THE MARKEL REPORT: Are Graded Baseball Cards Being “Juiced” (Aesthetically Enhanced)?

[Jacklitsch]

Susor made the NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/


September 9, 2009 8:21 PM By Michael O'Keeffe
Memorabilia world's opinion swayed on fraud
It wasn't that long ago that some sports memorabilia collectors would pull a Linda Blair and spew pea soup whenever the Daily News published a story that pointed out that their hobby was fraught with fraud. Some collectors, it seemed, preferred to bury their heads in the sand when confronted with evidence that their hobby had problems.

When our book about hobby fraud, "The Card," was published a few years ago, some of the guys at the card collector forum Net54Baseball.com acted like they were going through an exorcism. "The book portrays the whole hobby in a bad light," Net54Baseball moderator Leon Luckey grumbled. "The book sheds no new light on anything, is sensationalism at its worst, and is a piece of crap in my opinion."

"How sad that such a piece of rubbish gets published," a collector named Dan Markel added.

Maybe the fact that federal agents investigating allegations of shill bidding and other hobby fraud questioned industry executives and passed out subpoenas at the last two national sports memorabilia conventions. But a lot of Net54Baseball.com regulars - including Luckey and Markel - have become converts. Both now recognize that their hobby has significant problems

"A few years ago, fraud was a taboo subject," said Kevin Saucier, a collector who runs AlteredCards.com, a Web site to help fans protect themselves from the hustlers. "People just didn't talk about it. Now its come to the forefront of the hobby."

Markel, a collector who lives in Texas, is doing more than complaining about the hobby's crooks and con men. He led a group of collectors who conducted a lengthy investigation that concluded that a prominent eBay dealer was buying low-priced, low-grade cards, trimming them to enhance their appearance, and then submitting the doctored cards to PSA. When the cards came back with higher grades, the dealer, another Texan named Scott Susor, would sell the cards on eBay at premium prices.

Luckey recently posted the results of the investigation - called "The Markel Report" - on Net54Baseball.com.

Susor didn't return calls for comment, but his Houston-based attorney Bennett Fisher said Susor is an honest dealer who has never knowingly sold an altered card. "If they were trimmed, they were trimmed when Scott got them," Fisher said.

Susor considered filing a defamation lawsuit against Markel and others involved in "The Markel Report," but Fisher says a suit would be prohibitively expensive. "How much do you spend to fight something like this?" he asked.

Susor's eBay registration was pulled last week, which means he's no longer doing business on the Internet flea market, at least not under his own name. Spokeswoman Evonne Gomez declined to say if Susor had been banished because of The Markel Report. "I can't give specifics on this account because of privacy issues," Gomez said. "But the activity outlined on Net54 would not be tolerated by eBay.

"We have a very solid relationship with law-enforcement," Gomez added. "We take these kinds of allegations seriously."

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jacklitsch

Susor made the NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/


September 9, 2009 8:21 PM By Michael O'Keeffe
Memorabilia world's opinion swayed on fraud
It wasn't that long ago that some sports memorabilia collectors would pull a Linda Blair and spew pea soup whenever the Daily News published a story that pointed out that their hobby was fraught with fraud. Some collectors, it seemed, preferred to bury their heads in the sand when confronted with evidence that their hobby had problems.

When our book about hobby fraud, "The Card," was published a few years ago, some of the guys at the card collector forum Net54Baseball.com acted like they were going through an exorcism. "The book portrays the whole hobby in a bad light," Net54Baseball moderator Leon Luckey grumbled. "The book sheds no new light on anything, is sensationalism at its worst, and is a piece of crap in my opinion."

"How sad that such a piece of rubbish gets published," a collector named Dan Markel added.

Maybe the fact that federal agents investigating allegations of shill bidding and other hobby fraud questioned industry executives and passed out subpoenas at the last two national sports memorabilia conventions. But a lot of Net54Baseball.com regulars - including Luckey and Markel - have become converts. Both now recognize that their hobby has significant problems

"A few years ago, fraud was a taboo subject," said Kevin Saucier, a collector who runs AlteredCards.com, a Web site to help fans protect themselves from the hustlers. "People just didn't talk about it. Now its come to the forefront of the hobby."

Markel, a collector who lives in Texas, is doing more than complaining about the hobby's crooks and con men. He led a group of collectors who conducted a lengthy investigation that concluded that a prominent eBay dealer was buying low-priced, low-grade cards, trimming them to enhance their appearance, and then submitting the doctored cards to PSA. When the cards came back with higher grades, the dealer, another Texan named Scott Susor, would sell the cards on eBay at premium prices.

Luckey recently posted the results of the investigation - called "The Markel Report" - on Net54Baseball.com.

Susor didn't return calls for comment, but his Houston-based attorney Bennett Fisher said Susor is an honest dealer who has never knowingly sold an altered card. "If they were trimmed, they were trimmed when Scott got them," Fisher said.

Susor considered filing a defamation lawsuit against Markel and others involved in "The Markel Report," but Fisher says a suit would be prohibitively expensive. "How much do you spend to fight something like this?" he asked.

Susor's eBay registration was pulled last week, which means he's no longer doing business on the Internet flea market, at least not under his own name. Spokeswoman Evonne Gomez declined to say if Susor had been banished because of The Markel Report. "I can't give specifics on this account because of privacy issues," Gomez said. "But the activity outlined on Net54 would not be tolerated by eBay.

"We have a very solid relationship with law-enforcement," Gomez added. "We take these kinds of allegations seriously."

Actually Dan and I have always known there is/was fraud in the hobby. My beef with Okeefe was ONLY that he never brought the hobby out of the bad light he put it into with The Card. He quoted me after that, as that being my biggest issue with the book, and was correct. If he wants to say something else now then that is ok. BTW, I think it was already well known that the Wagner has problems so it's not like it was something new that we didn't already know. Besides that I think the book did shed some light on issues in the hobby...and that isn't a bad thing.
The only issue I have with this current blog post is he didn't go far enough with Susor and how much real evidence Dan and gang has on him. Maybe the whole story wouldn't have been as interesting? Regardless I still think Okeefe is doing a good job on helping to expose bad things in the hobby. I just figured I would comment since my name is thrown around a few times.....best regards

[Anthony S.]

Does Mr. O'Keefe buy suits off the rack, or does he have to have them specially tailored to accommodate those long arms with which he pats himself on the back? It's a shame he casts Dan extensive investigation in such a self-serving light. Wasn't necessary. I read and enjoyed "The Card," incidentally.

[Peter_Spaeth]

It seems he may have missed the (to me) more interesting issue of why grading services fail to detect these alterations. I suspect it's a combination of they don't have time to look that hard for the $5 grading fee and the skill of the card doctors.

[botn]

Maybe he is too focused on shill bidding...

[calvindog]

Susor considered filing a defamation suit! What a laugh that is. Why would it be prohibitively expensive when if he needed money he can just spend 2 bucks on a raw card and shave it into $1000? Better than a money tree. And my advice to fraudsters who want to sue people who out them: filing a lawsuit is a lot tougher than actually serving it apparently.

And that damn O'Keeffee: still writing negative articles about the hobby. What a sumbitch. Doesn't he know that our hobby bankrolls so many worthwhile humanitarian ventures? Search for the swine flu vaccine? Cure for AIDS? Eliminating all world hunger? Comeon, Mike, lay off the 'great' guys and do your job already!

[WhenItWasAHobby]

I agree with Leon’s assessment regarding fraud in the hobby. In fact, this investigation started before Mr. O’Keefe’s book, “The Card” was published. However, I’ll be the first to applaud Mr. O’Keefe for his coverage of many hobby related issues over the past several years. Leon is also correct in that this investigation was quite more expansive and thorough than what the article revealed. The study had diverse and extensive sources of scans and auction data of raw and graded cards won by eBay member “scottsusor” for evidence so that it would deflect any accusations of this being a one source conspiracy.

This brings me to my next point. As for the statements made by Susor’s attorney regarding that the cards were altered before his client received them - allow me to point out the utter absurdity of this assertion. First, you would have to believe that a significant number of raw card sellers on eBay, who generate large scans of mid-grade raw cards on their auctions, decided to conspire against their best raw card buying customer: “scottsusor”. The two ’63 Topps Jim King cards on page one of this thread would be a pair of many examples. You would also have to believe that when eBay member “scottsusor” won these cards, rather that just drop these mid-grade cards in the mail, these dealers would then have to go to painstaking efforts to alter these particular cards using some sophisticated paper modification techniques that if submitted to PSA, these cards would grade higher than advertised in raw form and be worth a lot more money in the marketplace. But no, rather than use these sophisticated alteration techniques to generate huge profits for themselves, they decided they wanted to facilitate some public spectacle that would humiliate and ban their best customer and only their best customer since one else has reported this problem. To compound the absurdity of this conspiracy, there were scans taken from eBay of graded cards “scottsusor” won, which later showed up for sale in different PSA holders with higher grades with a visually improved corner or a modified edge, etc. That’s how ludicrous this assertion is.

Also, I can’t help but mention that about two weeks ago I received an e-mail from Susor’s attorney. It used words such as “deformation” and stated that my allegations were "absolutely false", etc. So I called up the law firm out of morbid curiosity and talked to his attorney. This guy gave me his full assurance that all I wrote was false and he client was completely innocent. The funny thing was that the attorney wasn’t even sure how to pronounce his client’s last name, which made me burst out laughing saying, “How can you possibly convince me you even know anything about this guy if you don’t know how to pronounce his name?”

And yes Jeff, I too found the defamation lawsuit remark laughable.

Finally, I hope I’m not reading too much into the article, but the last line seems to imply that law enforcement had some involvement with the eBay ban, which would be great if that’s the case.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

And yes Jeff, I too found the defamation lawsuit remark laughable.

Maybe the idea of a defamation lawsuit is laughable, but I'd be more then a little concerned that his attorney threatened you with a "deformation" lawsuit.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by Matt

Maybe the idea of a defamation lawsuit is laughable, but I'd be more then a little concerned that his attorney threatened you with a "deformation" lawsuit.

LOL! "Deformation" has a lower standard of proof, but a higher degree of pain.

[slidekellyslide]

Obviously Susor's mailman is the culprit.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Obviously Susor's mailman is the culprit.

I was actually thinking the same thing. It's fairly clear that Newman delivers Susor's mail.

[Potomac Yank]

Dan, are you sure you weren't talking to the janitor?