Bill Mastro -- What He Really Thinks of His Hobby Friends

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Runscott

My favorite sentence of the week.

Speaking of sentences, the Mastro hearing is tomorrow, I believe.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Mastro: I really don’t give a shit if the stuff’s real or not. Okay. I don’t care if its trimmed. I don’t care if it’s real.

Sorry, Peter. These are actually my favorite sentences.

[iowadoc77]

I want to personally thank the "veterans" of this board for the amount of knowledge I have gained in the past couple of years on here. I would know nothing about many of the subjects discussed here and i would walk into a card show or look at eBay or an AH with naive eyes and believe what I saw. I now look at things with a much more critical eye and have especially learned the "don't buy the holder, buy the card" adage. As far as Mastro is concerned, he represents everything that is wrong with this hobby. It is unfortunate that it went as far as it did. I hope he is sentenced properly although I am no expert on that. I think part of his punishment should be sorting through 5000 count boxes of 1988-1992 topps and having to sort them into teams, minimum of five boxes a day, for a year. I continue to see it as a phenomenal HOBBY. My wife just sees it as an EXPENSIVE hobby. So, I know this is a sidebar from the thread, but a well-intended one I hope. Thanks again for the knowledge. I look forward to learning much more.
Eric

[Peter_Spaeth]

Eric the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

[iowadoc77]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Eric the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Peter, I love it, but can you even imagine the agony of doing the sorting? Either that or writing "I will not alter baseball cards" with chalk on a chalkboard 10,000 times per day for a year? Seems fair to me...

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Originally Posted by calvindog

In 2008, Mastro was taped saying the following to a Confidential Witness about the cards he was selling:

Mastro: I really don’t give a shit if the stuff’s real or not. Okay. I don’t care if its trimmed. I don’t care if it’s real. I, if I look at it and I think it’s real, I want the authenticators to look at it and think it’s real. You think that all these PSA cards we're auctioning are, aren’t unaltered? They’re all altered. The alternation going on, it is unbelievable in our hobby right now. Okay. There’s not a sheet that gets auctioned off that isn’t cut up. Every sheets getting cut up. Goudy sheets, Diamond Star sheets, basketball sheets, every sheet you see in the auction is being bought by someone who is cutting them up.

He's being sentenced in a week and his attorneys are asking for a probationary sentence. Marshall Fogel and James Spence wrote love letters to the Court about what a swell guy he is.

Going back to the opening post. Is this quote a matter of record in the Court where Mastro is being sentenced?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

Going back to the opening post. Is this quote a matter of record in the Court where Mastro is being sentenced?

Yes it is from the government's sentencing memo.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by iowadoc77

I want to personally thank the "veterans" of this board for the amount of knowledge I have gained in the past couple of years on here. I would know nothing about many of the subjects discussed here and i would walk into a card show or look at eBay or an AH with naive eyes and believe what I saw. I now look at things with a much more critical eye and have especially learned the "don't buy the holder, buy the card" adage. As far as Mastro is concerned, he represents everything that is wrong with this hobby. It is unfortunate that it went as far as it did. I hope he is sentenced properly although I am no expert on that. I think part of his punishment should be sorting through 5000 count boxes of 1988-1992 topps and having to sort them into teams, minimum of five boxes a day, for a year. I continue to see it as a phenomenal HOBBY. My wife just sees it as an EXPENSIVE hobby. So, I know this is a sidebar from the thread, but a well-intended one I hope. Thanks again for the knowledge. I look forward to learning much more.
Eric

Love it, Eric--makes me crack up at the visual image it creates each and every time I read that post!

Best wishes,

Larry

[conor912]

Originally Posted by iowadoc77

I think part of his punishment should be sorting through 5000 count boxes of 1988-1992 topps and having to sort them into teams

effing brilliant

[Runscott]

please forgive the interruption.

[WhenItWasAHobby]

One lingering thought. There were actually a lot of people who profited from Mastro's fraud - in particular the people whose consignments to Mastro were shilled by Mastro. I wonder how many of these "profiteers" were the people who gave Mastro glowing endorsements to have his sentenced reduced?

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

One lingering thought. There were actually a lot of people who profited from Mastro's fraud - in particular the people whose consignments to Mastro were shilled by Mastro. I wonder how many of these "profiteers" were the people who gave Mastro glowing endorsements to have his sentenced reduced?

Most collectors didn't want to be outed as being supporters of Mastro for a number of reasons: a) he's a thief and most in the hobby do not want to be associated with a thief in the hobby; or b) writing such a positive letter might cause others to believe they conspired with Mastro to shill their own consignments. (Similarly, many Mastro co-conspirators have been careful to never mention a negative word about Mastro et al. on any of these threads for fear of being outed; others had any number of laughable reasons why they wouldn't write a negative letter to the Court about Mastro)

At least one Mastro "supporter" wrote a letter to the court and tried to keep it sealed so that presumably no one would see what he had written (which included a ludicrous explanation that Mastro's fraud did not impact future sales prices of cards he shilled, as well as denigrating me for daring to publicly hound Mastro and Allen for their crimes). When told that his letter would not be permitted to remain sealed he withdrew it instead. Luckily I got to see the letter before it was withdrawn.