Hero Restoration, Anyone know the latest? 27 27

[Buzzetta]

On 8/16/2024 at 10:39 PM, Neo "The One" said:

Right. Where were they 6 months ago?

Believe it or not there were a couple of guys I know that have collections of material that might have easily passed through Mike. They had no idea that this was going on.  One guy had a Timely Cap that he was looking to have some conservation work done on it.  Remember, those on the CGC Boards are aware of it because it is literally in our face.  If you do not come here, that means that you have no real idea what is going on.  

I mentioned his arrest to someone I figured might know, and they said, "huh?  Wait, what?"

That's why it is so discouraging when CGC takes down posts that alert to the shenanigans that "SOME" of their facilitators and submitters are up to.  I guess at some point Hero Restoration brought CGC some decent business but as time went on, and the mounting evidence, they decided that he was on his own especially with his responses here.  

[KCOComics]

 

I am glad to see this resolution. 

Now, I'm curious where things go?  ,

What will the sentence be? Will we collectivly be satasified if he gets a year in prison? Two years?

How long will it take people to get their books? 

And then what happens to Mike after this? Is this rock bottom? Does he clean up and start over? Try to make things right? Or does he sink into a hole never to be hard from again? 

 

 

[joeypost]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:27 AM, KCOComics said:

 

I am glad to see this resolution. 

Now, I'm curious where things go?  ,

What will the sentence be? Will we collectivly be satasified if he gets a year in prison? Two years?

How long will it take people to get their books? 

And then what happens to Mike after this? Is this rock bottom? Does he clean up and start over? Try to make things right? Or does he sink into a hole never to be hard from again? 

 

 

Given the recent events, it would be a Herculean effort for Mike to make a rebound, even in his personal life let alone his professional one. 
 

I know all of you who were financially impacted by Mike are happy with his incarceration and I hope you are made as whole as possible, but it is a sad day when a member of a community falls, especially one who was respected at one time. Mike fell, and he fell hard. 

[shadroch]

On 8/17/2024 at 6:51 AM, joeypost said:

Given the recent events, it would be a Herculean effort for Mike to make a rebound, even in his personal life let alone his professional one. 
 

I know all of you who were financially impacted by Mike are happy with his incarceration and I hope you are made as whole as possible, but it is a sad day when a member of a community falls, especially one who was respected at one time. Mike fell, and he fell hard. 

Did he fall, or did he jump?

[KCOComics]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:55 AM, shadroch said:

Did he fall, or did he jump?

He fell, unraveled and then jumped. 

There is no excuse for any of this and he deserves everything he's going to get. 

But you can see how this unraveled. It played out in front of us. He over reached with his business and failed spectacularly. And it wasn't because of a lack of demand,  it was because of him. He couldn't manage time,  resources, costs,  and finances.  He was a bad business person. 

The money he took in was gone, people were asking for refunds he couldn't provide. For some reason he stopped doing the work (that's the really puzzling part).  

Then we watched him dissolve the business. The drinking and alleged drug abuse.  And when he didn't see a way out,  he said "fudge it".  He started taking in orders (and money) for work he had no intention of doing. He stopped communicating and eventually started selling the only valuable asset he had access to... other people's comics. 

 

I don't think Mike set out to play the long con. I think things went bad and he didn't have the maturity and ethics to do the right thing, and eventually went all in on doing the wrong thing. And for that- I hope he goes to prison for a long time. 

 

[Steven Valdez]

On 8/18/2024 at 12:33 AM, KCOComics said:

He fell, unraveled and then jumped. 

There is no excuse for any of this and he deserves everything he's going to get. 

But you can see how this unraveled. It played out in front of us. He over reached with his business and failed spectacularly. And it wasn't because of a lack of demand,  it was because of him. He couldn't manage time,  resources, costs,  and finances.  He was a bad business person. 

The money he took in was gone, people were asking for refunds he couldn't provide. For some reason he stopped doing the work (that's the really puzzling part).  

Then we watched him dissolve the business. The drinking and alleged drug abuse.  And when he didn't see a way out,  he said "fudge it".  He started taking in orders (and money) for work he had no intention of doing. He stopped communicating and eventually started selling the only valuable asset he had access to... other people's comics. 

 

I don't think Mike set out to play the long con. I think things went bad and he didn't have the maturity and ethics to do the right thing, and eventually went all in on doing the wrong thing. And for that- I hope he goes to prison for a long time. 

 

He also did an appalling job. There are a couple of early Action Comics that he totally destroyed. Saw the evidence of this for the first time on this Swagglehaus video earlier today. See from 7:39 onwards.

 

[KCOComics]

On 8/17/2024 at 10:40 AM, Steven Valdez said:

He also did an appalling job. There are a couple of early Action Comics that he totally destroyed. Saw the evidence of this for the first time on this Swagglehaus video earlier today. See from 7:39 onwards.

 

Yikes- I haven't seen this before (I don't have Instagram).  What was even trying to do with those Actions? He destroyed them. 

[Steven Valdez]

On 8/18/2024 at 12:58 AM, KCOComics said:

Yikes- I haven't seen this before (I don't have Instagram).  What was even trying to do with those Actions? He destroyed them. 

Yes, this may be tied into the drug and alcohol abuse that's been mentioned on this thread. Unless the guy was just straight out malicious.

[joeypost]

On 8/17/2024 at 11:01 AM, Steven Valdez said:

Yes, this may be tied into the drug and alcohol abuse that's been mentioned on this thread. Unless the guy was just straight out malicious.

Or he was subbing out certain aspects of the work. 

[joeypost]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:55 AM, shadroch said:

Did he fall, or did he jump?

He dove, head first assuming the pool was full of water. 

[KCOComics]

On 8/16/2024 at 7:59 PM, Ed Hanes said:

I wonder if he hired the thugs that tried to sell the books here in Wa and that's part of the racketeering charge. Those guys apparently were arrested and convicted on separate charges ..maybe they ratted him out. 

What is the story with the guys he tried to sell books through? What were they arrested for? 

[awakeintheashes]

On 8/17/2024 at 12:13 AM, Sauce Dog said:

Alas, I did watch the video and it amounted to little more than just re-reading a news article out and then reading a few of Kenny's instagram posts....it didn't at all offer any information from the threads or really put it all in context for those people who are hearing this for the first time.

Typical YouTube wannabe "influencer" garbage. No idea how him and others justify the time spent making these videos with the measly number of views and followers they have. Whatever makes you happy, I guess. 

Edited August 17 by awakeintheashes

[thehumantorch]

On 8/17/2024 at 7:51 AM, joeypost said:

Given the recent events, it would be a Herculean effort for Mike to make a rebound, even in his personal life let alone his professional one. 
 

I know all of you who were financially impacted by Mike are happy with his incarceration and I hope you are made as whole as possible, but it is a sad day when a member of a community falls, especially one who was respected at one time. Mike fell, and he fell hard. 

Pretty mature post Joey.  

If Mike hadn't tried to expand to multiple locations or hadn't had a heart attack or had made different better decisions when building his business perhaps the conversation would be much different.   And once everything started to implode I can't imagine the stress that Mike must have faced trying to save his business and pain he would feel as his reputation was trashed online.  And I'd imagine at some point it must have been pure chaos as everything collapsed and Mike had nowhere to turn and nobody to trust.  This is the story of someone we knew who loved comics and wanted to spend his life restoring them and his absolute ugly failure.  He was one of us.

 

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 8/17/2024 at 1:30 PM, thehumantorch said:

On 8/17/2024 at 8:51 AM, joeypost said:

Given the recent events, it would be a Herculean effort for Mike to make a rebound, even in his personal life let alone his professional one. 
 

I know all of you who were financially impacted by Mike are happy with his incarceration and I hope you are made as whole as possible, but it is a sad day when a member of a community falls, especially one who was respected at one time. Mike fell, and he fell hard. 

Pretty mature post Joey.  

If Mike hadn't tried to expand to multiple locations or hadn't had a heart attack or had made different better decisions when building his business perhaps the conversation would be much different.   And once everything started to implode I can't imagine the stress that Mike must have faced trying to save his business and pain he would feel as his reputation was trashed online.  And I'd imagine at some point it must have been pure chaos as everything collapsed and Mike had nowhere to turn and nobody to trust.  This is the story of someone we knew who loved comics and wanted to spend his life restoring them and his absolute ugly failure.  He was one of us.

Prayers. There is still hope for tomorrow, although it might not be realized in his heart and mind at all in the moment, but this too will pass provided he stays in health. Given the grievousness he may get a fresh perspective, or tools equipped to regain his faculties, prayers that it doesn't breed resentment, and he can get a clean heart and be restored in "life"; whatever that may entail in the future.

 

[Chip Cataldo]

Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom in order to rise above your past. I should know, I've lived it.

[Sauce Dog]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:30 PM, thehumantorch said:

Pretty mature post Joey.  

If Mike hadn't tried to expand to multiple locations or hadn't had a heart attack or had made different better decisions when building his business perhaps the conversation would be much different.   And once everything started to implode I can't imagine the stress that Mike must have faced trying to save his business and pain he would feel as his reputation was trashed online.  And I'd imagine at some point it must have been pure chaos as everything collapsed and Mike had nowhere to turn and nobody to trust.  This is the story of someone we knew who loved comics and wanted to spend his life restoring them and his absolute ugly failure.  He was one of us.

 

 

That is all well and good and I'm all for a redemptive arc, especially for one of our own who has fallen on very hard times...but he was selling customer books years before he even expanded to multiple locations or anything looked to be remotely imploding with the business. Also I would take that "heart attack" claim with a large grain of salt.

I won't expand on any of this, but everything I learned about him during my investigating showed he was making questionable decisions since the inception of the company combined with copious amount of lying.

Edited August 17 by Sauce Dog

[thehumantorch]

On 8/17/2024 at 12:55 PM, Sauce Dog said:

That is all well and good...but he was selling customer books years before he even expanded to multiple locations or anything looked to be remotely imploding with the business. Also I would take that heart attack claim with a large grain of salt.

I won't expand on any of this, but everything I learned about him during my investigating showed he was making questionable decisions since the inception of the company combined with copious amount of lying.

I don't recall reading about him selling customer's books early on.  That would be disturbing.

[Sauce Dog]

On 8/17/2024 at 3:00 PM, thehumantorch said:

I don't recall reading about him selling customer's books early on.  That would be disturbing.

It's not something I've cared to share (nor will I be expanding on any of the details), as I found out after the last thread got locked so it wasn't really relevant to the current situation or ongoing investigation (and I wanted to stay on his good side in order to help facilitate getting customer books back from him to the owners), and the customers involved requested I not put their names publicly out there for a variety of reasons. 

Suffice to say, it sucks things went downhill for him and I do hope he can turn things around, but all my sympathy for him, and the benefit of the doubt towards any of his sob stories, ran out long ago.

Edited August 17 by Sauce Dog

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:09 PM, Sauce Dog said:

It's not something I've cared to share (nor will I be expanding on any of the details), as I found out after the last thread got locked so it wasn't really relevant to the current situation or ongoing investigation, and the customers involved requested I not put their name publicly out there for a variety of reasons. 

Suffice to say, it sucks things went downhill for him and I do hope he can turn things around, but all my sympathy for him, and the benefit of the doubt towards any of his sob stories, ran out long ago.

Understandable!

[Buzzetta]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:55 PM, Sauce Dog said:

That is all well and good and I'm all for a redemptive arc, especially for one of our own who has fallen on very hard times...but he was selling customer books years before he even expanded to multiple locations or anything looked to be remotely imploding with the business. Also I would take that "heart attack" claim with a large grain of salt.

I won't expand on any of this, but everything I learned about him during my investigating showed he was making questionable decisions since the inception of the company combined with copious amount of lying.

Yup... I said years ago when I picked up lower grade early Superman, someone publicly recommended for me to use Mike and it led to me getting submittal forms from him with a turnaround estimate of about a little less than a year if I remember.   A couple of days before I was to mail out the book, I was privately told it would be in my best interest not to submit anything to him.  That was around 2015-16?