I thought I'd bring this thread back to the top.

[BachelorOfComix]

I saw "Metropolis" browsing this thread last week. My take: I don't put much trust into the source & I would like to hear the other side of the story.

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[Guest]

I wonder why no reply from Metropolis appeared?

[metropoliscomics]

To the Comic Community

 

It has always been the policy of Metropolis to not divulge the inner workings of the deals that we are involved in. Those details generally do not get shared with the outside world. However, I recently viewed a posting from a person by the name of Bryan Stulberger, AKA procustean, and therefore and I am forced to speak up.

I look at this posting as I would an account of an alien abduction or the text from an interview conducted with the Loch Ness Monster. Pure Fabrication. In a situation, that by its very nature would dictate a complete lack of knowledge by an outside party, it is always easier just to "make it up".

I can see from a number of later postings that a many of individuals have already seen the very large holes in Mr. Stulberger’s posting.

Where shall we begin. I have known Nicholas Cage for about 16 years. The original posting stated that "Nick Cage happen to buy about 70% of his collection from Metropolis Collectibles." For the record, with the exception of one low grade Marvel Mystery #4 and 3 early high grade Superman, I personally sold Nick Cage 100% percent of his collection. This figure of 70% was just pulled from mid-air.

The posting states that "roughly a year ago" Nick Cage started to submit his collection to CGC. This claim is made up. Books from Cage’s collection were submitted to CGC approx. 2 months ago.

Personally, I find the following two statements, made by Mr. Stulberger AKA Procrustean, the most egregious. Her states that Nick Cage "found out that close to 75% of the books he bought from METROPOLIS were RESTORED." According to my records, less than 10% of Nick Cage’s books had any type of restoration. Nick Cage bought restored books. While he would rather have an unrestored book, there were cases where he bought restored books. For example, he was desperately trying to complete his Marvel Mystery set for a number of years. There were certain books that I could not find in unrestored condition, so restored copies were sold to him. RESTORED books were sold to him as RESTORED books. In fact, as per my agreement with Jack Oliver (an employee of Nick’s), a letter was generated for each book that was sold to Nick that stated: the title of the book, the issue number, the date purchased, the invoice number, the grade of the book and any information regarding possible restoration. I have copies of these letters in my files in addition to the originals in Jack Oliver’s files. The RESTORED Flash #1 was sold as a RESTORED book, the RESTORED All-American #16 was sold as a RESTORED book, the Adventure #40 was a book that was described as a book that had a dot of color touch and a dot of glue (as is common with many Mile High keys), the Captain America #1 was sold as a book having a tear seal at the bottom of the cover. On and On and On. The only key books that were sold as unrestored that came back with purple labels were the copies of More Fun #52 & #53. When I had them, I did not see any work. In fact, I bought these two books for quite a pretty penny from a well-known West Coast dealer who sold them to me as unrestored.

With the possible exception of perhaps a minor book or two, 100% of Nick Cage’s comic books are in the auction. I know the collection backwards and forwards. This idea that there exists other restored books from his collection that will hit the market is a complete fabrication. It is a lie. There are no other books.

Mr. Stulberger states that a year ago, Nick Cage "confronted the Metropolis boys and guess what they had the balls to tell him? Sorry but all sales are final". Assuming I am a Metropolis boy, and judging from the 75 or so conversations I have had with Nick Cage over the years and the dozen or so conversations I have had with him over the past 12 months, I can state that the conversation described in the original posting was made-up. No such conversation ever existed.

Nick Cage was aware that there were restored comic books in his collection. I am quite proud of single handedly putting his collection together. It is a mighty impressive collection. That is all I am going to say on the subject.

 

Stephen Fishler

 

[murph0]

Yeh, most people don't put much weight on anything procrustean says.. he's just here to stir up trouble most of the time. Anyways, any idea why Cage is selling his collection? There's a bunch of rumors on another board as to why..

 

Brian

[metropoliscomics]

Nick Cage had 3 expensive books stolen out of his house. After that, his desire to buy more was never the same.

[murph0]

Interesting, was this recently and do you know what books they were? Just curious.. :\

Odd that someone would break into a wealthy person's house and just steal comics..certainly sucks tho

 

Brian

[metropoliscomics]

The theft was about two years ago. The books that were stolen were EXTREMELY valuable!

[OldGuy]

"Yeh, most people don't put much weight on anything procrustean says.."

 

I'm glad you replied to this first. I never could have said it that nicely. I would have said something using the word "" I'm sure, but you know how I feel about him.....

[BachelorOfComix]

Nick Cage had 3 expensive books stolen out of his house. After that, his desire to buy more was never the same.

 

I don't blame him for feeling down after such a theft. If 3 of my prized gems were stolen I might lose the collecting spark too or it would not be the same after the violation.

 

Thanks for debunking Procrusty's story. I thought it was fishy from the outset. I'd love to hear his reply, but I think he left for good; or at least we hope he did.

 

Cheers,

 

Bachelor of Comics

[Guest]

The theft was about two years ago. The books that were stolen were EXTREMELY valuable!

 

Speculation of course (and I won't press the issue,) but this sounds to me like an explanation for the 1 glaring hole in Cage's collection- no detective 27...

[chromium]

very perceptive... mudbuddha. a Batman-like mind as it were

I dunno why,but from the wording used by metropolisent I tend to gather that the books were stolen by someone who had access to the house...a friend or something. No mention of a burglary or break in. Guess that would end it for me as well, having something stolen from my collection by someone I admitted into my home

But then again I'm not even a native-English speaker so what do I know...

 

But good to hear the other side of the story, and about crusty dissapearing ??

Naah he'll just find a phonebooth and come back with a custume change and yet another identity...

[greedydealer-migration]

Well it seems that procrustcean has lost all credibility as a board member and a seller, I know there are some members that have given procrustean the benefit of the doubt. But after the reply from Mr. Fischler debunking procrustcean's claims, I think the line has been drawn. As for the 3 books being stolen from Mr. Cage's home, sounds like and inside job to me.

[notch_top]

Nic Cage was on Howard Stern awhile back talking about this subject and I am almost positive it was the bodyguard that ripped him off

 

tec 27 had to be one of the issues as others have stated.

 

 

[Guest]

Probably stolen during a party....

 

Thank you, Mr. Fishler, for the clarification and some insight into Nic Cage's motivation.

 

Unfounded allegations... did you skip this class during law school, crusty?...

 

 

[Guest]

It's a conspicuous book - I wonder if the thief tried to move the book, or if it's still being held. I think that if you put the book on the market, the high-end collectors/dealers would quickly take notice.

[FlyingDonut]

I'm surprised Metropolis isn't suing crusty.

[Bronty]

Yeah, Crusty wasn't exactly careful with his wording was he? He does not make it clear what parts of his 'story' are statements of fact and which are 'allegations from his sources.' Although I'm not a lawyer, it seems to me that he's made several statements of fact which Metropolis could handily dispute.

 

...and Crusty's own statement that Metropolis' alleged misdeeds give the hobby (and obviously Metropolis) a "HUGE" black eye would only serve to prove that Metropolis has suffered damages...

 

oops!

 

Of course, the above assumes that Metropolis' assertions are correct. I don't know and don't care to assert whose side of the story may or may not be correct. (aren't disclaimers grand?)

 

Anyone besides myself and JLA_all_the_way see the irony in Crusty being sued? Yee hah!

 

 

[comicinvestor-migration]

My only question in this is:

 

Did Metropolis divulge ALL forms of restoration to Mr. Cage?

 

For example, there is a statement that Cage knew the Cap #1 was tear-sealed, but what about the color touch? That's a huge difference to me personally, as I hate color touch and think it's the lowest form of resto.

 

I'm not saying they didn't, but I'm hoping to get clarification.