fastballspecial Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 14 hours ago, prez said: I can see a lot of flippers and speculators getting their panties all bunched up. Respect the man's decision. He's not getting any royalties after a book he created and signed gets passed around like a drunken whore at a frat house. Man this is like the second panic attack for the SS sellers. First was Marvel limiting now this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastballspecial Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 3 hours ago, Chuck Gower said: CGC shouldve had a representative at EVERY show over the last few years, who's sole purpose was to talk to creators and to educate them on what CGC and SS is and is about... This has the potential to grow WAY beyond a PR memo being sent out or an apology.. the misinformation has a way to grow and grow... Positive PR is a proactive endeavor, fixing Bad PR is always an uphill climb... You realize its the comic book industry right? Since when has it every been run correctly, by any company in the industry? The only reason the Big 2 haven't fallen is they are supported by larger companies. All I am saying there is that it doesn't surprise me at all that they don't. I agree I love the idea, but Id fall over before I think it would happen. Their focus is on greed not on education. CGC and its competitors should have done this along time ago and now they are paying for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadleg Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Oh man. I can see some people have been having fun in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-DONIS Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 7 hours ago, 1Cool said: It's an extra $10 for the SS slab. So CGC is making $10 for witnessing the signature since the slabbing process is the same unless yellow ink cost more. Yeah if you want the signature SSed...But that's the customer's choice. Not Starlin and definitely not CGC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted May 14, 2017 Author Share Posted May 14, 2017 2 minutes ago, A-DONIS said: Yeah if you want the signature SSed...But that's the customer's choice. Not Starlin and definitely not CGC. True - no one is forcing people to get SS books but it is true that CGC does profit from offering the SS service or they wouldn't do it. I don't blame them and I personally think artist should limit the total number of free signatures and charge for extra beyond that number. What fan really needs 20 books signed by the artist? I'd think a few would be plenty and anymore is for resale purposes so I can see why artist want some cash. But a person who waits in line for 2 signatures should be treated the same regardless of what they do with the signed books or who is witnessing the signing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fullerjason Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Do any of these creators mind when a publisher takes one of their creations and slaps it on a 1:50, 1:100 or a 1:1,000,000 variant and markets/sells it for insane amounts or is just anger towards someone like me getting 4 books signed and graded at a Con? RockMyAmadeus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisco37 Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Starlin always came off as a surly guy to me. I met him a few times when I got back into collecting. One time, he was sort of pleasant. He half-arsed a Doom sketch for me. He mailed-in a 2-minute sketch in Donut's book when I was helping out. That he's doing this doesn't surprise me that much. But, it's his prerogative. He's potentially losing money, so his motives aren't financial. Even though my experiences with him were more uncomfortable than pleasant, he's a legend. He can do what he wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Namor Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 It's not even about the slabbing for him, it's the way CGC handled THIS situation. Here's his full explanation he just posted: "Okay, there’s been some confusion about what happened between myself and the Certified Guartany Company (CGC) at a convention Saturday, partially because of my own hastily composed post on Facebook. So let’s straighten out what happened, at least from my point of view. To start off with, I don’t usually charge for signatures at conventions. I’ve always figured the reader buying the book and helping keep me alive merited my autographing it at events like cons. I do charge dealers for signing multiple copies and large numbers of books for resale. I also sometimes have a charity can at my table for donation to certain worthy causes. Until yesterday CGC was something other cartoonist complained about. I had very little awareness of them, let alone how they actually operate. Other artists have always urged me to charge CGC for signatures and I finally agreed that I would do so. So I was at this convention yesterday and this fan came up with a CGC witness and asked if I would sign his books. We worked out and agreed upon a price. But before I could sign the comics the witness was called away. At that point I did autograph his two comics, with no witness present. The fan then asked if I would hold his books while he bought a third. I did so. He then returned and I signed that book (no witness) and the fan went off to find the witness. Both returned and I gave the fan his books. Someone at the table next to me asked me a question as I was doing so and I answered. When I turned back both the fan and the witness were gone, without paying me the agreed upon fee. Okay, the fan may have just forgotten to pay. Stuff like that happens. But when I was able to get away from my table a little while later and go over to the CGC table, to ask about finding this fan, a gentleman at the CGC table told me flatly that giving out any information about their clients was against policy. Seeing as how I wasn’t requesting medical records or a social security number I thought this strange. So I returned to my own table to consider the situation. Here’s this company that’s charging some very high prices to fans for a very questionable service and making a very healthy profit off what I am giving away for free. I would think such an arrangement would earn me the minimum cooperation in finding this fan. Apparently it didn’t. So I returned to the CGC table and told a lady on duty there that I wouldn’t be signing any more books for CGC and asked they send no more witnesses to my table. I would not be cooperating with their enterprise. Later this same lady came by my table to try to convince me I was being unreasonable. I wasn’t convinced by her case and said I would no longer cooperate or deal with CGC. At no time did she offer to help find this fan. Now some of you fans out there may still want to deal with CGC. That’s your choice, no matter how I think you’re just throwing your money away. But I won’t be signing any books for them. I will do so for other authenticators, at an agreed upon price, but not CGC. I will also continue to sign books for free at cons, occasionally hitting you up for some charity. This is a choice for me to make and I have done so. But I really think you ought to go off and buy your own plastic sleeves to entomb your comics in and stop being suckers for this crazy scam." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 If that is how it went down CGC really screwed the pooch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercury Man Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 17 minutes ago, Chuck Gower said: "This is a choice for me to make and I have done so. But I really think you ought to go off and buy your own plastic sleeves to entomb your comics in and stop being suckers for this crazy scam." Can't say I disagree. I understand getting a Golden Age or Silver or Bronze Age high dollar key that you are going to try to auction off. You want the buyer to know what you are selling, and they want to be comfortable buying, with no issues about agreed upon condition. I do not understand people sending everything off. There are more Stan Lee signed comics out there than anybody would ever want. You see poor, nothing special Silver and Bronze age books slabbed. WHY!? Modern comics....that's a whole other head scratch. Prince Namor and 1950's war comics 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsilverjanet Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 I would love to be CGC PR man. It's not like I couldn't do any worse. greggy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 It always amazes me that reps can't see that a situation could explode in their face. There's this thing called the internet and- 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1950's war comics Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 43 minutes ago, Mercury Man said: Can't say I disagree. I understand getting a Golden Age or Silver or Bronze Age high dollar key that you are going to try to auction off. You want the buyer to know what you are selling, and they want to be comfortable buying, with no issues about agreed upon condition. I do not understand people sending everything off. There are more Stan Lee signed comics out there than anybody would ever want. You see poor, nothing special Silver and Bronze age books slabbed. WHY!? Modern comics....that's a whole other head scratch. I agree and never could understand the logic of grading a modern comic or any other modern collectable FoggyNelson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 I did a search on Sold E-Bay for " Starlin CGC signed" and got 93 results. Did the same search for Stan Lee and got 1,360! Although the PR is bad I don't think Starlin refusing to do SS will effect CGCs bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 Didn't he say in the last post that he will sign for every other company other than CGC? So he really doesn't have a beef with people getting books encapsulated but not getting proper treatment from CGC this one instant has got him mad enough to issue a ban?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 I don't understand CGC's stance on this issue. If someone stole a comic being graded or verified by CGC and the theft was witnessed by someone else, wouldn't CGC want the witness to describe the thief and assist them in identifying them? Starlin's signature was provided but not paid for by the fan who agreed to pay a fee for his services. That is theft of service. It is a crime. Why wouldn't CGC assist in identifying the person who committed the crime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Namor Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 3 hours ago, fullerjason said: Do any of these creators mind when a publisher takes one of their creations and slaps it on a 1:50, 1:100 or a 1:1,000,000 variant and markets/sells it for insane amounts or is just anger towards someone like me getting 4 books signed and graded at a Con? Publishers sell them to Diamond for the same price as the regular issue, Diamond sells them to retailers at the same price as the regular issue (as long as you meet the quota) and then it's retailers who sell it for 'insane amounts' when, on the very miniscule chance they warrant it, to the customer. 99% of variants ain't worth squat and end up in discount boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Namor Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 (edited) 25 minutes ago, 1Cool said: I did a search on Sold E-Bay for " Starlin CGC signed" and got 93 results. Did the same search for Stan Lee and got 1,360! Although the PR is bad I don't think Starlin refusing to do SS will effect CGCs bottom line. Well...Most of these artists, especially from past eras are very close, and bad word of mouth could turn this into a PR nightmare for the SS program. CGC and the SS program already have a tremendous amount of misunderstanding in the marketplace and a great deal of negative feeling toward it... keep ticking off respected creators and that's NEVER going to change... it'll snowball into something big. And Stan's not going to sign forever. I don't think. Edited May 15, 2017 by Chuck Gower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 CGC didn't have to give him any information. They could have figured out who it was and told them to go and pay. Or paid the fee themselves and then contacted the customer and gotten the money before releasing the book. Lots of good options other than refusing to help and instead trying to argue with the person who just got stiffed why he should continue signing books for them. Does Starling himself make a big difference? Probably not. But considering the pressure that was exerted on him by other artists he might be able to do the same thing. Semicentennial and Prince Namor 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 10 minutes ago, wombat said: CGC didn't have to give him any information. They could have figured out who it was and told them to go and pay. Or paid the fee themselves and then contacted the customer and gotten the money before releasing the book. Lots of good options other than refusing to help and instead trying to argue with the person who just got stiffed why he should continue signing books for them. Does Starling himself make a big difference? Probably not. But considering the pressure that was exerted on him by other artists he might be able to do the same thing. This is what I'm talking about. The human tendency when in charge to go 'nope-sorry' is often a recipe for disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
