Showcase New England/Dan Greenhalgh answers questions

[ShowcaseNE]

RE Lou_Fine

 

I will be the first to admit that often times, value as it relates to scarcity and demand mystifies me.

 

I remember on one occasion that I was a sitting on the Grading Committee (7 of us) at Sotheby's and a VF copy of Captain America came in for consignment. The books cover, however, had a color defect....it was missing one of the color dyes...so the front cover looked very strange...yellow and blue instead of red and blue.

 

The consignor set a reserve price on the book of 45K (I think)...at a time when this book in this grade sold for around 20 or so.

 

The committee discussed the book, and it's place in the hobby in detail. Everyone was in agreement that the book was significantly overvalued. The general thought was, who would buy this book at 45 when a nice copy without any defects sold for 20. As a collector making rational judgments about this book....would you choose the defected copy for 20, or the defect free copy for 20?

 

All of us agreed that we would buy the defect free copy in a situation where they both had the same price.

 

I find myself making these kind of value comparisons all of the time.

 

Would I rather own a VG Cap 1 for $10,000, or any non mainstream golden age book worth the same price?....for example...Terrific 5. (great book....but most collectors will take the Cap 1). I'll take the Cap 1.

 

Would I rather own an ASM 1 in VG for $2000, or the latest CGC 9.9, with a zillion 9/8's and 9.6's for 2000. I'll take the Spidy 1

 

Would I rather own a spidy 1 in NM 9.4 (100K or so)....or a nicely restored Action 1 for 40 or 50K. All things being equal...I'll take the Action 1. (although for valuation purposes..... I would take the Spidy)

 

Free markets have self correcting mechanisms built into them...I do think the markets will catch up with the common books (hulk 181, X-men 94, GS X-men 1....and an endless list of others )that are CGC graded...and punish many who are buying 9.8's and 9.9's in the last 25 years.

 

When it gets right down to it...the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9 is usually a function of what side of the bed some one got up on that morning....in my opinion anyway.

 

These books will tend to lose value as more snd, new hot things hit the market.

 

You see similar parallels in coins and cards all the time......history shows that the hard, high demand material that is difficult to find will whether the test of time.....and that the newer stuff tends to leave a lot of crashes in it's wake.

[ShowcaseNE]

Towards 2112....

 

We have been having some server problems this weekend...thanks

[ShowcaseNE]

testinadical:

 

I think we all mature and mellow as we older...hopefully we get smarter and wiser along the way.

[ShowcaseNE]

Showcasene:

 

I'll respond to some of the other questions later on.

[showcase4]

Dan,

a more 'light hearted' question for you as long time established dealer......CGC was biggest the change to the hobby within the past decade ( I would say undisbutably)...what do you forsee or predict as the next BIG change for the hobby, and when do you think it will happen? ( and thanks for addressing my prior questions and concerns )

 

Steve

[ShoNuff-migration]

RE: aman619

 

Jgreen was and is for real. I actually met him... a very nice, well intentioned collector who, as many know, was taken advantage of by several ill-willed collectors who tried to bid him up.

 

He never complained about what happened, and he was willing to pony up and pay the final winning bid prices, which as you know, were insane in some cases.

 

In the end though....Jgreen got the last laugh as he got all of those exceptionally high grade books for about 1/3 of his final bid price.

 

In the spirit of fair play....I took over 60% off of his final winning prices, gave him for free all of the lots won by other shill bidders (and weren't paid for), and gave him the remainder of the collection that we did not post for free.

 

These books were part of a collection, that in hindsight, both Steve Borock and I thought should be pedigreed, as they were that high grade.... the collection was complete with every Marvel and DC ever published, in entirety, from 1960 through the year 2004.

 

All and all...he made out like a bandit...but I was glad to do it because, as I said,

he was a well intentioned collector....and if ever anyone I have dealt with needed a break because of what I considered to be outright maliciousness....he did.

 

I did the same thing. Jgreen won one of my auctions for a mid grade copy of Spawn #1 in which the underbidder was a low feedback eBayer that bumped up his winning bid.

 

So,in the spirit of fair play, I gave him for free an 8.0 unrestored copy of Action #1...a CGC 7.0 copy of Dectective #27...a complete high grade run of Golden Age Superman comics from #1 - #90...the entire original artwork to Fantastic Four #1...a CGC 9.6 copy of Amazing Fantasy #15...plus, I let him have sex with my wife.

 

Oh...I also gave him a 60 percent discount on the Spawn comic. He insisted on paying full price for it, but I wouldn't hear of it because he was such a well intentioned collector.

 

 

 

 

[silverweb]

About Feedback...this is not a scripted response.....and I don't expect everyone to agree with me......but here it is just the same.

 

First...it is a little unfair to point out the very few negative comments we have without mentioning the 32,000 plus positives.

 

I understand that the nature of criticism is to point out just the negatives....But I think pointing out the whole picture is more in line with fairplay.

 

Our policy is that we always leave positive feedback whenever it is left for us.

 

I have left some nasty feedback in the past....In my opinion, however, in most cases it was warranted.

 

First...anyone who is really familiar with us knows that we will always try and make things right given the chance. ALWAYS!!!!!

 

If you are not happy with a purchase...you can always return it for a full refund....no questions asked. Or you can email us...or call us. We are not that difficult to get in touch with.

 

The feedback situation, however, begs the question...if we always try and do the right thing....and try to make things right....regardless of circumstance, then when is negative feedback for us ever warranted????

 

I wish some of you were in my shoes sometimes.....you would get mad too.

 

And that might be they key here...I do get mad and sometimes I take the negative feedback a little too personally. I am not perfect...and I freely admit it.

 

Negative feedback does hurt companies like ours in open forums....I personally think it is a mistake to let it go unabated.

 

Here are some of the situations I have run into...you decide.

 

One of the last bidders who left me 5 negative feedbacks did so because I would not take paypal from him, for a large, International purchase. It was new account...and it was unverified.

 

This outraged him and he said a number of things in his feedback posts that were untrue.

 

The bidder before that who left negative f/b did so because he got his book 7 days after he paid, during Christmas.

 

A couple of years ago...with the prodding and manipulating of some of the people whom are active on this thread...got a novice buyer to leave libelous feedback on our site which prompted me to just hand it over to our attorneys.

 

He thought a few of his 20 books had restoration and trimming. It turned out that he simply, like many collectors, lacked sufficient competence to make these determinations by himself.

 

We sent all of the books he had questions about to CGC....and they all came back in the grades advertised and unrestored. In the spirit of good will...I let him keep all of the books and refunded his money as well.

 

With the help and prodding of some of you on this board...he tried hurt my company.

 

If I am not willing to protect the reputation of my company...than who will???

 

The bottom line is this....few, if any of you, have ever had a first hand experience with me and my company that ended in a situation that couldn't be resolved amicably. There has been, however, a number of comments posted on these sites...and spread through the years which would lead some of you not in the know to think otherwise. Many of the claims made about our comapnay on this site have been pure fabrications.

 

Anyone who feels otherwise is free to post their personal experiences in this forum for everyone to see and for me to respond to (other than Jim Greenspan who is going to give his best effort to build a case which, will be addressed, if and when he is able to do so).

 

To get back to the point.....I am not one for beating around the bush......some of the people I have had to deal with have been fundamentally dishonest, and they have been just moronic in their behavior....Maybe I should keep these comments to myself, and, maybe this doesn't explain all my comments....I just get so mad because everything can be worked out with us whenever we are given the chance.

 

All,

I think that Dan is a fine Ebay seller who gets the prices and following because he has EARNED IT through his grading and return policies. I have personally purchased several lots from SNE and when I had a problem, he took care of it in a very professional and gentlemanly manner. How can you dispute a full refund? I think that if he wants to leave a few negative feedbacks for those fools that deserve it, I commend him. And anyone who is willing to come to this forum and take on criticism is well above the norm.

 

James (Daniel622)

 

[cd4ever]

Could you imagine if Chuck R. came on here to answer questions?

It'd probably crash the servers.

[CKB]

When it gets right down to it...the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9 is usually a function of what side of the bed some one got up on that morning....in my opinion anyway.

 

Dan,

 

While it is easy to think this, the actual numbers to not bear this opinion out. The statistics show that the differences between 9.8, 9.9, and 10 have more behind them than just whim. Valiantman, who keeps all these statistics up to date, can chime in with the latest numbers.

 

To be fair, if you revised that to the difference between 9.6 and 9.8...it is a much easier argument to make.

[chromium]

Could you imagine if Chuck R. came on here to answer questions?

It'd probably crash the servers.

 

But boy would we learn a lot about pottery and organic gardening

[buttock]

Dan, how do you pronounce your last name?

[ciorac]

Dan, how do you pronounce your last name?

 

He always told me it was pronounced:

 

green-alch

 

some say

 

green-hog

 

But I will go with his pronunciation

[buttock]

Dan, how do you pronounce your last name?

 

He always told me it was pronounced:

 

green-alch

 

some say

 

green-hog

 

But I will go with his pronunciation

 

Bill, how do you pronounce your first name?

[ciorac]

Dan, how do you pronounce your last name?

 

He always told me it was pronounced:

 

green-alch

 

some say

 

green-hog

 

But I will go with his pronunciation

 

Bill, how do you pronounce your first name?

 

William

[arexcrooke]

Dan, how do you pronounce your last name?

 

He always told me it was pronounced:

 

green-alch

 

some say

 

green-hog

 

But I will go with his pronunciation

 

Bill, how do you pronounce your first name?

 

William

[ComicSupply]

I know that this has been brought up before but I have to ask.

 

What are the intentions of all of this? You obviously know/knew that people had said bad things about you and from what I can read they are all mostly true.

 

So, what is the motivation for coming on here and letting it all out? The people who have had bad deals with you know the truth and certainly I trust empirical evidence from a buyer more so than the ramblings of a dealer.

 

Most of what you say is from years past and it seems that everyone that has had a beef with you is looking at the water under the bridge.

 

So in the end, what is all this about and what are your intentions with all this? Is this a marketing scheme leading up to you unveiling a huge pedigree? Did you come to some realization that perhaps all the bad that you have done will somehow count against you?

 

I am not picking a fight, I just want to know what motivates you.

[ShoNuff-migration]

I am not picking a fight, I just want to know what motivates you.

$

[Ogami]

Free markets have self correcting mechanisms built into them...I do think the markets will catch up with the common books (hulk 181, X-men 94, GS X-men 1....and an endless list of others )that are CGC graded...and punish many who are buying 9.8's and 9.9's in the last 25 years.

 

When it gets right down to it...the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9 is usually a function of what side of the bed some one got up on that morning....in my opinion anyway.

 

These books will tend to lose value as more snd, new hot things hit the market.

 

You see similar parallels in coins and cards all the time......history shows that the hard, high demand material that is difficult to find will whether the test of time.....and that the newer stuff tends to leave a lot of crashes in it's wake.

 

I agree with this sentiment one thousand percent. And you said it much better than I could (without coming accross as a JC shill).

[Captain Tripps]

Dan,

 

Didn't realize that I was your biggest customer over the years but, looking back, I sure did buy THOUSANDS of books from you and NEVER had a complaint. I can honestly say that there was only one mishap (I think it was over the Avengers 1) but that book still got a 9.4 and a blue label anyway! You were always honest and fair with me and I can not say that about every other dealer out there.

 

Glad you came onto the boards. It's nice to have one of the "old time" dealers aboard to share his thoughts and answer questions, etc. I have nothing but very fond memories driving up to your store (was in Wallingford) and then a few times to your house to buy books. Driving back from your store with boxes and boxes of raw gems (Winnipegs, Bloomfields, etc.) was a great trip home. I don't think we once ever had a disagreement or argument (accept when you would use your butt to back me down to make layups while I was always using my outside shot).

 

Of course, my fondest memory is that of December 7, 1995, when I drove to your store just in time to see the 3 "Texas" Fantastic Fours delivered (UPS??). Those 3 books (#1, #2 & #5) blew my mind and I was mesmerized. You sold me the #5 right on the spot at a fair price and gave me time to pay it off. I was on pins and needles taht whole day and night waiting to find out if Tom B. was going to take the Texas #1 or keep his copy. You even gave me your home phone to call you the next nite as you were overnighting him the 2 books (he kept the #2 of course and its a 9.4). I can't begin to express my joy the next night when you told me he had decided to keep his copy and send you back the Texas #1.

 

I still can't thank you enough for the opportunity to buy that book and for the time payments you gave me (15k down and the remaining 12k over a month or two). That was the best buying experience of my comic book life and it probably was fate that I showed up that morning when the UPS truck pulled in. I since sold the FF 5 (got a 9.2) and bought the White Mountain copy but obviously still have that FF 1 and am grateful to you for living up to your word and giving me first shot to buy it after Brulato balked.

 

So, welcome to the boards, Dan. If you get any more books from this Texas guy just let me know!!

 

Doug

[whomerjay]

When it gets right down to it...the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9 is usually a function of what side of the bed some one got up on that morning....in my opinion anyway.

 

Dan,

 

While it is easy to think this, the actual numbers to not bear this opinion out. The statistics show that the differences between 9.8, 9.9, and 10 have more behind them than just whim. Valiantman, who keeps all these statistics up to date, can chime in with the latest numbers.

 

To be fair, if you revised that to the difference between 9.6 and 9.8...it is a much easier argument to make.

 

what statistics could you be possibly referring to that would argue against his statement? Did some one crack out 100's of 9.8's and 9.9's and have them regraded by an impartial expert 3rd party? I would agree that it is probable that the average 9.9 is better than the average 9.8, but I would bet there are a bunch of 9.8's out there that are at least as good as many 9.9 (or 10.0's) out there.