new member introduction
 

Hello All
As some of you may have heard, I , along with Harry Bryant, Phil Spector, Rob Mitchell and others have opened up an auction house. Goldin Auctions, www.goldinauctions.com
There is a great article about us in this weeks SCD (The National issue) if you can find it, it really explains why I opened the auction company, what our policies are, specialties, etc.
here are some bullet points...and to be blunt, I tried to take everything that bothered me/I would change about an auction company and fix it with goldin auctions.
I would appreciate your support to log in to www.goldinauctions.com to register.

some highlights
1. no more 18-20% buyers premium. our buyers premium is only 10%
2. no more having to run out and spend money to upgrade an auction LOA (how that annoys me, especially when it comes back 'no good' after a pre cert). We provide full LOA's
3. all autographed items will come with a LOA from a first party company (the witness) such as MLB, Steiner, UDA, or otherwise will come with a full LOA from PSA/DNA
4. all game used items will come with a letter directly from player, team, and absent that a letter from Mears (jersey) or Mears/PSA/DNA (bats)
5. considering my background in player relations, our specialty will be bringing player collections to the auction.
6. we will have over 1000 lots in the first auction, featuring Babe Ruth autographed bat, 1980 Phils WS ring, Alomar gold glove, Jordan Amex card, Rice TD jersey, Jordan game used jersey, The Bernie parent collection, The Dave Schultz collection, rare baseball cards, and i promise you this, a lot of big surprises that are going to shock some people that a 'new' auction house got such a valuable and prestigious item .

1st Auction will close Nov 1st or 2nd (waiting on World Series schedule).
please log into www.goldinauctions.com to register now. free catalog with every registration. we plan on running quarterly auctions.
feel free to PM me, or email me directly with any questions, as well as consignments.
ken@goldinauctions.com

Welcome Ken.

And our members should know that Ken is going to be an advertiser on the board through some email blasts and/or banners. As most know these kind of front page threads are reserved for our valued advertisers. Other auctions and businesses should post in the Buy/Sell/Trade (BST) section in the appropriate category. I should mention too that Ken and I just had a really good phone conversation and I am excited about him being a member of our board. It is always good to have well respected and seasoned hobbyists join us in our reindeer games. regards

good luck
 

i think you missed some of the biggest bullet points...

1. will the auction house owners consign their own material?
2. how will shill bidding by consigners be controlled?
3. how will you prove that auction house owners dont place hidden "reserve bids?"

thanks, and i love the 10% buyers premium, well done

Auction houses seller their own items have never bothered me. For the record.

LOl Scott. While there are some easy targets out there, I will not take shots at companies that are in the news for a variety of things that are being accused of. I will say that I and the people involved all have been in the business for 20+ years EACH (I am 46, and sold my first BB card at 12, bought my first at 9). We are all very well aware of all the items in the news and all of us like our families and homes,and have no interest in spending 'time away from them' and will be taking every precaution to avoid the negatives that have been recently been in the news about some of the existing businesses. In this environment, I am glad we will be running our FIRST auction Nov 1.
I am always open to suggestions to improve your experience in dealing with Goldin Auctions.

Also: I invite everyone to 'like' us on facebook at Goldin auctions. We have a ton of images of our booth at National with many items that are on consignment, as well as Dave Schultz and Bernie Parent dropping off their collections, and photos of players and old friends visiting us at the National

Will there be House Bidding at Goldin Auctions?

Best wishes, Ken
 

Hi Ken,
I want to wish you all the best with your company. I'm glad to see you announce this on our great community here on Net 54.
It's been many decades since we first met at Willow Grove when we were teenagers and our Dad's drove us around to shows!
I'm looking forward to seeing your auctions and it's nice to re-new our friendship. All the best to you, your family and your company.
Your Friend,
Bill Hedin

Will Don West of Shop at Home fame be making a cameo appearance? That was some classic late-night TV:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-K7A1QGtuUU

Good luck with your auction!

Yikes! Let's hope he runs the auction with a whole lot more integrity than he did when he was misrepresenting stuff on Home Shopping otherwise it will be bidders and consignors who "will be taking every precaution to avoid the negatives..."

I have 600 Todd Van Poppel rookie cards and still waiting for him to be the next Nolan Ryan, he's got to catch on with a club someday, he's 41, but if Moyer can do it! Still hoping!

Is it time for the "Sound of Silence" video yet?

jeff

Witch hunt!

House Bids
 

I have actually been helping Ken put this together and get it started.

We have had several long talks about how other auctions are run, and how to best run Goldin Auctions to avoid the same problems.

As far as house bids. Goldin Auctions will not be bidding. Some items will have reserves, but the reserve price will be made known before the close of the auction (probably within 72 hours). For that reason, there is no reason for Goldin Auctions to bid.

As far as consignors bidding on their own material, the consignor contract states that no consignor may bid directly or indirectly on their own material.

Scott

Should we give him a pass as we have others?

Like Bill Goodwin?

Nah. Like JP or Dave.

Well, Dave is my client so if I ripped him I'd get disbarred or suspended from practicing law. As for JP I suspect he'd tell you that I haven't given him a pass.

You really think he saw that one post you made about him?

Boy lucky for him.

It was more than one post...and I have to tell you, I am critical of more auction houses and dealers than everyone else on this board is put together. And I've gotten attacked repeatedly for it (not that I care obviously but still) -- especially when I dared to go after Mastro and Dougie. Maybe I'm not the guy to give crap to for cozying up to the industry?

--

Phil Spector was a record producer for the Rondetts?

"Ronettes" -- a great group from my youth. Obviously a different Spector as the record producer is in prison for murder.

Is this the same Ken Goldin that ran Score Board, Inc.?

Yes.

I don't think you are cozying up to the industry but I do feel there are only a few people or houses who are in your sights. Being critical is not the same as what you did with Doug and Bill and the others who are on your list. That's all I am sayin'.

But this thread is about Ken Goldin, which got derailed with your jab at me. Takes but a minute to do a search and find out about Goldin's past, assuming you do not already know about it. I would think a guy who is not cozy with the industry and is critical of auction houses would be concerned.

I do not know Goldin nor have I done business with him but collectors were clearly taken advantage of, if not defrauded, by him. Not just on Home Shopping, where he hyped truly worthless cards to an unsuspecting public but also claims that a great deal of the Scoreboard, Inc signed material never passed authentication despite the LOA's they offered.

I was told some of the issues were done after Ken left Scoreboard too....I want to hear everything then we can all make our own decisions.

There is also a question of redemption cards being offered when Scoreboard was on the verge of bankruptcy and knew the cards would never be redeemed, but perhaps that too post-dated Ken's involvement, I don't know.

Ken and I were just now on the phone and he is stuck in traffic and traveling today. He said he WILL respond concerning the redemption's but reiterated the issue was after he was gone. Also, I cut and pasted what he wrote in a thread on the memorabilia side below. It addresses some of the COA issues......As I said, he said he will try to respond to questions later this evening but is out of pocket till then..



My favorite players was NEVER a partner of the Score Board inc.
My favorite players NEVER supplied autographs to the Score Board inc.
My Favorite players was a vendor of framing services for SB from approximately 1989-90 until SB purchased their own company California Gold and moved it on site to have better control of the product and better pricing.
Score Board inc sued My Favorite Players in the past for selling forged autographs of players The Score Board inc had under contract, and the owners of My Favorite Players signed a consent decree that they NEVER would sell autographs again of many athletes the score board had under contract, including Mickey Mantle, Ted WIlliams, Joe Dimaggio, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Wayne Gretzky,etc.
It has been brought to my attention in the past that the former owners of MFP claimed they 'won a lawsuit against SB and were given millions of $$ in inventory' Not only is this completely false, but since SB was a publicly held company if there was a shred of truth to it , it would have been part of financial statements (public record) and was not.
I will also say that in the past there have been numerous attempts by individuals and companies to counterfeit SB certs. unfortunately,many were successful in making good copies as the product was distributed prior to the advent of holograms, dna marking, etc.
I would say buyer beware, and out of respect to this community, I offer my services to answer any questions you have about merchandise in PM, and will also look at items for you in PM as long as i do not get overwhelmed.




.

Hey Leon,

There is plenty of info out there about Goldin pushing truly worthless cards in disreputable TPG holders to unsuspecting or less sophisticated buyers through Home Shopping. He and Don would banter back and forth about how rare a particular card was. Was always a hot modern athlete like Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey, Tiger Woods, etc to get people excited and the cards were always off brand issues. They would price the cards at some absurd level playing off of the current prices realized of those players true rookie cards that were graded by a legit grading company. Really sleazy stuff.

I do not know the timing of Scoreboard and the extent of Goldin's involvement with the bogus LOAs for the phony signed material but it is interesting that only now he is offering a service to this community to answer questions and look at Scoreboard items. What about the rest of the collectors who do not post here and why did he not do something in this capacity soon after it was discovered the items with his company's name on it were bad?

Goldin has nothing to worry about. No crime or fraud is too great to scare away potential bidders. If you have something they want they do not care what you have done or who you have done it to. Goldin Auctions will be huge!

Hey Greg
I don't put hawking almost worthless cards for good money in the same category as some other things. Not a great strategy but not illegal. Not a lot different than some ebay sellers :). As long as no absolute fraud was committed I am willing to let the Home Shopping Network stuff go. To each their own though.

If he did that, it doesn't reflect highly on his integrity, in my opinion. A lot of gullible folk out there, and it's wrong to take advantage of them.

Exactly my point, Peter.

Leon, I was not saying it was illegal but coupled with the redemption cards and the phony signed material does not put Goldin in the best of light, correct?

His history in the hobby is not that of someone who can be trusted based on the information that is out there. And I disagree with you that what he and Don did on HSN is akin to that of what some eBay sellers do. Feel free to give me some examples, even privately, so maybe I can see your point. What was done on HSN was really nothing short of taking advantage of people who were less informed about hobby issues than those who are shopping on eBay. I don't think praying on someone's lack of knowledge is a level playing field. I know you would not stoop to operating in that fashion.

Hi Greg
The redemption cards were after he left, according to what he told me. No, the totality of these circumstances is not a great light to be in, agreed.

Until I see something where fraud was committed I am not as concerned as a few on this board including yourself. As far as disagreeing with me, no problem there. If someone has a card on ebay for $1000 and they bought it the day before for $20, to me, it's similar. Maybe not exactly the same but similar. This capitalist world we live in is always caveat emptor. And lastly, no, I don't see me being that guy on HSN screaming at the top of his lungs. Heck, I am still hoarse from the Dinner at the National. I couldn't handle all of that screaming.

Sometimes you have a situation where someone did not do anything illegal but did do something unethical. That's an important distinction.

From my conversations with Ken, my sense is that he is interested in running a 1st rate auction.

My suggestion is to register for the auction, get the free catalog, and if you think that items are being over-hyped, there are problems with authenticity or that unethical things are going on, bring it to his attention.

Scott

I would also remind you that on his show he had his own card grading company.
Every card was a 10 and worth hundred's to thousands of dollars.:confused:
Scott are you not part of this operation?

Shelly what grading company was that?

Taking advantage of people for financial gain with misinformation or bloated claims is just as bad as selling a fake jersey IMO.

Regardless of its illegal or not makes no difference to me….sort of like it’s not illegal to lie to old ladies as some televangelist and rob them of cash for prayers and your so called direct line to god.

WCG. Every card he had on the show was a ten. He would then show what the card was going for on Ebay. He would then tell them what a deal they where getting. He also used to pack up a hundred or more cards at a time and show they where all Hall of Famers worth hundreds of dollars. I dont think any of the cards where worth more than ten cents. He would sell the package for around 69-75 dollars plus shipping. Don West was the Hawk.

I would appreciate if the board could pause from replies and posts as I have 4 large files I will be posting. This will address in 1 time and place everything that has been brought up
thank you

Never heard of that one.

EDIT TO ADD But it's out there.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Cards-/212/i.html?_nkw=wcg

Well stated. Hopefully this will be addressed, assuming it happened.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IVxN5iQ_Ri0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v59ijKADTME?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

1:50 mark...funny stuff.

Some great quotes….

“What we decided is after this I’m going to retire…I’m going to be talked out of it I’m sure…how can you top this…how?”

“Simply put this is the greatest baseball card trading product ever put out in the history of mankind!”

Don West on the Tiger Woods Grand Slam Card: “This is the greatest card purchase you will ever make in your life card wise….the number one card in the world!” “The next time we air this it could and should be 4-20k right Kenny? We want to thank you for letting us have these Kenny.”

“That’s right Don…we easily could have raised the price…it’s the best grade Tiger you can get unless somebody has a 100 if they do I’m paying 60k!”

Don West: “Kenny I think you’re looking at a future 100k ball card in this Tiger Woods!”

“I have no doubt you’re looking at a future 100k ball card, can you imagine if Mickey Mantle only ever had one card ever!!”

Done West: “Kenny I can give an example Honus Wagner he has what like only 4 different cards? Tiger has just one.”

“Yes you’re correct that’s right”

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-98-TIGE...item3a77c9aeea

Sorry Kenny I couldn't wait for your post.
this just sold for a dollar from wgc grading. This card sold for one dollar. What happened to it being worth hundreds?

Attachment 71129

Attachment 71130

See for yourself above... :)

reply from ken Goldin...part 1 of 4
 

I am going to write a few posts addressing different subjects that have been mentioned here. I am asking each of you not to interrupt the posts by posting in between . I am not going to be answering things publicly piecemeal, or on the public boards after this. Legitimate questions that I feel are simply not mud slinging, I will reply to if I see them. My PM is always open to questions and I invite you to PM me if I can be of any assistance, as is my email, ken@goldinauctions.com

1. Score Board inc(SB) and autographs. SB was the first company to mass market sports autographs, and to sign athletes to long term deals. All autographs signed for SB were witnessed and affidavits were signed by the athletes attesting to the fact they personally signed xx items on xx date. Each item came with a certificate of authenticity from SB. at the time (1989) this was a revolution in the industry, and put autographed memorabilia on the TV shopping networks, JC penny catalog, Sharper Image, Sams clubs, and more.
Unfortunately, the technology back then was not where it was in the late 90s to today. There were instances of customers from QVC and elsewhere taking a fake autograph, coupling it with a real cert, and trying to sell it as authentic with a SB cert. SB went after these people when brought to its attention and I have articles from 20 years ago in my possession talking about this.
In addition, there were instances of people, while SB was still in business, counterfeiting SB certs and trying to pass off fake autographs and fake SB certs as real certs. Again, there are court cases to this effect and I have articles on how SB busted people with uncut sheets of fake SB certs at the printer.
around 92-93 to combat these problems SB started marking its autographed items with a mark that was detectable under UV light. In addition, it began to mark its certs with a hidden water mark as well. 100% of the certs that are REAL and have the name 'ken goldin' have this mark. If it does not have the mark, and has the facsimile of Ken goldin, it is a fake cert. SB did not publicize this fact because it wanted to stay 1 step ahead of the forgers. It told its customers but did not point out where the water mark was, it what it was. I have , however, made dealers and press (example an interview i did with TJ Schwartz 2 years ago where he mentioned that SB certs and items were marked...but did not mention where or how) are of this.

Once SB filed for bankruptcy in April 1998, and once they ceased operations totally in 1999, there have been a flood of fake autographs and fake SB certs hitting the markets. The forgers, with the knowledge there is no one to sue them or go after them, have used what good will the SB had left in the autograph industry, to sell their fake items with a fake SB cert on the unsuspecting buyer.

I have spent the past 10 years working law enforcement and hobby members to police the industry of these forgeries. I have worked with others in the industry to try to make people aware of fakes, clean up EBAY, as well keep people informed of what an athlete signed under his SB contract. I have personally contacted well over 200 EBAY sellers DIRECTLY with respect to an item that they are selling with an SB cert that I know is fake, or in many cases was not even an item that the athlete signed under his contract (ie: Mickey mantle never signed a single bat for SB, not even ONE for me personally...and i asked him!). It is very sad to me that some newer collectors are sold an autograph item with a Sb cert, find out from PSA or JSA it is no good, and then mistakenly think SB sold fake autographs. The fact is, the cert is likely NOT a real SB cert, and the item is not an SB item.
I am happy to make myself available to members of this community to send me images or ask me questions about athlete contracts and who signed what and make educated purchase decisions. As a result of all this, it is imperative that if you want to re sell anything with a supposed SB cert, you pretty much need to go to JSA or PSA, unless you are selling to experts like Mill Creek who trust their own judgement.

I wish that guy would talk louder....I can't hear him.

goldin reply part 2
 

2.. REDEMPTIONS
For 15 years I have seen my name associated with unfulfilled redemptions on items from SB trading card product. Here is a timeline and facts.
in 1995 Due to the hockey lockout, basketball lockout, and baseball strike, and 80% of SB revenue coming from those areas (card and memorabilia sales) the board of directors of SB agreed to take on outside investors to boost the company's finances . A large percentage of the company was sold to TL Ventures, a subsidiary of publicly held Safeguard Scientifics. As a result, their appointee John White was named to the board as was another member of TL, and John White was appointed COO and later president in 1996. During late 1996 i became aware of a plan from the TL people to 'isolate Ken Goldin and eliminate his allies in the company. extend his contract as we need his name, marketing and creativity, but take him out of management decisions". With this knowledge, I knew what was planned for me, and in the spring of 2007 i infored the board that I did not intend to sign a new employment contract. At that point, they tried aggressively to keep me. In July of 2007 i negotiated a deal with Frontier communications to allow them to buy their way out of a phone card contract with SB for approximately $8 million in cash, 1 lump payment. I flew up there, got a check. The company deposited the check, and made an announcement. the following week, feeling I left the company in good financial steed as it had plenty of money to operate, I wanted to leave on a good note and rather than wait till 12/31/97 I sent a letter to the board resigning in August of 1997. Unfortunately for me financially, I had never sold stock, and pretty much left the company with the same amount of money in the bank as i started in 1987.
After my resignation, John White of TL Ventures was named CEO (he was president at the time). Instead of using the money from frontier for operations, inventory, salaries, etc. He and the board decided to pay off long term bonds that were NOT DUE FOR ANOTHER 5 YEARS. They took this action so that the company would remain listed on NASDAQ and they would not be forced by their auditors to write down their investment.
Well, as you can imagine, John White and the others did not know how to run a sports card and memorabilia business, so when it became time to fulfill redemptions for 1997 All sport PPF (and any other products that were issued by them after i left...have no clue how many issues there were) they decided the company needed the cash, so they started selling some of the items that had been set aside for the redemption instead of redeeming them. When things snowballed horribly in march of 98, and they filed bankruptcy, the court said that the redemption holders were basically last in line creditors, so all of the remaining redemption items were put back into inventory (they previously were seperated out into their own section of the warehouse) and sold at auction.....meaning any un-shipped redemptions at that time would never be filled.
I was a very identifiable and well known figure associated with SB, however Not only was i was not there when this occurred, but unfortunately the issue has been an erroneous thorn in my side for 15 years.
ALL OF THE ABOVE. is documented in financial reports and filings from SB, and can be verified from long time SB employees who are still in the industry, as well as articles.

reply 3
 

part 3.
to tie up some other loose ends
in reply to someone here, I am not involved with any grading company. Do not now nor have I ever owned a grading company. For certain mass market sales in the past I have used services of low budget grading companies to save expenses, in fact the whole reason Beckett came up with the BCCG brand was to get a large portion of my business in 99-2000 era.
Anything in Goldin auctions will be graded by PSA (overwhelming majority) and SGC the rest of the time. no other grading service will be used.

With respect to Don west and Shop at Home, I believe the last time I was on was around 2002 10 years ago. Yes, SAH had an aggressive sales style, and I was one of 6 main vendors they had. All vendors used the same aggressive sales style as that was their format. At the same time, I was on QVC which is well known as a network that has no hype, does not allow values to be stated or claimed, and does not allow a hard sell. I am still occasionally on QVC as I was for their Fenway park 100th anniversary show. If a multi billion $ company like QVC has no issues with me and feels I do a good job for their customers, I am proud of that and I believe that speaks volumes about me.

4 of 4 FiNAL
 

part 4 of 4, final

All of this brings us to Goldin Auctions. I have purchased millions over the years from auction houses (all of them practically) and consigned millions as well. It is thru that experience, and noticing the downfalls, the problems, the high fees, the lack of good LOAs, that drove me to start this business. I prefer not to list out all the things that drove me to open the business, but an interview with me that goes into detail is in the SCD.

Some of the keys to the auction house
1. any graded cards will be graded by PSA or SGC..ONLY
2. all autographed items will come with FIRST PARTY AUTHENTICATION (verifiable authenticity from MLB, UDA, Steiner) OR come with a cert/letter from PSA/DNA NO AUCTION LETTER CERTS. if there is a large grouping of autographs it may be PSA/DNA pre cert. No more spending $1000+ on an item at auction and having to spend another $25-$150 for a full letter (and worse, finding out their more stringent check of the item rules it non authentic...something that has happened to me several times on 'auction LOAs'

3. all game used items will come with a letter directly from player, team, and absent that a letter from Mears (jersey) or Mears/PSA/DNA (bats)
4. no more 18-20% buyers premium. our buyers premium is only 10%
5. considering my background in player relations, our specialty will be bringing player collections to the auction.
6. we will have over 1000 lots in the first auction, featuring Babe Ruth autographed bat, 1980 Phillies WS ring, Alomar gold glove, Jordan Amex card, Rice TD jersey, Jordan game used jersey, The Bernie parent collection, The Dave Schultz collection, rare baseball cards, and i promise you this, a lot of big surprises that are going to shock some people that a 'new' auction house got such a valuable and prestigious item .
7. an experienced staff (go to 'about us' section at www.goldinauctions.com) with impeccable reputations in the industry. Industry legends who have been in the business for 40+ years like Phil Spector, 30 years for harry Bryant, Extensive auction and EBAY experience like Scott Gaynor, long time well known hobby collectors and dealers like Rob Mitchell, etc.
8. no house bidding (enough said)
9. If an item has a reserve , you will know about it well before closing night of the auction.

I ask that you give us a try, and see for yourself. Check out our web site, our staff, and when the catalog comes out, our items. I am going to work hard to earn your trust and support. I believe I have in great detail and length addressed any questions that were raised about me 10-20 years ago. I will not comment on them further on these boards because, to be honest, everyone has a comment to add, and some will simply want it to go on forever. Hopefully all of this has to at least some of you shed some light on things. I was probably known as someone who was not accessible to the hobby, did not do shows, conventions, or forums. All of that is changing. I will be doing the show circuit with the team to promote the business, and importantly for net 54 members, will make myself accessible to answer questions with respect to authenticity, older items you want to make sure are actually 'from SB and real' and most importantly help you avoid autograph forgeries. I am also always available to PM and ask a private question or send me an image to look at and see if I have any info. I would like to help make this forum and great community a better place, and I would like your input and help in making www.goldinauctions.com the best it can be. PLEASE...help yourselves here. If there are things that I have not addressed that you always wanted to see, or things you wanted fixed in an auction house, now is your chance. Our first Auction closes 11/1-2, and we currently have over $3 million and counting for auction. Tell me what you want to see, and especially what you do not want to see.
For those of you who took the time to carefully read all 4 posts, you have my thanks and appreciation.
regards
Ken Goldin
again, i will make myself available by PM here, as well as email at ken@goldinauctions.com