Sneaky Things
 

What are some sneaky things SOME card-dealers do...One that I've noticed is to overestimate the true count of a bulk lot of cards one might be buying, "Well your getting 500 of these '67s for a .25/piece, can't beat that!" Actually you can if you consider the "500" cards is really more like 350-400...

When I was buying bulk lots from the late 50's, my biggest problem with dealers was the type of lots that They referred to as "average VG condition with a few better and a few worse". What you actually got was few VG cards with a whole hell of a lot worse and none better.

Duplication. I once bought a lot of approx 2000 mid-80's Topps commons expecting "some duplication" per the auction description, but figuring it'd give me a good jump on a couple sets. What I ended up with was about 20 different cards, and between 20 and 400 of each card.

Regards,

Richard.

See my last post of about 7:00 am on the thread "News from SGC." Human nature is human nature =$$$.

Larry

A few that come to mind are:

• sellers that mess with the scans to try and create a wrong impression of the card - this comes in a few forms - trying to obscure issues by providing bad scans or doctoring the scans to make the cards look sharp when they are not.
• auction houses only giving one of the two pop reports on a card and claiming it is the highest graded by PSA when SGC has graded 4 higher.

Sellers showing only a scan of the front of the card, when there is an issue with the back.

I collect some 70s cards and every lot that says it is NM, NM+, or NM-MT, there are about half the cards that are oc or have print defects, or poor registration. They are only talking about NM corners and try to make it like the whole card is that great.

Although with lower grades, this is probably true for prewar too, but I never have enough money to buy a large lot of prewar cards.

While reading one of Frank Nagy's old newsletters today, I saw the article below and thought of this thread. This is from June 1972, so scum in the hobby is nothing new (although I never had any problems with the person mentioned in the story).

Was unable to glean who this collector was other than a lady who is now a gentleman so maybe a trans-sexual from California?

I had the same thing happen on a lot of '75 Topps that I bought from NESC.

questionable dealer actions
 

Another one is the guy actioning off a huge lot..but cant tell you what #s are in the lot. Always the answer of "its a huge load of cards from 52 thru 62..dont have time to look at every card,etc.." You pretty much know your getting one or two 52T..three or four 53...etc.. and 75 62 T