Hero Restoration, Anyone know the latest? 24 24

[Sauce Dog]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:30 PM, revat said:

Nothing was taken by force or physically stolen, and the defendant doesn’t seem to have committed or threatened any violence.  

 Fixed that for you. Okay, that's enough out of me ;)

[unclezebo]

On 4/28/2024 at 1:14 PM, Sauce Dog said:

 Fixed that for you. Okay, that's enough out of me ;)

[Neo "The One"]

On 4/27/2024 at 7:30 PM, revat said:

I hope everything goes right going forward for the victims, and that suspect faces justice with harsh punishment…

but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about a lot of jail time.  Nothing was taken by force or physically stolen, and the defendant doesn’t seem to have committed or threatened any violence.  

Hey @revat - as Sauce Dog alluded to, on the original thread Mike actually did threaten violence before that thread was locked. There were a lot of other things 'said'.  Books may have been stolen.  I mean, I sent him my book and he sold it on eBay without my authorization or knowledge.  No compensation was given to me.  I like many others were giving HR the benefit of the doubt, and they strung me along for months before ultimately closing shop.  I head 'rumors' of a robbery of his shop that may or may not have been staged as well as other 'interesting' things.  These things have all been mentioned either on the original thread or this one.  I also believe there is a third thread that goes waaaaay back to when Mike, 'introduced' himself to the community.  Kind of like that Seinfeld episode.  

 

[revat]

On 4/28/2024 at 3:08 PM, Neo "The One" said:

Hey @revat - as Sauce Dog alluded to, on the original thread Mike actually did threaten violence before that thread was locked. There were a lot of other things 'said'.  Books may have been stolen.  I mean, I sent him my book and he sold it on eBay without my authorization or knowledge.  No compensation was given to me.  I like many others were giving HR the benefit of the doubt, and they strung me along for months before ultimately closing shop.  I head 'rumors' of a robbery of his shop that may or may not have been staged as well as other 'interesting' things.  These things have all been mentioned either on the original thread or this one.  I also believe there is a third thread that goes waaaaay back to when Mike, 'introduced' himself to the community.  Kind of like that Seinfeld episode.  

 

I was more alluding to the fact that he didn’t go to anyone’s home/property and steal comics.  Or make tangible, criminal threats of physical harm that would be viable in court.  I’m not sure internet rants would rise to the level.  At least to my limited knowledge.  It seems like all books were voluntary physically given to him.  
 

these are factors that would often more likely lead to incarceration, or longer terms of incarceration.  Of course it also depends on the jurisdiction and judge/jury/lawyers and the situation at large.  I just wouldn’t get my hopes up about significant jail/prison time.  

[Neo "The One"]

On 4/28/2024 at 8:43 PM, revat said:

I was more alluding to the fact that he didn’t go to anyone’s home/property and steal comics.  Or make tangible, criminal threats of physical harm that would be viable in court.  I’m not sure internet rants would rise to the level.  At least to my limited knowledge.  It seems like all books were voluntary physically given to him.  
 

these are factors that would often more likely lead to incarceration, or longer terms of incarceration.  Of course it also depends on the jurisdiction and judge/jury/lawyers and the situation at large.  I just wouldn’t get my hopes up about significant jail/prison time.  

Agreed. My hopes are not extremely high. But who knows. Just to make a car analogy - if you hire someone to work on your car and instead they take the money and send your car to a chop shop and get paid for the stolen car is that not theft?  I’m not expert either but seems straightforward enough. Hero Restoration was a company, not just “some guy”. Mike and HR had a good reputation, references and other businesses promoting his company. Not just some random presser. (My opinion).  

[A.Romeo]

I used Mike for my comic needs a few times many years ago.  When I saw posts about him I was very surprised so I reached out.  This was almost a year ago and it seems as though nothing has changed.  Just figured I share our conversation.  He has since deleted his Instagram account.  

[CAHokie]

On 4/28/2024 at 10:41 PM, A.Romeo said:

I used Mike for my comic needs a few times many years ago.  When I saw posts about him I was very surprised so I reached out.  This was almost a year ago and it seems as though nothing has changed.  Just figured I share our conversation.  He has since deleted his Instagram account.  

More of the same.  Little to no personal responsibility shown.

”Superior Knowledge” 

[KCOComics]

On 4/28/2024 at 10:41 PM, A.Romeo said:

I used Mike for my comic needs a few times many years ago.  When I saw posts about him I was very surprised so I reached out.  This was almost a year ago and it seems as though nothing has changed.  Just figured I share our conversation.  He has since deleted his Instagram account.  

If I'm reading it right, it seems like he only had 57 orders to ship back? 40 for pressing and 17 for resto... 

Since he has no intention to do the work he was paid to do, I feel like he could pack and ship 57 orders in a weekend.  

For all his exhaustion, it's amazing he found the time, energy and money to open a store front, list people's books on eBay and apparently buy an RV. 

Edited April 29 by KCOComics

[wardevil0]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:10 AM, Sauce Dog said:

One other update: We can now 100% confirm that Hero Restoration was taking NEW restoration projects after they closed the submissions back in July (and not small jobs, we are talking about more AF15s)

 

On 4/28/2024 at 10:41 PM, A.Romeo said:

I used Mike for my comic needs a few times many years ago.  When I saw posts about him I was very surprised so I reached out.  This was almost a year ago and it seems as though nothing has changed.  Just figured I share our conversation.  He has since deleted his Instagram account.  

 

Reminder: even after this tirade about hecklers and back-stabbers driving him to go flip burgers, he was apparently still accepting new submissions for work...

[Neo "The One"]

On 4/29/2024 at 6:10 AM, KCOComics said:

If I'm reading it right, it seems like he only had 57 orders to ship back? 40 for pressing and 17 for resto... 

Since he has no intention to do the work he was paid to do, I feel like he could pack and ship 57 orders in a weekend.  

For all his exhaustion, it's amazing he found the time, energy and money to open a store front, list people's books on eBay and apparently buy an RV. 

Not only that, but I vaguely recall when he filed for bankruptcy didn't he say he had like 0 books (I mean a very low number)?!  I think he's again incriminating himself - basically lying either in the bankruptcy filing or to A.Romeo and everyone else.

[jimjum12]

On 4/29/2024 at 12:23 PM, Neo "The One" said:

- basically lying either in the bankruptcy filing or to A.Romeo and everyone else.

Lying does seem to be part of  the M.O. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[KCOComics]

On 4/29/2024 at 12:36 PM, jimjum12 said:

Lying does seem to be part of  the M.O. GOD BLESS ... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Lying, having 0 accountability and taking 0 responsibility. 

 

[thehumantorch]

On 4/28/2024 at 8:41 PM, A.Romeo said:

I used Mike for my comic needs a few times many years ago.  When I saw posts about him I was very surprised so I reached out.  This was almost a year ago and it seems as though nothing has changed.  Just figured I share our conversation.  He has since deleted his Instagram account.  

Thanks for this.  So frustrating to see him blame everyone else. 

Mike failed his customers.  He failed to deliver the service he promised in a reasonable time.  He spent all the customer's money before providing services.  He failed to safeguard is customers books.  It's just 100% failure on his part.  His customers have every reason to be upset and worried and the 90% of us who never sent books to Mike aren't attacking him because we're nasty, we just feel awful for the poor guys who trusted this POS.

[Pat Thomas]

I used Mike's services for my Avengers 1 and ASM 1 close to a decade ago due to multiple references from others who had first-hand experience with him. After looking over his work on his website and talking to Mike about the process, I sent him the books with a deposit that was supposed to go toward the final bill. At the time he said he had at least a 6-month lead time before he could even begin on the first book, and that the whole process would take about a year. Payment in full got my Avengers 1 in line, and I left him alone for over a year before deciding to check in. I found out then that he was a year behind, but my book would be up soon. Every 3 months I checked status for about a year until it was finally ready to ship back to me. He still had my ASM1 and I considered asking for him to send it back, but I figured I might as well wait another two years to end up with an ASM1 I was happy with (It was in so much worse shape than #2-forward in my collection and really bothered me). But my experience this time was much worse. I had a lot of going on in my life and didn't really think about my comic most of the time, so I went a year without checking on it. When I did, Mike said he was behind and wouldn't give me a lead time anymore, so I would check on it periodically. This went on for 3 years, but I finally got an email that it was ready. I had him send it to a CGC Stan Lee signing (one of the last ones he did) before it eventually came back to me. It had been in his possession for over 5 years, but I guess I'm lucky I got it back at all. I think it was already starting to come apart back then and he was still trying to do right by people.

[DC#]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:07 PM, Pat Thomas said:

I used Mike's services for my Avengers 1 and ASM 1 close to a decade ago due to multiple references from others who had first-hand experience with him. After looking over his work on his website and talking to Mike about the process, I sent him the books with a deposit that was supposed to go toward the final bill. At the time he said he had at least a 6-month lead time before he could even begin on the first book, and that the whole process would take about a year. Payment in full got my Avengers 1 in line, and I left him alone for over a year before deciding to check in. I found out then that he was a year behind, but my book would be up soon. Every 3 months I checked status for about a year until it was finally ready to ship back to me. He still had my ASM1 and I considered asking for him to send it back, but I figured I might as well wait another two years to end up with an ASM1 I was happy with (It was in so much worse shape than #2-forward in my collection and really bothered me). But my experience this time was much worse. I had a lot of going on in my life and didn't really think about my comic most of the time, so I went a year without checking on it. When I did, Mike said he was behind and wouldn't give me a lead time anymore, so I would check on it periodically. This went on for 3 years, but I finally got an email that it was ready. I had him send it to a CGC Stan Lee signing (one of the last ones he did) before it eventually came back to me. It had been in his possession for over 5 years, but I guess I'm lucky I got it back at all. I think it was already starting to come apart back then and he was still trying to do right by people.

I don't know how he could have ever accurately priced out his costs like this - dozens if not hundreds of books in various states over the course of months and years.   He could have been losing money on each and every book from the start

[Neo "The One"]

On 4/30/2024 at 9:04 AM, DC# said:

I don't know how he could have ever accurately priced out his costs like this - dozens if not hundreds of books in various states over the course of months and years.   He could have been losing money on each and every book from the start

I mean, ok.  He could have ben losing money - and that is understandable - but honestly he should have just returned the books.  It seems he was a small operation (I hesitate to say 1 man since he had the NJ location) that got in way over his head.  That is understandable.  What is not ok is stealing - which is what this all boils down to.

[DC#]

On 4/30/2024 at 6:53 AM, Neo "The One" said:

I mean, ok.  He could have ben losing money - and that is understandable - but honestly he should have just returned the books.  It seems he was a small operation (I hesitate to say 1 man since he had the NJ location) that got in way over his head.  That is understandable.  What is not ok is stealing - which is what this all boils down to.

Absolutely - my comments were not about letting him off the hook in any way.    More questioning if he ever had the business acumen to make this business work in the first place.    And creating necessary cash flow for such long-duration activities through advance payments can quickly turn into a sort of Ponzi scheme if you aren't actually making any money on completed items.    The next person's advance covering the losses for prior work.  

[Neo "The One"]

On 4/30/2024 at 10:29 AM, DC# said:

Absolutely - my comments were not about letting him off the hook in any way.    More questioning if he ever had the business acumen to make this business work in the first place.    And creating necessary cash flow for such long-duration activities through advance payments can quickly turn into a sort of Ponzi scheme if you aren't actually making any money on completed items.    The next person's advance covering the losses for prior work.  

Man - Ponzi scheme is the best way to sum up this whole mess!  

[Neo "The One"]

Not sure applicability in the States, but interesting none the less...  https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/may/08/no-refund-after-i-was-sold-a-stolen-3300-bike-on-ebay