Posted By:
David SmithOn a serious note, I have never bid on or consigned anything with Mastro but their auctions always gave me some pause as far as the write-ups for some of the lots were concerned.
I am of the belief that if something is hyped TOO much then something is fishy. The Shakespeare phrase, "Me thinks he doth protest too much" comes to mind. Why does an ultra rare or expensive item have to have sooooo much hype?? If Mastro were selling the PSA 8 Wagner (no comments about whether it is trimmed or not) I am sure it would be a centerfold with two pages of hype. WHY????
Instead of the hype, why not just put a LARGE photo of the card on one page and on the next page just say, "The best there is". If anything else needed to be said, then it could be followed up with a history of ownership and prices paid for the card over the years. If an item is extraordinary, most people reading the catalogue will know it, especially if it is a centerpiece item and/or very high priced.
Most everybody knows Babe Ruth, even the average man on the street has probably heard of him. These same people would also know that a bat that he used in a game is valuable. How valuable, they probably wouldn't know. But they would know something about it. A long and drawn out description in a sports auction catalogue with fancy and/or seldom used words is not necessary because the target audience IS NOT the average man on the street.
Now if it were a game used Babe Roof bat and the opening bid was high, then a long drawn out description with fancy words MIGHT be necessary.
I am not a lawyer but I also use this system when I see defendents (or their attorneys) talking on TV. If they yammer on and on for no reason then I think they are trying to hide something or shift the focus somewhere else. I don't think that if they just come on and say, "I am not guilty" and nothing else. Kind of simple and naieve (sp?) but at least it is a start.
David