I guess this is goodbye

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by sportscardtheory

I completely disagree. You are making it about money when it's an issue of morals and integrity. Leon, and anyone else, is certainly free to do whatever, but that doesn't excuse the behavior of the company they keep. If taking money from crooks is admirable or acceptable to you, then so be it. But you have no credibility when it comes to judging others based on principles, as you apparently have none.

Please..... Did I say taking money from crooks is admirable or acceptable to me? What I said was, Leon owns his site, so he gets to make the call, period.

I primarily collect GU stuff. There used to be a great website called gameuseduniverse. I loved it over there. They had a bunch of really great members who were very helpful to me, like Mike Specht, Dave Meidema, and Bud Hillerich (who told me my GU Terry Felton bat was one of only 4 made for him.) I got to know Chris Cavalier and that's where I met Dave Grob and others. Really great group of people.

Well, Chris sold the site to Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, and right away the "Goldin Rule" was instituted. It said that criticism of items listed in Goldin Auctions was not permitted - and questions needed to be sent to Ken directly, and privately. As I watched that rule be enforced several times, I started to become uncomfortable with what I was seeing, and found net54 as an alternative site.

Some of you may remember the Babe Ruth catchers glove incident a few years ago. Goldin was auctioning a glove that was thought to have been used by Ruth as a teenager at his industrial school. Some members here pointed out differences between pictures of Ruth with his glove, and the glove being auctioned. Then, some of those who were raising questions were apparently contacted by an attorney, either issuing, or threatening, a cease and desist notice.

For me, that was it. Free speech was the norm over here, and over at gameuseduniverse, not so much. I stopped going over there.

On April 23 of this year, I received an email from Chris Cavalier, which begins: "I hope this email finds you doing well. Recently, there were a few people who tried to reach me through the Game Used Universe site. As the site's founder, I am sure it seemed logical to try to reach me through the GUU. Unfortunately, my account there has been banned by the site's new owner and I am no longer able to post there or respond to anyone trying to message me through the site."

Chris went on to provide his email address at Heritage, where he is now a Consignment Director. I wish him the best and consider him to be one of the many "good guys" who used to be at that site. Out of curiosity, I checked out GUU (had problems logging in as I'd forgotten my password.) It looks like a ghost town compared to what it used to be.

So........ When I see people jumping all over Leon because he didn't instantly ban one of his advertisers over this recently breaking scandal, and then when I see people who spend quite a lot of time enjoying this site (for free) imply Leon has no "cojones" and that he can be "bought," I think it is unfair to the extreme.

Running this website costs money, and maintaining civility among all of us must be rather challenging at times. I agree with a previous poster that Leon manages this site, and keeps us all in line, in a very calm and fair way. For example, the PWCC ad issue is now resolved, and as it turns out, Leon't patient approach, to let things play out, was better than some sort of knee-jerk reaction some here advocated.

What I don't want is for the aggravation Leon has to put up with to become so great that he starts looking for his own "Goldin Parachute." Imagine if he sold this site to another auction house, or even PSA (or for that matter, PWCC.) New rules might be instituted, the current moderators would quit as they wouldn't be able to stomach those new rules, and I would have to find another hobby website, rather than watch this site degenerate the way of GUU.

Bottom line is this: I am comfortable here. If at some point I become uncomfortable, I will simply leave. But I will not try to tell Leon how to run his site, and I certainly will not insult him. If you interpret that as me having no principles, so be it.

[Jim65]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Please..... Did I say taking money from crooks is admirable or acceptable to me? What I said was, Leon owns his site, so he gets to make the call, period.

I primarily collect GU stuff. There used to be a great website called gameuseduniverse. I loved it over there. They had a bunch of really great members who were very helpful to me, like Mike Specht, Dave Meidema, and Bud Hillerich (who told me my GU Terry Felton bat was one of only 4 made for him.) I got to know Chris Cavalier and that's where I met Dave Grob and others. Really great group of people.

Well, Chris sold the site to Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, and right away the "Goldin Rule" was instituted. It said that criticism of items listed in Goldin Auctions was not permitted - and questions needed to be sent to Ken directly, and privately. As I watched that rule be enforced several times, I started to become uncomfortable with what I was seeing, and found net54 as an alternative site.

Some of you may remember the Babe Ruth catchers glove incident a few years ago. Goldin was auctioning a glove that was thought to have been used by Ruth as a teenager at his industrial school. Some members here pointed out differences between pictures of Ruth with his glove, and the glove being auctioned. Then, some of those who were raising questions were apparently contacted by an attorney, either issuing, or threatening, a cease and desist notice.

For me, that was it. Free speech was the norm over here, and over at gameuseduniverse, not so much. I stopped going over there.

On April 23 of this year, I received an email from Chris Cavalier, which begins: "I hope this email finds you doing well. Recently, there were a few people who tried to reach me through the Game Used Universe site. As the site's founder, I am sure it seemed logical to try to reach me through the GUU. Unfortunately, my account there has been banned by the site's new owner and I am no longer able to post there or respond to anyone trying to message me through the site."

Chris went on to provide his email address at Heritage, where he is now a Consignment Director. I wish him the best and consider him to be one of the many "good guys" who used to be at that site. Out of curiosity, I checked out GUU (had problems logging in as I'd forgotten my password.) It looks like a ghost town compared to what it used to be.

So........ When I see people jumping all over Leon because he didn't instantly ban one of his advertisers over this recently breaking scandal, and then when I see people who spend quite a lot of time enjoying this site (for free) imply Leon has no "cojones" and that he can be "bought," I think it is unfair to the extreme.

Running this website costs money, and maintaining civility among all of us must be rather challenging at times. I agree with a previous poster that Leon manages this site, and keeps us all in line, in a very calm and fair way. For example, the PWCC ad issue is now resolved, and as it turns out, Leon't patient approach, to let things play out, was better than some sort of knee-jerk reaction some here advocated.

What I don't want is for the aggravation Leon has to put up with to become so great that he starts looking for his own "Goldin Parachute." Imagine if he sold this site to another auction house, or even PSA (or for that matter, PWCC.) New rules might be instituted, the current moderators would quit as they wouldn't be able to stomach those new rules, and I would have to find another hobby website, rather than watch this site degenerate the way of GUU.

Bottom line is this: I am comfortable here. If at some point I become uncomfortable, I will simply leave. But I will not try to tell Leon how to run his site, and I certainly will not insult him. If you interpret that as me having no principles, so be it.

GUU is a ghost town because of every reason you mention. Its a shame and Ken doesn't seem to care at all. That has pushed me to the Facebook groups which are much better anyway.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by Jim65

GUU is a ghost town because of every reason you mention. Its a shame and Ken doesn't seem to care at all. That has pushed me to the Facebook groups which are much better anyway.

Learned all I needed to know about the "new Ken Goldin" when he had a number of autographed jerseys in his first auction where the jerseys were bootlegs. When I informed him of this, he said he didn't care that the jerseys were fakes so long as the autographs were real.

[sportscardtheory]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Please..... Did I say taking money from crooks is admirable or acceptable to me? What I said was, Leon owns his site, so he gets to make the call, period.

I primarily collect GU stuff. There used to be a great website called gameuseduniverse. I loved it over there. They had a bunch of really great members who were very helpful to me, like Mike Specht, Dave Meidema, and Bud Hillerich (who told me my GU Terry Felton bat was one of only 4 made for him.) I got to know Chris Cavalier and that's where I met Dave Grob and others. Really great group of people.

Well, Chris sold the site to Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, and right away the "Goldin Rule" was instituted. It said that criticism of items listed in Goldin Auctions was not permitted - and questions needed to be sent to Ken directly, and privately. As I watched that rule be enforced several times, I started to become uncomfortable with what I was seeing, and found net54 as an alternative site.

Some of you may remember the Babe Ruth catchers glove incident a few years ago. Goldin was auctioning a glove that was thought to have been used by Ruth as a teenager at his industrial school. Some members here pointed out differences between pictures of Ruth with his glove, and the glove being auctioned. Then, some of those who were raising questions were apparently contacted by an attorney, either issuing, or threatening, a cease and desist notice.

For me, that was it. Free speech was the norm over here, and over at gameuseduniverse, not so much. I stopped going over there.

On April 23 of this year, I received an email from Chris Cavalier, which begins: "I hope this email finds you doing well. Recently, there were a few people who tried to reach me through the Game Used Universe site. As the site's founder, I am sure it seemed logical to try to reach me through the GUU. Unfortunately, my account there has been banned by the site's new owner and I am no longer able to post there or respond to anyone trying to message me through the site."

Chris went on to provide his email address at Heritage, where he is now a Consignment Director. I wish him the best and consider him to be one of the many "good guys" who used to be at that site. Out of curiosity, I checked out GUU (had problems logging in as I'd forgotten my password.) It looks like a ghost town compared to what it used to be.

So........ When I see people jumping all over Leon because he didn't instantly ban one of his advertisers over this recently breaking scandal, and then when I see people who spend quite a lot of time enjoying this site (for free) imply Leon has no "cojones" and that he can be "bought," I think it is unfair to the extreme.

Running this website costs money, and maintaining civility among all of us must be rather challenging at times. I agree with a previous poster that Leon manages this site, and keeps us all in line, in a very calm and fair way. For example, the PWCC ad issue is now resolved, and as it turns out, Leon't patient approach, to let things play out, was better than some sort of knee-jerk reaction some here advocated.

What I don't want is for the aggravation Leon has to put up with to become so great that he starts looking for his own "Goldin Parachute." Imagine if he sold this site to another auction house, or even PSA (or for that matter, PWCC.) New rules might be instituted, the current moderators would quit as they wouldn't be able to stomach those new rules, and I would have to find another hobby website, rather than watch this site degenerate the way of GUU.

Bottom line is this: I am comfortable here. If at some point I become uncomfortable, I will simply leave. But I will not try to tell Leon how to run his site, and I certainly will not insult him. If you interpret that as me having no principles, so be it.

What you are saying is you don't care who anyone deals with. You are saying it's their choice. And although true, that gives you zero credibility in judging other's character and principles, like you did with the OP. You trashed him for having principles while you ignore Leon's apparent indifference when it comes to principles. So why would anyone take you seriously. You're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Principles > doing whatever it takes for a buck. You can spin it all you want, but anyone actually paying attention to your words sees you have no credibility.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by sportscardtheory

What you are saying is you don't care who anyone deals with. You are saying it's their choice. And although true, that gives you zero credibility in judging other's character and principles, like you did with the OP. You trashed him for having principles while you ignore Leon's apparent indifference when it comes to principles. So why would anyone take you seriously. You're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Principles > doing whatever it takes for a buck. You can spin it all you want, but anyone actually paying attention to your words sees you have no credibility.

I read Mark as saying as long as I get to enjoy the forum for free, I don't care where the revenue comes from. That's fine, he's entitled to feel that way, but don't be calling ME disingenuous.

[sportscardtheory]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I read Mark as saying as long as I get to enjoy the forum for free, I don't care where the revenue comes from. That's fine, he's entitled to feel that way, but don't be calling ME disingenuous.

But that's not ALL he's saying. He's trashing people for saying they don't like that the ads are here. That's a HUGE difference. If he just said what you said he said, I would have just agreed and moved on. But he took it further and trashed someone for having principles? That's completely absurd. What he's really saying is Leon can do what he wants and everyone should support him and everything he does because the site is free to use, and if you don't your'e a jerk. Really?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by sportscardtheory

But that's not ALL he's saying. He's trashing people for saying they don't like that the ads are here. That's a HUGE difference. If he just said what you said he said, I would have just agreed and moved on. But he took it further and trashed someone for having principles? That's completely absurd. What he's really saying is Leon can do what he wants and everyone should support him and everything he does because the site is free to use, and if you don't your'e a jerk. Really?

Yes, I am with you 100 percent on this, that's what I was trying to say not so clearly apparently by adding, don't be calling ME disingenuous for objecting. That's where he crossed the line.

[sportscardtheory]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Yes, I am with you 100 percent on this, that's what I was trying to say not so clearly apparently by adding, don't be calling ME disingenuous for objecting. That's where he crossed the line.

Okay, I get it now.

[Goudey77]

The mob mentality and social media harassment is a big cultural problem.
I have recently been attacked via my Instagram page for displaying PSA cards. I get it in the form of comments and personal direct messages.
It wouldnt surprise me if this behavior keeps up we'll soon see physical altercations at card shows in the near future.
If you want to be an internet tough guy then I welcome you to bring that same voice in the real world. Just give me one guy to say something...

[CobbSpikedMe]

Honestly it's been so long since I registered here I don't remember what info I needed to provide to do so. But I can't imagine I had to give any sensitive info like SSN or credit card info. So what's so scary about registering with you're real name? I don't know, I guess I don't get it.

[calvindog]

When strong opinions are put out publicly people get pissed sometimes. And sometimes pissed people are criminals or idiots who will try to destroy your life if given the chance. How many people have had their careers destroyed for something they’ve posted on FB or Twitter? Has no one ever heard of such a thing? I’m not surprised people wouldn’t want to give their real names on this or any site which contains strangers. I understand the point of requiring real names which is to prevent that sort of damage I described from happening. But I understand the other side too.

[sportscardtheory]

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

Honestly it's been so long since I registered here I don't remember what info I needed to provide to do so. But I can't imagine I had to give any sensitive info like SSN or credit card info. So what's so scary about registering with you're real name? I don't know, I guess I don't get it.

Do you understand what you can do to someone having just their name.