Panther;

I had to go back and reread my post to see if you was actually responding to me!

At no point in my post did I say or even imply that my collecting habits are good while your collecting habits are bad, or vice versa. As I have ALWAYS stated on these boards here, everybody has different collecting interests and collect in their own unique way. It's not up to you or me to say who is right or wrong, as it is really "to each their own".

As Tim has already noted in a later post, I am normally a HG collector. I actually like your phrasing very much as I also go after the best condition book I can afford for a particular book I am after, depending upon availability. I hope you don't have a copyright on this phrase.

With respect to being a cry baby and spouting sob stories, I certainly did not mean it in the way that you seem to be taking it. If a collector gets intentionally ripped off by somebody, then I fully support them coming onto the boards here to "out" the individual. This helps to prevent other fellow collectors from being ripped off.

It seems that Tim understood what I was talking about with respect to risks inherent in the type of books that an individual choses to collect. For an extreme example, if you choose to spend over $10K for a Hero For Hire #1 or almost $10K for only a 9.6 copy of Thor #126, you should be aware of the various risks that you are exposing yourself to and always take them into account when purchasing a book.

And believe me, there are a lot of different types of risks when you are talking about 5 figures for a book, when the price being paid really has virtually nothing to do with the underlying book itself, and really everything to do about the number on the label. So, all I am really saying is don't come back and complain when one of these risks comes back and takes a bite out of your investment dollars.

In your specific example, you seem to be referring to the Ewert books. Well, if you remember back to 2003, virtually everybody on the boards here were absolutely red hot in love with Jason and his uber HG books at the time. A few members, including myself, expressed some caution and doubts with respect to how he was able to almost at will pull uber HG books out from long boxes at conventions using nothing but his eagle-sharp eyes when nobody else could do this. Especially when Jason didn't bother to respond to my questions on his eBay listings about possible work being done on the books.

Not surprisingly, I was called a lot of nasty names similar to right now, as everybody was just in an absolutely steamy love affair with Jason and his books. Needless to say, we all know the sad and unfortuante end of this story. The important thing to note is that the warning signs were already all there. You just had to use a little common sense, ask some questions, or read some of the dissenting views on the boards here.

If buyers choose to ignore the warning signs or fail to conduct due diligence and lose out, they should also take some of the responsibilities for their own actions. Once again, it is not realistice to expect CGC to catch everything. Even they admit this as their label cearly states they will make a good faith effort, but do not actually warranty their restoration check.

I am actually impressed with CGC and Brulato for making the reimbursement on books that were subsequently found to be trimmed as this is certainly over and above what they were legally required to do. Of course, the entire communications things left a lot to be desired as communications has never been one of CGC's strong points. The relationship with Brulato is a little worrisome too, especially if he knew what was going on. Not as worrisome, but still of some concern if he didn't know what was going on, as this basically means the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, considering that VIA had been in operations for quite awhile.

What I found really surprising is that none of the collectors or victims went after Ewert himself as the lawyers involved couldn't find anybody that was willing to participate in the case. This is what I meant when I used the term "cry babies"......ignore the risks or warning signs, complain when they lose, expect somebody else to reimburse or bail them out, and doesn't bother to pursue the real perpetrators of the crime when presented with the opportunity. If it was me, I would be chasing after Jason like there was no tomorrow. Ask me about Danny boy someday!

As for your last point, nobody deserves a strike here and I am not sure about your comment on Greggy haunting my dreams. I've never had any personal dealings with Greggy and I have only talked to him very briefly at a couple of cons. Not exactly sure what his problem with me is and I really should ask him the next time I see him since he seems to be a pretty nice guy otherwise. I don't have anything personal against him and all I really know is that he likes to collect CD 100 pagers and he also likes to wear short shorts (at least according to you guys).