Rogue REA employee on eBay?
 

I assume Dean Faragi still is employed by Robert Edwards Auctions but not positive? The website does not list the cast of characters. The perception is REA is (one of) the most honest auction house(s) in the business. I am not saying this is shill bidding but it looks suspicious and the coincidence as unlikely as winning the Nigerian Super Lotto.

This was my post on the Net54 Non Sports board detailing the initial summary of events:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/52660...a+PSA+Tracking

A Google search turned up a recent hobbyguynj auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1911-M116-Sporti...item35a74ce859

On the same PSA submission was the following card:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1910-C56-Imperia...item45f129bd9e

Confirmed: http://www.cardtarget.com/cgi-bin/ps...rtnum=14628471

The C56 Moran (no pun intended) was sold by smgsmg1968 (Dean responds to emails at this account) and the winning bidder was none other then hobbyguynj if you are still following along with this tangled web.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1910-C56-Imperia...item45f129bd9e

Maybe calvindog could check his records from Dec 31, 2005 and let us know the identity of hobbyguynj please or someone else in the feedback?

I questioned Dean and have yet to receive a reply or explanation. This looks shady considering REA's the holier then now stance and reputation or under any circumstances. With so much money on the line for REA, why Dean would even give the appearance of impropriety is well beyond me, assuming he is still employed by REA. Thoughts?

Does Jeff have access to that kind of ebay information?

Wes I heard that those records were lost recently.

Nice research! Effort that would even make Rob L proud.

Oh no!!
 

I hope this is not true :(

One small correction:

hobbyguynj was the underbidder not winning bidder:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=300398787998

As of yesterday, hobbyguynj had 100% of bids with smgsmg1968 but now it is all but (1) because of recent bids. Maybe Dean is getting nervous?

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d..._None_ViewLink

I just received a reply from Dean, ''I greatly apologize for my poor judgement. I feel like a total dope and this will never happen again. This has no reflection on the company (REA) and I was acting solely on my own. I have brought this to Rob Lifson's attention. Frankly I hope this does not jeopardize my employment with the company. Please forgive me I was not thinking straight.''

Wow
 

Wow.....

Stunning!! :eek:

Baseball has performance enhancing drug problems and the hobby has performance enhancing bid problems...ugh.

wow....this smacks of a little bit more than "poor judgement" if you ask me. I'm afraid this does change my opinion of REA.

Sorry he did it? or sorry he got caught???

What position does Dean hold at REA?

Hopefully it's not absentee bidder! ;)

Looks like he is an auction director. This news is disheartening, but I guess nothing is shocking these days.

Could somebody put this in layman's terms as I am not following it. Thank you.

I would like to apply for the new job opening. I promise not to shill my own auctions.


LOL!!! :D

Questions removed.....

I hope he wasn't practicing on the side to keep his skills sharp.

nm

Wonder if this will make it into Michael O'Keefe's column?

I have just been made aware of the situation involving Dean Faragi, a highly regarded REA employee, that is being discussed here. I am not happy with the situation, and it is an internal matter for REA to deal with. I do appreciate that the matter has been brought to my attention but it appears that exactly what has transpired has been mischaracterized. Dean did not do anything whatsoever relating to shill bidding. What he did do, and this is not a practice condoned or tolerated at REA, is represent to a PSA registry set owner that the two A&G flag cards he was offering privately (that were actually up for auction on eBay and closing that night) were his (when in fact they were not, they were just on eBay) and soliciting an offer which he intended (and actually did) use to bid on the cards, with the intention of selling them to the PSA registry collector if his bids were successful. This is not a practice condoned or tolerated by REA. It is also the first and only time Dean Faragi has done this. It is easy to contact PSA Registry set owners via the PSA website. When he saw these cards closing, he contacted the PSA Registry set owner. It is REA’s policy to not solicit PSA Registry set owners at all via the PSA website. What Dean did was stupid, but it was not shill bidding. The fact that he represented to the PSA set owner (contacted via the PSA website) that he owned the cards combined with the fact that he bid on the cards on eBay (armed with the offer he solicited) is being misinterpreted. To be clear: He did bid on the cards. He did not own them. Anyone who has ever dealt with Dean knows that he is a great asset to REA and to the hobby. We run a tight ship at REA. This is not in keeping with what is allowed at REA. But it is a far cry from inaccurate suggestions that Dean was in any way shill bidding. His stupidity was in representing himself as the owner of cards that he did not in fact own, and soliciting an offer for these cards. Dean is well aware of the mistakes he has made in this situation, has apologized profusely, and assured me that nothing like this will ever occur again. His apology is accepted.

Sincerely,

Robert Lifson

President

Robert Edward Auctions LLC

www.RobertEdwardAuctions.com

Makes you wonder what he would do for a "bigger" payback??? Danit, this hobby is one long soap opera.

Lovely Day...

It would seem to me, and Rob can either agree or disagree, that since Dean is an important part of REA auctions, he really shouldn't be buying or selling at all on ebay. He is working for the auction house and getting a salary. He should not be buying or selling baseball memorabilia at all on his own while he is employed there. Now I could be wrong, but this seems to me to be the best path to take.

And I know Dean personally and like him.

Why can't Dean buy and sell under his own name? I don't see any conflict there.

I guess I should comment since I was the winner of one of the cards. But I'm not 100% sure what happened, so I will defer judgement.

That being said, I'm completely satisfied with the price and would like the card. But interestingly enough, had David not pulled back his bid I don't think I would have been the winner.

Working for a company that auctions baseball cards, and selling baseball cards under one's own name, may or may not be a conflict. I am not sure and would have to give it more thought.

But REA is a powerful name brand and prides itself on having no conflicts of interest whatsoever. It's part of their business model. Wouldn't it be better to err on the safe side and not sell baseball cards while you are an employee of REA? Again, this is just my gut reaction.

Barry
 

That's a tougher call; especially for REA than you realize. Unless REA develops a way for their consignors to move then $25-100 items they own, then the people who give REA may not have the same home for those items then they do for the expensive items. And if the person is friendly with a certain person at REA then they might be able to help them sell the items.

Perhaps REA needs a drop off point for their cheaper items. And didn't we once have this type of discussion with the same suggestion a while back. We need to have more places like John and Judy Burk's auction that can handle the $25-50 on up items to go with the expensive items.

Regards
Rich

The owner of a grading service can buy and sell cards, and that's cool apparently, but an auction house employee can't do the same? :confused:

Rich- that's a fair point but I don't know how Rob handles lesser valued items that don't fit into his yearly auction. Maybe he could answer that, but he doesn't have to.

No Peter, that's not cool at all. That's a monumental conflict of interest. This is a smaller one.

Other than a PR nightmare for REA this whole thing is very confusing.

not unprecedented
 

This has nothing to do with the current issue but......There was a time when a board member was taking another board member's price list of cards and selling from it....and he never owned the cards at all. That wasn't cool. Doesn't sound so unlike this issue.

This gentleman made a mistake, apologized and said he won't do it again. Can't we just leave it at that? It's not some kind of murder for hire scheme or Ponzi scheme where people are defrauded of their life savings. I am not condoning what happened but can't we ever just accept an apology and move on? Whoever hasn't made a mistake please take one step backward :).

I am also confused, i do not know any of these people , just an outsider.

But if his boss says he isnt doing anything, then why is he so remorseful? Why does he have his tail between his legs?

After initially reading the thread, i thought the guy had one id with tons of history, then created a new id to sell items and used his old id to bid on his items to shill the proxy bids up that other people had placed. His old id was dorment except for bidding on the new id's auctions.

One of the big reasons i have left ebay is the amount of fraud that goes on. I have personally seen shills in this form, in bid retractions- then re-bidding an amount just less then you maximum, and also in "selling to the second highest bidder" because the schill won the auction, then the seller asks for your full proxy rather then what you would have actually won the auction for.

I also got conned by Paypal scam as well on ebay where i sold an item, then the moment i confirmed i shipped the item, the buyer took his money back. Paypal gives the buyer protection, not the seller. I never sold anything on ebay again.

I now only ever buy when i do not have to use paypal, and cant find the item locally.

Leon

for some reason, my wife took one step back.... i think most wives did! ;)

The bottom line is this has nothing to do with the honesty or integrity of Rob Lifson or REA. Rob still runs the best auction around, period.

I think this is the bottom line here. Whatever happened, happened but does not impact the integrity of REA and its auctions. If you tell me that REA is using fake names to lodge bids in its auctions in an effort to drive up prices or if Doug Allen just took a job there, well, then you'd get my attention. Otherwise, this is a tempest in a teapot.

This has not changed my opinion of REA.
 

Rob has come on here and explained the situation and I am satisfied. I have no problem with Dean selling cards as long as he is open and honest that it is Dean from REA and that he sells cards he owns, or is given permission to sell by the card owner. He probably should have a handle like DEANFARAGI-REA or something similar. He should also adopt the rules REA follows if he wants to sell while working there. I think he is probably sorry because he loves working there and is truly embarassed and fearful for his job. Hopefully this was just one stupid mistake in an otherwise very above board and honest operation. Now if this is shown to be a pattern of course my opinion would change, but I hope that is not the case, nor do I expect to hear any of these goings on in the future.

nevermind..

I've removed my previous comments because I'm now as confused as Barry. Because of that, I shouldn't be "explaining" anything, to anyone.

Are we now of the belief that hobbyguynj and smgsmg1968 are two different people?

Jim - I agree. Totally confused by the facts. I had thought the same person had two different IDs - guess that's not the case after all?

The initial post was somewhat confusing, and at first glance, I thought the allegation was shill bidding. Now I understand this has nothing to do with shill bidding.

smart move :D

The links in the original post seem to show (I emphasize "seem") that a M116 Clarke and a C56 Moran were on the same PSA submission. One (Clarke) was later sold on Ebay by hobbyguynj. The other (Moran) was sold on Ebay by smgsmg1968. In this auction, is appears that hobbyguynj was the underbidder.

What am I not getting here?

Not sure this has any reflection or should have any reflection on Rob and I also see no problem with Dean selling cards. Think that Rob does not permit him or any of his employees to do so through REA. Again, as Peter stated it is far worse and completely ignored by most here, that the owner of a grading company is selling cards and even worse when it includes expensive cards graded by his grading service.

But I am confused...

DJR claims that smgsmg1968 is Dean. eBay id hobbyguynj's identity is unknown, right? If you scan through the feedback for hobbyguynj there are 4 or 5 instances in which the person leaving feedback refers to hobbyguynj by name and the name used is Dean. smgsmg1968 and hobbyguynj have left feedback for one another.

Rob emailed me that he is 100% convinced that hobbyguynj and smgsmg1968 are different people, but have done business with each other.

If that's the case, I don't have a big problem here. I find it difficult to believe that people connected with our hobby, be it auction house employees or grading company employees, would have no interested in the hobby itself. I realize that leaves some potential for a conflict of interest, but I don't see any way around it.

If Rob is incorrect or has been lied to about these Ebay ID's, then there is an even bigger problem.

Maybe David R can jump back on here and clarify. I'm not very familiar with the Cardtarget website. Does that show definitively that those PSA numbers were on the same submission, or does it just show that they went through the system close together?

So let me pose this hypothetical, and it in no way has anything to do with Dean or REA:

We all agree it is unacceptable for an auction employee to bid with the company he works for, even if he only wants to buy something for his own collection. The reason is he has inside information concerning other bidders that would give him an unfair advantage.

So wouldn't an employee of a major auction house have access to the mailing list and contact information of all the auction house's key clients, something he wouldn't have if he were not an employee? And couldn't he contact these key clients with cards for sale? And suppose the deals didn't go so well- couldn't the clients call the auction owner and lodge a complaint about that employee?

So even if selling cards is not a direct conflict of interest, if I owned an auction house with employees I think I would tell them to focus on their day to day work, and not sell the same product the auction house sells.

Dean Faragi
 

With all due repect to Rob Lifson this isn't an isloated event with Dean using questionable judgement. In fact I have had a personal experience involving Dean on Ebay and found him to be an underhanded, immoral, backstabbing liar. Ask me how I really feel about him.

The facts underlying these feelings?

Sure Peter
In 2004 I won a KBats team card on ebay.
I paid immediately after the auction with paypal.

Hobbyguynj (Faragi) emailed me saying he was the underbidder and wanted to know if I wanted to sell him the card. I told him no thanks. He then emailed me saying he heard from the seller that I couldn't pay for the card and he was going to send payment. This obviously was all b.s. as I had already paid. He also emailed the seller telling him I wasn't going to pay.

Fortunately the seller was an upright person and I have the card in my collection. It just amazes me how low a person will stoop for a piece of cardboard or for money

So both of these IDs are Dean's and he is "buying" his own cards and leaving feedback for himself? :confused::confused:

Sorry Perter the beginning of the thread was too convoluted for me to follow but when I saw Faragi's name I wanted the board to know what kind of person they are dealing with. Hobbyguynj is Dean Faragi and I have saved the emails I received from him

Lord, I love this hobby.

Maybe that was a one time incident as well.

Hobby? I thought this was a reality show...

Not sure. We know based on feedback which was left for hobbyguynj, in which he was addressed as Dean and now an account Craig that hobbyguynj is Dean. I am unclear whether or not smgsmg1968 is also Dean. Rob L has posted saying there was absolutely no shill bidding on ebay involving Dean and he has emailed Jim saying the same thing. So who is smgsmg1968? Maybe David, who started this post can come back out from hiding and tell us one way or another if smgsmg1968 is also Dean.

Then I would like to know why Rob would come on here and post there was no shill bidding prior to fully investigating. Dean has put Rob in a bad spot.

The C56 Moran (no pun intended) was sold by smgsmg1968 (Dean responds to emails at this account) and the winning bidder was none other then hobbyguynj if you are still following along with this tangled web.

Yeah I read that but I wanted to make sure as Rob L was adamant that no shill bidding was involved and stated so 3 times, at least. So what info does Rob have or what info was he relying on when he made that pronouncement?

Make mine buttered, hold the salt.

David will have to explain his initial statement that Dean responds to emails at the smgsmg1968 account.

Rob was pretty adamant (and convincing) that Dean's account is hobbyguynj and smgsmg1968 is someone else. (Rob knows who it is, and used his first name in emailing me.)

The Cardtarget explanation is believable, at least to me. Dean used to own the C56 Moran card AND the M116 Clarke card. Dean sent both in to PSA, hence they are on the same submission. Dean subsequently sold Moran to smgsmg1968 in a private sale. He also sold the Clarke on Ebay.

At a later date, smgsmg1968 decided to sell the Moran. It was less than Dean had sold it for, so he was a bidder to buy it back. He did not win this card, but they have had other deals together, both on and off Ebay, and therefore there is some feedback between them.

I'm still in the camp that doesn't see this reflecting on REA, but I realize that others can be more skeptical. What a mess for a small issue.

that may be the best one-liner in net54 history

I've read this thread 3 times trying to track everything. Don't smgsmg1968 and hobbyguynj have to be the same guy? Both have cards on the same PSA submission form and yet they are bidding on eachother's auctions? I'm lost....

JP they do not HAVE to be the same person but it is certainly sounding like it. DJR, David stated on the Net54 Non Sports site that smgsmg1968 was absolutely Dean. He has not come back here to tell us how he knows that. Rob L is adamant that is not Dean. Someone is either wrong or not telling the truth.

Re-read my last post. Both cards were owned by Dean and submitted, at the same time, to PSA. One was sold to smgsmg1968. One was sold on Ebay. smgsmg1968 then tried to sell the one he bought on ebay and Dean (hobbyguynj) was the underbidder.

If this doesn't clear it up for you, go back and read the exchange between you, me, and several others from last week. You used EXACTLY the same explanation. It was plausible to you then and unthinkable now????

Here's the link: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=121221

I was initially sent an unsolicited email via the PSA Set Registry from "dean faragi" <daf122570@yahoo.com> asking me about my interest level in some Allen & Ginter N9 Flag cards, since my set is listed. I replied yes and asked about other items for sale. He replied these were the only items he had for sale and to make an offer. I offered $75 and $50. Within under 10 minutes, these exact bids were placed on eBay by hobbyguynj on smgsmg1968. I immediately thought to myself what a turd burglar and lowered my snipes ironically ending up costing him money / reputation.

Mr. Lifson, what facts have I characterized improperly? I have attempted to only post facts (not opinions) and let others judge for themselves. You stated, ''Dean did not do anything whatsoever relating to shill bidding''. This statement is crazy! You also state, ''It is also the first and only time Dean Faragi has done this'', however, this also happened with the Moran hockey card. Furthermore, feedback shows this type of activity has been habitual taking place going back months and years. The hobbyguynj feedback also mentions the name Dean.

This does not answer why you think smgsmg1968 is Dean unless I missed it.

Will there be a TPS report filed to summarize this topic?
Bob

I will work on the cover sheet...I DID get the memo.

Jay
 

I could make the counter point that the employees you hire are a reflection upon yourself and apparently Dean has done this or similar transgessions in the past.

Now I'm NOT saying there is anything wrong with Rob or REA in any way; but, if your employees are acting badly when they are on their own, then what is to stop them from doing something while working for you. After all, you don't want to be monitoring their activities on a 24/7 basis. And you have to have trust in them. I don't know if I saw this, if I could in the future trust one of my employees that did that. My next thought would be, what if he does something like that to my business to mess up the works.

Regards
Rich

Excellent point Rich

Rich
 

Now I'm NOT saying there is anything wrong with Rob or REA in any way;--But isn't that exactly what you are doing with everything else you wrote?

Ummmm...We still have differing OPINIONS as to who smgsmg1968 is. Rob has privately explained (to at least 1 person) how this is not Dean and David has publicly stated, without telling us the basis for his conclusion, that it is Dean.

If it is Dean than Rich has made a valid point. You cannot possibly know where someone will draw the line and shill bidding, just ask Jeff Lichtman, is a major concern in the hobby.

It wouldn't sit so comfortably with me if Rob was so quick to defend Dean if in fact it turns out both ebay ids are the same person. Sure the auctions were small potatoes but perception is everything.

Could it be possible that Rob/REA has to believe Dean and Dean can't be fired because ??why?? Maybe there's stuff happening at REA that Dean knows about and could be exposed if he were fired?

You never know ..


Dan

I would like to come on the board for the first time (not my idea of a great first entrance) to explain my end of the situation. My eBay handle is hobbyguynj since 2001. My friend (smgsmg1968) is a collector who I introduced to collecting, and who has been buying cards from me for the last three years as an investment. He has recently lost interest and decided he wanted to sell them on eBay with my assistance. I was not interested in selling his cards for him on eBay but was interested in buying them back at some level, and because I sold them to him, was also happy to help him with information; smgsmg1968’s name is Scott, by the way). I have bid and won some items he has offered on eBay (which I originally submitted for grading and later sold to him). I have bid on the items he is selling for two reasons: 1) because I liked the cards I sold him (I originally owned them, I bought them because I liked them), and 2) if the current bid was less than what the card was worth (in my opinion) I was interested in buying them back at some level. With reference to DJR’s questions:

DJR writes:
“You stated, ''Dean did not do anything whatsoever relating to shill bidding''. This statement is crazy! You also state, ''It is also the first and only time Dean Faragi has done this'', however, this also happened with the Moran hockey card. Furthermore, feedback shows this type of activity has been habitual taking place going back months and years. The hobbyguynj feedback also mentions the name Dean.”

DJR, the bidding that has occurred by me on eBay or anywhere else is not shill bidding. The statement that this is “the first and only time Dean Faragi has done this” refers to this (as accurately summarized above): “What he did do, and this is not a practice condoned or tolerated at REA, is represent to a PSA registry set owner that the two A&G flag cards he was offering privately (that were actually up for auction on eBay and closing that night) were his (when in fact they were not, they were just on eBay) and soliciting an offer which he intended (and actually did) use to bid on the cards, with the intention of selling them to the PSA registry collector if his bids were successful.” I did this. It was stupid. It will never happen again. But I have never shill bid and was not shill bidding on the A&G flag cards or any other cards ever. The reason that hobbyguynj feedback mentions the name Dean is because that is my name. I can see how someone could misinterpret the information about the PSA submissions and bidding and without additional facts suspect that bids are not on the up and up, but they are totally legitimate bids on my part, and so all I can do is explain this clearly. I hope I have done that here.

Sincerely,
Dean Faragi

wow.....that seems a stretch.....

My stretch comment is to Dan, not Dean

Dean,

Thank you for taking the time to come here and explain things.

When I first heard about this.... I had a sinking feeling about you and REA. Honestly, Rob's "defense" post did not do much of anything to help the sinking feeling.

But.... you sound very sincere in your post - and personally, I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Everyone makes mistakes.
Its nice to see someone who stands up, explains things, takes responsibility. and promises better going forward.


Again - thank you for the post.

Stretch?? You're kidding right?


Dan

I actually am more concerned about alterations and the such. Shill bidding is bad but in the end you still get your true, unaltered card. Altering cards for profit is just plain evil.


:)

Hey Jeff,

Sometimes you hit the jackpot and you get both!

Greg

LOL true. What a hobby.