BUYERS BEWARE of Wilhelm F. Uthe Ripoff Artist 2 2

[comicnut]

Watch for WILHELM F UTHE

 

I am making this post to let all buyers or people that trade aware of this person.

I sent this person a Mickey Mouse Coloring Book and a Silver Streak #3 in VF.

He was originally going to send me a Jumbo #1 in gd for trade and then I was going to send some X-Men and others. Not only did he keep changing how much stuff he wanted in the deal but he changed how much he was giving me in trade value for what I sent him. After one whole year of trying to deal with this insufficiently_thoughtful_person I finally said to send my books back. He refused and wouldn't even reply to me anymore.

I found some people that knew of him. They emailed him and then he finally emailed me again. At this point I just asked him to either send the comics back or send me an equal value of comics, my choice from a list he provided.

I picked 2 comics (Scoop 1 and Masked Marvel 1 in gd/vg to take care of half of what he owed). He said the books were more like vg/fn's so it should take up more like 3/4 of what he owed. I said just send the books so I would get something.

He sent them to Matt Nelson whom received and graded them both as Fr/Gd's, then sent them on to me. When I got them they were indeed FR/Gd's with most of the covers split and pieces out.

I emailed Wilhelm back and told him of my dismay and he said he wouldn't send anything more unless I accepted his grading. At this point I was done arguing so just said to send another book which he then never sent. Now he never replies to my emails again.

 

I want to make sure that nobody gets ripped off by this person.

 

His emails are: Elfdie202@aol.com and Scottplus@aol.com

 

He had an ebay account but got way too many negatives and punted (after I sent him the books unfortunately).

 

Wilhelm F. Uthe

Bgm.-Soehlke-Str. 22

D-31840 Hess.Oldendorf

Germany

 

If anyone has any info on him I would be happy to hear.

Feel free to post comments to keep this thread going.

[batman_fan]

That really sucks! Thanks for posting the warning so others can be on the look-out.

[tb]

In 2004, a good friend of mine paid almost $10,000 for a raw Disney comic from this gentleman. The book was described as NM unrestored but was clearly overgraded. It later came back from CGC as a 4.0 with purple label. Mr. Uthe declined to do anything about it (except for an offer to trade the book for another copy in even worse condition) and stopped replying to courteous and constructive e-mails. My friend wrote off the book as a complete and very bitter loss. He sold it for a tiny fraction of the purchase price just to put the bad experience behind him.

 

I did not want to mention this before to stay out of trouble, but I'd like it to be on his record for future searches.

 

Keywords: Wilhelm Uthe, Germany, Disney, scam, fraud.

[Thegoldenage]

This guy has been on ebay under many different names. About 5 years ago another collector and I spent some time chasing him around ebay and getting him suspended. He just kept popping back up. I finally gave up after ebay refused to do anything about it.

[Thegoldenage]

In 2004, a good friend of mine paid almost $10,000 for a raw Disney comic from this gentleman. The book was described as NM unrestored but was clearly overgraded. It later came back from CGC as a 4.0 with purple label. Mr. Uthe declined to do anything about it (except for an offer to trade the book for another copy in even worse condition) and stopped replying to courteous and constructive e-mails. My friend wrote off the book as a complete and very bitter loss. He sold it for a tiny fraction of the purchase price just to put the bad experience behind him.

 

Sorry, but anyone who would send that kind of money to Germany, without seeing the book first other than in scans should consider having his financial transactions supervised.

[supapimp]

In 2004, a good friend of mine paid almost $10,000 for a raw Disney comic from this gentleman. The book was described as NM unrestored but was clearly overgraded. It later came back from CGC as a 4.0 with purple label. Mr. Uthe declined to do anything about it (except for an offer to trade the book for another copy in even worse condition) and stopped replying to courteous and constructive e-mails. My friend wrote off the book as a complete and very bitter loss. He sold it for a tiny fraction of the purchase price just to put the bad experience behind him.

 

Sorry, but anyone who would send that kind of money to Germany, without seeing the book first other than in scans should consider having his financial transactions supervised.

 

you'd figure that if some dude had $10K to spend on a book he'd fly out to germany to kick his bleeding arse.

[Sal]

This guy has been on ebay under many different names. About 5 years ago another collector and I spent some time chasing him around ebay and getting him suspended. He just kept popping back up. I finally gave up after ebay refused to do anything about it.

 

what were his user id's, if you remember?

[tb]

In 2004, a good friend of mine paid almost $10,000 for a raw Disney comic from this gentleman. The book was described as NM unrestored but was clearly overgraded. It later came back from CGC as a 4.0 with purple label. Mr. Uthe declined to do anything about it (except for an offer to trade the book for another copy in even worse condition) and stopped replying to courteous and constructive e-mails. My friend wrote off the book as a complete and very bitter loss. He sold it for a tiny fraction of the purchase price just to put the bad experience behind him.

 

Sorry, but anyone who would send that kind of money to Germany, without seeing the book first other than in scans should consider having his financial transactions supervised.

 

you'd figure that if some dude had $10K to spend on a book he'd fly out to germany to kick his bleeding arse.

 

I agree this was extremely naive. So does the buyer and he is much more careful now. Still, I really hate it when scam artists are preying on inexperienced collectors, no matter how wealthy they are (Wilhelm Uthe was lucky that my friend didn't think pursuing the matter was worth his time). Uthe has also offered me books in private e-mails several times after seeing my bids on eBay. I just want to chime in warning other collectors against him.

[ronm3-migration]

wow that guy contacted me 2 years ago trying to sell me a batman 23 which he stated was a 9.4. I asked him to send me scans which he did. The whole thing didnt seem right so I just let it go.

[whomerjay]

In 2004, a good friend of mine paid almost $10,000 for a raw Disney comic from this gentleman. The book was described as NM unrestored but was clearly overgraded. It later came back from CGC as a 4.0 with purple label. Mr. Uthe declined to do anything about it (except for an offer to trade the book for another copy in even worse condition) and stopped replying to courteous and constructive e-mails. My friend wrote off the book as a complete and very bitter loss. He sold it for a tiny fraction of the purchase price just to put the bad experience behind him.

 

Sorry, but anyone who would send that kind of money to Germany, without seeing the book first other than in scans should consider having his financial transactions supervised.

 

you'd figure that if some dude had $10K to spend on a book he'd fly out to germany to kick his bleeding arse.

 

my thoughts exactly

[whomerjay]

we need a CGC board vigilante squad in every state and country.

[Timulty]

I will start the one for Arkansas but Hobo probably won't need an kicking for a while.

[mrwoogieman]

I was one of the people that you emailed about this deal, comicnut, if I recall correctly. I had done two or three different deals with Wilhelm a few years back, trading GA books for GA books. The deals we did ended up fine, but everything was set before books were exchanged as to what exactly was being traded for what.

 

If I recall correctly (and that's not a given certainly), the deal you're describing wasn't completely set but was conditioned upon a grading evaluation or something like that. Something like if it was x grade these books were in play, but if it was y grade, then it would be different. It wasn't my affair, so I didn't pay much attention. Anyway, that did give me some pause when you emailed me asking about Wilhelm, the part about sending comics without having a specific set deal in mind beforehand.

 

One thing I noticed about Wilhelm is that he overgrades by at least a point, so that must be taken into account if you're dealing with him. He does seem to have a fantastic GA collection, however.

 

Sorry to hear your deal didn't work out, and that you weren't treated fairly.

[comicnut]

Thanks for all the responses forumites!!!

 

The deal with Wilhelm and I was set in stone. The problem was that he kept changing his deal. I was the one to send books out first because he had the more expensive book (Jumbo #1). He was then supposed to send the Jumbo and then I the rest of the books. After I sent the books he didn't want to do that, he wanted me to send them all first. Now I may be somewhat naive sending books in the first place, but I did contact some people, to ensure he was legit. In the end after lots of silence from him and then him emailing again I came up with a great solution.

I would send the rest of the books I owed him to a long time comic book store, whom also has a couple thousand feedback on ebay. I provided him with the owner's name, address, phone number etc. This was okay with Wilhelm. After all of the books were at the store (including a Donald Duck Atom Bomb wheatie), they sent an email to him stating such. It was now Wilhelm turn, but again he changed his mind and the deal.

The one thing you may remember about the grade was that the Silver Streak #3 I sent was a VF restored. But only due to a reglossing of the cover. I had researched out the reglossing and it turned out that the book came from a famous collection (can't remember which) where the owner reglossed a bunch of key books. In any case It was CGC'd 8.0 purple and I had informed Wilhelm as such.

 

Let's keep this thread going.

Anyone else have any bad stories about this guy?

[CentaurMan]

I got rooked by him a number of years ago, when I was still a relative novice. I guess he's been doing it for a while. How do you think he got that great collection?

 

Actually, in the grand scheme of things it wasn't that bad. I got a Blue Ribbon #1 and a Whiz Comics #2 from him, and the problem with both was overgrading. I had seen a scan of the Blue Ribbon, but couldn't tell until I got the book that it was brittle down the spine. The Whiz #2 was supposed to be CGC graded, but he sent it in a cracked-open slab with no label, and yes, it was overgraded.

 

I didn't lose anything but money (I traded him a few things not in my core collection, like a Looney Tunes #4 and a duplicate More Fun), but MY GOD it was a hell of hassle trying to communicate with the guy, and he was always changing the terms of the deal to the point where I felt lost.

 

I agree 100%, avoid this guy like the plague. I'm getting irritated just typing this e-mail.

[eccomic]

This clown approched me about 4 years ago offering me one of the rare British EC comics published by Arnold in the 1950's and wanted me to trade him an early More Fun DC title, or the like, and he told me he did NOT have a scanner, so I could not see the British EC

 

I told him to hit the road and smelled a scam..... I bet he never had the EC book and would have gladly had me ship out the early DC and of course his book would have never materialized.

 

The one thing that stood out is how horrible his spelling was in our email correspondance, as maybe he was pretending his English was poor.

 

What an A@@hole!

 

Sorry for you loss Comicnut

 

Cheers,

 

Stephen Lipson

[comicnut]

Update,

I did a search for Wilhelm name and came up with a person on ebay whom had used his name in the About Me section. This person lives in Germany also:

Here is what he put:

 

Ebay seller: pumbasimba

 

Pumba's und Simba's Mini-eBay-Shop

Comics, Lps, CDs, Bücher, Romane & Krimskrams

alles was bei uns 'über' ist, bieten wir hier nach und nach an. Wir freuen

uns immer, wenn man fair kaufen und verkaufen kann, und es dabei mit netten

Leuten zu tun hat !

 

Which translates to:

 

Pumba's it and Simba's it minuses-eBAY-Shop comic strips, Lps, CDS, books, novels & Krimskrams everything what is

here 'over', we offer here gradually. We are happy always if one fairly can buy and sell, and has to do it at the

same time with nice people!

 

Nothing big here but the next part is interesting:

 

Deshalb schliessen wir ausdrücklich Wilhelm Uthe, zuletzt bekannt aus

Hessisch Oldendorf, von allen unseren Auktionen aus. Ganz gleich, ob er als

Person oder Firma ("Team Antiquariat Nord") auftreten sollte, egal ob er

unter einem seiner zahlreichen bereits bekannten (zuletzt "Scottplus") oder

einem anderen eBay-account (neu bekannt geworden: "esliffoh", "eagle--fox",

"i-wimm") agieren sollte!

 

Therefore we exclude confessed specifically Wilhelm Uthe, finally out of Hessian Oldendorf, of all our auctions.

Very same, whether it should appear as a person or firm (" team Antiquariat north",), equal whether it should act

under one of its numerous already well known (finally "Scottplus") or one of other eBAY-account (newly confessed

become: "esliffoh", "eagle--fox", "i-wimm")!

 

So it seems this seller is excluding Wilhelm from all of his auctions and has listed some ebay alias that he goes by.

 

Let's keep this thread going so everyone will know not to deal with him.

Anybody know of anyother ebay alias he might have?

[comicnut]

This is from a comic forum in Germany!!!

It appears Wilhelm is being sued by his countrymen.

Hard to understand the translation.

 

Valued comic strip collectors

 

Can me someone with experiences concerning Mr. Wilhelm (Friedrich?) Help along Uthe?

 

I take relevant references or information of each type gladly directly, when PN or under "pfander.peter@bluewin.ch" toward.

With best thanks to

Alaska-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .

 

L. N. Muhr08.01.2006, 19:21 that there:

 

http://cgi3.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=pumbasimba

.... Or question once in the comicguide after..

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Alaska08.01.2006, 19:43 hello L. N. Muhr

 

Best thanks to for your information.

With "Pumbasimba", I already conversed take however the hint with the comicguide I gladly toward.

Thanks.. ------------------------------------------------------------------- .

 

Did eck@rt08.01.2006, 21:47 it find again a victim? Each in the old collector scene knows Wilhelm Uthe.

 

eck: Drt--------------------------------------------------------------------------- .

 

Vao08.01.2006, 22:00 wow. Who is that? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- .

 

Ralle5936810.01.2006, 10:39 wow. Who is that? I formulate it carefully: a malicious Vorkassen-Einstecker and were lower beater! : asthanos:

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L. N. Muhr10.01.2006, 12:14 altogether would interest me the story now also a little more detailed as far as that is possible.

 

Scheuch10.01.2006, 14:08 is not will watch me a public forum so simply... I bspw. to transmit or to indicate here experiences of others.

 

It was registered also once in the CF as a Wonder (or so).

 

My concrete case: I bought actually were a larger post of pockets books - condition nominally mint - the strongly activated Remi-copies.. 200 DM damage value of goods. - On the basis of reports of others I know that it would have go can me much worse.

 

Gentleman AND appears likewise as a buyer and as a salesman.

 

An Ebay-bidder bspw. W. Uthe dedicated the person on his ME-side an entire paragraph: http://cgi3.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=pumbasimba

 

-SCARE AWAY

 

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Alaska10.01.2006, 16:10 RALLE59368 encountered the kernel of the thing rather and naturally has scare away quite with its statements that a public "slander" can go into the eye.

 

Nevertheless lies to warn other unsuspecting comic strip fans with a few things on that against this man. There I me also only at the facts hold have would become I before negative consequences no respect.

 

In my case, it concerns said an Ebay purchase of an expensive Disney comic strip, more exact around the special notebook "the sword and the rose". Unfortunately did not hold off me my collector greed before a commandment although the bidder had no estimations. My mistake.

 

Next to this offer, the same bidder had completed became notebooks further favorable a couple in the offer that very normally (with positive estimations). At the end, I had the extra charge and have my transfer getaetigt with a not insignificant sum. Hardly the salesman had was closed its money the Ebay Account and answered also no longer on my mails. There the Account no estimations at the beginning the commandment can had I with no aid at all on the part of the legal department of Ebay calculate.

 

Investigations for my part arose now that I am not the first victim (obviously had Mr. Uthe already over 20 Ebay name) and it placed however also out that no one had success with initiated legal steps.

 

My intention is to be found now sufficient damaged to initiate around together a collecting complaint. Because already a police place in Germany is informed about earlier cases and I submitted also complaint in Switzerland, this is to be encountered thoroughly a possibility without large characteristic risk Herrrn Uthe persistently. I not already wrote off will allow my personal financial loss however I, be drive can that Mr. Uthe nuisance further unbestraft further.

 

If therefore someone can announce information to the address or other experiences with Mr. Uthe to me, I would be for this very grateful.

 

Alaska

 

HP: I almost would have forgotten, I never received the notebook naturally!

 

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Ralle5936810.01.2006, 17:07 altogether would interest me the story now also a little more detailed as far as that is possible.

 

Uthe sufficiently is confessed the collector - not only of comic strips - the earlier hours, drove, gladly also with changing first name, be already at times the offer magazine comic strip press - late HIT - this being selectively than a sen. or jun. same Un- in the active scene. Certainly also Mr. nc-schmitt can transmit interesting to you if you privately concern it. Would damage actually, that yet no electronic stuck letter ist...:asdf available:

 

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L. N. Muhr10.01.2006, 17:10... naja, that passes first of all as a coarse overview..

 

Already badly, that such "bidders" so long hold themselves..

 

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Scheuch10.01.2006, 17:52 @ Alaska - get flour of me!

 

-SCARE AWAY

 

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Eck@rt10.01.2006, 18:13 @ Alaska: that do not relate I now on Wilhelm Uthe, but before a complaint, it is to be known always helpful whether the "partner" a has) money (already private insolvency registered) and b does not count) as accountable. Otherwise you produce only lawyer costs.

 

eck: Drt

 

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Ralle5936811.01.2006, 10:53 @ Alaska:... before a complaint it is to be known always helpful whether the "partner" a has) money (already private insolvency registered) and b does not count) as accountable. Otherwise you produce only lawyer costs.

 

eck: Drt

 

I only can join this advice! : (

[comicnut]

Here's another email account that you can watch out for:

320010926616@t-online.de

It has his signature on it.

 

Also I seen a thread a couple years ago where MRWoogieman and Ian Levine were dealing with him.

There input would be nice.

[Thegoldenage]

This might be him.

 

Wonder Woman 1