Decades Of Stolen Comics Claims Denied By Canada’s Universal Distribution

[comicwiz]

"Universal Distribution is a Canadian comic book distributor of cards, comics, sports and pop culture items that has been around for decades. Canada is also home to Quebecor, a printer for much of the comic book industry and one, for a while at least, was the focus of a series of major thefts of comic books at the time of the industry explosion that, it was alleged, entered the comic book marketplace – retailers and publishers were aware of this situation and talked to Bleeding Cool about it.

 

But one person, who goes my the name Peter Lee is joining the two together and trying to launch a class action suit, accusing Universal Distribution of being behind the thefts “thousands of comics every week for decades” and other dodgy behaviour, that fuelled the company’s success. He has posted a series of posts online that form a narrative – but one that Universal utterly deny, in a statement we run at the bottom of this piece."

 

Click here to read more details on how the alleged thefts went down.

[ThothAmon]

Thin gruel.

[romanheart]

I believe it could happen but I would like to hear more details.

 

$20-50 a case sounds steep for books/cards in the 90s. I am not sure how much profit per case you could actually find. $50 for an entire shipment makes more sense.

[ThothAmon]

I believe it could happen but I would like to hear more details.

 

$20-50 a case sounds steep for books/cards in the 90s. I am not sure how much profit per case you could actually find. $50 for an entire shipment makes more sense.

Sure it could happen, but based upon whats been alleged in the above attached article I am far from convinced it DID happen.

[FineCollector]

Unlikely there are any stores still around who would wait until now to complain about product tampering. I don't buy it. I think he's looking for shut-up-money, and all he's going to get is sued.

[NP_Gresham]

Yawn

[porcupine48]

[thehumantorch]

Serious accusations.

[Buzzetta]

There were similar rumors to this regarding shorting, pack hunting and other shenanigans attributed with Diamond in the mid 90's early 2000's, at least with the Long Island shipments.

[shadroch]

I can easily see it happening. Did it happen? I have no idea.

I know, for a fact, that books went out the backdoor at comic distributors in NY, and heard all sort of rumours about Topps rack and vending packs being searched and then sold in " unopened" cases.

I seriously doubt ownership or management at Ronalds were involved, but employees at comic warehouses were paid not much more than minimum wage.

I know card dealers who paid off toys r us managers to search rack packs before they were put out to the public. Not as bad as selling searched boxes as new, but anyone buying rack packs in those stores in Nassau in 85-87 was being cheated. It was nuts.

[KEY ISSUES Comics]

I'm in Montreal and have been seeing this posted on Craigslist or Kijiji. I contacted the OP to get some info in regards to this alleged "group of retail comic book and sports collectible shops" and wasn't given much info. It's no secret in these parts that there was foul play back in the day with certain Quebecor employees, but this seems baseless. Some people just have too much time on their hands...

[Quicksilver Signs]

Joe Krolic?

[aardvark88]

Joe Krolic?

 

I know Krolic ran or had access to a trucking distribution company out of Winnipeg, MB. Don't think he is behind Universal Distribution which also has a warehouse in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC that distributes comics, cards to comic and toy retailers with bad credit bounced out of Diamond Distributors, USA.

[Quicksilver Signs]

Joe Krolic?

 

I know Krolic ran or had access to a trucking distribution company out of Winnipeg, MB. Don't think he is behind Universal Distribution which also has a warehouse in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC that distributes comics, cards to comic and toy retailers with bad credit bounced out of Diamond Distributors, USA.

 

Legend has it, Marvel was none too happy with his business practices, even making him a one and done villain in Spec Spider-man 112

[Buzzetta]

I can easily see it happening. Did it happen? I have no idea.

I know, for a fact, that books went out the backdoor at comic distributors in NY, and heard all sort of rumours about Topps rack and vending packs being searched and then sold in " unopened" cases.

I seriously doubt ownership or management at Ronalds were involved, but employees at comic warehouses were paid not much more than minimum wage.

I know card dealers who paid off toys r us managers to search rack packs before they were put out to the public. Not as bad as selling searched boxes as new, but anyone buying rack packs in those stores in Nassau in 85-87 was being cheated. It was nuts.

 

You have no idea how glad I am that you replied to affirm that. I was reluctant to post it as I have no solid evidence twenty years later as to what was going on. As I wrote it I hesitated in hitting the "submit" button as I thought to myself that if I am going to be called on it then Shad is going to be the guy who would know as he knows more about the scene back then than I do.

 

The two stores I dealt with, and one in which I would actually watch when the owner went on Vacation both claimed that things were missing from their orders.

 

 

[loadstone]

One of the reasons I stopped collecting baseball cards. All the packs were tampered with. Shops or their distributors/middle men had gone through them all and pulled out the best ones. Overheard one shop owner lamenting this practice after being burned buying from another dealer. I recall dealers selling beat up boxes of 1986 Donruss "unopened" packs with flyers on them tempting you to chance upon the McGuire or Conseco cards. Those things looked like they'd been opened, searched, and resealed 10 times over.

 

It was all over for me when I came across some older Topps wax packs with the same damned common cards consecutively and the gum was missing. They even ate the damned stale Topps gum too!

 

The plastic and cellophane packs were more tamper evident but by then the hobby was such a mess and I had already fallen in love with comics which I could enjoy reading as well as collecting.

[shadroch]

Topps used a sequence in their cello and rack packs, so if you looked at the first and last card of a cello pack, there was about a 90% chance that certain cards were in it. Rack packs were even easier. Maybe a 95% certainty. Fleer and DonRuss were a bit tougher to sequence, but I recall seeing ads selling the cheat sheets for them.

Those were considered to be some of the more honest methods dealers used.

[500Club]

I can easily see it happening. Did it happen? I have no idea.

I know, for a fact, that books went out the backdoor at comic distributors in NY, and heard all sort of rumours about Topps rack and vending packs being searched and then sold in " unopened" cases.

I seriously doubt ownership or management at Ronalds were involved, but employees at comic warehouses were paid not much more than minimum wage.

I know card dealers who paid off toys r us managers to search rack packs before they were put out to the public. Not as bad as selling searched boxes as new, but anyone buying rack packs in those stores in Nassau in 85-87 was being cheated. It was nuts.

I have two friends who worked in the sportscard industry in the boom 1988-1993 years. One ran a store. It was the wild west. They have tons of stories from angle shooting, to flat out theft.

[electricprune]

I can easily see it happening. Did it happen? I have no idea.

I know, for a fact, that books went out the backdoor at comic distributors in NY, and heard all sort of rumours about Topps rack and vending packs being searched and then sold in " unopened" cases.

I seriously doubt ownership or management at Ronalds were involved, but employees at comic warehouses were paid not much more than minimum wage.

I know card dealers who paid off toys r us managers to search rack packs before they were put out to the public. Not as bad as selling searched boxes as new, but anyone buying rack packs in those stores in Nassau in 85-87 was being cheated. It was nuts.

I have two friends who worked in the sportscard industry in the boom 1988-1993 years. One ran a store. It was the wild west. They have tons of stories from angle shooting, to flat out theft.

 

Don't forget using metal detectors for premium metallic cards.

[500Club]

I can easily see it happening. Did it happen? I have no idea.

I know, for a fact, that books went out the backdoor at comic distributors in NY, and heard all sort of rumours about Topps rack and vending packs being searched and then sold in " unopened" cases.

I seriously doubt ownership or management at Ronalds were involved, but employees at comic warehouses were paid not much more than minimum wage.

I know card dealers who paid off toys r us managers to search rack packs before they were put out to the public. Not as bad as selling searched boxes as new, but anyone buying rack packs in those stores in Nassau in 85-87 was being cheated. It was nuts.

I have two friends who worked in the sportscard industry in the boom 1988-1993 years. One ran a store. It was the wild west. They have tons of stories from angle shooting, to flat out theft.

 

Don't forget using metal detectors for premium metallic cards.

 

The first year of Pro Set hockey had a long odds Stanley Cup hologram insert.

 

Guys used atomic scales to identify the packs that were slightly heavier.