Important info regarding HotShotComics and his customers books at CGC 6 6

[wombat]

I'm generally pretty harsh on CGC, but I don't think it is their job to police what companies are doing outside of CGC. But yeah, once they stopped paying their CGC bills, its a problem. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by wombat

[Stefan_W]

Kudos to CGC for taking action. 

One element that makes this complicated is that the scam extends beyond CGC. From what I understand, some people were doing pre-orders on Ebay which has a limited time for refunds. I remember doing a pre-order from a different seller on Ebay and even though he may have been legit (still no idea about this) I cancelled the order when it was pushing up again the max window for a refund. While most people are honest, and just want to get by, there are always people out there trying to scam a quick buck. 

[Mike Hammer]

On 6/28/2023 at 8:52 PM, CGC Mike said:

I am not exactly sure at this time.  I believe it will be a fairly short wait.  Maybe 5 business days?  With that said, we will be closed July 3rd and 4th.  

I appreciate that, thank you! I sent two emails, one was with a general inquiry and the other has detailed info. Thanks again for the help!

[Cat]

On 6/30/2023 at 1:25 AM, Mike Hammer said:

I appreciate that, thank you! I sent two emails, one was with a general inquiry and the other has detailed info. Thanks again for the help!

I hope CGC has the book you paid for, mate. Good luck. 

[WNC dude]

On 6/28/2023 at 4:25 PM, Mike Hammer said:

Hey, just wondering - after we send an email, how long should we wait to hear any sort of response? Just asking so I can make sure I didn't miss anything. Thanks!

Hey, Mike. I emailed on 6/27 and heard back just about an hour and a half ago. That was much quicker than I expected! CGC is on it! Filled out my claim form and sent it in with pics of my receipts. Stay tuned...

[badback83]

On 6/28/2023 at 8:15 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

Well yea.

You can get away with just paying your dealer bill and screwing over customers for a while which Hotshots is accused of before CGC would possibly get involved.  Especially since those pre-orders were sometimes 6-12 months in advance. That's also 6-12 months those customers were only contacting Hotshots, NOT CGC unfortunately for them.  CGC has nothing to do with Hotshots business model or lack thereof.  All they can do is make a judgement call after hearing from the general public if they want to continue allowing him to submit, or when Hotshots does not pay their dealer balance.  (edit) Also from what CGC Mike said below, help fellow collectors get their books back if they are still in house at CGC submitted under Hotshots dealer account.

Like the scene in Goodfellas, Hotshots has run our of store credit it seems...

Larry boy

[NewWorldOrder]

On 6/29/2023 at 3:17 PM, DocHoppus182 said:

Larry boy

sorry I dont get the pun.

[CGC Mike]

On 6/29/2023 at 2:54 PM, WNC dude said:

Hey, Mike. I emailed on 6/27 and heard back just about an hour and a half ago. That was much quicker than I expected! CGC is on it! Filled out my claim form and sent it in with pics of my receipts. Stay tuned...

That is awesome.  A bunch of people have contacted us.  If anyone sees a thread that should have a link to this one, please let me know.  We want to get these books back to the people who have paid HotShotComics for CGC books and didn't receive them due to the significant, outstanding balance they have with CGC.  

[badback83]

On 6/29/2023 at 6:36 PM, NewWorldOrder said:

sorry I dont get the pun.

The actor also plays Larry Barese in the Sopranos.

[ExNihilo]

This is so stupid.  I work in accounting, people are late to pay, we have a threshold for which we're tolerant of late payments.  Beyond that and we start shutting off your services.  You can't just not pay your bills and then expect a company to go back to business as usual as soon as you pay a small portion of what you owe.  Paying down a reasonable portion of your existing debts is a good faith measure to prove that you're able to pay off the remaining portion.  If you owe $100k and you only offer to pay $2k, that's not a serious offer.  Seriously, he's lucky AR didn't ask for half.

[wombat]

I don't think there is a single person buying their BS sob story. 

[Point Five]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:43 PM, wombat said:

I don't think there is a single person buying their BS sob story. 

Just wait until they get this awesome blog up! Boy will you change your tune.  
 

[thehumantorch]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:27 PM, Point Five said:

Just wait until they get this awesome blog up! Boy will you change your tune.  
 

Blog or Bog?

[CGC Mike]

Just giving this thread a bump.  I was updated about a week ago, and at that point, we have received 85 e-mails and a few phone calls regarding this.  If you have had business dealings with HotShotComics and paid for a specific, guaranteed CGC grade and did not receive your books send us an e-mail.  Here are the full details that I have made in 2 different posts.

On 6/23/2023 at 2:31 PM, CGC Mike said:

Effective immediately, the membership account for Hotshotcomics / Asheville Comics / Douglas Cegelis (collectively, “Hotshotcomics”) has been terminated by CGC. If you have submitted comics to CGC through Hotshotcomics or if you have purchased presales of CGC-graded books from Hotshotcomics, and you believe those books are currently at CGC, please contact our Customer Service team at service@collectiblesgroup.com. You will be asked to fill out a claim form and provide purchase / submission documentation.

 

Since CGC was not a party to any transactions between individual collectors and Hotshotcomics, we cannot promise or guarantee any particular result. However, we will try to work with you (and with Hotshotcomics) to resolve your situation as best we can. CGC will not charge collectors for any books submitted or pre-purchased through Hotshotcomics if you can show that you are out-of-pocket. (We will not charge for shipping either.)

 

Please understand that we can only help to the extent the particular books are in our possession, i.e., actually submitted to CGC in the first place.

 

 

 

On 6/28/2023 at 8:16 PM, CGC Mike said:

At CGC, we recently became aware of an Instagram post by Hotshotcomics blaming CGC for the delays its customers have experienced. This post is inaccurate, and we feel compelled to set the record straight.

Any delay in customers of Hotshotcomics / Asheville Comics / Douglas Cegelis (collectively, “Hotshotcomics”) receiving their books is not due to CGC. CGC is not a party to business transactions between individual collectors and Hotshotcomics. We only have visibility into what books Hotshotcomics has submitted to us and whether and to what extent Hotshotcomics has paid CGC for its services.

As publicly admitted by Hotshotcomics, its CGC account has a significant unpaid balance and is now in collections. Ask yourself this:  If you paid Hotshotcomics up front for presales, then why would Hotshotcomics have trouble paying CGC in the first place?

CGC only recently learned that numerous collectors have paid Hotshotcomics for presales and received nothing in return. Hotshotcomics’ debt to CGC notwithstanding, please know that CGC is committed to trying to resolve the situation for Hotshotcomics’ innocent customers.

 Also, please understand that we can only help to the extent the particular books are in our possession, i.e., actually submitted to CGC in the first place. Matching up your submissions to Hotshotcomics with Hotshotcomics’ submissions to us will be an undertaking, particularly since Hotshotcomics has not provided any information about the buyers / owners of these books.

While CGC did not create this problem, we are trying our best to help solve it. We thank you in advance for your continued patience.

 

[Point Five]

On 7/5/2023 at 12:54 PM, CGC Mike said:

Just giving this thread a bump.  I was updated about a week ago, and at that point, we have received 85 e-mails and a few phone calls regarding this.  If you have had business dealings with HotShotComics and paid for a specific, guaranteed CGC grade and did not receive your books send us an e-mail.  Here are the full details that I have made in 2 different posts.

Big ups to you and your team for handling this, Mike. I can't even imagine how much time and work this will take.

 

[Sigur Ros]

On 7/5/2023 at 12:54 PM, CGC Mike said:

Ask yourself this:  If you paid Hotshotcomics up front for presales, then why would Hotshotcomics have trouble paying CGC in the first place?

Bingo.   This never should have happened unless they were doing other things with the money and hoping to make up for it before bills were due.

I dealt with them once, via eBay, and luckily all went well.  The very long delivery was because TATs were horrendous during early covid days, but I got my books and they even fulfilled a special request (re:variant) for me.

Things have certainly changed.

[Point Five]

 

[Cat]

On 7/6/2023 at 11:59 PM, Point Five said:

 

That's going to get them a lot of views, videos of books from 2 years ago. 

[WNC dude]

On 7/6/2023 at 9:59 AM, Point Five said:

 

After seeing this, I immediately responded to Erika D. from CGC who has been handling my claim with this screenshot, telling her I would feel uneasy about Doug getting my submissions back. This was her response: "We can assure you that Hotshot will not be receiving any submissions back. That is why we are reaching out to their customers requesting receipts to show proof of purchase and also asking for your direct address so that once we go through all the books, we are able to send these directly to each person. I hope this helps calm the nerves!" 

Erika has been very responsive and an all around rock star to work with. 👍👍

[JollyComics]

Is this guy?

https://bustednewspaper.com/north-carolina/cegelis-douglas-charles/20180920-121700/

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/entertainment/2016/08/03/5-ways-geek-out-before-and-after-geekout/87563094/

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by JollyComics