bugsy
04-19-2008, 09:34 PM
First of all my apologies for taking so long to answer the questions ive been asked. I hadn’t forgotten its just that ive been extremely busy as ive had a lot to do around the house and ive also spent some time in hospital. I also know from the e-mails ive been getting that a lot of you are sick to death of Comic-Keys/Aceventura but I just want to finally have my say on this crook. So I will answer the questions ive been asked and then move on. I would like to say here and now that I stopped reading Aceventura’s post after the complete waste of time I had reading the one he posted a few months ago providing me with stupid links to other comics. I don’t know what he said about me after that and I honestly don’t care. Also I am not here to talk to him. I will have an OPEN and HONEST discussion with ANYONE as long as they are the same but he has clearly adopted a policy of ‘admit nothing and deny everything’ so engaging in dialogue is futile. Something however that I have found extremely puzzling is why someone who once made this statement :-
At least I have a reason to be sleeping 2 hours per day being on 24-hour call most of the time I'm working,
I don’t know if its occurred to comic-keys but if he spent less time posting on all the boardshe has ever joined, and believe me he is responsible for some of the longest posts ever on a board, and stopped editing his posts with frequent regularity he could use all that time to get some more sleep. Just thought I would point this out to you comic-keys. Right i have been promising this for a while now….the Q & A thread regarding seller Comic-Keys. Some of these questions were asked more than once so here we go:-
Q1. Did your brother receive a full refund?
A1. Nope. . Obviously my brother was shocked and extremely upset at having found out that ALL the books were RESTORED. My brother asked for £46,200 but has only received £37,865I showed him the e-mail comic-keys sent me, part of which forms my signature line, and according to comic-keys he has a right to ask for full unrestored value. I asked him several times to put the e-mail up for you all to read but he wouldn’t because he knew what a liar it would make him.
Here is the full version:-
T,
Whether it's 3 minutes, 3 years, or 30 years, the dealer SHOULD make good on the books represented to you as unrestored id it was clearly made understood to you by him that the books you were buying WERE to be unrestored copies. I have NO idea what the legal ramifications are of this, but I do know that you should have a strong case against him if what I said above is so. I don't have any idea on how to proceed BUT I would imagine that CGC's opinion, if push came to shove, because of the evasive wording on the back of the label, "a good faith effort is made to detect restoration, but CGC does NOT warrant the process or results". What are they really saying here? "Don't blame us if we're wrong because we could be"? That's the way HIS lawyer would interpret it, in playing Devil's Advocate here. Get ANOTHER opinion. Contact Tracey Hoeft at Eclipse Paper Restoration. Let HIM examine the books for restoration, and let him save the CGC holders and reports of restoration, at least that way you have BACKUP expert opinion. THAT may be enough to warrant a legal case if he won't make good, which he should! And you don't JUST want your money back! YOU WANT what those books should have been worth now IF you had gotten what you paid for, or THOUGHT you were getting what you paid for! You have a RIGHT to that. You paid your money at a time when the market was more speculative and guessed right. You have every right to expect a return on your investment and NOW because the books are faulty, you have nothing and no profit. NO GOOD! He has ALOT of making up to do and should do the right thing or you SHOULD see a lawyer!!! Which dealer? I WILL keep it between you and I if you tell me, I can assure of that. My word is GOLD! I only ask because if I know who, I may be able to suggest more avenues to explore to spur him into making good should you encounter a problem. Time, in this case, is NOT a factor. It's not a question of you buying a piece and the grade is off. In THAT case it's YOUR error you must now live with. THIS is a case where the item was faulty, now HE must make good and live with it as this was HIS error or deception. -Richard (I'm here if you need help).
My brother therefore thought he would start by asking for the full unrestored value of the Amazing Fantasy #15 and then move onto the other RESTORED books. However it soon became apparent that comic-keys had no intention of paying the full unrestored value of the comic(thus proving what a complete hypocrite he is) and therefore there was no point in asking for the full unrestored value of the other RESTORED comics. Comic-Keys was more hell bent on sending him a replacement copy but I advised my brother against it because Andrew Knight had received a restored Avengers #1 and when he sent it back for a replacement Comic-Keys sent him another RESTORED copy, but please don’t just take my word for it. You can read it for yourself here along with the other collectors who posted their experiences here:-
http://www.justafanboy.com/ComicKeys/testimonials.htm (http://www.justafanboy.com/ComicKeys/testimonials.htm)
Now you would think that out of GENUINE shock and embarrassment you would make 110% sure that the next copy you send would be unrestored. You might even send it away to Heft, Nelson, Ciccone or 1 of the other professional restorers just to make sure that it IS unrestored, but not Comic-Keys, he ended up sending Andrew Knight ANOTHER RESTORED copy of Avengers #1. I therefore told my brother it would be better to just ask for his money back. My brother worked out that he paid £46,200 for the comics and that’s what he asked for BEFORE returning the books. I had already explained to comic-keys months before that banks have a buy and sell price so if £46,200 = $72,000 then when converted back $72,000 would NOT equal £46,200. My brother was actually hoping that Comic-Keys would be making out a money order for the amount £46,200 but comic-keys decided he wanted to pay in Dollars which was fine as long as the Dollar amount when converted back into Sterling equalled £46,200. However when Comic-Keys finally stopped paying my brother the money when converted back to Sterling only amounted to £37,600 which means there is a shortfall of £8,600. Never at any time either before or during payments did Comic-Keys say he was only going to pay $72,000. Nope, there was no protests from Comic-Keys WHATSOEVER. Had he done so my brother would have kept the books and sought legal advice first. Comic-Keys waited until he had the books first and THEN waited until he had paid $72,000 before springing the surprise, that’s how his cunning, devious and underhanded mind works. Now £8,600 is a hell of a lot of money to lose on a transaction that should NEVER have taken place in the first place because the books WERE RESTORED and that’s why he is still upset.
Q2. Weren’t the comics supposed to be Guaranteed Unrestored?
A2. That’s what he sold them as but what ive learnt about Comic-Keys is that Guaranteed Unrestored doesn’t mean Guaranteed Unrestored as you, I or 10 Billion other people would understand it. No, it means the books ARE restored and im in no doubt that he performs the restoration himself as stated by Cantie Brevard(more on that later). Im going to send him a copy of the Concise English Oxford Dictionary as soon as I find out his REAL address. Im even going to colour touch and trim it so it doesn’t look out of place with the other restored comics he has. By the way here is a link to the copy of the Amazing Fantasy #15 that he sold my brother. This has had a MAJOR TRIM JOB down the right-hand side
http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940 (http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940)
Q3. Did you recommend Comic-Keys to your brother?
A3. Yes I did but under false pretences. I was told by comic-keys that his name was Richard Koos when it is in fact Danny Dupcak and he said he was a Doctor when he is no such thing, his says his books are GUARANTEED UNRESTORED when they are not and he sent me that infamous e-mail that convinced me he was a person to be trusted when it was just a load of rubbish and just a ploy to lull me into a false sense of security. So when he says the deal had nothing to do with me he is WRONG, it has EVERYTHING to do with me. If it hadn’t have been for me the deal would not have been done in the first place.
Q3. Did your brother receive a Prompt/Instant Refund?
A3. Definitely not. He likes to tell people this but its not true(like many other things he says). The books were sent January 2005 and the first payment of $7,500 wasn’t received until March 2005 after he needed time to ‘examine the books.’ Why you would need time to examine your OWN books is a mystery to me, maybe he forgot what the restoration he performed on it was. Now once he had received the books it SHOULD have been an instant refund but Comic-Keys kept coming up with many excuses as to why he didn’t have all the money. There were the same further payments in May, June and August and then payments just stopped. My brother asked why have payments stopped and one of the excuses that has stuck in my mind that he said was ‘The Ewert Scandal that Rocked the Hobby.' :confused: I assume he was suggesting that because of what happened with Ewert it was affecting his sales. This was interesting especially as I was receiving e-mails from Heritage saying how they had made record sales and even when I spoke to other dealers about their sales they said sales were brisk. I can only assume that ’The Ewert Scandal That Rocked The Hobby’ was only affecting Comic-Keys.’ Even when I was tracking his sales and seeing that he was selling thousands of Dollars worth of comics he told my brother they were on consignment. Obviously he was talking rubbish and was coming up with excuses so as not to pay the money quickly. After all he had thousands of Dollars of my brothers money sitting in his account earning him lots of interest so why should he rush to pay back. My brother then told him that he shouldn’t just be relying on his Ebay sales to pay him back. He added that as a Doctor #shifty# he should be earning a reasonable salary and should put some of that aside to pay him back which was a fair enough suggestion.
Nine months passed and he had paid absolutely zero, complete zilch, not 1 single penny. Then finally in June 2006 he made a derisory, paltry payment of just $2,000. I told my brother that if Comic-keys was going to pay at a rate of $2,000 every 10 months it would take years before he got his money back and I blew my top. If ever you wanted to show someone an example of what ‘Taking the P***‘ means then this was it. I sent Comic-Keys an e-mail saying that if he did not pay the rest of the money by 5pm UK time plus $100,000 for the full Unrestored value of the comics as per his e-mail I was going to instruct Mark Zaid to begin legal action. He then did a toilet in his trousers and replied back by saying he will have everything paid much sooner than the 31st August deadline that my brother had given him with money coming in from everywhere. I thought that’s funny, what happened to The Ewert Scandal That Rocked The Hobby.’ Its amazing what the threat of legal action can do.
Now Comic-Keys thinks he did my brother some sort of favour by paying him quicker than my brother paid him so I e-mailed about 7 dealers and put the question to them. ‘If I took ’X’ months in time payments to buy an expensive book from you and returned it because it was restored would you take ’X’ months to pay me back or would it be an instant refund?’ Guess what, not 1 of them said they would take the same length of time to pay me back. I think Bob Storms summed it up best when he said ’I would give you an instant refund because time payments and refunds are completely different things,’ and of course they are. Only Comic-Keys would think up something like this. This was just a stupid pathetic excuse to try and keep the money for as long as possible to try and earn as much interest as possible. Like I said a pathetic excuse from a pathetic person.
Q4. With so many collectors receiving Restored Books how did he keep his negatives on Ebay low?
A4. This has been discussed many times on the CGC boards but I can think of at least 3 ways he did this. First of all he would employ deliberate stalling tactics as described by CaptainofIndustry on the CGC boards:-
Along with what Brian said, he also stalls a lot in order to pass the 3 month mark. When I bought from him, I thought he was on the up and up. I sent the Avengers 1 in, and it came back restored. When asking for a refund, he said he had another Avengers 1 he could send me which he guaranteed wasn't restored, since he could trace the provenance of that copy to the newstand. I agreed, only because I wasn't informed about him at the time, and I figured since he knew I would be sending the book through the walk-thru tier, he wouldn't have the stones to send me a second restored copy. It just didn't make sense, and since I wanted a 9.0/9.2 Avengers #1 badly, I gave it another shot. Well, he stalled and stalled on shipping the second copy. Finally I had enough, and demanded my money back. He then LIED and told me that the copy was already in the postal system(which it wasn't......I later checked the date he shipped). Finally, I got the second copy, and it looked really nice....an easy 9.2 and possible 9.4. Sent it in, and guess what??? It was RESTORED also. A shocker isn't it? And guess what else? He wouldn't refund my money until he got the second copy back, and by the time he did, my ability to leave feedback had expired by 2 days.
So, you might ask, why didn't I neg him while he was b.s'ing and stalling for time on the second copy? It's easy to say, but my main concern was getting my 4K back, and I felt that leaving him a neg was the only leverage I had, since his whole scam revolves around a good rating so that people will trust him. His rating(and the fact that this board wasn't what it is now, and that I had very little contact with industry people) is what made me take the risk.
The full thread can be read here http://boards.collectors-ociety.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=297311 (http://boards.collectors-ociety.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=297311)
Second if you do manage to leave negative he would bombard you with abusive e-mails until you removed them as described by Samurai-Bill on the CGC Boards:-
‘I bought Fantastic Four 56 & Amazing Spiderman 51 as raw 9.20 for both ( cost me 282 dollars ). When I got them I realised the scans had been " bleached " the comics I got had grey were on the scans it was pure white. Also scan had been cropped to show square corners and no white line down left hand side. I left negative feedback and was bombarded with abusive emails and he left me block capital negative feedback telling every one not to deal with me. So we mutualy agreed to withdraw our feedbacks and leave it at that.’
Now you may feel a negative is undeserved(although not in this case), however there is no justification for bombarding someone with abusive e-mails until they agree to remove the feedback they left for you.
Finally you can use your Powerseller status to have your negative feedback removed although this doesn’t always work as seen here:-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320411&page=0&fpart=1 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320411&page=0&fpart=1)
Full marks for Tomega for sticking to his guns and I have the utmost respect for him for doing that. Also I don’t know if anyone has realised this but Tomega is the person Comic-Keys is refering to when he used to say in his auctions “ 2 negatives left were entirely retaliatory in nature blah blah blah.” I was so looking forward to looking through Comic-Keys feedback to especially read what this is actually all about but surprise surprise he hasn’t sold anything since eBay got rid of private feedback so no-one can see his feedback. Who would have believed it a man who has consistently sold comics on Ebay for over 6 years suddenly decides to stop selling at the very moment Ebay decides to ban private feedback. What can I say Amazing, Astonishing, Astounding, Incredible, Uncanny, even more Uncanny than the X-Men I tell you. Still thankfully through the CGC boards I got to find out the full TRUE story of what happened.
Q5. Is Comic-Keys a Doctor?
A5. Interesting question because I have not come across ANYBODY who thinks that he is. Also in 1 of my earlier posts I said that he was asked by somebody on the CGC boards to post his medical certificate. Well you know how he loves to try and be clever in order to try and prove he is right, its his favourite pastime. Unfortunately he sometimes tries to be too clever and in this particular case I will show you what a fool he is. Below you will see a simple question that I asked him. He answered the question by answering a question that wasn’t asked. I showed it to someone who said Comic-Keys often does this and hopes the reader forgot what the original question was. Anyway here is the question I asked:-
Off the top of my head you was asked by flyingdonut on the CGC boards to put up a scan of your medical certificate.
Now the question wasn’t asked over the phone so he cant say he mis-heard me, no it was written clearly on these boards so I cant get much clearer than that and here is his stupid misdirected reply:-
PURE bullshit. I didn't ask anybody to post medical certificates. I would have gladly posted anything I wanted posted myself.
Yeah what a great answer Mr Clever Dick, that makes perfect sense. After much searching I actually found the thread that included the post asking for a scan of Comic-Keys Medical Certificate. Seeing how Comic-Keys says he is ‘fixated on $$$$’ and Bronty even offered to pay for the scan his refusal to carry out such a simple request and to be paid for it is very puzzling indeed:-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=184875&page=0&fpart=5 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=184875&page=0&fpart=5)
Q6. Why does Comic-Keys sell restored books in the first place if he gives a refund when they are returned?
A6. Because he likes to play the percentages game, lets look at this example. If you sell 100 restored books to 100 different collectors what are the odds that every single collector will return the books back. Lets say 70% return the books, i personally think this figure is far too high but for arguments sake lets accept that figure. Now lets say you sell at an average of $1000 per book which means you have sold comics for a total of $100,000. So first of all 30 collectors never bother to send their books back so that’s $30,000 you’ve made already and the rest send their books back from ‘X’ weeks to ‘X’ years which means you have made interest on $70,000. Sure it’s a dishonest and cunning way to make money and those that do it are just CROOKS, plain and simple.
Also just for the record lately there have been some collectors who say they have NEVER gotten a refund from Comic-Keys even AFTER they have returned the RESTORED books that he sold them as GUARANTEED UNRESTORED.
I hope that has answered all the questions I have been asked. If ive missed anything then you are bound to find the answers on the CGC boards. Sign-in and do a keyword search by putting in the name comic-keys. There are enough threads to keep you busy from now until the end of the year.
Just a few more things I would like to add myself. Comic-Keys tries to confuse people by suggesting that you cannot tell wether a book has been trimmed from a scan. I then provided a link to the STL boards where he put up a scan of an Amazing Spiderman #1 and said that it had been trimmed down the right-hand side because there was too much artwork missing. The original thread is here:-
http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940 (http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940)
Don’t forget to scroll upwards and check the Amazing Fantasy #15 that he tried to sell to my brother with a BIG MAJOR TRIM JOB down the right-hand side. Comic-Crook is laughably trying to say the book isn’t trimmed. Honestly this guy should be on stage.
Now does anybody remember the interview with Steve Borock on the STL forums. For those who never read it here it is:-
http://columns.stlcomics.com/ironslab/IV/ (http://columns.stlcomics.com/ironslab/IV/)
A question from Hammer alias Comic-Keys was put to Steve Borock and this was his reply:-
I will answer ANY question this guy has if he ever shows up in person with his NY drivers ID at a show or at the CGC offices (when he is back in jail, the offer is off the table). Listen, unlike this guy, I show up at cons and CGC forum dinners and answer ALL questions. "Hammer/Meth/Dupcek/Koos/Comic-Keys" loves the internet. He is allowed to sit behind a computer, sell restored comic books as unrestored, give false and bad advice to newcomers, and spills hate filled rhetoric all over chat boards. Nice, huh? Good way to keep the hobby healthy. I do not believe STL should encourage this guy like you do.
Then Hammer has this response to give on this thread:-
http://forum.stlcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=913 (http://forum.stlcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=913)
One day, he WILL get his wish. He'll turn his head and I'll be right there in front of him, dangling my ID 1 inch in front of his nose, to ask my questions in person. It'll be interesting to see if he stutters under pressure.
That post was made on March 11th 2005. So its been over 3 years and we are still waiting for Hammer to show up. Is he going to carry out this action, the hell he is. To be fair he did say ’one day’ so it could mean anytime but if it could be before the next millennium that would be marvellous. Whats that old cliché, oh yeah ’Actions Speak Louder than Words.’ Hammer please take note.
Finally, Aceventura/Comic-Keys who denies being Danny Dupcak the man behind Fantazia yet can tell you everything about Fantazia is blaming a man called Cantie Brevard for the restoration performed at Fantazia.
In all his excitement to blame Cantie for the going on at Fantasia what Comic-Crook doesn’t realise is that Cantie has never denied performing restoration for Fantazia. What he doesn’t do, which is the accusation that has always been levied at Comic-Keys, is sell restored books as unrestored. Cantie Brevard’s username on the CGC boards is SuperDuperComics and he gives the full story of what happened here :-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320489&page=0&fpart=1 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320489&page=0&fpart=1)
Why Comic-Crook is interested in Fantazia and how he knows so much information on Fantazia when he has denied being the former owner is one of life’s mysteries.
Finally, I know that comic collectors are a lot more intelligent than comic-keys thinks they are so I pose this thought. If a crook, sorry collector has an Amazing Fantasy #15 that is so nice it has a very good shot for a CGC9.4, hell its so nice it might even be a 9.6 and therefore could easily sell for a 6 figure sum as in the below example from comic link which sold for $210,000 AND he is fixated on $$$$$ why would he sell it for only $45,000. I’ll let you all ponder.
http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?id=706615&next=%2FComicTrack%2FAdmin%2FCL%2Fmatches%2Easp%3F TITLE%3DAMAZING%2BFANTASY%26ISSUENUMBER%3D15%26ORD ERNUMBER%3D%26SELLER%3D%26BUYER%3D%26PEDIGREE%3D%2 6CGCCOMMENT%3D%26SELLERCOMMENT%3D%26TYPE%3D0%26FIL TER%3D%26Payment%3D%26Verified%3D%26Shipped%3D%26S PBP%3D (http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?id=706615&next=%2FComicTrack%2FAdmin%2FCL%2Fmatches%2Easp%3F TITLE%3DAMAZING%2BFANTASY%26ISSUENUMBER%3D15%26ORD ERNUMBER%3D%26SELLER%3D%26BUYER%3D%26PEDIGREE%3D%2 6CGCCOMMENT%3D%26SELLERCOMMENT%3D%26TYPE%3D0%26FIL TER%3D%26Payment%3D%26Verified%3D%26Shipped%3D%26S PBP%3D)
By the way in this example which has a very similar configuration to the copy comic-keys tried to sell my brother you will see just how much trimming has occurred down the right-hand side.
Thats my lot on comic-keys for tonight, more later
At least I have a reason to be sleeping 2 hours per day being on 24-hour call most of the time I'm working,
I don’t know if its occurred to comic-keys but if he spent less time posting on all the boardshe has ever joined, and believe me he is responsible for some of the longest posts ever on a board, and stopped editing his posts with frequent regularity he could use all that time to get some more sleep. Just thought I would point this out to you comic-keys. Right i have been promising this for a while now….the Q & A thread regarding seller Comic-Keys. Some of these questions were asked more than once so here we go:-
Q1. Did your brother receive a full refund?
A1. Nope. . Obviously my brother was shocked and extremely upset at having found out that ALL the books were RESTORED. My brother asked for £46,200 but has only received £37,865I showed him the e-mail comic-keys sent me, part of which forms my signature line, and according to comic-keys he has a right to ask for full unrestored value. I asked him several times to put the e-mail up for you all to read but he wouldn’t because he knew what a liar it would make him.
Here is the full version:-
T,
Whether it's 3 minutes, 3 years, or 30 years, the dealer SHOULD make good on the books represented to you as unrestored id it was clearly made understood to you by him that the books you were buying WERE to be unrestored copies. I have NO idea what the legal ramifications are of this, but I do know that you should have a strong case against him if what I said above is so. I don't have any idea on how to proceed BUT I would imagine that CGC's opinion, if push came to shove, because of the evasive wording on the back of the label, "a good faith effort is made to detect restoration, but CGC does NOT warrant the process or results". What are they really saying here? "Don't blame us if we're wrong because we could be"? That's the way HIS lawyer would interpret it, in playing Devil's Advocate here. Get ANOTHER opinion. Contact Tracey Hoeft at Eclipse Paper Restoration. Let HIM examine the books for restoration, and let him save the CGC holders and reports of restoration, at least that way you have BACKUP expert opinion. THAT may be enough to warrant a legal case if he won't make good, which he should! And you don't JUST want your money back! YOU WANT what those books should have been worth now IF you had gotten what you paid for, or THOUGHT you were getting what you paid for! You have a RIGHT to that. You paid your money at a time when the market was more speculative and guessed right. You have every right to expect a return on your investment and NOW because the books are faulty, you have nothing and no profit. NO GOOD! He has ALOT of making up to do and should do the right thing or you SHOULD see a lawyer!!! Which dealer? I WILL keep it between you and I if you tell me, I can assure of that. My word is GOLD! I only ask because if I know who, I may be able to suggest more avenues to explore to spur him into making good should you encounter a problem. Time, in this case, is NOT a factor. It's not a question of you buying a piece and the grade is off. In THAT case it's YOUR error you must now live with. THIS is a case where the item was faulty, now HE must make good and live with it as this was HIS error or deception. -Richard (I'm here if you need help).
My brother therefore thought he would start by asking for the full unrestored value of the Amazing Fantasy #15 and then move onto the other RESTORED books. However it soon became apparent that comic-keys had no intention of paying the full unrestored value of the comic(thus proving what a complete hypocrite he is) and therefore there was no point in asking for the full unrestored value of the other RESTORED comics. Comic-Keys was more hell bent on sending him a replacement copy but I advised my brother against it because Andrew Knight had received a restored Avengers #1 and when he sent it back for a replacement Comic-Keys sent him another RESTORED copy, but please don’t just take my word for it. You can read it for yourself here along with the other collectors who posted their experiences here:-
http://www.justafanboy.com/ComicKeys/testimonials.htm (http://www.justafanboy.com/ComicKeys/testimonials.htm)
Now you would think that out of GENUINE shock and embarrassment you would make 110% sure that the next copy you send would be unrestored. You might even send it away to Heft, Nelson, Ciccone or 1 of the other professional restorers just to make sure that it IS unrestored, but not Comic-Keys, he ended up sending Andrew Knight ANOTHER RESTORED copy of Avengers #1. I therefore told my brother it would be better to just ask for his money back. My brother worked out that he paid £46,200 for the comics and that’s what he asked for BEFORE returning the books. I had already explained to comic-keys months before that banks have a buy and sell price so if £46,200 = $72,000 then when converted back $72,000 would NOT equal £46,200. My brother was actually hoping that Comic-Keys would be making out a money order for the amount £46,200 but comic-keys decided he wanted to pay in Dollars which was fine as long as the Dollar amount when converted back into Sterling equalled £46,200. However when Comic-Keys finally stopped paying my brother the money when converted back to Sterling only amounted to £37,600 which means there is a shortfall of £8,600. Never at any time either before or during payments did Comic-Keys say he was only going to pay $72,000. Nope, there was no protests from Comic-Keys WHATSOEVER. Had he done so my brother would have kept the books and sought legal advice first. Comic-Keys waited until he had the books first and THEN waited until he had paid $72,000 before springing the surprise, that’s how his cunning, devious and underhanded mind works. Now £8,600 is a hell of a lot of money to lose on a transaction that should NEVER have taken place in the first place because the books WERE RESTORED and that’s why he is still upset.
Q2. Weren’t the comics supposed to be Guaranteed Unrestored?
A2. That’s what he sold them as but what ive learnt about Comic-Keys is that Guaranteed Unrestored doesn’t mean Guaranteed Unrestored as you, I or 10 Billion other people would understand it. No, it means the books ARE restored and im in no doubt that he performs the restoration himself as stated by Cantie Brevard(more on that later). Im going to send him a copy of the Concise English Oxford Dictionary as soon as I find out his REAL address. Im even going to colour touch and trim it so it doesn’t look out of place with the other restored comics he has. By the way here is a link to the copy of the Amazing Fantasy #15 that he sold my brother. This has had a MAJOR TRIM JOB down the right-hand side
http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940 (http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940)
Q3. Did you recommend Comic-Keys to your brother?
A3. Yes I did but under false pretences. I was told by comic-keys that his name was Richard Koos when it is in fact Danny Dupcak and he said he was a Doctor when he is no such thing, his says his books are GUARANTEED UNRESTORED when they are not and he sent me that infamous e-mail that convinced me he was a person to be trusted when it was just a load of rubbish and just a ploy to lull me into a false sense of security. So when he says the deal had nothing to do with me he is WRONG, it has EVERYTHING to do with me. If it hadn’t have been for me the deal would not have been done in the first place.
Q3. Did your brother receive a Prompt/Instant Refund?
A3. Definitely not. He likes to tell people this but its not true(like many other things he says). The books were sent January 2005 and the first payment of $7,500 wasn’t received until March 2005 after he needed time to ‘examine the books.’ Why you would need time to examine your OWN books is a mystery to me, maybe he forgot what the restoration he performed on it was. Now once he had received the books it SHOULD have been an instant refund but Comic-Keys kept coming up with many excuses as to why he didn’t have all the money. There were the same further payments in May, June and August and then payments just stopped. My brother asked why have payments stopped and one of the excuses that has stuck in my mind that he said was ‘The Ewert Scandal that Rocked the Hobby.' :confused: I assume he was suggesting that because of what happened with Ewert it was affecting his sales. This was interesting especially as I was receiving e-mails from Heritage saying how they had made record sales and even when I spoke to other dealers about their sales they said sales were brisk. I can only assume that ’The Ewert Scandal That Rocked The Hobby’ was only affecting Comic-Keys.’ Even when I was tracking his sales and seeing that he was selling thousands of Dollars worth of comics he told my brother they were on consignment. Obviously he was talking rubbish and was coming up with excuses so as not to pay the money quickly. After all he had thousands of Dollars of my brothers money sitting in his account earning him lots of interest so why should he rush to pay back. My brother then told him that he shouldn’t just be relying on his Ebay sales to pay him back. He added that as a Doctor #shifty# he should be earning a reasonable salary and should put some of that aside to pay him back which was a fair enough suggestion.
Nine months passed and he had paid absolutely zero, complete zilch, not 1 single penny. Then finally in June 2006 he made a derisory, paltry payment of just $2,000. I told my brother that if Comic-keys was going to pay at a rate of $2,000 every 10 months it would take years before he got his money back and I blew my top. If ever you wanted to show someone an example of what ‘Taking the P***‘ means then this was it. I sent Comic-Keys an e-mail saying that if he did not pay the rest of the money by 5pm UK time plus $100,000 for the full Unrestored value of the comics as per his e-mail I was going to instruct Mark Zaid to begin legal action. He then did a toilet in his trousers and replied back by saying he will have everything paid much sooner than the 31st August deadline that my brother had given him with money coming in from everywhere. I thought that’s funny, what happened to The Ewert Scandal That Rocked The Hobby.’ Its amazing what the threat of legal action can do.
Now Comic-Keys thinks he did my brother some sort of favour by paying him quicker than my brother paid him so I e-mailed about 7 dealers and put the question to them. ‘If I took ’X’ months in time payments to buy an expensive book from you and returned it because it was restored would you take ’X’ months to pay me back or would it be an instant refund?’ Guess what, not 1 of them said they would take the same length of time to pay me back. I think Bob Storms summed it up best when he said ’I would give you an instant refund because time payments and refunds are completely different things,’ and of course they are. Only Comic-Keys would think up something like this. This was just a stupid pathetic excuse to try and keep the money for as long as possible to try and earn as much interest as possible. Like I said a pathetic excuse from a pathetic person.
Q4. With so many collectors receiving Restored Books how did he keep his negatives on Ebay low?
A4. This has been discussed many times on the CGC boards but I can think of at least 3 ways he did this. First of all he would employ deliberate stalling tactics as described by CaptainofIndustry on the CGC boards:-
Along with what Brian said, he also stalls a lot in order to pass the 3 month mark. When I bought from him, I thought he was on the up and up. I sent the Avengers 1 in, and it came back restored. When asking for a refund, he said he had another Avengers 1 he could send me which he guaranteed wasn't restored, since he could trace the provenance of that copy to the newstand. I agreed, only because I wasn't informed about him at the time, and I figured since he knew I would be sending the book through the walk-thru tier, he wouldn't have the stones to send me a second restored copy. It just didn't make sense, and since I wanted a 9.0/9.2 Avengers #1 badly, I gave it another shot. Well, he stalled and stalled on shipping the second copy. Finally I had enough, and demanded my money back. He then LIED and told me that the copy was already in the postal system(which it wasn't......I later checked the date he shipped). Finally, I got the second copy, and it looked really nice....an easy 9.2 and possible 9.4. Sent it in, and guess what??? It was RESTORED also. A shocker isn't it? And guess what else? He wouldn't refund my money until he got the second copy back, and by the time he did, my ability to leave feedback had expired by 2 days.
So, you might ask, why didn't I neg him while he was b.s'ing and stalling for time on the second copy? It's easy to say, but my main concern was getting my 4K back, and I felt that leaving him a neg was the only leverage I had, since his whole scam revolves around a good rating so that people will trust him. His rating(and the fact that this board wasn't what it is now, and that I had very little contact with industry people) is what made me take the risk.
The full thread can be read here http://boards.collectors-ociety.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=297311 (http://boards.collectors-ociety.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=297311)
Second if you do manage to leave negative he would bombard you with abusive e-mails until you removed them as described by Samurai-Bill on the CGC Boards:-
‘I bought Fantastic Four 56 & Amazing Spiderman 51 as raw 9.20 for both ( cost me 282 dollars ). When I got them I realised the scans had been " bleached " the comics I got had grey were on the scans it was pure white. Also scan had been cropped to show square corners and no white line down left hand side. I left negative feedback and was bombarded with abusive emails and he left me block capital negative feedback telling every one not to deal with me. So we mutualy agreed to withdraw our feedbacks and leave it at that.’
Now you may feel a negative is undeserved(although not in this case), however there is no justification for bombarding someone with abusive e-mails until they agree to remove the feedback they left for you.
Finally you can use your Powerseller status to have your negative feedback removed although this doesn’t always work as seen here:-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320411&page=0&fpart=1 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320411&page=0&fpart=1)
Full marks for Tomega for sticking to his guns and I have the utmost respect for him for doing that. Also I don’t know if anyone has realised this but Tomega is the person Comic-Keys is refering to when he used to say in his auctions “ 2 negatives left were entirely retaliatory in nature blah blah blah.” I was so looking forward to looking through Comic-Keys feedback to especially read what this is actually all about but surprise surprise he hasn’t sold anything since eBay got rid of private feedback so no-one can see his feedback. Who would have believed it a man who has consistently sold comics on Ebay for over 6 years suddenly decides to stop selling at the very moment Ebay decides to ban private feedback. What can I say Amazing, Astonishing, Astounding, Incredible, Uncanny, even more Uncanny than the X-Men I tell you. Still thankfully through the CGC boards I got to find out the full TRUE story of what happened.
Q5. Is Comic-Keys a Doctor?
A5. Interesting question because I have not come across ANYBODY who thinks that he is. Also in 1 of my earlier posts I said that he was asked by somebody on the CGC boards to post his medical certificate. Well you know how he loves to try and be clever in order to try and prove he is right, its his favourite pastime. Unfortunately he sometimes tries to be too clever and in this particular case I will show you what a fool he is. Below you will see a simple question that I asked him. He answered the question by answering a question that wasn’t asked. I showed it to someone who said Comic-Keys often does this and hopes the reader forgot what the original question was. Anyway here is the question I asked:-
Off the top of my head you was asked by flyingdonut on the CGC boards to put up a scan of your medical certificate.
Now the question wasn’t asked over the phone so he cant say he mis-heard me, no it was written clearly on these boards so I cant get much clearer than that and here is his stupid misdirected reply:-
PURE bullshit. I didn't ask anybody to post medical certificates. I would have gladly posted anything I wanted posted myself.
Yeah what a great answer Mr Clever Dick, that makes perfect sense. After much searching I actually found the thread that included the post asking for a scan of Comic-Keys Medical Certificate. Seeing how Comic-Keys says he is ‘fixated on $$$$’ and Bronty even offered to pay for the scan his refusal to carry out such a simple request and to be paid for it is very puzzling indeed:-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=184875&page=0&fpart=5 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=184875&page=0&fpart=5)
Q6. Why does Comic-Keys sell restored books in the first place if he gives a refund when they are returned?
A6. Because he likes to play the percentages game, lets look at this example. If you sell 100 restored books to 100 different collectors what are the odds that every single collector will return the books back. Lets say 70% return the books, i personally think this figure is far too high but for arguments sake lets accept that figure. Now lets say you sell at an average of $1000 per book which means you have sold comics for a total of $100,000. So first of all 30 collectors never bother to send their books back so that’s $30,000 you’ve made already and the rest send their books back from ‘X’ weeks to ‘X’ years which means you have made interest on $70,000. Sure it’s a dishonest and cunning way to make money and those that do it are just CROOKS, plain and simple.
Also just for the record lately there have been some collectors who say they have NEVER gotten a refund from Comic-Keys even AFTER they have returned the RESTORED books that he sold them as GUARANTEED UNRESTORED.
I hope that has answered all the questions I have been asked. If ive missed anything then you are bound to find the answers on the CGC boards. Sign-in and do a keyword search by putting in the name comic-keys. There are enough threads to keep you busy from now until the end of the year.
Just a few more things I would like to add myself. Comic-Keys tries to confuse people by suggesting that you cannot tell wether a book has been trimmed from a scan. I then provided a link to the STL boards where he put up a scan of an Amazing Spiderman #1 and said that it had been trimmed down the right-hand side because there was too much artwork missing. The original thread is here:-
http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940 (http://www.comicscorral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25940#post25940)
Don’t forget to scroll upwards and check the Amazing Fantasy #15 that he tried to sell to my brother with a BIG MAJOR TRIM JOB down the right-hand side. Comic-Crook is laughably trying to say the book isn’t trimmed. Honestly this guy should be on stage.
Now does anybody remember the interview with Steve Borock on the STL forums. For those who never read it here it is:-
http://columns.stlcomics.com/ironslab/IV/ (http://columns.stlcomics.com/ironslab/IV/)
A question from Hammer alias Comic-Keys was put to Steve Borock and this was his reply:-
I will answer ANY question this guy has if he ever shows up in person with his NY drivers ID at a show or at the CGC offices (when he is back in jail, the offer is off the table). Listen, unlike this guy, I show up at cons and CGC forum dinners and answer ALL questions. "Hammer/Meth/Dupcek/Koos/Comic-Keys" loves the internet. He is allowed to sit behind a computer, sell restored comic books as unrestored, give false and bad advice to newcomers, and spills hate filled rhetoric all over chat boards. Nice, huh? Good way to keep the hobby healthy. I do not believe STL should encourage this guy like you do.
Then Hammer has this response to give on this thread:-
http://forum.stlcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=913 (http://forum.stlcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=913)
One day, he WILL get his wish. He'll turn his head and I'll be right there in front of him, dangling my ID 1 inch in front of his nose, to ask my questions in person. It'll be interesting to see if he stutters under pressure.
That post was made on March 11th 2005. So its been over 3 years and we are still waiting for Hammer to show up. Is he going to carry out this action, the hell he is. To be fair he did say ’one day’ so it could mean anytime but if it could be before the next millennium that would be marvellous. Whats that old cliché, oh yeah ’Actions Speak Louder than Words.’ Hammer please take note.
Finally, Aceventura/Comic-Keys who denies being Danny Dupcak the man behind Fantazia yet can tell you everything about Fantazia is blaming a man called Cantie Brevard for the restoration performed at Fantazia.
In all his excitement to blame Cantie for the going on at Fantasia what Comic-Crook doesn’t realise is that Cantie has never denied performing restoration for Fantazia. What he doesn’t do, which is the accusation that has always been levied at Comic-Keys, is sell restored books as unrestored. Cantie Brevard’s username on the CGC boards is SuperDuperComics and he gives the full story of what happened here :-
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320489&page=0&fpart=1 (http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=320489&page=0&fpart=1)
Why Comic-Crook is interested in Fantazia and how he knows so much information on Fantazia when he has denied being the former owner is one of life’s mysteries.
Finally, I know that comic collectors are a lot more intelligent than comic-keys thinks they are so I pose this thought. If a crook, sorry collector has an Amazing Fantasy #15 that is so nice it has a very good shot for a CGC9.4, hell its so nice it might even be a 9.6 and therefore could easily sell for a 6 figure sum as in the below example from comic link which sold for $210,000 AND he is fixated on $$$$$ why would he sell it for only $45,000. I’ll let you all ponder.
http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?id=706615&next=%2FComicTrack%2FAdmin%2FCL%2Fmatches%2Easp%3F TITLE%3DAMAZING%2BFANTASY%26ISSUENUMBER%3D15%26ORD ERNUMBER%3D%26SELLER%3D%26BUYER%3D%26PEDIGREE%3D%2 6CGCCOMMENT%3D%26SELLERCOMMENT%3D%26TYPE%3D0%26FIL TER%3D%26Payment%3D%26Verified%3D%26Shipped%3D%26S PBP%3D (http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?id=706615&next=%2FComicTrack%2FAdmin%2FCL%2Fmatches%2Easp%3F TITLE%3DAMAZING%2BFANTASY%26ISSUENUMBER%3D15%26ORD ERNUMBER%3D%26SELLER%3D%26BUYER%3D%26PEDIGREE%3D%2 6CGCCOMMENT%3D%26SELLERCOMMENT%3D%26TYPE%3D0%26FIL TER%3D%26Payment%3D%26Verified%3D%26Shipped%3D%26S PBP%3D)
By the way in this example which has a very similar configuration to the copy comic-keys tried to sell my brother you will see just how much trimming has occurred down the right-hand side.
Thats my lot on comic-keys for tonight, more later