Baltimore Con Report

[Red Hook]

Had a great time at the dinner, and so did Stephanie. Strangely enough, the parking garage episode of Seinfeld came up more than once that night for us too. Remembering where we parked was difficult as I kept on recalling "purple 23."

 

[arexcrooke]

For us who are unable to put a name and an artist together, who is that Red?

[Red Hook]

Jaunty Johnny Romita Sr.

[arexcrooke]

Jaunty Johnny Romita Sr.

[Sal]

Jaunty Johnny Romita Sr.

 

FYI... right click on the picture and look at 'properties.' Red is kind enough to give his images proper names, and for that we thank him

[Foolkiller]

Just wanted to post my con report here as well, instead of the loooong FF #3 thread.

 

I'm sure there's some people here who are interested in whether or not there were any developments or discussion about the Jason Ewert situation. Let me just say that there are no new developments whatsoever. I talked about this so many times that I am absolutely talked out about the issues. It seems that if it wasn't dealers it was some collectors who were approaching me about the issue. But Jason Ewert was not there (confirmed by several dealers) and the bottom line is that nothing was going to really be resolved here anyway. Included in my report is who and what was discussed about the situation, some of the reactions I got, and what people's general feelings were. As for anything else that may happen down the line, forgive the expression, but the "wheels are in motion", and I intend to investigate some possibilities of reasonable future action. We'll see if anything materializes down the line, or if Jason (or even Tommy B.) at some point want to sit down and talk about the situation. If so, and it was something they'd be willing to make public, then perhaps we could actually start moving forward. Just a thought I had.

 

As for my con report, here's a typically long winded con report you get from me that's super detailed.

 

Thursday:

 

Dave got in on Thursday evening so we could get a jump on the day and get down to Baltimore at a decent hour on Friday. My friend Rebecca and I went to meet him at the train station around 8 PM and we grabbed some dinner at a nice Philly eatery called Matyson to get our weekend started right. It was nice to just sit, chat and relax and talk about everything BUT comics as Rebecca is no comics fan (she's a campus minister and profefessor who once again demonstrated that she's clearly brighter than me -- of course that may not be a high benchmark ). Anyway, Dave, who's a part time photo journalist, took pictures of literally everything (including the Wawa) he saw and hopefully there will be some pics posted by him in the future. After we dropped Rebecca off, we basically crashed.

 

Friday:

 

So far, so good. We got up on time around 8:30 or so and grabbed some breakfast at the best bagel place in Philly, South Philly Bagels located on Third, in between South and Bainbridge Streets. By 10 AM, we were energized and ready to go get the Godfather, Bronzebruce in New Jersey. We got to Bruce's house and after a brief mauling by his two year old dog, we loaded up the car (which was a tad small, but got good gas mileage) and got on the road. Brad (Redhook) gave us a call to let us know that he was running behind because of some huge accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

After what seemed like a super fast trip down, we arrived at the hotel we were staying at by the airport around 1 PM, but found Brad was stilling running late. We couldn't check in yet, so we decided to go down to the Inner Harbor and had lunch. We looked around for a bit and settled on Phillips Seafood for lunch and we enjoyed some terrific food and had a couple of drinks to go along with our tremendous view. Eventually, Brad came along and joined us. After discussing the Ewert situation and the boards in general, we decided around 4 PM it was time to get back to the hotel to check in and drop our stuff off.

 

Our hotel was pretty nice (and cheap) so we were all pleased with the accomodations. We got settled, and I made a few phone calls to my friend Mary Ann and then to the Rocketeer so we could all meet to get together at Camden Yards. After a quick drive in, we got to Camden Yards and bought ourselves amazing seats for basically very cheap. Camden Yards, which I've been to before, is an absolutely beautiful park. We had a very interesting beer man in our section as well as a friendly, but somewhat odd, group of people in front of us. Everyone had a blast though. The D-Rays drubbed the O's, but it was still a fun game to watch, and we left in the 9th inning and headed back to the hotel to get up early the next day.

 

Saturday:

 

On relatively little sleep, Dave and I met Bruce and Brad downstairs for breakfast and it was off to the con for us. We met Chrisco outside the con, picked up our respective dealer badges and it was inside for us. I got to the ACTOR booth and set my stuff down, but unfortunately, only got to wander for a minute before running into Steve Borock who was examining some Matt Wagner artwork that looked beautiful. Steve and I decided to go grab a cup of coffee and discuss a number of different issues. As always, Steve was extremely generous with his time and answered all of my questions. I enjoyed talking to him and found the meeting productive and informative. There are many plans for changes that CGC is going to make, which appear to be steps in the right direction. These are things which will be made public by CGC in the near future I'm sure.

 

Specifically on the Ewert situation, I was reassured that the issue is still being monitored, and we discussed a number of things regarding the hobby and dealers and the inegrity of dealers. While I still have faith in Steve personally, I still take away the feeling that with the vast majority of dealers, you need to watch your back. Unfortunately, most are concerned with the bottom line to the exclusion of all else including integrity, and lying appears to be just common place among the dealers. But, after a nice hour, hour and a half conversation, I was very happy with the way Steve handled the entire topic of Ewert, though I made it clear that I do not intend to drop it, and what action I have thought of taking. There are lots of possibilites, some legal, some simply notifying the proper authorities of some of the financial activity that Jason is engaging in. All include simply getting an answer to disseminate information. I don't care to ruin Jason or his business. I do care about an informed collector and the end of fraud in our hobby. So, my interest is simply in seeing that there is a just result here.

 

On the way down from coffee, we ran into Steve Mortenson (of Colossus Collectibles) and he's a very nice guy, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him very much. Almost immediately after getting back to the ACTOR booth, I ran into Steve Lauterbach (Investment Collectibles) and chatted with him for a bit. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Steve's an incredibly nice guy, who's nothing like the recent posts. He's somebody with a wealth of information and a genuine person. I would not hesitate to ask him if I had a question on one of his books, as I perceive him to be somebody who would answer any and all questions. Even he recognized many times, he probably came off a bit gruff with the posts. But when you meet Lauterbach in person, he's a great guy. After that quick chat, I talked to Kevin Boyd a bit while John Romita was finishing up signatures.

 

I tried wandering the floor to look to see what kind of books I could see around and didn't see much partially because many of the dealers were already at NYC the week before, so very little new was actually there that I hadn't seen. Over at Ted VanLiew's table, I did run into Namisgr and his son. As always, Bob was sifting through books looking for that awesome eye appeal book. He saw several beautiful books and picked some real winners from Teddy. After stopping for just a minute, I found that Gene and his lovely girlfriend had made it to the show finally. I ran into Tom Gordon and some folks from Gemstone, and invited Bob, his son, Tom and the others to lunch and we grabbed Dave, Gene and his girlfriend and Brad to head over to Legal Seafood. We had a fine lunch and with our bellies filled we headed back to the con floor.

 

I was determined to try and look in some boxes, but did not really see much. I stopped to talk to Al Stoltz for a little while, and we had a brief discussion on the Ewert situation. Al has always made it known to me that he plans on continuing to do business with Ewert because he feels that once the books are sold, the guy can paper his walls with the books if he wants to do that. I understand that from the dealers' side of the table since he has to make a living doing this. Al of course also made it clear that he feels that it's a wrong practice to be engaged in trimming, and of course, I've known Al personally for years, and know he'd never do anything of the sort. But, barring anything he felt was absolutely conclusive, he really didn't want to make any definitive statements regarding Jason himself. The reaction I got from most dealers when I rolled out to them all the things Jason could have done to defend himself or would be doing was dead silence. Most had no repsonse.

 

I moved on from Al's table after examining a few nice books, but again, did not see that book I was really looking for. Eventually, I made it back to the ACTOR booth, but things were moving slow after the John Romita sketches and auction took place. So I got a chance to wander some more, running into Solar, Carl, Lauterbach and others outside and chatted with them for awhile. Chrisco provided the most bitter moment of the con for me snagged a Miracleman 1-16 for $160!!! And it had a 9.4 Miracleman 15 (at least a 9.4, maybe a 9.6) that basically paid for the whole set. Unreal. He got it off a table that I was standing right next to and didn't even look at. After a bit more wandering and some more talking to various dealers, it was actually closing time and I had no time to look through boxes.

 

I met up with Joe Conzolo and Ben Lichtenstein (two store owners who do shows and are great guys) and we went to dinner with Harley Yee, his brother Ron, Nelson Dodds, and another dealer I didn't recognize as well as Joe's diamond rep, his fiance and my friend Mary Ann. We all went to Obeyeckie's (sp?) Crab House that was highly recommended by Joe. Crabs were delish (I had soft shell) and of course the dinner conversation was me relating to Harley the Ewert story... again. Harley was a bit surprised, but he indicated that he hadn't seen Jason around in a couple of shows like normal. Obviously, Harley frowned upon Jason trimming any books, and conceded it was certainly a much different animal than pressing (which I explained again, is not a big deal to me). Of course, there was local New Jersey store news to discuss and all the dealers I knew and Joe and Ben knew as well were fun to talk about.

 

Afterwards, I was going to head to the CGC Forum Dinner (not to eat) but just to drop in and say hello and visit. But Mary Ann ended up hitting it off with the other girl at the table and we split up... so I was free to go play some poker at Harley Yee's game which Joe and Ben convinced me to go play at. It happened to work out because someone dropped out, and I had a blast playing with Harshen, Harley, Richard Evans, Joe Verenault, Ron, and a bunch of others. I did pretty well, until I misplayed one hand at the end, got basically cleaned out and it was all over for me. Came in 5th, which is respectable (but no money).

 

I was a little worried I had to get my car out by midnight, so before I was out of the tournament, I had to call Bruce and Dave to move my car, but ended up moving it with them because I busted out. Eventually, we got back to where the forum dinner was as it was closing up shop and Steve Borock was leaving. We decided to go back to the hotel and get ready to go for Sunday.

 

Sunday:

 

Well, Sunday was a great start as Brad, Bruce, Dave and I all met for breakfast at the Denny's right next to our hotel and enjoyed a nice large breakfast. Dave and I wandered down to the show and we stayed for a little bit at ACTOR. I read the Don Rosa Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck book a little and it was wonderful, so I decided to pick up my own copy and talk to Don Rosa a bit myself. He's a great guy. I told him how amazing I thought his book was and basically how important a work I also thought it was for any comics fan. He seemed genuinely surprised and touched by the comment. We also discussed the Don Rosa collection and the origin of it. He mentioned he wasn't a huge super hero fan, but was a huge completionist and that's why many of the books were never read. I love the Don Rosa books.

 

After another few brief moments at ACTOR, I went over to Ted's booth and sold a couple of nice books and got a very reasonable price from him on them. I walked into the next booth and chatted with Chris Foss of Heroes and Dragons. I've bought from Chris in the past, and let me just say that Chris is one of the great guys in the business that I've met, and I would say all my dealings with him have been fair and honest. I've never heard of any problems with Chris, and this time was no different. I got a chance to talk to him at length, and he loves talking about the books and where books came from and his extensive World's Finest run and some sweet, sweet Hawkmans I examined. I bought two Hawkmans from Chris mostly because I liked talking to him and knew I'd eventually buy some books somewhere and I would like to give him the business. I know I'll be specifically looking for him in the future. Why deal with the guys who frauds when there's still good guys left in the hobby (so I put him on the short list of guys I want to continue to do business with). It was the only cash I spent at the show, and got an incredible eye appeal Hawkman 7 and a 9.6 raw Hawkman 12. Both amazing books.

 

Then it was time for lunch again. Rounded up the troops including Chrisco, Solar (Brett), Dave, Gene and his girlfriend, Tom Gordon and Bruce and we headed out to the ESPN Zone. After seeing it had a long wait, everyone but Solar moved to Phillips again. Another great lunch with the guys and Dave and Gene were off. I went back to the show to start circulating and looking for books. I still had a lot of cash but there was nothing to blow me away. Even in talking to Donut (Dan), he confirmed that there were just no amazing books in the room. I did have books to trade though, and decided trades would be good.

 

First I started off with the Flash 123 (VG/VG+) I had and traded that to Dale Roberts for 4 nice books including a solid Fine Mystery in Space 80, a VF+ JLA 88, a VF+ JLA (can't rememer the #) and another nice book (which again I can't remember).

 

Then I found a box of $5 warehouse find books that were kind of dinged up. But there were a few nice ones in there and got a 9.6 Crisis #7 and a random Flash.

 

I saw Comics and More from the King of Prussia mall and Plymouth Meeting Mall set up, and they have a nice collection, but the books are generally overgraded by a half to a full point. The guy doing the grading is nice enough though, I would recommend them as a store to anyone because their service is excellent. I bring it up because I saw Chuck Rozanski buy a short box of comics full of "wall books" and "high grades" that will hit his site no doubt overgraded as well. Still, you gotta love Chuck.

 

By the end of the show, it was time to wheel and deal a book to Jeff Weaver of Mad Cow and I traded a Daredevil 7 mid grade and a mid grade JIM 94 to him for four early 200s Flashs (all 9.2-9.4) and a nice Brave and the Bold 63 9.0/9.2 -- I thought a very nice deal all around. Of course I could have held onto the books, but I was happy picking up some sweeeet DCs.

 

Bruce and I packed up and left for the drive back. We grabbed a bite of Chinese by Bruce and picked through some of his raw overstock which Bruce (who is the ultimate in generous) gave me.

 

And then it was home...

 

Another Baltimore Comiccon has come and gone. Overall, there were no great books at the con. I got mixed reaction from the dealers in that Saturday was a good, but not great day, and Sunday was an ok day. Some dealers had a good show, and there were very few outright complaints from anyone. As usual, Graham Crackers had their vastly overgraded books with them. I took a few down, and of course, overgraded. It ran the gamut. Saw a lot of low grade keys, saw Joe Verenault had some nice stuff. Stopped by Richard Evans booth and he had some fantastic books, but nothing that was really amazing. Overall I thought that the Baltimore Con was a blast, but not the place to hunt down the amazng find. Although I am not crazy about the show, I'm somewhat excited by the National because CGC is doing on site and there will be a big dealer turnout. Of course Carbo was running around courting ACTOR, and I didn't even want to be at the table with him. Let Kevin Brogan handle dealing with Carbo. But, I do think it'd be good if the National was a success... I'm skipping Boston cause I'm frankly tired of comics for a while and the prosepct of thinking about Ewert and the whole situation seems unnecessary.

 

Marc Nathan runs a first rate show, and Baltimore remains one of my favorites for the year.

[chrisco37]

Chrisco provided the most bitter moment of the con for me snagged a Miracleman 1-16 for $160!!! And it had a 9.4 Miracleman 15 (at least a 9.4, maybe a 9.6) that basically paid for the whole set. Unreal. He got it off a table that I was standing right next to and didn't even look at.

 

 

Sorry Brian.

[Foolkiller]

 

I'm buying a complete set soon, probably for around $200, so I can't be that bitter.

[namisgr]

Bought ten raw books - here are some highlights:

 

The DCs:

Diamond Run pedigree (from Harley)

 

Awesome cover (from Joe V)

 

Nice Kaluta cover art (from Al Stoltz)

 

 

The Marvels:

NM/NM- with white pages (from Ted)

 

Nice color preservation (from Harley)

 

Blazing cover colors (Q) married to interior (I suspect this was an Eastern Press file cover)

[sfilosa]

Great books.

 

Did you feel that you got nice prices or did you have to pay CGC prices?

 

Also, do you worry about restoration? All I can say is that one of the dealers you mentioned I bought two major keys from many, many years ago and both had restoration (one had tear seals and the other was cleaned and pressed).

[Red Hook]

Why don't you just pm him with the name of the dealer if you think he should be concerned.

[Foolkiller]

I think Bob only mentioned two dealers: Harley and Ted

[Red Hook]

So they're both under suspicion?

 

If you're going to make a public statement like that, share it with the class!

 

My big question is....what did Steve do with the books after they came back?

[Darthdiesel]

Bats 227 front

 

Bats 227 back

[Darthdiesel]

Brave and the Bold 40 - Cave Carson issue

 

BB40 back

[Darthdiesel]

Angel and the Ape 5

 

From Foolkiller's dealer buddy, Ben of Zapp Comix - I have a whole slew of Mille from 123 - 186, a Chili 2, Combat Kelly 4 and 5, My love 4 and 31, our love story 1, adventure comics pres. supergirl 401. I bought most of my haul from him and the dealer right next to him in the last aisle. That guy said he was still in the middle of pricing a collection but would be glad to hold books for me if I picked them out and bought them the next day. Unfortunately, my wife was ill Sunday morning so we had to leave town earlier than planned.

[Darthdiesel]

ASM 129

[tth2]

Darth, would you mind making your scans a little bigger? I really love to scroll sideways.

[namisgr]

Nice haul, Darth, looks like you had a very enjoyable Con.

 

The books I posted are from 4 different dealers. Prices for high grade raw books are high these days, and often approach slab prices. Do I worry about restoration? I check for it as best I can (tear seals are relatively easy to pick up), but for books that I don't plan to slab, I'm not especially concerned. For instance, I picked up a TOS55 that very likely had a cover cleaning - the book is a nice, affordable copy of a non-key issue, and it was a heck of alot cheaper than a high grade slab version. The ST108 is definitely not kosher - it has two sets of staples, one for the interior alone, and the second for marrying the file copy cover to the interior. I bought it because it is a phenomenal copy despite the Qualification, surely the best preserved ST108 that I will ever see. These file copy covers (and this is my second) are jaw droppers, and look nicer than any pedigree book I own.

 

I will probably have the FF 72, a Conan 1, the MIS 84, and the TTA 45 slabbed at some point. In the unlikely even that any of them comes back with restoration, I would not hesitate to return the book to the dealer - all of the guys I bought from are stand-up individuals who would take back a purchase if it were misrepresented. I love having lots of unslabbed books in my collection - I enjoy looking through them, smelling them, and appreciating the cover art without the plastic intrusion.

[drbanner]

I have at least one book that I purchased from Harley that is restored (trimmed), but was not sold as such. He's one of my favorite dealers b/c he has such a great selection, but I've taken many books down off his wall and noted CT without having to take the book out of the bag.

 

Never had a problem with undisclosed/unknown restoration from Ted, so I will assume that Harley is who Steve was referring to.

 

Ponder these things...