New York Times Article on the Scandal

[STL1944]

I apologize if someone else posted this, but just came across an article about the alteration "issue" in the hobby. The story is going mainstream...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/your-money/sports-card-alteration-fraud.html


P.S. Go Peter!

[frankbmd]

only 2 hours and 29 minutes late:D

[topcat61]

I gather this wasnt written by a card collector, but with that being said, there are a few glairing remarks made in this piece

1) "Mr. Huigens declined repeated requests for comment. His public relations representative said the company was involved in an investigation, but declined to provide details or the name of Mr. Huigens’s lawyer"

People have asked this question, and I've asked it -which agency is investigating and who is the investigating agent? Pretty simple.

2) P.S.A. charges up to $5,000 to grade a card. Mr. Moser said that its graders were not as knowledgeable as they purported to be and that they were overwhelmed by the volume of submissions and rushed the process. The grade you get, he said, depends as much on the grader as on the card.

Fraud in collectibles markets is rife but difficult to prove, said Carter Reich, a lawyer who specializes in art fraud cases. He, too, blamed grading companies for not following a universal standard.

“It’s their own standard,” he said, “and some other grading company has a different one.”


This brings me to universal standards and graders. So, here are my questions/thoughts-

Back as far as the early 1970's Dr. James Beckett came up with mathematical formulas and statistics to set grading and condition standards which worked fine until PSA had to reinvent the wheel. Once that happened, collectors and dealers got lazy and figured that didn't have to study this stuff and allowed a third party to think for them. No problem until something like this happens.

Secondly, has anyone ever asked these grading companies who are the graders and what are their credentials/training?

[Peter_Spaeth]

How many agencies could possibly be investigating? Think about it. I don't know for a fact of course, but it seems pretty likely it's the same one that investigated Mastro and Allen and Rogers, no?

[Leon]

I don't know for a fact either but I wouldn't doubt it and hope they are investigating. It isn't a secret that an FBI Special Agent, SA Brusokas, who investigates things in the hobby, and who helped to put several hobby individuals behind bars a few years ago, gave a nice speech at the Net54baseball Banquet (at the National Convention), a few years ago. He said he read this board every day (or almost daily), if I recall correctly. Maybe there will be some perp walks again in a few months. We can only hope so.

Also, since we are talking this exact same thing, the NY Times article, in a thread that is literally right next to it, I am going to lock this one. I don't see a need for 2 identical topic threads in a row. It confuses me. :)

How many agencies could possibly be investigating? Think about it. I don't know for a fact of course, but it seems pretty likely it's the same one that investigated Mastro and Allen and Rogers, no?