Hero Restoration, Anyone know the latest? 24 24

[CAHokie]

On 2/17/2024 at 5:50 PM, Nick Furious said:

This 15-year-old thread was shared earlier in this current thread.  But for those who missed it previously, every villain has an origin story:

 

Thanks for reposting, I had missed it. The title says it all, “Something just seems off…” They spotted it right away.  

[universal soldier]

On 2/17/2024 at 6:44 PM, CAHokie said:

Thanks for reposting, I had missed it. The title says it all, “Something just seems off…” They spotted it right away.  

A leopard can’t change it’s spots. There was a sense of deception early on with this guy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time but I’m not shocked by this really.

[Joke-Eye]

Hi. @Sauce Dog said to post on here. Hope Mike sees this. here are my books listed, I just really would like these books back Mike  thank you, feel better. Hope you make a comeback.

Invoice #	HRC3323
# of items	11
Name	Alben G.

mic	The Amazing Spider-Man	45		1	Marvel	1967	100
Comic	The Amazing Spider-Man	316		1	Marvel	1989	300
Comic	The Amazing Spider-man	361		1	Marvel	1992	300
Comic	The Amazing Spider-Man	252		1	Marvel	1984	175
Comic	Marvel Team-Up	141		1	Marvel	1984	300
Comic	Marvel Super HeroesSecret War	1		1	Marvel	1984	80
Comic	The Uncanny X-Men	141		1	Marvel	1981	80
Comic	The Uncanny X-Men	142		1	Marvel	1981	50
Comic	Wolverine	8		1	Marvel	1989	150
Comic	Captain America Annual	8		1	Marvel	1985	75
Comic	What If?...	31		1	Marvel	1982	75

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:50 PM, Nick Furious said:

This 15-year-old thread was shared earlier in this current thread.  But for those who missed it previously, every villain has an origin story:

 

 

[mrwoogieman]

On 2/18/2024 at 12:49 AM, RockMyAmadeus said:

 

Someone on that thread said

 

Posted April 29, 2009

I wonder if this is just a scam to have people start sending mid grade keys to him and then he disappears with them.

 

 

 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 2/18/2024 at 1:56 PM, mrwoogieman said:

On 2/17/2024 at 11:49 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

 

Someone on that thread said

 

Posted April 29, 2009

I wonder if this is just a scam to have people start sending mid grade keys to him and then he disappears with them.

[Domo Arigato]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:32 PM, universal soldier said:

A leopard can’t change it’s spots. There was a sense of deception early on with this guy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time but I’m not shocked by this really.

He had that Flash #1 for over 14 years and just now returned it......unfinished and in worse shape than when it was sent to him.

Imagine paying someone $5,000 to damage your Flash #1.

This also means that his excuses in the earlier thread about all of this were just a bunch of horse sh*t.  He blamed his more recent health problems, Covid, expanding the business too fast, etc.

None of that applies to a book that was sent to him 14 years ago.  It just proves your point that he was deceptive even back then.

 

Edited February 19 by Domo Arigato

[jimjum12]

On 2/18/2024 at 7:19 PM, Domo Arigato said:

He had that Flash #1 for over 14 years and just now returned it......unfinished and in worse shape than when it was sent to him.

Imagine paying someone $5,000 to damage your Flash #1.

This also means that his excuses in the earlier thread about all of this were just a bunch of horse sh*t.  He blamed his more recent health problems, Covid, expanding the business too fast, etc.

None of that applies to a book that was sent to him 14 years ago.  It just proves your point that he was deceptive even back then.

 

You said that so much better than I was planning to. That fact won't bode well when Perry Mason sinks his teeth into his hindparts. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

 

[Mr. Zipper]

It's no secret that Mike was a fledgling restorer around 2009. He frequently posted here and at other chat boards about his learning and showed his progress. Over time, his work appeared to be professional quality and he hung up a shingle.

And he operated for a decade with no apparent problems and many satisfied customers. The dozens of victims here sent him hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of books because he was trusted and had a good track record. So I don't buy, "it's been a long scam from the beginning." Sounds good on a chat board, but doesn't add up in real life.

Granted, the Flash #1 seems to be an outlier. I suspect he was in over his head and made mistakes on the book, and rather than face the music with the client, he sat on it. (A bad business decision among many others.)

Interestingly, I was a admin on the CBCA chat board. This was a board where Mike had posted a number of his "learning" posts. I'm guessing about 8 years ago, Mike contacted me and asked me, as an admin, to remove his earlier "experimentation" posts. The reason he gave was his "investors" didn't want his amateur material on the internet. 

[B2D327]

Lots of scams start with building a small trust first, especially if one intends on escalating things to a level of financial exploitation the likes of which have been seen in this thread. Face it, some people are greedy scum and will find a way to feed that desire without a care for who they victimize and only show some false guise of remorse when caught.

[KCOComics]

On 2/19/2024 at 12:29 PM, Mr. Zipper said:

It's no secret that Mike was a fledgling restorer around 2009. He frequently posted here and at other chat boards about his learning and showed his progress. Over time, his work appeared to be professional quality and he hung up a shingle.

And he operated for a decade with no apparent problems and many satisfied customers. The dozens of victims here sent him hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of books because he was trusted and had a good track record. So I don't buy, "it's been a long scam from the beginning." Sounds good on a chat board, but doesn't add up in real life.

Granted, the Flash #1 seems to be an outlier. I suspect he was in over his head and made mistakes on the book, and rather than face the music with the client, he sat on it. (A bad business decision among many others.)

Interestingly, I was a admin on the CBCA chat board. This was a board where Mike had posted a number of his "learning" posts. I'm guessing about 8 years ago, Mike contacted me and asked me, as an admin, to remove his earlier "experimentation" posts. The reason he gave was his "investors" didn't want his amateur material on the internet. 

 

On 2/19/2024 at 3:24 PM, B2D327 said:

Lots of scams start with building a small trust first, especially if one intends on escalating things to a level of financial exploitation the likes of which have been seen in this thread. Face it, some people are greedy scum and will find a way to feed that desire without a care for who they victimize and only show some false guise of remorse when caught.

I do agree with @Mr. Zipper that this was not a long time con.  We all know his name, where he lives and so on.  He did years of professional work and was recommended frequently. 

I think he made a sincere effort to run a business, but he was a terrible business person.  He got in over his head and he acted in a very unethical way. 

He stole,  he lied,  he tried to sell customers books and took money for work he had no intention of doing. 

 

What hasn't been said yet... remember when he had all those books stolen and filed an insurance claim to refund customers???  If I were the police or a private investigator, I would love to look closer at that situation. 

 

 

[bc]

On 2/19/2024 at 5:03 PM, KCOComics said:

 

I do agree with @Mr. Zipper that this was not a long time con.  We all know his name, where he lives and so on.  He did years of professional work and was recommended frequently. 

I think he made a sincere effort to run a business, but he was a terrible business person.  He got in over his head and he acted in a very unethical way. 

He stole,  he lied,  he tried to sell customers books and took money for work he had no intention of doing. 

 

What hasn't been said yet... remember when he had all those books stolen and filed an insurance claim to refund customers???  If I were the police or a private investigator, I would love to look closer at that situation. 

 

 

+1

Likely that he hasn't filed proper state and federal taxes given the mess of a business he runs 

-bc

[Domo Arigato]

On 2/19/2024 at 11:29 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

Granted, the Flash #1 seems to be an outlier. I suspect he was in over his head and made mistakes on the book, and rather than face the music with the client, he sat on it. (A bad business decision among many others.)

I don't think everything he did was one big con since he started the business......but I'm also not going to agree that any of this was just due to bad business decisions.  Even if that is the narrative he would like everyone to believe.

Taking (and spending) someone else's $5,000 while refusing to return their multi-thousand dollar book for over 14 years isn't a bad business decision.......that's a scumbag decision. 

And he did it multiple times after that instance.

 

[Mr. Zipper]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:01 PM, Domo Arigato said:

I don't think everything he did was one big con since he started the business......but I'm also not going to agree that any of this was just due to bad business decisions.  Even if that is the narrative he would like everyone to believe.

Taking (and spending) someone else's $5,000 while refusing to return their multi-thousand dollar book for over 14 years isn't a bad business decision.......that's a scumbag decision. 

And he did it multiple times after that instance.

 

Don't put words in my mouth. I said "not notifying the client" was a bad business decision. I made no excuses for his other behavior. Don't you have another thread where you can be a shrill drama queen?

[Domo Arigato]

On 2/20/2024 at 6:56 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

Don't put words in my mouth. I said "not notifying the client" was a bad business decision. I made no excuses for his other behavior. Don't you have another thread where you can be a shrill drama queen?

I wasn't putting words in your mouth.  I was saying that it can't be seperated out.  But, to be clear, you said you suspect he made mistakes on the the book and didn't want to notify the client and that was a bad business decision.

Even if your suspicions are true, I would still not call screwing up a customers book and refusing to notify them for years a bad business decision.  There's also more to it than that and it can't be seperated.  He spent a clients $5,000 advance payment.....then essentially blew them off and refused to return their multi-thousand dollar book for 14 years.  And it's not really an outlier.....it was just the longest time frame we happen to be aware of.  Several people in this thread have come forward wtih similar accounts of lost money and books that he has refused to return for years......and those are just the ones we know about.  

Now, as far as the name calling goes, I'll stop being a shrill drama queen, if you stop being a sensitive puckered sphincter (we already have Greggy, and one is enough). 

 

Edited February 20 by Domo Arigato

[mikenyc]

On 2/20/2024 at 7:56 AM, Mr. Zipper said:

Don't put words in my mouth. I said "not notifying the client" was a bad business decision. I made no excuses for his other behavior. Don't you have another thread where you can be a shrill drama queen?

It reads like you did. You laid out his journey from amateur to professional restorer as well as highlighting the word “decade” when describing his years of work and satisfied customers. You also gave an example of bad behavior and justified it as “seemingly” being an “outlier”. 

You’re angry that the boards are making it seem as though his intent from the beginning was to scam customers, but seeing the end result, does it really matter?

[Mr. Zipper]

On 2/20/2024 at 4:16 PM, mikenyc said:

It reads like you did. You laid out his journey from amateur to professional restorer as well as highlighting the word “decade” when describing his years of work and satisfied customers. You also gave an example of bad behavior and justified it as “seemingly” being an “outlier”. 

You’re angry that the boards are making it seem as though his intent from the beginning was to scam customers, but seeing the end result, does it really matter?

The point of noting Flash as an "outlier" was because it's the only known item that turned into a problem dating back to the beginning of his practice. Other than that "outlier," his record was spotless for a decade. All the other problems are from the last few years. 

I'm not angry about anything, but I believe in fairly and accurately representing the situation. People making accusations that it has been a long con since the beginning are simply not accurate and there is no evidence to support it. Unless of course, you wish to count the Flash 1 situation as evidence of a long con, which I don't. It was likely messed up and damaged, and the way he handled it criminal, but not an intentional long con. 

Is it a distinction without a difference at this point? Probably. But I have never been a fan of revisionist history and even criminals deserve accurate reporting.

[shadroch]

On 2/18/2024 at 5:19 PM, Domo Arigato said:

He had that Flash #1 for over 14 years and just now returned it......unfinished and in worse shape than when it was sent to him.

Imagine paying someone $5,000 to damage your Flash #1.

This also means that his excuses in the earlier thread about all of this were just a bunch of horse sh*t.  He blamed his more recent health problems, Covid, expanding the business too fast, etc.

None of that applies to a book that was sent to him 14 years ago.  It just proves your point that he was deceptive even back then.

 

On the bright side, the owner didn't have 14 years of storage fees or insurance on the book. 

In all seriousness, would a judge entertain a case where the defendant had the property for fourteen years?  At what point is property considered abandoned in cases like this?

[KCOComics]

On 2/20/2024 at 5:23 PM, shadroch said:

On the bright side, the owner didn't have 14 years of storage fees or insurance on the book. 

In all seriousness, would a judge entertain a case where the defendant had the property for fourteen years?  At what point is property considered abandoned in cases like this?

Luckily,  we have dozens and dozens of other situations for a judge to pick from. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 2/20/2024 at 4:23 PM, shadroch said:

At what point is property considered abandoned in cases like this?

Even further. 

Statue of limitations,  even on grand theft.