Posted By:
Dan Mathewson...as to open their own grading/slabbing companies to sell rubbish, Joe.
They will buy Grade 2 or 3 Cards, trim them up nicely so they look all sharp and crisp, and then slab them into their own holders.
It appears that it is possible that a guy may be doing this very thing with AAA Grading. Either as an owner or a neighbor of them in Hawaii. There are far too many coincidences with a couple eBay seller names and AAA Grading. He cuts articles out of old newspapers and magazines with an exacto knife, articles that have photos of Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, etc, and sell them as Authentic pieces. They sell them often in private auctions so other people cannot warn the bidders that they are buying trash.
The sellers, though, when they try to justify their lame Private Auctions, and their cowardly lameness in hiding their feedback, say things in their auctions to further deceive the bidders...they say things like: This is a private auction to dissuade the "Thrill-Bidders" that are attracted to items of this nature in this grade and to preserve the integrity of the auction for the well-intending bidders. Anyone may bid in a Private Auction, where only the seller views the Bidder's names, thus eliminating the incentive to place bids merely to bolster ones bidding status and BLAH BLAH BLAH...
It's all rubbish. They're trying to rip you off, usually by selling trimmed, altered or otherwise restored items at auction. They don't want you seeing bidders ID's because they don't want the bidders to be warned that they're about to buy toilet paper.
We all have our Grading Companies that we prefer. But, I think we all know the ones to stay WAY away from. And, what sellers to stay away from... 