Joe Orlando - New Job
 

Did folks hear Joe Orlando, formerly of PSA and just recently Collectable, now works for Heritage?

I am not surprised, when he left PSA many felt that is where he would end up.

I’ve always liked Joe—I wish him well in his new job

I saw Joe at the National. He always has a smile on his face and is a great guy. I’m sure he’ll be successful.


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Joe did a phenomenal job growing the PSA brand. My opinion, and it's just that, is that he did not do enough to stop the proliferation of trimmed and altered cards.

+1
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What do you think he could or should have done to prevent this?

Scrutinized subs from known/strongly suspected card doctors much more closely. Not allowed the cozy grader dealer relationships that were fostered at the Invitationals. Not gone into the ostrich act when the scandal broke. In general, across the board, made it a much higher priority and a part of the company culture than the other way around. Made the graders use the tools actually available to them like a blacklight.

Luck
 

Best to Joe O. in his new gig.

Do you think he was blindsided by the extent of the trimming scandal, or do you think he was mostly already aware that this was happening and he just didn't think it was that big of a deal?

The challenge I keep coming up against when entertaining this thought experiment is that even if they had tried to crack down on known trimmers, I don't think it would have made much of an impact on the problem at large since there are a seemingly endless number of group submitters that they could still send their cards through.

My opinion, and I acknowledge it's only based on educated guesswork and some speculation, is that he was pretty knowledgeable about what went on in the hobby and was probably more surprised by how much BODA was able to uncover than by what they uncovered. Put another way, I'd be surprised if someone that smart and that immersed in the hobby and its participants could have been blindsided.

As to your second point, there is some truth to that, but I continue to think that regardless of who submitted them, more scrutiny would have uncovered a lot of the bad cards. I can't believe, for example, that many of these recolored cards we've seen would not have stood out under a blacklight. Or that an experienced grader could have really looked closely at some of the trimmed cards we saw.

Tying in to another discussion, I speculate that TPGs scrutinize the man on the street's cards more closely than favored big submitters.

Any submission with a certain number, or maybe percentage, of altered cards is an instant ban. Should encourage the group submitters to be careful who they deal with.

I don't know Joe and never talked to him before bumping into him at the National. Very friendly guy especially with someone he had never met before. He was willing to chat. I just casually mentioned his leaving Collectable. He said Collectable turned out in just a short amount of time to not be the right place for him. He did not criticize Collectable or the people there, and said the fractional ownership has its place in the hobby. He seemed proud of his time at PSA but we did not talk about his departure. It will be interesting to see what his role is at Heritage and how he fits in with the existing Heritage hierarchy and what he winds up doing.

Joe was always very supportive of my baseball card research and writings. He also responded personally and thoughtfully to my inquiries and concerns about PSA services and grading. I had the pleasure of meeting him once. Good guy in my book. I wish him well.

Scott, I think you me and three other guys even care.