I frequented the board often and whenever anything critical was said about the magazine, staffers would reply with childish like remarks, posts would be deleted, but the posts defending Wizard would be allowed to remain.

http://www.comicspriceguide.com is the best source for comic book pricing. On their forums they interact with collectors like others and myself and they take into consideration our suggestions when it comes to the current market value of books.

Wizard, R.I.P.

In the aftermath of your dismissal you managed to paint yourself as the most persecuted person on the face of the planet. All the while dragging the names of innocent people through the mud who did nothing but show up for work every day and perform the responsibilities they were given. And I find that downright laughable, especially given the fact that a steady stream of people would come through my office asking why we didn’t fire you, citing how difficult you were to work with and such an unpleasant personality to deal with. Those same people who wished you well on message boards when you spread your venom everywhere. But those are the stories that don’t make it to message boards.

Unfortunately, you still haven’t moved on and dedicate energy to wishing ill to people who just want to get up in the morning and support their families. I can honestly say that over the course of 20+ years in hiring staff, you’re the biggest regret I have. You’re just not a good person. And yes, I was fired by Wizard too. But I’ve moved on. Maybe it’s time you did.

And I’d also recommend you move to the other side of the street should we ever see each other again.
Joe Yanarella

There’s just no way to spin the act without making them look like complete wieners.

Even if it turns out to be another billing issue or something else completely accidental (and based on the story above, that’s not impossible) the damage is done. People have made up their minds about what “really happened”, and no facts will shift it.

There’s very little a company can do that won’t be taken as a negative by its detractors. So anything and everything Wizard does will be shown to be a sign that they’re on their last legs. Their recent decision to get rid of the price guide is “obviously” a sign that the industry has left them behind, as opposed to maybe an attempt to become more about the comics than their price.

They failed.

In the end… MAGNUS WAS RIGHT.

I’m going to spend a lot of money, read books…with no one talk to about them. Blows.

See you at panelsforpages.com

Al

When I was let go, Wizard never bothered to continue paying for the message board, and since I was still the primary admin and contact between the hosting company and Wizard (the Wiz crew never bothered to find out how to change that stuff), they contacted me about it when the bill came due (they had my personal contact info due to how often I communicated w/ them off-hours and weekends) and no one was paying. I told the hosting company the situation, and they tried to contact Wizard to get things settled – only to receive
the ol’ “we’ll get back to you” runaround.

The hosting company eventually called me back, and asked if there was anybody else at Wizard who I thought would be interested in keeping the boards running, and we (the hosting company and I) eventually decided to put the boards in my name (and on my credit card) to keep them live while Wizard got around to deciding if they wanted to keep them. It seemed pretty dickish to shut down the boards and the community we’d developed there because Wizard couldn’t get their shit together, and I figured I’d give it a month to either get settled w/ Wizard or, in the event that it never happens, put the fate of the board at the hands of the members.

A week or two went by with no word from Wizard, so I figured a proper “nudge” was necessary. I started ratcheting down staffers’ admin access and limiting the staffers’ moderating abilities – and even changed the official name of the board from “Wizard Universe Message Boards” to “WUMB” throughout the system.

Just shy of the one-month mark, I tried to log in and discovered that my account had been deleted and my IP blocked. A call to the hosting company revealed that Wizard had finally settled up with them and found someone to pay for the boards, so they were refunding the charges on my credit card that had kept the site afloat. The hosting company’s reps seemed genuinely frustrated by the entire situation, as they hadn’t received a response from Wizard after weeks of calls and emails, only to get a bunch of angry complaints when I started changing staffers’ admin controls. From what I gather, the hosting company informed them that they’d actually have to pay for the boards if they wanted to, well… own them.

So, yeah… that’s why the boards’ departure isn’t really a surprise to me. Heck, I’m more surprised that it took this long for them to drop it.