Posted By:
boxingcardman"Craig's list? Craig's list? Are you kidding me? Anyone with a modicum of intelligence is aware that the site is nothing more than a total trash sale, whores offering their services, knock-off products, fakes, defective products, the occasional retail item being resold at too high a price by the unknowing and ignorant, as well as every scam in the book all to be offered in one place. It's a toxic dump that on the best of days, would make an EPA hazmat team shake in their boots. Are people really naiive enough to think that they have "discovered" an opportunity to make a killing by buying ultra-liquid cards at a bargain level by jumping on an advert at this site? Sorry, nothing personal, but you'll get no sympathy from me. Craigs List receives nothing in the way of a percentage, or fee of any kind, so frankly, I hold them blameless. Do you really believe that any sophisticated collector is going to sell valuable cards via this method? That's like meeting Leon behind the local 7-11 and buying from the trunk of his car. I just don't see this scenario becoming reality."
--I tend to agree on the issue of too good to be true listings. In this day and age no one sells known slabbed rarities over an anonymous forum like that. Sorry, just does not happen. I would never buy something from an off-the-radar channel unless I could see the items in person first. And even then, the transaction has all the feel of a drug deal and you could get held up and mugged, so some back alley meeting isn't all that prudent.
The slabbers can do a better job; Beckett's holder doesn't seem to be anywhere near as susceptible to tampering, so the technology is there. However, you have to ask about cost. If the process was more secure it would probably cost more. Would you be willing to double the cost of holdering cards in return for a more secure holder and process?
What scares me is the possibility of organized crime getting into this field. This scam feels much better organized than the usual a-hole selling laser copies on ebay but it could be so much worse. With the money involved how long will it be before one of the many "mafias" we have (LCN, Russian, Armenian, etc.) figures out that there is great money here with not much risk? The Feds don't seem to care and state's AG offices are useless as well since most of the salient charges are Federal mail fraud or wire fraud.
Perhaps we will see a future where only established, known dealers or auctioneers get business on higher end cards in slabs, or where actually touching the cards before you buy them (say at card shows) becomes popular again. On the former, I hope not.
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