Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities What's A Collector To DO???

A store I frequented that did that, might have done a little better as a result. I remember picking up some Caliber titles. I'd liked one and here were all the others to look at and try in one place.

Yeah. Information was limited pre internet. I didn't get things like Amazing Heores. I did get a UK one called Speakeasy for a while though. But mainly it was from ads in the comics themselves.


I kept a little index card with my regular buys on it, so I wouldn't miss one. It had my needed back issues on the other side, for when I went into the shops. Like you, I had it streamlined down to a short exercise each month.


I can't remember buying trades from Diamond. Now I know I'd just have got a slip of paper telling me that Paladin had bought them all. I was late into getting trades. Although there were some covers in the Mile High Comics catalogue that looked great. X-Men Days of Future Past... Strikeforce Morituri: Electric Undertow...

I guess the price *and* the shipping made it a bit daunting. My local shops would never bother to point out goodies like little statues or T-Shirts, so Diamond was good for that. And good for gifts too, and my dad is the proud owner of a Groo PVC set and a Groo Lunchbox.

So, no response in the week and a half since I sent a reply to the initial email. Today, I wrote this:

Greg,

I'm disappointed that I haven't gotten a response to my reply to your email in the week and a half since I promptly responded to yours. I understand you are busy, but I'd like to think I'd be worth a few minutes of your time. I've checked every day, several times a day, hoping you'd respond. I don't want to become a "former" customer of yours, but it's looking more and more like that will be the case. I'd like to think that you can't afford to write off a longtime customer like myself.

Again, I'm sorry for going so long between visits, but I do think I could've been warned before you took the measures you did. I don't think I've ever given you reason to think I'd never come back and buy what's been held for me.

If I need to take my business elsewhere, I will, but I'm hoping to salvage the friendship and business relationship instead.

Anyhow, the ball's in your court.

Thanks,
Anthony

Classy email, Lardy. You're giving him all the chances. Shame he hasn't taken them.

Good email. I hope he responds.

Let's hope this works. If it doesn't you've done everything you could, Paladin.

I did finally get a response this time:

Anthony,
Good morning. I have seen the e-mail sent last night (09/21). It's now Wednesday morning and New Comic Day is in full swing. I'll write another e-mail asap and we'll go from there. We'll get all this straightened out and go forward. Have a good day. - Greg

So there's hope, but I'm wondering how promptly that next email will arrive. Let's just say I've reason to be skeptical......

It's a start. Hope he follows through.

If he wants the trade, then he should get in touch. If he has no business sense / let's his failure to follow his own system / weird personal denial get in the way, he may not.

You've done what you could.

It's a silly store owner who messes with the guy controlling a giant stack of trades. A stack that could devestate cities, should even some them fall from such heights.

I know, right?

I can't watch the Monolith Monsters without replacing the creatures with giant stacks of trades, crushing their way inexorably across the countryside.

I've got a bigger issue. How do you GET RID of huge chunks of your collection that you have NO ROOM for, and have NO plans to ever, ever re-read in your lifetime?

I despierately need to get my collection re-organized again, but this time, not just to file it properly, but to decide what I'd like to hold onto... and what I'd like to get rid of.

I got a post card from some dealer about 6 months agfo saying, "We buy collections!" Sounds good, but I have months and months of difficult, time-consuming work ahead of me before I can even think of contacting the guy.

I got a response today, and it was everything I had hoped for!

Judge for yourselves.....

Good evening Anthony,
I have pulled all the books that you are subscribed to thru this weeks new releases. This is everything with nothing missing but there are a few points of note. As an example, all our copies of Money Shot #14 arrived slightly damaged in shipping. There were no replacements to be had so all subscribers got that issue for 50% off. Above is a breakdown of issues and total figuring in subscriber discount and SC sales tax. I have always appreciated your business and always thought of you not just as a customer but as a friend. I totally understand what you shared in your previous message about the stresses of life in this Covid world we are coping with. I also work too many hours and have things going on behind the scenes that keep me feeling worn out. The days go by quickly and I have been having a hard time keeping up. I should have responded sooner. I have reached the point at the store where I simply can't go forward while waiting for people to show up and buy their books. I had to make returns for more than 30 people recently. Some of them have been with me just as long as you have. All hadn't shown up in months with from $100 to as much as $600 sitting on hold. Stress for me is having THOUSANDS of dollars tied up and having to buy more new comics every single week to keep up my end of the agreement. The customers end of the agreement is that they will come by at least once a month and buy their books. I have some really great people for customers so I didn't want to put anyones stuff back on the shelf but I have obligations that I have to meet. I would very much like to go forward and continue doing business together. I have to turn the product over in a timely manner though. You can Paypal me for the above if it's not easy for you to get to the shop right now. Our Paypal is ******** (withheld for obvious reasons). I'll store them until you can come by. Going forward we can do the same. I'll be glad to send you a total at the end of October and you can Paypal me if things stay busy for you. I am glad to do mail order or even deliver to Goose Creek if needed. The main thing is to go forward together. My great hope is that better times are coming for us both. Work wise and health wise. Let me know what you think. Thank you and sorry for such a late night message. I'm working tonight trying to get caught up on things.

(the email also included a list of everything in my bag and how much they cost)

In response, I wrote:

Greg,

Thanks so much for your effort and your detailed, thoughtful response. I just sent the payment thru Paypal as you suggested. I hope I did it right. Please let me know.

No need to deliver or mail anything. I'll make a special effort to pick up this week.

Again, thanks so much. I've stressed over this after that initial email because our business and personal relationships mean a lot to me--never doubt that!

See you very soon!
Anthony

Lardy, that's excellent! I'm really happy the relationship is being repaired, his message sounded very sincere and open - really glad he's being honest with you about challenges, and he took responsibility indeed for not messaging you sooner + affirmed he wants to keep it up going forward. all in all well done, and kudos to you too for being open with him - and more importantly, fair to him.

Looks like a happy ending and a happy continuation! Glad for both of you.

Is this the appropriate place to list a "want ad" for a Legion product? If there is no such place, fair enough, just let me know. If there IS such a place (and this isn't it), I'd much appreciate a pointer to the appropriate forum.

Cheers,

--cvr--

hi Christopher, I recommend creating a new thread with a catchy title (e.g. Looking for LSH v4 Issue XX) in this forum - https://www.legionworld.net/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=11&page=1

Good luck!

Great news Lardy. So much can get lost when we can't speak face to face. Glad to see there is understanding between the two of you.

Thanks so much!

Really glad this was able to work out for you, Lardy!

It might come down to how much you think you should be making from the disposal of the comics?

If you're not remotely bothered, then you can save on the months and months, by just going through them to keep what you want, and then contact the guy.

It's a sliding scale from giving them to charity all the way up to painstaking grading and individual selling of your treasures. I'm sure I've seen services that will catalogue and grade the things for you, for a price. But that was probably back in the comics bubble of the '90s.

If I ever get round to it, I was going to look at it a series at a time. Then very, very roughly grade them as a lot and shove them on ebay for a percentage of the list price. I'm more concerned about getting shot of them, than maximising their value. The ones that aren't worth much will get given away/ sold at boot sales/ sold as a lot.





Aw, that ended well. Nice to see it all work out for you both.

When I wanted to sell a big chunk of my collection recently, I had a good, helpful experience with these guys: Sell My Comic Books. They have a fairly simple evaluation process and then, if you choose to sell to them, they provide great, detailed guidance for packing and shipping.

I also use Collectorz.com for keeping track of my collection. They have a great auto-fill feature--type in the series, find the issue in the list, and it loads all the pertinent publication information.

I finally took another stab at re-filing a huge stack of magazines today. Right in the middle of this tall magazine stack, I found 4 comic-books that been MISSING for more than 10 years.

They were mid-60s issues of X-MEN, ones by Roy Thomas where Werner Roth was inexplicably replaced by Ross Andru (who wasn't half as good). I knew I had these... now I know where they are!

Hidden treasure!