Showcase New England/Dan Greenhalgh answers questions

[divad]

Ron,

 

Are you a Huskie?

 

-David

 

nah.

 

He's NASTY!

[divad]

I gotta say it is remarkable that Dan would come on here and open himself up to all this. Perhaps he has changed some of his ways and is willing to do what it takes to earn back our trust.

 

If he is willing to take this abuse, perhaps he is enduring his purgatory and will be a better man for it. I can think of no other plausible reason.

 

Bill,

 

I agree.

[action1kid]

There is a reason for everything.

[ShowcaseNE]

Skypinkblu/Sharon

 

Your point is well taken.

 

Generally, when someone asks to return a book because of a grading mistake on our part....we refund the return shipping when asked.

 

As a matter of policy....we should probably offer a refund for return shipping without being asked.

 

We do this automatically when CGC grading is involved....but it makes sense to extend this policy when things like pages are missing...or some other major grading error occurs.

[testinadical-migration]

Dan, I've also read a story that you went into Buried Under Comics in Connecticut and asked the person working there to write you out a receipt for an X-Men # 1 you had bought the year before. I forget what they said the exact price was, but I believe it was several thousand dollars. And you also asked them to back-date the receipt for a year before that day you were in the store. Comments?

[action1kid]

Hey, Thats why its a 5 STAR thread.

[ShowcaseNE]

Action1kid:

 

Most of the copies I have had....and I have only had 6 or 7 that I can remember...have been restored.

 

The nicest copy I have ever seen was the copy sold to a well known collector on the west coast who purchased it in a Sotheby's auction...circa 1994/5. That copy was an unrestored VF....but I remember it looking nicer than that.

 

I have had two low grade, unrestored copies.....the better one I bought at Sotheby's as an unrestored VG/VG-.

 

It turned out that the book had a missing page.

 

What was ironic about that was that I was on the grading committee at the time and I graded the book......along with 6 other members and the curator, all of whom missed the defect.

 

I ended up losing 20K or so on the book...not one of my better moments.

 

As an anecdote: back in 1995, I was sitting with Steve Geppi, John Snyder, Bob Overstreet, Steven Fishler and Rob Rogovin...together we counted all of the copies of Action 1 that we knew about, and came up with around 35 or so. Since few, if any of these books was sold without the knowledge of one us for the prior decade or so....we thought our caculation of just how many copies there really were was accurate. Since then...only 3 or 4 new copies have been discovered...and assuming that there are still some out there that none of us knew about.....we estimated the total number to exist at between 45 and 50.....of which 70% or so are restored. For what it is worth.....

[ShowcaseNE]

Testinadical

 

Mostly True:

 

This was circa 1991/1992/1993 when I first incorporated as a business.

 

My accountant wanted documentation and receipts for my purchases during the prior year.

 

The two books I remember from that episode was a very nice Phantom Lady 17, and a high Grade ASM 2. There may have been an X-men 1 involved...but it wasn't high grade that I can remember.

 

To be clear...I asked then to backdate the receipt to the approximate date of purchase since it was a cash transaction. I asked them for the receipt at least a year or so after the purchase....I asked for receipts from others whom I purchased comics from as well.

 

 

[innocuous]

This has been a good read. I have avoided SNE due to the neg feedback, not the number, but the tone...as described above.

 

My suggestion, just state the facts from now on. The biting tone left me with the perception that I would never want to have to confront you with returning a book. Result, I never tried to buy.

[tth2]

It's even tougher than Hulk #1, and I never thought that was the case. Doug's 9.6 is truly something special.

No way is FF #1 tougher to find in NM than Hulk #1!

[Flaming_Telepath]

It's even tougher than Hulk #1, and I never thought that was the case. Doug's 9.6 is truly something special.

No way is FF #1 tougher to find in NM than Hulk #1!

 

Going with Timmie-Boy on this one.

[Dad&Son-migration]

It's even tougher than Hulk #1, and I never thought that was the case. Doug's 9.6 is truly something special.

No way is FF #1 tougher to find in NM than Hulk #1!

 

Going with Timmie-Boy on this one.

 

I split the logic between Dan & Tim...

 

Here's the numbers:(taken from CGC census today)

 

FF#1 - 590 total graded copies ( unrestored and restored )

# of copies in 9.2 and up = 11 ( 6 unrestored and 5 restored)

percentage that book grades NM- or better to date= 1.86%

 

Incredible Hulk #1 - 433 graded copies ( unrestored and restored )

# of copies in 9.2 and up = 9 ( 4 unrestored and 5 restored )

percentage that book grades NM- or better to date = 2.07%

 

Conclusion... I can't buy either

 

Tim is correct on # of books being less but the odds of finding a NM- or better copy are slighter in favour of finding Hulk #1 in NM- or better then FF #1 so Dan is right too....

talk about knit-picking it...

[r100comics]

It's even tougher than Hulk #1, and I never thought that was the case. Doug's 9.6 is truly something special.

No way is FF #1 tougher to find in NM than Hulk #1!

 

Tim, for the purposes of this discussion let's agree that high grade unrestored = anything over 8.5, and let's agree that the census is an accurate snapshot of what's out there.

 

Following this criteria, there are only 7 high grade unrestored FF #1's out of 590 copies submitted (i.e. copies at 9.0 or better) , and there are 10 Hulk #1's out of 433 submitted. (at 9.0 or better)

 

Hulk #1 has historically always been regarded as tougher than FF #1 in high grade, but the census currently says otherwise.

[ShowcaseNE]

RE: Showcase-4

RE: House of Comics

 

Currently we retail pretty much just on Ebay. We don't have any particular concentration....although it seems that most of our auctions are for Marvels. Our auctions have pretty much included all genres at one time or another.

 

I embraced the Ebay model as our primary venue to sell books about 4/5 years ago.

 

There were a lot of reasons that selling on Ebay as our primary outlet made sense, but there were two big reasons for the change. First. I have two children and I like spending as much time as I can with them. Second, We found that we sell items in our inventory for more money on Ebay, than through our catalogs.

 

Because our sales results on Ebay were greater than prices achieved through catalogs...it made publishing catalogs obsolete for us.

 

A brief history:

 

I started out as a retailer by doing small shows in the late 1980's/early 1990's to supplement my comic habit...which at that time was just hobby.

 

I have my MBA in accounting from the University of Connecticut, and I worked fulltime as a public accountant when I started doing small, local shows.

 

Local shows turned into regional shows, and then to national shows by 1994.

 

I left public accounting in 1991 to become a comic book dealer.

 

Additionally, I owned 5 stores during the early 1990's....all of which were sold (most in 1993) so that I could concentrate on the high-end, back issue market.

 

1995 through 2000 are the years through which most collectors are familiar with Showcase New England and me.

 

This was, in retrospect an amazing period of time when I was fortunate enough to have some of the most incredible material ever to go through my hands and my company.

 

The most notable part of Showcase History occurred during this period of time; starting with the Winnipeg collection in December 1996, The Golden State collection in the fall of 1997, two other large collections in the summer of 1997...each with values of over one million each, and ending with a massive (the largest and most valuable collection I ever purchased) multiple golden age key, and silver age key collection in the March of 1998 in Florida.

 

In retrospect...these 5 collections were the 5 largest and most valuable that I have ever purchased, and they all happened over a very small period of time.

 

We are a much smaller company today. I don't go out of my way to buy the large books, nor are many offered to me...but I am always interested in buying nice runs of books and nice collections. We still get our share of really nice books, runs and collections...but not the high profile books for which we were known for in the 1990's.

 

The big reason for this is because most of these types of books are not offered to dealers any longer. Instead....they are offered to auctions houses like Heritage, or to consignment format businesses like Comiclink.

 

Anecdote: Few people know about this story and my involvement in the Twilight Collection.

 

During this period of time in Showcase's history (1995 if I remember correctly), I worked closely with Steven Fishler and Robert Rogovin on a number of deals. Each of us knew about the Twilight Collection and agreed to try and buy it together, and split it.

 

On behalf of the three of us, I looked at the Twilight collection...and knew right away that we wanted to buy it because it had such special books.

 

We so desperately wanted this collection that the three of us devised a plan to get in a back up offer if our first offer failed....a plan B so to say. Bidding was sealed and bids were to be opened by the seller at a certain time on a certain day.

 

At the deadline time,I got the seller to agree to accept my bid over the phone after he opened the other offers....he confided with me that it was second best, and a little short. He would not take another offer from me at the time...so I told the seller that Steven Fishler and Robert Rogovin wanted to make an offer (which obviously caught him off guard as neither one of them had ever seen the books).

 

I called Steve and Rob...as they were both waiting to see how this would work out....we all talked for a few minutes and came up with another offer....somewhere in the neighborhood of $275,000.....

 

Steve/Rob (I do not remember which one) then called the seller and made our second offer....which the buyer accepted. I learned later that the underbidder was Joe Vereneault

 

The following weekend I was doing a show in New York City, Rob came by my booth and I gave him the 90K or so that was my third in cash. Steve and Rob then flew to Syracuse to pick up the books from the seller (Twilight Books...a comic store....where the collection's name comes from).

 

When they got back, we met in Rob's office where we split the collection up. The way we split the collection up is also interesting...rather than choose books....we put small lots together of equivalent value....and then drew cards to see who would get what books. The splitting up of the collection was entirely random...none of us knew what we were getting until the cards were drawn.

 

A side note to this story....the Tuesday following the breakup of the collection I learned that I had bounced a check for $3000. This was the only check my company ever had returned for insufficient funds in it's history, through the moment I am now writing. Who was the check to? Metropolis.

[tth2]

The worst experience I had with restoration was with an X-men #1 that I sold to collector Tim Hui. I sold it as an unrestored 9.4. After having had it for many years. Tim eventually sent it to CGC...long story short....it came back as a 9.4 with minor, professional restoration.

What a coincidence, that was my worst experience with restoration too! Particularly because the restoration was cleaning and pressing (the chemical type) and therefore couldn't be reversed. But I did, and still do, believe you when you said you honestly had no idea.

 

When I sold him the book...it was worth around $6000 (I'm guessing a little as I don't remember)...when he submitted it to CGC...it should have been worth $40,000.....so what to do????? We worked out a solution that did not work out very well at time for Tim (sorry Tim.....wish we could do it over). he got most of his money back...but lost out on the books potential for appreciation.

Needless to say I was very unhappy when I got the book back from CGC, because I was already planning how to spend my windfall on (at the time) cheap SA DCs, but in all fairness to Dan the resto was discovered about 4 years after I purchased the book and he still gave me my money back (after some arm-twisting).

[HouseofComics.Com]

Excellent post--very interesting. Thanks for taking the time.

[Silver]

Wow, what a great read! I wish more dealers would do something like this. While not a regular SNE customer I have bought stuff from them on eBay as well as at the San Diego Con back when they used to be there. I never had a problem with them. One thing I noticed is that they get pretty good prices for their eBay stuff. It takes awhile to build a reputation there but once you do, it pays off. John Hauser, SNE, loisandclark etc, have made a good name for themselves and proser from it. People who don't treat people right don't last on eBay.

 

You have to be doing pretty well to get the kind of prices they do for no reserve auctions. Due to SNE's reputation, I have had to bid more aggressively than I might have wanted to win some books, but I was always satisfied with the books and service.

[adams]

How long is too long before returning a book that is later found out to be restored?

[herc2000]

Hi Dan, hope you and Cindy are both well? Welcome to the boards! I have nothing but good things to say about Showcase in my experiences. You can return the comics at any time if you are unhappy with them, do all ebay sellers offer this?

 

I got a lot of low grade FF's from Dan, a few years back, the 33 was missing, was no big deal as it was only mean't to be in the VG range, I phoned to pay for my current wins, a high grade run of War is hell (cost me about $80). I was having a chat with Dan as we used to do, and just mentioned oh the FF 33 was missing in my last lot, not thinking anything of it. Dan said sorry about that, I said oh no probs was not really important or expensive. Dan then said "don't pay me for these I will send these out to you for free", I said, "you don't have to do that". He insisted!

 

If you treat people nice, people will be nice back, you can't expect to be rude in your attitude and then expect to be treated nicely back, whether you are right or wrong in the situation! 10/10 for showcase, so your book has a colour touch? Send it back, it says you can.

 

I could tell you good and bad experiences from most dealers US and UK, whether it personaly or from someone elses experience, a lot of dealers think they are better than what they really are, especially those in the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Glad to have you on the boards Dan, your a great addition

 

herc

[Flaming_Telepath]

Hi Dan, hope you and Cindy are both well? Welcome to the boards! I have nothing but good things to say about Showcase in my experiences. You can return the comics at any time if you are unhappy with them, do all ebay sellers offer this?

 

I got a lot of low grade FF's from Dan, a few years back, the 33 was missing, was no big deal as it was only mean't to be in the VG range, I phoned to pay for my current wins, a high grade run of War is hell (cost me about $80). I was having a chat with Dan as we used to do, and just mentioned oh the FF 33 was missing in my last lot, not thinking anything of it. Dan said sorry about that, I said oh no probs was not really important or expensive. Dan then said "don't pay me for these I will send these out to you for free", I said, "you don't have to do that". He insisted!

 

If you treat people nice, people will be nice back, you can't expect to be rude in your attitude and then expect to be treated nicely back, whether you are right or wrong in the situation! 10/10 for showcase, so your book has a colour touch? Send it back, it says you can.

 

I could tell you good and bad experiences from most dealers US and UK, whether it personaly or from someone elses experience, a lot of dealers think they are better than what they really are, especially those in the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Glad to have you on the boards Dan, your a great addition

 

herc

 

Lance, when was I rude to Cindy or Dan?

 

Where did you get the impression that I had a problem with only one book (rather than four consecutive purchases, which it was)?

 

Nice story of yours, though. Glad to hear Dan made things more than better for you. Not sure it makes up for the thousands and thousands of dollars that Tim Hui lost, but....

 

Oh, and is there anyone in particular you were thinking about when you said 'a lot of dealers think they are better than what they really are, especially those in the UK'?

 

I'm obviously discounting myself, as in my dealing days, you never bought a single book from me, so who?