The Berkbridge Foundation - Questions Regarding Legitimacy 8 8

[The Lions Den]

Yep, away until October 10th, with no books currently up for sale...   

[Cat]

How is the seller away? They have a TEAM of volunteers, remember? Enough to have multiple volunteers active outside of business hours. 

[namisgr]

2 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

How is the seller away? 

On the lam is a more apt description.

[Buzzetta]

Here is a fun idea.  I am swamped with paperwork so I am going to take a nap and then get up in a few hours and knock this thing out.  In the meantime I would like to know the viability of something.

 

What I was thinking of doing was tracking the CGC numbers of all of the books that have sold and trying to see if the numbers match up to batches of books submitted by the same individual. 

I would also like to see the history of the book. 

Basic lookup would be: Certification Number - Name and Issue - Grade

Would all of this be useful for any reason? 

I wonder where the books are coming from, straight submissions or consignments for charity or are these being flipped?

[The Lions Den]

 

[Cat]

This is a weird question, and I'm not accusing anybody of anything. A few days ago, in continuation of an ongoing chain of emails with Berkbridge requesting documentation, things hit a roadblock. I went to check up on that today, and that day's emails were gone. Just from that Berkbridge chain, nothing else. I've never had anything like this happen before, and am completely baffled. 

 

I hadn't checked my email since, so no way had I deleted them (nor would I have, I don't delete emails), and I still had everything from them from a certain point before that. Just everything after that was gone. It wasn't in my inbox, wasn't in my trash, it was like it never existed. 

Does anybody have any idea how such a thing could have happened? 

I guess I'm VERY lucky I had copies of it all on my Sent Mail, so it's all restored, and backed up now, so no chance of it going astray now. Weird how the emails that went missing were the ones where Berkbridge told me they were ending the 'conversation' even though I'd agreed to pay for printing costs and postage, and to provide a US address for postage purposes. 

 

[Sweet Lou 14]

1 hour ago, Buzzetta said:

Here is a fun idea.  I am swamped with paperwork so I am going to take a nap and then get up in a few hours and knock this thing out.  In the meantime I would like to know the viability of something.

 

What I was thinking of doing was tracking the CGC numbers of all of the books that have sold and trying to see if the numbers match up to batches of books submitted by the same individual. 

I would also like to see the history of the book. 

Basic lookup would be: Certification Number - Name and Issue - Grade

Would all of this be useful for any reason? 

I wonder where the books are coming from, straight submissions or consignments for charity or are these being flipped?

This sounds like it could be very valuable.  Please PM me if you would like my personal records of books I purchased from them and/or books they listed for sale after they'd been listed on other dealer sites, making it pretty obvious they bought and flipped them.

[vheflin]

 

[chezmtghut]

2 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

Here is a fun idea.  I am swamped with paperwork so I am going to take a nap and then get up in a few hours and knock this thing out.  In the meantime I would like to know the viability of something.

 

What I was thinking of doing was tracking the CGC numbers of all of the books that have sold and trying to see if the numbers match up to batches of books submitted by the same individual. 

I would also like to see the history of the book. 

Basic lookup would be: Certification Number - Name and Issue - Grade

Would all of this be useful for any reason? 

I wonder where the books are coming from, straight submissions or consignments for charity or are these being flipped?

Berkbridge bought some high grade Silver Age Marvel comics from me over the last year, so I would say they're flipping & potentially pressing/resubbing some copies.

Edited September 24, 2019 by chezmtghut

[thehumantorch]

6 hours ago, James J Johnson said:

17 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

The last recorded sale was on September 20th.  No other sales have occurred or no books have been made to be available since then. 

Not assuming you do not know but in case anyone does not, there are two ways to shut down your eBay store.  In one scenario, you are marked as 'seller is currently away and there may be a delay in processing your order" while your inventory is still available to view and purchase.  In another scenario you are marked as 'seller is currently away...' but your inventory is NOT made available to view or purchase. Berkbridge has elected to shut down their store without displaying their inventory. 

I have another question that I am investigating on my own to which I do not want to publicly say.  Why tip off the unscrupulous, whoever that may be?

 

Struck me as highly unusual, can't say I ever saw that before. A very high level and active ebay comic book seller (seemingly, at least $1,000,000+ per year in sales) announcing suspension of shipments for over two weeks. Can't imagine why who appears to be such a highly successful, accomplished businessman such as Robert wouldn't potentially envision that as an ill advised business move. Especially with legitimacy issues being discussed openly and added to frequently on a forum, membered by what amounts to be the watchmen of this hobby.

If I was running a charity scam, and I say if, and people started questions I'd shut down as quickly as possible.   

[Cat]

Further confirmation that Jalali is in full panic "delete EVERYTHING!' mode: he's now completely nuked his personal Facebook account. I noticed the other day that sometime within the last year he'd defriended absolutely everyone, but of course I have of knowing when that was done. Now it's completely deleted. 

 

[James J Johnson]

1 hour ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

Further confirmation that Jalali is in full panic "delete EVERYTHING!' mode: he's now completely nuked his personal Facebook account. I noticed the other day that sometime within the last year he'd defriended absolutely everyone, but of course I have of knowing when that was done. Now it's completely deleted. 

 

All the ebay items, the BIN store items have been taken down.

[Cat]

Yet he's actually updated his LinkedIn within the last 6 hours to ADD the Berkbridge Foundation. That's confusing. 

[Buzzetta]

Can someone get a 'real' name on Rob Jalali?

Is it possible that his real name is Boby Jalali, age 32, out of Irvine California? 

The only Robert Jalali in California that I can seem to find are in their 60s.

However there is a Boby Jalali, age 32, with three prior convictions. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Buzzetta

[Cat]

His real name is Robert S Jalali. I believe he is about 62. Currently at UC Davis. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Mecha_Fantastic

[Buzzetta]

12 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

His real name is Robert S Jalali. I believe he is about 62. Currently at UC Davis. 

https://gsm.ucdavis.edu/faculty/robert-jalali

 

This did not look like the face of a 62 year old. 

[Cat]

I'm really not positive on his age. Here's another photo that may help, from his now-nuked FB page. 

 

Edit: Just want to clarify that that photo was seen on his Facebook page. That's not where I sourced it from, however. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Mecha_Fantastic

[Buzzetta]

5 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

I'm really not positive on his age. Here's another photo that may help, from his now-nuked FB page. 

 

He looks like he is in a beer commercial in that picture. 

Stay thirsty my friends. 

Okay... I can kind of see 62 in that picture. 

[lizards2]

16 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

He looks like he is in a beer commercial in that picture. 

Stay thirsty my friends. 

Okay... I can kind of see 62 in that picture. 

It is real typical for people to use photos from 20 years ago, as if they look like that now.

[thunsicker]

12 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

It is real typical for people to use photos from 20 years ago, as if they look like that now.

You mean you don't look like this anymore?