Thanks PeaceMaker for the info. I remember the way they sold these overpriced leather bound books and framed prints is that they said it follows the green on white instructions of buy something that is an investment but that you can’t get your hands on easily to liquidate it and that way it is a way to tie up or hide money that you can get later if you really need it. They sold more prints that way but when people did try selling them, they couldn’t find buyers for it or it didn’t sell for what they were told it would sell for.

The scary part is that Mel Brooks has a small resemblance to LRH. Except for the flaming red hair, of course.

Here’s an idea I’ve been toying with. Remember the 1978 movie ‘Nasty Habits’ with Glenda Jackson? It’s the film where they use nuns to make fun of the Nixon Administration. I would love to do a remake except have it make fun of Scientology instead. We could use nuns and monks playing L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, the Broekers, etc. If done just right it could be a cinematic hit! I just don’t know how to bring it about.

Spot on, Aqua! I’ve known several New Yorkers and they don’t take guff from anybody!

The “commemorative” and “collector” stuff often shows up on eBay. Sometimes it gets listed for close to original price, presumably by the person who (over) paid for it and needs to try to get their money back out of it, or someone under the mistaken impression that if it was so expensive to begin with it must still have a lot of value to some people with money (a frequent mistake of amateur sellers who imagine they’ve stumbled upon a treasure).

The prints, however many hundreds or thousands of dollars they went for originally, seem to have a market value around $75 from what I recall seeing of actual sales, except for a couple of sci-fi scenes by famous artists (Franzetta?) illustrating Hubbard stories but without any obvious Scientology connection.

Overpriced jewelry like IAS pins seem to be another item fairly often found for sale in the higher price ranges, also often apparently listed by owners who don’t seem to understand that the large markup beyond the actual value of the metal and chip gemstones in the piece that they were charged, is not something any real-world buyer is willing to pay for.

Commerative leatherbounds for thousands of dollars as a collector’s item. lol

That’s what they did with all the pictures from the Mission Earth book. One consultant at Sterling Management Systems had his expensive picture of Countess Krak on his wall and was finally told to take it down cuz it was too provocative for the conservative clients who had to face that picture the whole time he was talking to them at his desk. When people later needed money and tried to sell those commemorative pictures, they could find no takers. What a bad “investment.”

When Zaroz (1974) first came out I immediately thought of the R6 ‘god’ image on the cover of the cheap ethics book. A false god in both instances. You nailed it.

What if a Tantric Touch Assisterer brought every assist to a climax? Would their VGI stats give them ethics protection? How high would their stats have to be? Would it depend on who it was on the command chain that got the relief? Just wondering.