COLLECTOR MATT STOCK!! PLEASE PAY YOUR 5 YEAR DEBT!!!

[rrichards]

It's OK ,just be sure to get your money up front! As for Mr. Stock, I don't think anybody from this thread will be taking a check from him or trusting him in the future. That's one of the great things about this message board . News travels fast.

If your planning on selling , I'd suggest that you go to the the big boys like Anthony Snyder, Albert Moy or Mike "Romitaman ) Burkey . These guys can be trusted.

[thethedew]

So no one has heard from this guy yet?

I know this is the big boy playground,but since I've been slowly geting int OA and have been thinking about selling of some bigger keys to get a nice peice, I really find this a little unnerving.

 

A quick Google search of his name + 'comic art' suggests he had a Comic Art Fans gallery - since deleted. No idea how recently.

[porcupine48]

It's OK ,just be sure to get your money up front! As for Mr. Stock, I don't think anybody from this thread will be taking a check from him or trusting him in the future. That's one of the great things about this message board . News travels fast.

If your planning on selling , I'd suggest that you go to the the big boys like Anthony Snyder, Albert Moy or Mike "Romitaman ) Burkey . These guys can be trusted.

These are the fellows I'd go to to buy,thank you!

I was referring to selling books to fund a nice OA price,to clear any confusion.Seems a book is easier to replace than a page!

[rrichards]

It's OK ,just be sure to get your money up front! As for Mr. Stock, I don't think anybody from this thread will be taking a check from him or trusting him in the future. That's one of the great things about this message board . News travels fast.

If your planning on selling , I'd suggest that you go to the the big boys like Anthony Snyder, Albert Moy or Mike "Romitaman ) Burkey . These guys can be trusted.

These are the fellows I'd go to to buy,thank you!

I was referring to selling books to fund a nice OA price,to clear any confusion. Seems a book is easier to replace than a page!

 

Anthony is the only one I mentioned that would consider buying comics . You could probably get better advice from the comic book forums .

I was in a similar spot a few years ago when I decided to sell off parts of my comic collection to put $ towards original art.

The first thing I learned is that my stuff, which I thought was pretty good , (middle grade marvel silver age , Avengers #3 , Journey into Mystery etc ,ungraded) was not going to get me what I wanted ($) from the dealers . Faced with getting them graded and then sending them to an auction house , I took the low end money and sold them to what ever dealers were interested around the NY area Comic Cons.

I have sold comics to Anthony Snyder and Ted at Superworld and they have been the best to deal with from my limited experience.They went for what I thought was a fraction of their worth but still better than what others were offering .

Again ,since this is a comic art forum you might get better advice from one of the more comic book related forums.

 

 

 

[comicsnyc22]

Hope you get your stuff back, man. Regardless, he's toast. I'm sure no one here would ever buy from him again. His loss.

[NelsonAI]

So are there any other known aliases this individual uses?

 

 

[thethedew]

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard that this is 'cleared up' by now. Usually when someone gets to the point of complaining on the Boards, the other party rushes to the table, or at least rebutts.

 

This guy must be pretty determined to not pay up.

[Bronty]

good point.

[zhamlau]

He even on here? If not this isn't gonna exactly rattle his cage.

[vodou]

This guy must be pretty determined to not pay up.

Five years. It's obvious he has no serious (or any) intention of paying. That married to the other rumors/accusations that have been around for several years...none of which I've ever seen Matthew respond to...he either flat out doesn't care what the hobby thinks and/or hasn't seen meaningful impact to his business.

 

I'd be surprised to hear Mike announce resolution (sad, but true).

 

Anybody doing business (buying) with Matthew, just make sure it's with PayPal so you can easily turn the thing around if anything is off. That risk of charge back right there has cleaned up a lot of the bad behavior that used to be so prevalent in this niche hobby.

[comicartman]

If there is no other side to this story, then effectively Matt Stock stole from Burkey even though legally this might be a breach of contract case rather than theft since the art was given to Matt with the understanding that Mike would be paid (however, I'm not a legal expert).

 

So if we as collectors keep dealing with someone who rips off or steals from other collectors while taking the necessary precautions, how do we 'police' this hobby to ensure that such things don't keep happening? For instance, hypothetically, will we be ok buying art from someone who say, stole from Albert Moy's booth at one of the conventions? I, for one, propose not dealing with such characters.

 

However, maybe Matt has his side of the story but if I were him, I would not remain silent if untrue...

 

[wurstisart]

Sad that we debate how Mike did something wrong.

I have been collecting for over 18 years and did many trades and purchases with him.

Mike is one of the top dogs when it comes to comic art.

And as much as he is an art dealer, I never got exactly that with him, meaning where it is always only about business and money.

He has been admiring comic art way before most of us.

So what folks are saying here is he should have been more of a business man and only handing the cover over after he had all the money, but we also don't want to be experiencing the all business side of this hobby, right ?

They had a deal. That deal was :

1. half up front ( done )

2. Exchange of artwork ( done )

3. Half shortly after the deal ( open )

So this guy should pay him his money.

Nuff said'

Such a looser !

 

 

 

[pemart1966]

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter what hobby I'm part of there's always a handful of individuals intent on committing "hobby suicide".

 

These individuals INSIST upon: ripping people off; stealing; lying; shifting the blame to the other party; passing off inferior goods as superior; etc etc - almost as if they relish wallowing in deceit and they don't even seem to care! It's like a game to these people. They end up being outed and shunned by their hobby communities and again, they don't seem to care.

 

I just don't understand what makes these people "think" in this manner or conduct business in this manner.

 

 

 

[zhamlau]

The issue is lack of consequences. You can buy from and sell pretty amazing pieces on ebay, HA, CL, CC, and from a host of dealer sites. You can build a high value profit realizing collection pretty fast without ever having to meet anyone in person or really even hear another collectors voice. It's pure unfiltered capitalism with high dollar chits and little to no recourse for the thieves. If you don't give a what people say about you online or i person which he probably doesn't since he showed up at the one show his rep could hurt him) then really what can be done to him? Not trying to justify or excuse anything, far from it. Just it seems like unless someone wants to spend some coin and go after him in civil court (assuming all allegations are true) then he basically is Teflon. I see this in 3 other fields I deal in heavily, and it's always the same situation / story to some degree. It sucks that it happened to mike, been buying and selling to mike off and on for 20 years and if there is someone who has been a good citizen of this hobby, it's him.

[jimjum12]

Mike probably operated in "good faith"..... without a specific time frame spelled out in writing, legal recourse would be challenging at best. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Weird Paper]

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter what hobby I'm part of there's always a handful of individuals intent on committing "hobby suicide".

 

These individuals INSIST upon: ripping people off; stealing; lying; shifting the blame to the other party; passing off inferior goods as superior; etc etc - almost as if they relish wallowing in deceit and they don't even seem to care! It's like a game to these people. They end up being outed and shunned by their hobby communities and again, they don't seem to care.

 

I just don't understand what makes these people "think" in this manner or conduct business in this manner.

 

 

It's even more true in the internet era that you cannot underestimate the value of having a good name/reputation. You do the right thing, first and foremost, because it IS the right thing. You also do the right thing because there is no margin for error with regard to reputation in this hobby. Folks like the Donneleys who apparently don't depend on income from their business/hobby to survive are the exception; but most collectors and dealers understand the real value of reputation.

For what it's worth, the times I've dealt with Burkey have been easy and problem-free. He sent me a 4-figure piece without waiting for my check to clear, which made an impression since he did not know me personally. Have bought from him since, and would not hesitate to do so again.

[romitaman]

Hi to everyone who has been following this thread..... I just wanted to have a follow up. (actually a nothing new to report follow up)

 

Since my original post last week i've not gotten a phone call nor email from Matt Stock....

 

I do want to make a few things clear about this original art deal from 2010 as I remember it, and my past deals with Matt also so as not to hide anything from what happened.

 

Matt and I had been good friends for several years prior to this 2010 deal.

 

We had done well over 100k of art deals over the years prior to this, and I considered Matt a good friend in the hobby.... we talked about several things not art related.......We shared pictures from San Diego con and new York cons all the time.....so I genuinely liked Matt alot.

 

So at the huge 2010 New York Comic con, i'm set up selling art...Matt comes over and we talk for a while.

 

Matt wanted my Gil Kane Fear #25 Cover.

 

I had it priced at 5k and Matt said he would need time to pay it off, we did time payments for art in the past and it always went fine......he put no money down and I gave Matt the art to take home and told him to mail me funds when he had, like our previous deals.

Matt sends me 2000 not too far after........I email him and state that I received his funds and he has a 3k balance remaining.

 

Matt sends me an email and states that we had verbally agreed to 4000 for the cover at the show..... I have a pretty good memory and I write every deal I do in a notebook at the con and didn't remember this nor did I write 4k in my notes..it was 5k. (so yes...this is my fault and now I ALWAYS do carbon copies for both parties to have on all art deals so there are no discrepancies)

 

I send Matt an email back stating we must have had some miscommunication at the show and I tell him to just send me the 2000 balance to make the deal 4k and we are set with the deal...and honestly i wasnt mad or angry in the least....as no one is perfect.

 

and at that point I never heard from Matt.......EVER.......

 

Matt has seen me at San Diego cons since then, as well as New York Comic cons and 2-3 Comic art Cons..... and I have seen him also at a distance while selling art at my booths, expecting he would come up to me and talk about it...... but he has never made an effort, even once to talk or to try to resolve this situation 4.5 years later, even after more than 2 dozen emails from me.

 

When I found out he had traded the fear 25 cover to Rich Donnelly 2 years earlier at a con, I realized he didn't even own the cover anymore...and for over a year I kept emailing matt (always in a very respectful way) to please finish the deal so I don't have to go public with this...and still...he never emailed me back even once.

 

Yet Matt walks into the comic art con last week, (which is only a 5000 square foot showroom) and I see him and I know he sees me as he never walks close enough to my booths for me to question him on why he chooses to not pay off his debt......

 

2000 dollars is not the end of world to owe someone.......but for me its the principle of the matter on why I decided to go public.....And Matt STILL goes to these shows where i'm at, not even thinking its going to eventually catch up to him ...and I really didn't want to confront him last week when he was with his 2 little boys at the con...

 

For me its just not professional to do that and create a scene, and its not how I do business... its just not who I am, but I do believe Matt will lose for more than 2000 dollars from criticism by others who realize what he has done in bad faith.

 

Mike

 

[thethedew]

Mike,

 

I realize it might not be a winning prospect, but Small-Claims followed up with an asset/wage garnishment is a valid approach. From your description, he probably won't even defend himself.

 

There might be fees on your end, so it probably won't cover all your outlay. But HE'LL have to pay the whole amount (assuming you get the judgement)

 

Plus he gets dinged on his Credit Report until the judgement is removed, and it may even hang out on his report for some time after.

 

We all know you don't have the sort of personality that finds satisfaction from such an outcome, but it's an entirely appropriate set of consequences for him.

 

Andrew

[vodou]

Mike your new comments add a lot of color to the situation. I still think it's on much faith that a piece leaves your inventory w/o payment in full, faith I grant very few people myself, but I can also see why you did it. You're right, this thing will cost him much more than 2k or 3k in ways he won't even realize. But then he's sort of teflon to criticism and outing at this point, right? As somebody else brought up, there are always a handful like this in every hobby, I've seen them in multiple hobbies as well. Some people just do their thing and really don't care what stink they leave behind. As long as they have the inventory there are always new people to fleece and collectors that know better but don't care, as long as they get their fix. Sad.

[AnkurJ]

Just sad. When I take a piece on layaway, I usually send or give checks for each payment. If there is a shadow of doubt that I can't make the payments, then I do not complete the deal.