What happened with the hulks?
They all 'know' but none of them actually know.
If they actually knew the story, they could go back to the actual selling dealer and ask him if my version was correct, but instead they're all just happy to run with rumors and smear me.
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About 8 years ago, I was walking the floor at a con and a dealer that I know well pulled me aside and said "can I show you something?"
I said "Sure."
He spread out a group of Hulk #1-6 in front of me and I asked if they were for sale. He replied, with a smile on his face, that they were.
I asked if I could look at them and he replied I could.
After looking at them, I asked if I could take them back to my hotel room and inspect them overnight. He replied I could. That's how well we knew each other.
I came back the next day, made an offer and the dealer agreed. The offer was about 10% off his ask price. He shook my hand and stated "I hope you do well with them."
The entire time this deal was going down, Al Stoltz of Basement Comix was watching. I was annoyed at the time that he was watching because I thought he was trying to scoop the deal.
It later dawned on me that when people questioned the series of events, Al was actually a witness to affirm how the story went down.
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A few weeks later, I started hearing people talking smack about me on the CGC boards.
They were saying things like "I ripped that poor dealer off" and "I cut him off on the way to CGC as he was dropping them off to graded".
I was pretty shocked as the deal was a proper handshake agreement and we both agreed to keep it private.
Even Bob Storms of Highgrade, who bought the #1 off of me and was happy to turn a massive profit on it started backstabbing me publicly, talking about the deal and accusing me of wrongdoing.
I was obviously very confused because I hadn't done anything wrong, and after some inquiring it turns out that the entire state I bought the book out of was discussing the deal.
One dealer was even walking around a show screaming out loud about the deal and making fun of the dealer who sold the books saying things like "Boy, did YOU get ripped off" in a loud voice.
The story even made it's way out of state because someone who had heard about the deal in one state worked in IT in a company that employed another boardie in a distant state. It was crazy.
What I pieced together, was that some jealous people in the state I bought the books from started talking about it and were angry that the dealer sold me the books, and it started a lot of 'broken telephone' stories. When I confronted the dealer who sold me the books, he swore up and down that he didn't tell a single soul.
Obviously, I did well on the deal, but did nothing wrong. It was just a lot of jealous people.
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I had people talking smack about me everywhere, online and off and so I spoke to a few dealers and some gave me the advice that I should offer a kickback to the selling dealer because I did so well.
Now, keep in mind that I did nothing wrong and owed the dealer NOTHING in return. I had left MUCH more money in deals on the table than this dealer, who was a grown man and a lifelong, experienced dealer and I never expected anything back from my other deals so I thought it was unfair that he was asking for money back, but I actually am a good person and wanted to make this right, even if I did nothing wrong.
When I asked the dealer what he thought was fair, he replied that getting back about 45% of the actual selling price would satisfy him.
So guess what I did? I gave him back nearly 45% of his selling price EXTRA to appease him.
The stories never went away and here we are, over 8 years later and the lies still get thrown around.
And to top it off, Al Stoltz of Basement Comix knows the entire story, watched the entire deal go down live, handshake and everything and everyone can ask him about it.
Finally, if ANYONE here had any credible information, they would know who the selling dealer is (WHO HAPPENS TO ALSO BE A CGC BOARDIE) and would have asked him to confirm the series of events.
Nobody ever cares to do that.
I've even openly posted this story on the CGC chat forums shortly after the deal to appease the uproar and told the selling dealer about the post.
So, can anyone dispute this series of events with any real, credible information? Because if so, all I have to do is post the name of the selling dealer and his CGC board handle and he can publicly affirm that this is how it went down.
Anybody?
yep
