Over, at least, the last 4 years I was advised and urged to not make a post like this so this comes as a great relief to me that I can finally write this. There is nothing noble in my decision to do this since my name is out there as a consignor with Mastro and associated with items which were identified as shilled but I feel I owe an explanation to those who were harmed and to those who call me a hobby friend. I made a mess so I have to clean it up.
During roughly 2005 to 2009 we consigned a few hundred thousand dollars worth of material to Mastro. Our consignments generally consisted of our more expensive inventory since that type of material did not seem to do as well on eBay—our only other outlet for retail sales AND auction houses like Mastro seemed to be setting record prices. At some point after less than stellar auction results and being completely incensed and frustrated, we decided to protect items rather than allowing them to sell below what we felt were fair values.

At no point did we ever conspire with anyone at Mastro on those bids. We never knew who was bidding on our items or what their bids were. I have no recollection which of our consignments I was the one to place a bid and which my former business partner bid on but since he is no longer here I have to take responsibility for our actions. Sometimes a top all would be placed and other times we would bid incrementally so as to not open ourselves up to being shill bid, as ironic as that might sound. In each instance our bids were made with the intent to buy back the item and a willingness to pay the buyer’s premium, as we did each time we bought back a lot. It did not feel right doing this but I never thought of it as being illegal.

Not to make excuses but the practice described above, of protecting a lot, was very prevalent at that time even among collectors. I will not call out anyone by name but some are current posters here who would frequently ask me to bid up their auction listings on eBay. I now understand why the government considers this shill bidding however our intent with Mastro was never to defraud anyone but to simply protect what was ours. Obviously we should not have consigned if we were not willing to accept that our items might fall far short of our expectations. I cannot take back what I was a part of but I can be a better person going forward. I am sorry to those I harmed and to those who I have disappointed.

As a side note the list may not be as accurate as the government might think. There are a couple errors that I know of in regards to items identified as my consignments according to my records.

Greg

And then when he got caught lying about why he shilled, he ran away with his tail between his legs and refused to post anymore.

Okay Peter let me get this straight - You helped your "Friend" Ron Gouldberg by placing a reserve bid for him, and if I'm reading this correctly, in Auction #43, lot #1039 he returns the favor by shill bidding you up over $17,000 for an item he submitted to Maestro?

Wow. Perhaps you should re-think your definition of friend.

Patrick Prickett

Some very random thoughts here

1) Kudos to Leon for keeping this thread going. I know many of the names on the list are advertisers and he's willing to let this be noted. You can disagree with him on many things -- sometimes just to be a contrarian (Marquard) but instead of hiding this information he ensured it came out.

2) I see named like Brian Bigelow on the list. I've known Brian for more than 25 years and he may be the finest hobby writer around. Brian was working for Mastro at the time and I would wager he had an account that was used for various purposes.

3) I always say, if you bid in an auction, Bid up to whatever level you are comfortable at. Period end of sentence. Even if your bid gets pushed up, you are still at a good level. What's not good is when we all get excited and then push ourselves up in the spirit of competition. The last time I checked: "It's only cardboard"

4) And everyone who accepts monies from people on this list for advertising if they have evolved and moved over or moved on. I understand totally. One has to stay in business and advertising money is how they do that. Sounds hypocritical but just a realty

Regards
Rich

PS I think I'll go back to my vg-ex cards now :)

WOW! Looks like pete's off the hook!!!

Patrick no, that's one and the same with the auction where Ron used my account to place a reserve bid. The only place his or my name appear on that list.

My mistake.

Sorry.
Patrick Prickett

Got mega-rich by suing Big Tobacco. Didn't need to shill. Should be in jail. :mad:

Thanks for the warm fuzzies. Lift rug and keep sweeping .

Before my current scan of this post I noticed the views are at 16,495. I have to wonder if that is a single day record for views.

As for the list of shill bidders, I am elated for the most part. The one exception was the last name of Steinbach. I remember speaking with Don Steinbach the day before he passed away and I remember he and Pat Quinn with their ads in the SCD. I always wonder how it may have turned it if Don lived, but the memory is simply tarnished. It hurts to see the last name on the list of shill bidders. I always enjoyed dealing with Don.