message from Romain SOMEONE IS SELLING MY ART ON CAF !! 1 1

[comix4fun]

Glad you got what you paid for. That's a good outcome. Congrats. Good communication is really the cornerstone of happy transactions as it demonstrates mutual respect. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by comix4fun

[Bridom]

I'm updating this thread because it's only one that has a "review" of Visar Alard. (I googled the name after I paid for a page from CAF.) I received a tracking number in a day or two and was told it was about 10-14 days. The tracking updated on the France side but was in European non-update limbo which made me a little nervous. On day 10, today, I saw that my local USPS office scanned the code and it was promptly delivered in pristine shape. 

[PhilipB2k17]

Hey guys. I’m taking offers for this piece I “own.” 😉

Starting bid is $250 million. 
 

[MAR1979]

I think we 

Edited October 24, 2023 by MAR1979

[JC25427N]

On 10/24/2023 at 9:56 AM, MAR1979 said:

I think we 

can all agree

[thehumantorch]

On 10/24/2023 at 11:21 AM, JC25427N said:

On 10/24/2023 at 7:56 AM, MAR1979 said:

I think we 

can all agree

that pizza pockets

[MAR1979]

On 10/24/2023 at 1:30 PM, thehumantorch said:

that pizza pockets

Have too much sodium

[PhilipB2k17]

On 6/8/2019 at 11:51 AM, Rick2you2 said:

As I wrote once before, I was referring to situations where someone was offering an item for sale, the flipper then listed it themselves elsewhere, buys the piece and then sold it without taking possession. That is not an activity which this hobby likes, nor would any hobby, I expect, and I consider a bad business practice. But, I don’t consider it a violation of law. Stop trying to change what I said to turn it into something different. 

You are describing arbitrage. 

[Rick2you2]

On 10/24/2023 at 3:22 PM, PhilipB2k17 said:

You are describing arbitrage. 

I have no idea what this is about, anymore. 

[Wolvie_Fan]

On 10/24/2023 at 2:34 PM, MAR1979 said:

Have too much sodium

but are still friggin delicious

[Dr. Balls]

On 10/24/2023 at 4:45 PM, Wolvie_Fan said:

but are still friggin delicious

but not as delicious as cheese-dipped tater tots.

[Xatari]

[grapeape]

On 6/4/2019 at 3:18 PM, T Shen said:

Damn, I should've done my due diligence before purchasing from him on CAF. I purchased four pages from him over a month ago, said he shipped and provided me with a bad tracking number, and now he's gone radio silent, though he posted new pages for sale a couple weeks ago. I naively assumed that since he's been a member of CAF for so many years and has a premium account, it would be a smooth(ish) transaction. I unfortunately made the mistake of using Friends and Family with PayPal as well. Anyone have suggestions?

Never use friends and family on PayPal for a business transaction. You are not covered if you get scammed.

I would leave negative comments on his CAF page explaining the situation. I hope that might get him to respond to you.

[The Voord]

On 10/26/2023 at 6:42 AM, grapeape said:

Never use friends and family on PayPal for a business transaction. You are not covered if you get scammed.

I would leave negative comments on his CAF page explaining the situation. I hope that might get him to respond to you.

I think it depends on who you're dealing with.  As I'm in the UK, I get hit with extra charges buying from or selling to USA residents.  F&F eliminates the extra charges, so if I'm selling I either request F&F or a top-up-charge to cover the extra costs involved with G&S . . . and if I have absolute trust in the seller (through solid reputation) will pay F&F..  But, yes, F&F is generally not a good idea when dealing with complete unknowns.

Edited October 26, 2023 by The Voord

[Rick2you2]

On 10/26/2023 at 3:35 AM, The Voord said:

I think it depends on who you're dealing with.  As I'm in the UK, I get hit with extra charges buying from or selling to USA residents.  F&F eliminates the extra charges, so if I'm selling I either request F&F or a top-up-charge to cover the extra costs involved with G&S . . . and if I have absolute trust in the seller (through solid reputation) will pay F&F..  But, yes, F&F is generally not a good idea when dealing with complete unknowns.

I always agree to pay the extra charge. When dealing with artists, I automatically add it even if they don’t ask.

[alxjhnsn]

On 10/26/2023 at 6:23 AM, Rick2you2 said:

I always agree to pay the extra charge. When dealing with artists, I automatically add it even if they don’t ask.

+1

[grapeape]

On 10/26/2023 at 11:03 AM, alxjhnsn said:

+1

+1

[Ecclectica]

This week-end, I was surprised to see here this ressurection of an old thread I didn’t know about, about Visar Alard.

I thought it would be appropriated to write here my testimony of the OA transaction I did with Visar Alard two years ago, which is the only one that I would qualify today as a « bad experience », after almost 50 transactions now in the OA art...

Two and half a year ago, I noticed a 90s Marvel interior page for sale, simultaneously on CAF and on eBay, a page I liked a lot, but not to the point that I would have jumped on it immediately. I had others pieces of interest in mind to buy at the time, so I put it in third or fourth position in my mind. It was not an expensive page (the price was 380$).

3 months later, I decided to contact the owner on CAF to tell him I would like to buy it. The owner, Visar Alard, told me the price was wrong and that he had just updated it. He told me the old price was from when he had put the page on sale on CAF 7-8 years ago… I replied to him that I had seen his recent eBay auctions previously with the same (old) price for some months, so?!?! To conclude my mail, I said « Sorry but 490$ is too much expensive for this page. If you change your mind, you have to know that I can push to 390$ (but not above) and in that case, my offer is still open. You can contact me when you want on CAF. » You can imagine that, even if I had choosed CAF to save him the eBay commissions fees, I didn’t expected a reply with an new offer only 10$ above the original price, and far from the 100$ increase he had put on the page (in my mind, I told myself : around 400$ already would be above FMV value, so around 400$ would be my max value to put on it). But as I said previously, it was a page that I could miss, or at least, that I didn't want to overpay. But to my surprise, Visar Alard said ok for the transaction : 390$ + 20$ for shipping.

When I prepared the Paypal Payment, I had another surprise, I discovered he was located in France, like me (his eBay ads were visible on all eBay european platforms, so I had wrongly guessed he was a foreigner, and we had talked only in english on CAF before!). So we continued the discussion in french langage, and I asked him, as we were in the same country, if it was possible to adjust a little bit lower the shipping price and make the parcel insured – his original price for postage was one to send abroad. He replied OK, I paid him and asked him for the tracking number. He didn’t send me the tracking number... 5 days later, I became a little bit worried because parcels take most of the time two days to travels to two cities here. So even with some margin, he should have given me the tracking number in time. When he finally gave me the tracking number (after I asked him for it again), I discovered the number didn’t work properly… and for a good reason : he had shipped the parcel with a flat/letter formula, so with no insurance (this formula doesn’t have this option here…) and only two steps as tracking data : one for departure and one for final delivery (no intermediary steps for this option…). Then, I began to seriously worry and with a reason : the travel from our 500 kms-apart cities took 10 days instead of 2… (I hadn’t anymore nails already after a few days). As you can imagine, he didn’t replied in between to my enquiries… But when the parcel arrived, my surprises continued.

First, I discovered the parcel had been done in a way that the content could easily have been stolen : you could crack 2 pieces of tape on one border to open easily the parcel, without damaging the parcel shape. I should take the time to make pictures if some of you want them, because I still have this package now (it was so unbelievable as first that I kept it since!)

Second, I discover the page was not protected inside : no mylar, no added cardboard, nothing! Since the transaction occured two years ago at a time we had here in France numerous rainy days, you can imagine what could have happened with a single misplaced drop of water in a parcel with uncovered slots…

I tried to contact him again, with no luck. No reply. I still think today that, sending me the page with this low-cost formula, he thought he could fool me believing it was a normal parcel, fully insured (that’s what he didn’t gave me the tracking number at first). He was hoping for a two days travel. Problem is : with a flat/letter formula, you can’t expect a two days delay for sure even with a short travel here… It gave me the impression (and I told him) in my last email, he had done all this to recover a bit of money on the transaction (pityfully : the difference between what I paid for postage and what I got : around 7 or 8 euros). What a rat!

After this experience, I discovered Visar Alard sold not only OA pieces with artifically inflated prices, but also others type of comics items (from everywhere : european, manga & US) or pop culture items. I discovered that he sold many questionable items like John Byrne’s Elsewhen printed paper omnibus compilations or counterfeit copies of old french mags which published translations of Marvel comics in the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s (as the company which published them disapeared 35 years ago and the publishing rights changed 2 times of hands since, I suppose it would be difficult to attack these counterfeit copies on legal ground…)

To conclude, to me, Visar Alard seems to be a man ready to make money, even little, by any means... Some of you will tell me many dealers do this, but I’m pretty certain he isn’t a professional dealer and more greedy than the average dealer. For sure, because of what happened, I will never do any transaction again with him in the future.

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by Ecclectica