Hero Restoration, Anyone know the latest? 24 24

[CAHokie]

On 1/20/2024 at 9:35 AM, Chip Cataldo said:

BTW, these are the two messages he sent me when I asked about the provenance of the book...

 

Wow…..just wow….  
 

There used to be a blurry line between this being a crime and a business dispute. I would think that line has been sufficiently crossed at this point. 

[CJ Design]

Yes, The Blue name is gone...now Geekbay_since_2003

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=256365494993&rt=nc&_ssn=geekbay_since_2003&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

[KCOComics]

This may have been mentioned,  but look at the picture of his AF15. 

All of the pictures on his listing are pretty lousy,  but this one stood out. 

I imagine he blured the picture so the owner can't easily pick up defining characteristics.  

It's so disheartening to see how this situation has unfolded. 

[DR.X]

On 1/20/2024 at 10:21 AM, KCOComics said:

This may have been mentioned,  but look at the picture of his AF15. 

All of the pictures on his listing are pretty lousy,  but this one stood out.

Any reputable dealer/seller with an expensive book to sell, take it out of the bag for starters.

[wombat]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:02 AM, Sauce Dog said:

I know Mike does in fact own a CGC copy of Startling #47 (since at least 2017), so it's not necessarily a customer book (unless someone has recognized it?) 

I thought in one of his long rambling posts he lamented about selling everything he had of value to keep the doors open. Seems a little sus that NOW he has made the decision to sell his own books and oops, I mixed them up with customer's books.  

[Sauce Dog]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:52 PM, wombat said:

I thought in one of his long rambling posts he lamented about selling everything he had of value to keep the doors open. Seems a little sus that NOW he has made the decision to sell his own books and oops, I mixed them up with customer's books.  

Yeah, there are lots to doubt about it when we know for a fact he has sold customer books - I can't confirm it is 100% legally his book (I don't know where he got it from years ago)

[Dr. Balls]

On 1/20/2024 at 10:09 AM, DR.X said:

Any reputable dealer/seller with an expensive book to sell, take it out of the bag for starters.

I’m more shocked someone would drop that kind of coin on a listing like that. I mean, blurry photos, still in the bag - I wouldn’t buy a $20 book that was listed like that.

[Dark Knight]

On 1/20/2024 at 12:08 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I’m more shocked someone would drop that kind of coin on a listing like that. I mean, blurry photos, still in the bag - I wouldn’t buy a $20 book that was listed like that.

Yeah when I saw that AF 15 on ebay before even knowing it is linked to Mike, I thought it was very odd how the picture is blurry and only one pic was taken. Very suspicious for being a high end comic, so I ended up passing on the buy price. Too many red flags, glad I didn't take a chance. 

[Nick Furious]

On 1/20/2024 at 10:21 AM, KCOComics said:

This may have been mentioned,  but look at the picture of his AF15. 

All of the pictures on his listing are pretty lousy,  but this one stood out. 

I imagine he blured the picture so the owner can't easily pick up defining characteristics. 

 

On 1/20/2024 at 2:08 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I’m more shocked someone would drop that kind of coin on a listing like that. I mean, blurry photos, still in the bag - I wouldn’t buy a $20 book that was listed like that.

I think it was mentioned earlier that Ebay may have just been used as a laundering facility for a sale that was pre-arranged.  Mike presumably made an extensive list of contacts over the years and would know who among them would be open to buying hot items.  Could be that someone even reached out to him with offers, knowing his current situation and that he had possession of key comic books.  They may have wanted it to go through Ebay to make the payment secure and create a trail of a legitimate purchase.  

[Dr. Balls]

There is NO WAY I'm letting this get off the first page. 

Bump

 

 

[phretbored]

I really hope more people get their book returned without having to get some legal proceedings going.

 

 

 

 

[KCOComics]

On 1/22/2024 at 1:42 AM, phretbored said:

I really hope more people get their book returned without having to get some legal proceedings going.

 

 

 

 

Everyone should be seeking legal action. Even those who get their books back had their money stolen. 

My hope is, no one let's this go.  Every single person he stole money or comics from, takes legal action.   Mike needs to face consequences.

Edited January 22 by KCOComics

[Cat]

On 1/22/2024 at 9:51 PM, KCOComics said:

Everyone should be seeking legal action. Even those who get their books back had their money stolen. 

My hope is, no one let's this go.  Every single person he stole money or comics from, takes legal action.   Mike needs to face consequences.

Meth Van Mike needs to face even more prison time for what he's done. 

[jimjum12]

I never did business with Mike, so I'm basically watching a bad situation play out with people I consider friends and some I don't know. I would have kept my 2 cents out, if not for the deceptive way the contracts were worded, as if he was trying to allow for this type of fraud in advance, with a generous helping of carefully crafted fine print ... that kind of disgusted me. I'm not an affected party, to reply to any who may have inquired.  GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) 

[altair43]

Just to let everyone know, I just received my book back from mike dechellis.  It was the Amazing fantasy 15 that was shown in one of the photos he had taken.  Mine was the top photo with the small black stickers on the cover.  

I have to give a massive thank you to sauce dog who had initiated the survey to get things moving on a recovery.  I hope mike continues to send out the books to  us who had lodged complaints and to all others whose books he still has.  

Edited January 22 by altair43

[Sorensen7]

After reading the updated article over the weekend, I filed with my credit card and it looks like they are going to refund me all my money.  I had an asm 40 from when I was a kid and I bought my kid an asm 300 and venon vs carnage 2 from ebay a little over a year ago.  I mailed 3 books to hero restoration for pressing and sending off to cgc back in november of 22.  They charged me 130 after they got the books.  After a while of trying to respond to get an update on books I received another bill for 270 from hero restoration in march of 23 and they said the books are going to be shipped to cgc.  I paid that.  After a while of sending emails and getting automated responses I knew my books were probably gone.  After reading this article I called my credit card company.  I saved all the emails from the 2 books I bought and the 2 bills I got from hero restoration.  The credit card company said they would issue me a refund and file a claim with company.  If hero restoration decides to refund books or send me a credit than the credit card company will bill me the amount.  It looks like I will get about 1k back which is better than getting nothing back.  If anyone is in this situation and have emails saved it looks like you could get some money back.  My first purchase in this ordeal was 9/22.  I should get everything back except for the price I paid for the asm 40 that i bought when I was a kid.  I hope this helps out any of you that are in this situation.  Thanks

[Withering Wind]

Wait, how are you getting money back from the credit card company for your purchase of the AS300?  Did you buy that book from Hero?

[Sorensen7]

On 1/22/2024 at 12:11 PM, Withering Wind said:

Wait, how are you getting money back from the credit card company for your purchase of the AS300?  Did you buy that book from Hero?

I told my credit card company that the company has my books that I bought from ebay.  I did not see the purchase on ebay because it was so far back but I had the emails with purchases and dates.  I called the credit card company which they looked up the purchases.  Since the spiderman 300 (500.00) venom carnage 2 (60.00) and hero restoration (300.00) was all on the same card they would file the claim for full amount as separate.  They said to keep my emails and they would contact me if they had anymore questions.  I will update when I get the refund.  

[ExNihilo]

On 1/22/2024 at 11:09 AM, Sorensen7 said:

After reading the updated article over the weekend, I filed with my credit card and it looks like they are going to refund me all my money.  I had an asm 40 from when I was a kid and I bought my kid an asm 300 and venon vs carnage 2 from ebay a little over a year ago.  I mailed 3 books to hero restoration for pressing and sending off to cgc back in november of 22.  They charged me 130 after they got the books.  After a while of trying to respond to get an update on books I received another bill for 270 from hero restoration in march of 23 and they said the books are going to be shipped to cgc.  I paid that.  After a while of sending emails and getting automated responses I knew my books were probably gone.  After reading this article I called my credit card company.  I saved all the emails from the 2 books I bought and the 2 bills I got from hero restoration.  The credit card company said they would issue me a refund and file a claim with company.  If hero restoration decides to refund books or send me a credit than the credit card company will bill me the amount.  It looks like I will get about 1k back which is better than getting nothing back.  If anyone is in this situation and have emails saved it looks like you could get some money back.  My first purchase in this ordeal was 9/22.  I should get everything back except for the price I paid for the asm 40 that i bought when I was a kid.  I hope this helps out any of you that are in this situation.  Thanks

Several things:

1) i'm not sure how the credit card claims department is going to handle it, but under normal circumstances, the credit card issuer will find that you should only be compensated for any amount paid to Hero Restoration.  The eBay transactions were fulfilled properly as they were delivered to you.  I know the credit card companies will issue a temporary refund while they investigate, but I would expect that amount to get clawed back.  If not, you got a claim investigator who was really kind and/or didn't care about their job since it's "not their money".

2) most credit card issuers will only allow you to file a claim within X number of days of the transaction.  Some are better than others, but I've found that 6 months seems to be the high end.  For you to file a claim for something dating back to 2022 is quite incredible.

Who's the card issuer?

[Sorensen7]

On 1/22/2024 at 2:48 PM, ExNihilo said:

Several things:

1) i'm not sure how the credit card claims department is going to handle it, but under normal circumstances, the credit card issuer will find that you should only be compensated for any amount paid to Hero Restoration.  The eBay transactions were fulfilled properly as they were delivered to you.  I know the credit card companies will issue a temporary refund while they investigate, but I would expect that amount to get clawed back.  If not, you got a claim investigator who was really kind and/or didn't care about their job since it's "not their money".

2) most credit card issuers will only allow you to file a claim within X number of days of the transaction.  Some are better than others, but I've found that 6 months seems to be the high end.  For you to file a claim for something dating back to 2022 is quite incredible.

Who's the card issuer?

I have capital one.  I will post if I get a refund.  I did explain the situation which they questioned the time frame.  I don’t know what the final outcome will be but they said I would get a refund for all 4 charges.