( 
)Dealers who sell original comic art by: varian_disaster( 224)
Guide viewed: 343 times Tags: davekarlen | original art | comic books | collectibles
I wanted to respond to this "guide" to tell my side of the story, since I did not get any help from eBay in trying to deal with varian_disaster and his comments, when this was posted 4 months after the transaction date. His statements concerning this matter are false, misleading, and libelous to my character.
This my experience with a comic art dealer by the name of Dave Karlen who has his own website:www.davekarlenoriginalart.com.I bid for and won a Roy krenkal drawing item( #130030391346.) and didn't have the money to pay for it immediately when the auction ended and asked him if i could pay him for the drawing at a slightly later date-he was annoyed with me for doing this,as he said i should have asked him first,other ebayers are reasonable on this point,and i understood his annoyance-i wanted the item and hoped he would be reasonable as he wanted payment within a week.I asked him for his paypal account details which he didn't provide(despite him INSISTING he needed payment via paypal) and i asked him me 2-3 times so,given the narrow time frame he wanted the payment and because he is boorish and unhelpful,i sent him money in U.S currancy ($268.00) via trackable mail(international signed for letter#RI 8439 69006GB)despite his protestations that he needed payment via paypal he accepted the payment method(after all i was paying for the item) and more importantly, the sale.
I posted a drawing that was consigned to me to sell for a friend, and varian_disaster was the high bidder for $268. He contacted me after the sale to ask for time to make payments, partial, or delayed weeks to pay in full, and I informed him that since I did not own the piece, I couldn't do time payments because my consignor needed the funds. I said if you don't have the money you don't have to take the piece, but please next time let me know if you have problems paying before you bid. He wanted the art, and I said since he was in England and I was in the USA, paypal was the safest way to get the funds and asked him to provide them in a week, and gave him my paypal email at that time, there was no delay on my part to provide that information.
So he sent cash money in the mail, and the bottom line is, I never got it.
I sent payment to the address he gave me,8745 ferndale road #146,dallas, texas 75238 and we waited for him to recieve the letter.After 3 weeks the letter still hadn't arrived and i only found out it's fate when i telephoned the royal mail and they told me the letter had been signed for and when i got back to Dave Karlen,he denied any knowledge of it and NOT signing for the letter.It turns out that the letter had been signed for at a DIFFERENT address at zip code 75254,some 10.3 miles away from his 'address'.I sent my letter on 5/10/06 and it was signed for in Dallas Texas on 20/10/06 at 10.47 am and when i confronted mr karlen about this he stated it was 'stolen' and to date has NOT helped me claim the money back or even exhonorate himself and has been very cagey around investigating how a letter addressed to him and only he knew was coming,ended up at another address at a different zip code?
As stated above, I never received the letter and provided my home address. I don't know what happened in transit, or how it ended up at another location. I suspect the zip code he used was wrong on the post, but I never signed for any letter, and never found out the address, just the zip code of where it went. I spoke with the post office and my mail carrier about the matter, and there response was that if you send cash in the mail, it's just stolen, which is what I believe happened here.
He COULD have told me about his business address at 7929 ROYAL LANE DALLAS TEXAS #108 75230 but he chose NOT to-he got me to send it to FERNDALE ROAD because he knew it would be REDIRECTED to the undetermined address at 75254.There is only one word for this and that is FRAUD. Mr Karlen was 'stolen' from and he is seemingly TOO stupid to report it or to get the police involved: he did sign for the letter and it is obvious that he had the letter redirected because how could he be 'stolen' from otherwise? He stole my money out of pure spite and CONTEMPT-I hope a lot of art collectors read this:ALL of this chaos,all because i bid on,won an auction and didn't pay up soon enough or according to his payment method(which he was to stupid or ignorant to supply me with in the first place).
The address above is my business address, which would work to receive payment, but the home address I provided is faster, since I am not always in the office. I know this bidder is upset, but there was no fraud, misdirection, or anything to report to the police. I don't believe asking for paypal for an international transaction was stupid or ignorant on my part, and did not steal this bidders money out of pure spite or contempt. I just never received the funds, so I couldn't send him the item, but I paid the consignor anyway, and still have the art. Please don't anybody send cash in the mail, or this just might happen to you.
The collecting community has to be protected against opportunistic thieves and scoundrals like Dave Karlen of davekarlenoriginalart.com.If he had been so annoyed,why not just leave negative feedback? When Mr Karlen claimed the item was 'stolen', he even asked if was i willing to resend the lost payment! No,your eyes are NOT decieving you....,resend the payment!!!I paid for my item which i never recieved and he wanted MORE money from me!Like i was going to trust him with MORE of my money,a man who ALLOWS his postage to be stolen and does NOTHING ABOUT IT-suspicious isn't it folks?Needless to say i withdrew from the sale.I wasn't able to leave negative feedback at the time because i trusted him and all the uncertainty around the letter took 3 months to solve:he lied to me pointblank and all for the princely sum of $268.00(£150).
I've had many transactions selling artwork over the years, sending items all over the world, and never had any problems before. Check out my feedback and my customers comments. I told varian_disaster I never got payment early on, and asked did he want to send it again, so I could mail out the art. Then he could deal with tracking down what happened for a refund, which I would help all I could with the limited information I had. I believe the bidder waited too long to start researching the tracking of his letter, but I did complete some forms from the USPS to help him get his refund back from the Royal Mail. Whether he got his refund or not, I do not know. I have never left negative feedback for anyone, and was not going to start now, because I was not upset over a sale that never took place. I was just sorry his money was stolen by someone in transit and he blamed me.
So,i would warn any potential customers to be very wary when dealing with mr karlen because the postal address he gave me is NOT his home address:I discovered that there are 2 other addresses for mr Karlen-7929 royal lane,#108dallas texas 75230 which was on his web page but he DELIBERATELY gave me the ferndale road address from which my letter was mysteriously redirected to zip code 75254,I take THIS address at zip 75254 to be his real address,so PLEASE be very careful dealing with this thief!As of today,(1/10/07) , his website and another website i consulted says that his home address is 7929 ROYAL LANE#108 DALLAS ,TEXAS 75230.Also his business address-Isn't this deception&FRAUD?Doesn't this also make him a liar?Either
Either address would have worked, if I ever got the post. I have no need or desire to take money from this bidder on a sale that was never completed. I am sorry that varian_disaster is so distraught, that he launched this personal attack against my character in February of 2007 and has to update this "guide" with more name calling, just a few weeks ago. I am a lawyer by trade and sell art for fun as a hobby, but there was nothing fun about this bidder. But I am truly sorry that eBay would allow such views to be posted in violation of the rules. This is no guide, but an attack against me for the foolish actions of another.
SO,Which address is his REAL address,business or otherwise?Your guess is as good as mine but,i advise extreme caution in dealing with this man.
The irony folks,is that his web page states that he practices law as a living(!)-perhaps this makes him a more efficient thief yes?
Guide ID: 10000000004271013Guide created: 02/09/07 (updated 17/12/07)
I am sorry varian_disaster did not get the art, but if you send cash in the mail, to the wrong address and someone else signs for it, I don't see how that could be my fault.
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