Ask the “Blazing One”??? 4 4

[blazingbob]

I've never read a book about comic books.  My favorite book is Liar's Poker where I used the phrase BSD to describe some of the collectors and dealers out there.

[tth2]

Why do you go by "Blazing Bob" when the much more obvious nickname would've been "Storming Bob"? 

[adamstrange]

I find that I get nice as I get older.  How do you stay in tune with your inner curmudgeon?

Edited May 14, 2018 by adamstrange

[blazingbob]

3 hours ago, tth2 said:

Why do you go by "Blazing Bob" when the much more obvious nickname would've been "Storming Bob"? 

Blazing Johnny Storm,  Blazing bob

I was a big fan of Storming Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.  Patton was one of my favorite war movies.

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by blazingbob

[blazingbob]

1 hour ago, adamstrange said:

I find that I get nice as I get older.  How do you stay in tune with your inner curmudgeon?

I find that as I get older I have less patience.  I am continued to be surprised by how others expect me to do business but it is not reciprocated.  

While a lot of customers feel that the customer is always right I honestly have a hard time being dictated on how much I should make,  that I don't work as hard to get the books as it does for you the customer to buy them.  

I do not cheat people out of their books,  I expect to be treated fairly.  If you want transparency you sometimes get to hear something you don't like.

I have high expectations and frankly I get disappointed in some people.  

Others do not know that because I have CIDP which is the chronic form of Guillaine Barre syndrome that I am constantly in pain.  It is a disease where I may look ok on the outside but I have nerve damage that frankly hurts and causes fatigue.  When you come by a show and expect me to leap out of the chair or smile all day that isn't happening.  I do not take painkillers,  there are no cures and I live one day at a time.  I don't whine to my friends or my wife.  I work, I work hard and I do the best I can with the hand I've been dealt.  By posting this I am not expecting a "poor bob" or pat on the back.  But sometimes it is very frustrating when people who don't know judge me by what they "SEE".  

[NoMan]

7 minutes ago, blazingbob said:

I find that as I get older I have less patience.  I am continued to be surprised by how others expect me to do business but it is not reciprocated.  

While a lot of customers feel that the customer is always right I honestly have a hard time being dictated on how much I should make,  that I don't work as hard to get the books as it does for you the customer to buy them.  

I do not cheat people out of their books,  I expect to be treated fairly.  If you want transparency you sometimes get to hear something you don't like.

I have high expectations and frankly I get disappointed in some people.  

Others do not know that because I have CIDP which is the chronic form of Guillaine Barre syndrome that I am constantly in pain.  It is a disease where I may look ok on the outside but I have nerve damage that frankly hurts and causes fatigue.  When you come by a show and expect me to leap out of the chair or smile all day that isn't happening.  I do not take painkillers,  there are no cures and I live one day at a time.  I don't whine to my friends or my wife.  I work, I work hard and I do the best I can with the hand I've been dealt.  By posting this I am not expecting a "poor bob" or pat on the back.  But sometimes it is very frustrating when people who don't know judge me by what they "SEE".  

for me, there is a lot of wisdom in this post and I appreciate the time you took to post it. 

Edited May 14, 2018 by NoMan

[Kevin76]

On 5/2/2018 at 11:14 PM, blazingbob said:

I get complaints that they are too dark and I get complaints that they are too light.

I have tried numerous settings,  I do NOT have enough time to go back and forth on every book.

I have been playing around with settings,  read Vue scans manual but frankly even with my tech background I have no idea what they are talking about when tweaking this or tweaking that.

Doing the best I can

Every time I change a setting for one book the next one comes out different.  

While I'm glad vue scan has enabled me to use an older scanner I really miss that scanners software.

It's sounds like a setting on brightness that's the problem, turn it down to increase the black, turn it up to increase white. Just have to set it so it's easy on the eyes and having the setting in the middle doesn't always accomplish this. I have a HP 8250 with Vuescan. I have the setting to "Neutral" and the black level % at max and then adjust the brightness setting to where I'm happy with it. Hope this helps!  

[bronze johnny]

1 hour ago, blazingbob said:

I find that as I get older I have less patience.  I am continued to be surprised by how others expect me to do business but it is not reciprocated.  

While a lot of customers feel that the customer is always right I honestly have a hard time being dictated on how much I should make,  that I don't work as hard to get the books as it does for you the customer to buy them.  

I do not cheat people out of their books,  I expect to be treated fairly.  If you want transparency you sometimes get to hear something you don't like.

I have high expectations and frankly I get disappointed in some people.  

Others do not know that because I have CIDP which is the chronic form of Guillaine Barre syndrome that I am constantly in pain.  It is a disease where I may look ok on the outside but I have nerve damage that frankly hurts and causes fatigue.  When you come by a show and expect me to leap out of the chair or smile all day that isn't happening.  I do not take painkillers,  there are no cures and I live one day at a time.  I don't whine to my friends or my wife.  I work, I work hard and I do the best I can with the hand I've been dealt.  By posting this I am not expecting a "poor bob" or pat on the back.  But sometimes it is very frustrating when people who don't know judge me by what they "SEE".  

It must be really frustrating when a flipper/speculator tries to take advantage of you, thinking they are going to be a BSD when in fact they're a NSBD.

[blazingbob]

3 hours ago, Kevin76 said:

It's sounds like a setting on brightness that's the problem, turn it down to increase the black, turn it up to increase white. Just have to set it so it's easy on the eyes and having the setting in the middle doesn't always accomplish this. I have a HP 8250 with Vuescan. I have the setting to "Neutral" and the black level % at max and then adjust the brightness setting to where I'm happy with it. Hope this helps!  

I'll try that setting and see how it does.

[kimik]

Bob, would you consider doing the Calgary or Edmonton Expo? We would love to have another big US dealer to buy from in addition to Harley.

[blazingbob]

While I love the Canadian market I find crossing the border with inventory the moral equivalent of war.  You would think that the US and Canada hate each other. 

So that people understand to do business in Canada you need to have an agent.  That is basically the same as me buying one table and paying for two.

The agent takes care of all the paperwork necessary for you to conduct and do business in the Country of Canada.  

They come to the show and go through your inventory,  your paperwork better match what you bring.  Depending on the amount of inventory you "declare" you are charged.  Last time I brought inventory to do a show the cost was around $900.

You need to be careful on the declared value.  If you are lowballing the value and they decide to go through it they can seize the inventory.  This has been done to a Canadian dealer that was doing business in the US.  

On Sunday they come to verify what you are leaving with.  You better have the same number of boxes you came in with.  You can't get back your inventory into the US unless you have the paperwork all done by the agent.  

You then come up with sales because the Canadian government expects some tax revenue.

Now comes the fun part.  Bringing that inventory back into the US.  While you may be a US citizen the border agents are very zealous in going over your paperwork and confirming what you are bringing into the US.

I have gone into Canada to do buy a collection.  Even with a receipt of payment and my commenting that I would pay a duty on bringing the collection in I was still brought into a holding area where a border agent went through the boxes.

After an hour and a half I was let go,  they didn't charge me a duty but nonetheless it was not a pleasant experience.

I find it much easier to do shows in Canada by partnering with dealers that I have done a few deals with.  

If there are any books that customers wanted to see at a Canadian show I would probably send it up to them.

The website has also been updated with a location code in the Advanced search where canadian customers can order books that are in Canada and save on US/Canada shipping costs.

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by blazingbob

[kimik]

Wow. It is more of a hassle than I was expecting. 

[1Cool]

18 hours ago, blazingbob said:

I find that as I get older I have less patience.  I am continued to be surprised by how others expect me to do business but it is not reciprocated.  

While a lot of customers feel that the customer is always right I honestly have a hard time being dictated on how much I should make,  that I don't work as hard to get the books as it does for you the customer to buy them.  

I do not cheat people out of their books,  I expect to be treated fairly.  If you want transparency you sometimes get to hear something you don't like.

I have high expectations and frankly I get disappointed in some people.  

Others do not know that because I have CIDP which is the chronic form of Guillaine Barre syndrome that I am constantly in pain.  It is a disease where I may look ok on the outside but I have nerve damage that frankly hurts and causes fatigue.  When you come by a show and expect me to leap out of the chair or smile all day that isn't happening.  I do not take painkillers,  there are no cures and I live one day at a time.  I don't whine to my friends or my wife.  I work, I work hard and I do the best I can with the hand I've been dealt.  By posting this I am not expecting a "poor bob" or pat on the back.  But sometimes it is very frustrating when people who don't know judge me by what they "SEE".  

I will have to say Bob is one of those dealers who has perfected that thousand yard stare where you know they have seen some messed up shiznit.  I briefly talked to Bob twice at Cons and whereas Harley or Gator always seem like they are having the time of their life, Bob kind of looks pissed to be there.  Grumpy would be a good adjective.  But maybe it was dealing with me as Greggy and Hector always say.

[paul747]

3 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I will have to say Bob is one of those dealers who has perfected that thousand yard stare where you know they have seen some messed up shiznit.  I briefly talked to Bob twice at Cons and whereas Harley or Gator always seem like they are having the time of their life, Bob kind of looks pissed to be there.  Grumpy would be a good adjective.  But maybe it was dealing with me as Greggy and Hector always say.

I think people forget Bob is probably  in pain sometimes. He is a grinder.

[blazingbob]

1 hour ago, 1Cool said:

I will have to say Bob is one of those dealers who has perfected that thousand yard stare where you know they have seen some messed up shiznit.  I briefly talked to Bob twice at Cons and whereas Harley or Gator always seem like they are having the time of their life, Bob kind of looks pissed to be there.  Grumpy would be a good adjective.  But maybe it was dealing with me as Greggy and Hector always say.

I'm sorry that I don't light up when you come by the booth.  Again,  you are exactly the person I am commenting about in my above post.  You assume I am grumpy by what you "See".  I am sorry that I don't have a big smile all the time and full of energy.  I load the van (40-45 boxes,  3 racks,  signs).  Most shows I drive to.  Sit on lines or hopefully it is a easy load in where I then unload the van (40-45 boxes,  3 racks,  signs).  Setup the day before,  walk around the show buying books which by the way gets more and more painful as the day wears on.   At most conventions I'm up at 6:30 am,  by the time you see me at a show I've already put in more then a few hours of work. Stand on concrete all day long.  Hopefully while buying I don't have to get into a dealer buying frenzy with others.  Look at thousands of books to find the stuff I need for customers.  Make sure I don't make mistakes or miss something buying them.  Then stay focused all day long making sure nobody is stealing or damaging your books which I've been doing for probably 20+ years.  You on the other hand still enjoy the convention circuit and have the "perception" of what we should be experiencing when we do shows.  There are reasons other then financial why sometimes you don't see other big dealers doing shows.  They HATE doing them.  Harley's business model is doing conventions.  Rick doesn't do a lot of shows.  When I leave a show I am home and go right back to work because as you know my website runs 24 hours a day/7 days a week.  Which I'm sure you know I work 7 days a week.     

[1Cool]

Wow - now I feel like more of a jerk then usual.  I didn't read to the bottom of the post I quoted.  I'm sorry to hear about your pain issues and I have several family members who were in pain for years and got a much needed surgery and they are different people without the pain.  I hope they invent something soon that gives you some relief.

 

Edited May 15, 2018 by 1Cool

[Guardian Comics]

On 5/11/2018 at 1:02 AM, blazingbob said:

 

4).  You have never conducted business at my booth though some other Canadian(s) seemed to have forgotten to read the dealer manual on that one.

5).  You have never taken out a couple of rows of my wall books while helping me at a show like Jim has.  Still love him but letting him take down books has been deleted from his job resume.

OMG...these just made my day!!!

Jim

[Guardian Comics]

16 hours ago, blazingbob said:

 

I find it much easier to do shows in Canada by partnering with dealers that I have done a few deals with.  

If there are any books that customers wanted to see at a Canadian show I would probably send it up to them.

The website has also been updated with a location code in the Advanced search where Canadian customers can order books that are in Canada and save on US/Canada shipping costs.

 

So if you wanna see something, you gotta go through me, and you thought Bob was tough :sumo:

LMAO

Jim

[1Cool]

1 minute ago, Guardian Comics said:

So if you wanna see something, you gotta go through me, and you thought Bob was tough :sumo:

LMAO

Jim

So you are Bob's Canadian connection?  I bought a handful of Eternal #1s and half came in a separate package since they were coming from Canada.

[Guardian Comics]

5 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

So you are Bob's Canadian connection?  I bought a handful of Eternal #1s and half came in a separate package since they were coming from Canada.

Andrew, yes two of those came from me.

Jim