Oh, okay. [yawn]

Credit goes to the BO guys who have found all these cards and identified the bad certs, as well as to the person who contacted the Times reporter.

Credit to all of you.

Indeed

NY Times
 

Peter - Did we honestly expect him to say “here’s my address...I’m guilty....come and get me and take me away to prison”???? As an extremely competent lawyer, you of all people know in this country it’s innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We know the real deal, and we also know ANY card doctor will “go down swinging” before admitting full guilt.

Regards,
Joe T.

I would have advised him not to speak to the press, and I think most lawyers would have done the same. This is the first time in history probably that Brent has not shot his mouth off so clearly that message was delivered to him.

Thanks from me too, Peter. Appreciate your diligence on this (and other) topics. I hope this story grows larger and larger in terms of coverage.

Gary’s denials are not really helpful to him, not sure what he was thinking. I’m guessing he doesn’t have a lawyer. Meanwhile, Peter has been consistently vocal on this trimming issue for 13 years and counting and deserves all the praise. It’s not easy to have the same inane argumente day after day, year after year on these obvious issues of fraud, with financially interested people who will swear the moon is made of green cheese im order to make an extra buck.

I harsh assessment of what by almost any standard is at worst one of the top 2 or 3 collections in the world, at least as far as I'm aware. The article is actually referring to what are generally accepted as the top 25 cards in the hobby in terms of value, significance, and popularity. Keep in mind this article was written by a journalist who obviously doesn't collect. A few details are bound to be incorrect.

congratulations to peter on joining the 1 percent

Jay stated condition rarities. Not too hard to comprehend.

Jesse, I never said his cards are not valuable; I just said that they are not rare.

Mr. O'Keefe, as was the case with most of the Daily News staff was laid off years ago. He's out of the sports card reporting business.

Rich

I understand what Jay wrote. It's your comprehension of my statement that needs improvement.

If Moser was looking for just bumps the certs would be the same....

I bet the feds can pull some of his fingerprints off them.

Patrick-I don't think that is so. His best chance for a bump, even if he did nothing to the card, would be to break it out and resubmit it. That would generate a new certificate number.

I never said you did. Rare is a relative term but some of his cards are what most would consider rare.

Yeah, that guy did not come across well ;)

Ah, gotcha. Wasn't considering that. I was thinking, if he submitted as reviews, and they were bumped, the certs would remain the same.

Thanks for the link. I love that he has the D Backs collection on all flips. Very smart. Even if determined to be altered, the cards are still from Kendrick's D Backs collection, which will make them valuable (exactly like the “Gretzky Wagner”).

I think rarity is an absolute term in this context and just the inverse of population, so if there are 70 T206 Wagners that makes the card more rare than one of his cards with 100 copies but less rare than one of his cards with 10 copies, doesn't it?

Peter, does the fact that Moser actually commented indicate he hasn’t lawyered up yet? If he has surely he would have been advised to shut his pie hole. And if I see hundreds of doctored cards on the net linked to me, I’m buying the best attorney i can find, which should be a pretty damn good one considering the sheer volume of cards outed on BO and the funds that appear to be coming in faster than he can can count it.

I'm not surprised by what he said, but that talk to a NYT reporter

I can only speculate, I don't know Gary or have any idea really what he has or hasn't done on that front. All I can say is that if I had a client accused of similar acts, I am pretty sure I would advise him not to respond to press inquiries.

Regardless, I’m betting he’ll have to obtain counsel at some point. Based on his comment he’ll probably plead not guilty, and his arrogance tells me odds are he’ll take the stand in his own defense. Can’t wait to watch him get chewed up and spit out on cross examination.

I mean, I don’t believe there are many Wagners floating around in that condition. Nor any other of his cards for that matter. He has some of most difficult to obtain cards in existence.

Doesn't your example show rare to be a relative term? 1 card is considered rare relative to another, yet common when compared to a 3rd card rarer than them both.

Especially in high grade. His PSA 9 CJ Shoeless Joe is absolutely sick.

Ken Kendricks has tripled his money on that "TRIMMED WAGNER" card.

I hope the NYT will report when and where the upcoming "Altered Card Fire Sale" will be.

Mike quickly was hired by Newsday in New York and is doing well.

Yes, in the same sense that tall is a relative term, but I wouldn't claim to be the tallest person in the world when others are objectively taller than I.

Maybe we're in agreement here. I guess my point is just that rarest is not a relative term.

I am happy the article was in NYT -that’s great. But i'm disappointed that it makes the issue sound like it is a matter of taste whether a trimmed or deciliter card is graded highly. It doesn’t do justice to the fact that PSA is incompetent to find alteration.

Yea it was just an oversight in the article. I would assume the 25 rarest cards all have 1 or 2 copies in existence and also that I have never heard of most of them. But the comment that he just has a collection of condition rarities was an unnecessarily harsh description of what I personally believe is the finest collection I've ever seen or heard of. Even if that's not the way it was intended to read.

I have read it several times. So disappointing. Great job by Peter but the author totally misses the point and portrays the situation as a legitimate debate over whether restoration and alternation is ok, rather than about the intentional misrepresentation by card doctors and the incompetence of PSA and others. If this is the best of the coverage, the "scandal" will be largely a yawn. If this scandal is to become more than a tempest in the Net54 and BO teacup, then something different will have to be written, or a follow-up on arrests will have to follow.

Very well said!

I wish the article included verbiage of the undeniable tampering, as documented on BO over and over again. Was there even one reference to the "before and after" photos on BO? I would think that a general audience would be interested to see examples of just how these cards were identified as altered.

Well at least it's a start. :o

Both of my birds are Independents

La Cage Aux Folles perhaps?

Props to Peter! Now if only we could get that quote on a net54 t-shirt. I'd totally buy it.

To me this is article is all about the Vast Differences

Alteration/Fraud Why Because Cards Are made By a Machine not a Human!!
Art is a done by human being, restoration is acceptable if disclosed ....
That’s the point I wish people would get through their heads ....

Comic books are made by a machine and alterations are acceptable.

The Times story was reprinted today in the Houston Chronicle, apparently. As well as the Sunday edition of the Times. So whatever our disagreements or disappointments with the focus, presumably more collectors will know there are issues.

https://www.pressreader.com/

Well done Peter

I had nothing to do with it. Again, the credit for all this belongs with the person who alerted the Times to the story and the guys doing the detective work outing altered cards. My only contribution was to take a phone call and try to explain the issues to a guy who didn't have much background.

It would be great if this story makes it on the National Nightly News casts or the prime time big 3 cable News Stations Wednesday night before the National.

How many collectors and investors are going to continue to be ignorant to PSA’s ability to accurately grade cards ?

Doesn't feel like a nightly news story. It's a long shot, but maybe 60 Minutes.

Originally, the movie was called "4.5"...

Attachment 356656


But then the Moser/PWCC film company got a hold of the project and used all sorts of filters and editing in post-production to turn her into something to look at...

Attachment 356657

Excellent!

And I think Shallow Hal would agree. Rumor has it that he's now a grader for PSA.

(Hopefully someone here remembers that movie :o )

SWEET JESUS!
Hats off to the people who did the investigative work.
PWCC eneds to go.
PSA needs ...to....i don't know?
I'm done buying cards over 6!

Michael O Keefe is now with Newsday. I offered him information on a story about the hobby but he told me that his newspaper would not have been interested.

Gee whiz, I wonder what they will now do with their 127 Pulitzer Prizes, including two this year. And I am sure more will be awarded to them.