Living large on Stan’s dime! 2 2

[OrangeCrush]

Its actually nice to see someone rob Stan Lee for a change as Stan Lee has been robbing people for years with the money he charges for signings. 

[badback83]

[mattn792]

2 hours ago, OrangeCrush said:

Its actually nice to see someone rob Stan Lee for a change as Stan Lee has been robbing people for years with the money he charges for signings. 

Stan posts his price, people pay it.  If no one paid his asking price, it would come down.  The kids call that capitalism.

[lizards2]

2 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

Stan posts his price, people pay it.  If no one paid his asking price, it would come down.  The kids call that capitalism.

And, it's almost legal again...., 

[OrangeCrush]

1 hour ago, mattn792 said:

Stan posts his price, people pay it.  If no one paid his asking price, it would come down.  The kids call that capitalism.

Yep, some would. Personally, I see it a different way myself. When I see little kids at his shows having to pay exorbitant amounts of money for him to sign a comic, only one thought comes into my mind and it certainly isn't how great capitalism is. Its just how sad the level of greed has gotten in the world. He has more money than he will ever be able to spend. Why not give back to the community that gave him such a prestigious and comfortable life by signing for free the last few years of his life, even if its just for kids under 10 or something like that? That's what I would do if I was in his situation. I don't think I have ever seen Stan do a free signing. I have roughly 1500 signed comics and I only paid to have about 10% of them signed and the fee's I paid were nowhere close to what Stan charges.

Its all subjective so if you think Stan charging what he does at this point in the game is ok...well, your certainly entitled to that opinion. Just as I am entitled to the opinion that it stinks of pure greed. How much money is enough for people like Stan, especially at his age? While I would love to hear him address that question, I already know the answer. The answer of course is its never enough. Stan will be charging for autographs on his death bed. 

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[lizards2]

7 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

Yep, some would. Personally, I see it a different way myself. When I see little kids at his shows having to pay exorbitant amounts of money for him to sign a comic, only one thought comes into my mind and it certainly isn't how great capitalism is. Its just how sad the level of greed has gotten in the world. He has more money than he will ever be able to spend. Why not give back to the community that gave him such a prestigious and comfortable life by signing for free the last few years of his life, even if its just for kids under 10 or something like that? That's what I would do if I was in his situation. I don't think I have ever seen Stan do a free signing. I have roughly 1500 signed comics and I only paid to have about 10% of them signed and the fee's I paid were nowhere close to what Stan charges.

Its all subjective so if you think Stan charging what he does at this point in the game is ok...well, your certainly entitled to that opinion. Just as I am entitled to the opinion that it stinks of pure greed. How much money is enough for people like Stan, especially at his age? While I would love to hear him address that question, I already know the answer. The answer of course is its never enough. Stan will be charging for autographs on his death bed. 

 

If it were the old days, and it was collectors obtaining signed books for their collections, I might agree with you.

However, Stan is just responding to all the greedy flippers / CGC-sig folks who are obtaining his signature for the premium it brings when they re-sell.

[01TheDude]

7 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

If it were the old days, and it was collectors obtaining signed books for their collections, I might agree with you.

However, Stan is just responding to all the greedy flippers / CGC-sig folks who are obtaining his signature for the perceived premium it brings when they re-sell.

FTFY

Personally--I don't care what he charges. I have no desire to wait in line to have him sign anything even if it were for free. Others are willing to pay good money for that less than it appears contact with him. The lines aren't getting shorter so he must be pricing his signature correctly. Also-- I believe he used to sign books for free 25 years ago or something like that. The people wanting signatures have created this situation-- be they flippers or the casual collector. Good for them-- enjoy that line. 

[OrangeCrush]

22 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

If it were the old days, and it was collectors obtaining signed books for their collections, I might agree with you.

However, Stan is just responding to all the greedy flippers / CGC-sig folks who are obtaining his signature for the premium it brings when they re-sell.

Why should Stan even care wether someone flips a comic or not. He has to know that a certain percentage of people at every signing are getting that signature for thier own collections and not to sell on eBay. Making everyone suffer because of greedy flippers is again just a poor excuse in my book. Its basically a circular cycle of greed. His charging people because of flippers is only making his signature that much more expensive. If artists stopped charging, the people flipping them wouldn't be able to make nearly as much as they currently do. J Scot Campbell used to sign all of his stuff for free from the J. Scott Campbell store. Now he charges like $10 a signature. Its just greed and unfortunately its one of the single biggest problems with today's society. The entire crash of the housing market and financial markets in  2008 was caused by sheer greed. 

Edited January 8, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[lizards2]

5 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

24 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

If it were the old days, and it was collectors obtaining signed books for their collections, I might agree with you.

However, Stan is just responding to all the greedy flippers / CGC-sig folks who are obtaining his signature for the premium it brings when they re-sell.

Why should Stan even care wether someone flips a comic or not. He has to know that a certain percentage of people at every signing are getting that signature for thier own collections and not to sell on eBay. Making everyone suffer because of greedy flippers is again just a poor excuse in my book. Its basically a circular cycle of greed. His charging people because of flippers is only making his signature that much more expensive. If artists stopped charging, the people flipping them wouldn't be able to make nearly as much as they currently do. 

It's a quantity thing.

[mattn792]

9 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

Why should Stan even care wether someone flips a comic or not. He has to know that a certain percentage of people at every signing are getting that signature for thier own collections and not to sell on eBay. Making everyone suffer because of greedy flippers is again just a poor excuse in my book. Its basically a circular cycle of greed. His charging people because of flippers is only making his signature that much more expensive. If artists stopped charging, the people flipping them wouldn't be able to make nearly as much as they currently do. J Scot Campbell used to sign all of his stuff for free from the J. Scott Campbell store. Now he charges like $10 a signature. Its just greed and unfortunately its one of the single biggest problems with today's society. The entire crash of the housing market and financial markets in  2008 was caused by sheer greed. 

That makes absolutely zero sense, and you are being way too melodramatic with this.

Stan, Campbell, Frank Miller, etc. have a commodity people want (their signature), and they are charging what they deem appropriate.  Customer pays asking price, customer gets commodity in hand. 

Commodity doesn't go to the derivatives market and get inordinately marked up.  It doesn't get packaged with subprime loans issued to no collateral buyers into overinflated securities and ultimately sold to Norway's pension fund in a massive RICO scheme.  To my knowledge, no one out there is fraudulently rating Stan's signature a AAA investment grade security. 

Its a guy's name on a comic book.  If you don't like the price, don't pay it. 

[OrangeCrush]

28 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

It's a quantity thing.

Again, why should he even care at this point? Its not like his signing for free the last couple years of his life would throw the entire comic market out of balance. I will never forget  one of the Michael Turner signings I went too. He had signed all day long and I got there late and was one of the last people in line. I had purchased a crapload of Turner comics that day, but was only planning on having him sign like 4 of them. When I finally got up to him, I laid down the 4 comics I wanted him to sign and he signed them and then looked at the huge stack I still had in my hand and asked me if I wanted him to sign any of the other books as well. He wound up signing like 25 of my books and again, this was at the end of a long signing day. I did wind up paying to have some Turner comics signed as towards the end he did start charging at a few shows, but I had no problem with that as I knew he was having health problems and I was sure he could use the money. He wasn't filthy rich like Stan Lee and the amount he charged was really not a big deal. I had a similar situation with Joe Benitez. I was only planning on having him sign like 3-4 comics, but he wound up offering to sign a bunch more I had in hand. I think of those experiences and then look at Stan and what he charges for an autograph and again, the only thing that comes into my mind is just sheer greed, regardless of the reasons why he charges the amount he does.

Edited January 8, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[lizards2]

Just now, OrangeCrush said:

20 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

It's a quantity thing.

Again, why should he even care at this point? Its not like his signing for free the last couple years of his life would throw the entire comic market out of balance. I will never forget  one of the Michael Turner signings I went too. He had signed all day long and I got there late and was one of the last people in line. I had purchased a crapload of Turner comics that day, but was only planning on having him sign like 4 of them. When I finally got up to him, I laid down the 4 comics I wanted him to sign and he signed them and then looked at the huge stack I still had in my hand and asked me if I wanted him to sign any of the other books as well. He would up signing like 25 of my books and again, this was at the end of a long signing day. I did wind up paying to have some Turner comics signed as towards the end he did start charging at a few shows, but I had no problem with that as I knew he was having health problems and I was sure he could use the money. He wasn't filthy rich like Stan Lee and the amount he charged was really not a big deal. I had a similar situation with Joe Benitez. I was only planning on having him sign like 3-4 comics, but he wound up offering to sign a bunch more I had in hand. I think of those experiences and then look at Stan and what he charges for an autograph and again, the only thing that comes into my mind is just sheer greed, regardless of the reasons why he charges the amount he does.

He should charge you double. 

[OrangeCrush]

7 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

That makes absolutely zero sense, and you are being way too melodramatic with this.

Stan, Campbell, Frank Miller, etc. have a commodity people want (their signature), and they are charging what they deem appropriate.  Customer pays asking price, customer gets commodity in hand. 

Commodity doesn't go to the derivatives market and get inordinately marked up.  It doesn't get packaged with subprime loans issued to no collateral buyers into overinflated securities and ultimately sold to Norway's pension fund in a massive RICO scheme.  To my knowledge, no one out there is fraudulently rating Stan's signature a AAA investment grade security. 

Its a guy's name on a comic book.  If you don't like the price, don't pay it. 

Yes it does make sense. If artists stopped charging for autographs, those signed comics wouldn't sell for nearly as much as they do with artists charging high fee's. Again, its basically a circular cycle of greed. 

[OrangeCrush]

1 minute ago, lizards2 said:

He should charge you double. 

Triple!! Unfortunately for Stan, I will never spend penny one for him to sign my comics so double or triple of nothing is still nothing!

[mattn792]

1 minute ago, OrangeCrush said:

Yes it does make sense. If artists stopped charging for autographs, those signed comics wouldn't sell for nearly as much as they do with artists charging high fee's. Again, its basically a circular cycle of greed. 

Let's say Dealer X did all the work (book acquisition, con attendance, grading), and got Uncanny X-Men 132 signed by Chris Claremont ($10 fee per Signature Series book).  Dealer X is selling the book for $500 in SS 9.8.  Me and Dealer X have a dialogue, and he ultimately sells it to me for $450.

Now its your turn -- subtract the $10 Claremont charged him, and make the argument that Dealer X is magically making less money now by flipping this book at $500 (or our deal price of $450).

[01TheDude]

1 hour ago, OrangeCrush said:

Triple!! Unfortunately for Stan, I will never spend penny one for him to sign my comics so double or triple of nothing is still nothing!

then why care at all?

And if you give that other guy some slack because he is in bad health-- how about the same for someone in his 90s?

Bottom line is someone arranged to have Stan sign these books and he is not getting all of the proceeds. However he is obligated to do the work he was contracted to do.

Like someone said-- if you don't like what they are charging, don't pay it. Others who appear more than willing to do so can go ahead and get them signed. It has almost no effect on books that are not signed imo. So you are arguing about how this is inflating prices but it only should impact signed books. Hmmm.. how do I avoid that-- oh yeah, I don't buy signed books.

[namisgr]

4 hours ago, lizards2 said:

And, it's almost legal again...., 

No, fraud is almost legal again....

[grebal]

what thread full o' troll this turned out to be.

[topofthetotem]

Stan be like.

 

[OrangeCrush]

18 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

then why care at all?

And if you give that other guy some slack because he is in bad health-- how about the same for someone in his 90s?

Bottom line is someone arranged to have Stan sign these books and he is not getting all of the proceeds. However he is obligated to do the work he was contracted to do.

Like someone said-- if you don't like what they are charging, don't pay it. Others who appear more than willing to do so can go ahead and get them signed. It has almost no effect on books that are not signed imo. So you are arguing about how this is inflating prices but it only should impact signed books. Hmmm.. how do I avoid that-- oh yeah, I don't buy signed books.

I don't, but that doesn't mean I don't have an opinion on the topic. I couldn't care less about Donald Trump, but I still have the opinion that the guy is a total douchbag. And I couldn't care less what Stan Lee does from here on out as it wont effect me one bit one way or the other, but I still have the opinion that charging as much as he does for an autograph, especially for young kids, is just plain scummy greed. The people in here that think its perfectly ok and that there is noting wrong with it are entitled to that opinion as well. We all have opinions and IMO, Stan Lee is just another greedy millionaire that cares more about the continued pursuit of money than he does the fans that have given him such a prestigious and comfortable life. 

Edited January 9, 2018 by OrangeCrush