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

[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.