[drcy]

My comment on shilling is, if an auctioneer does one thing unethical in order to covertly trick customers out of money, you can safely assume the auctioneer is doing more than one thing unethical. The motive in to secretly trick customers out of money-- why would they stick with just one covert method to achieve that? And customers often can only guess what the other unethical things might be. Remember that Mastro wasn't sent to prison for just shilling-- the charges were for shilling, altering and misrepresenting items at sale. Perhaps other things. He had a variety of methods to cheat bidders out of money.

This is why I say that collectors are fools when they participate in auctions where they know unethical (and in the case of shilling, possibly illegal) practices are going on. The bidders have don't know what other ways they may be being scammed? Are items altered? Is essential information omitted from descriptions? Does the auctioneer handle material from consignors he knows are unethical or alterers? Do know who are the consignors?

And, ask yourself, how sellable will your collection be 15 years from now, when potential buyers learn you bought 60% of it from an auctioneer who served time in prison for massive shilling fraud? And, even worse, what will these customers think when they learn that you knew about and defended on a chatboard the auctioneer's illegal practices while they were happening? What will this say to them about your ethics and your reliability as a seller? When I read the game used universe board, I read posts from people who are suspicious of items that come with a Mastro LOA-- even though the items may be (and perhaps probably are) legitimate. Though I think his knee jerk reaction was incorrect, one poster said he just assumed a game used item was altered because it came from a Mastro Auction.

In summary, if you participate in auctions where you know unethical (and even potentially illegal) things are going on, you are not only part of the problem, you are a fool. And don't come running back to this board when a seller you knew all along was willing to break the law to cheat customers out of money sold you a card that was intentionally misdescribed or known to be altered or cheated you out of shipping or deceptively manipulated scans. I might just have to say something sarcastic such as "Wow. Who would've thunk an unethical seller would do something unethical."

And sometime have a conversation with someone outside of collecting and see what they think of your brain capacity and grasp of common sense:

YOU: "I'll tell you, there are honest and dishonest sellers out there. There are some sellers you can trust with every word they say and there are some sellers who would sell his own grandmother to the Gypsies for five bucks. I've identified two sellers in particular on eBay who are total cheats and scammers, who literally break the law to cheat customers out of money. God knows what else they are doing."
HOBBY OUTSIDER: "So, naturally, you stay far away from those scammers."
YOU: "I don't get what you mean. Those are the auctions where I bid. That's where I get most of my stuff."
HOBBY OUTSIDER: "Uhhh. Maybe I missed something. Repeat everything you've said, but say it more slowly this time."
YOU: "Sorry, I forget. Understand that I was dropped on my head as kid."
HOBBY OUTSIDER: "That's what I kind of thinking. I noticed the dent on the side of your head, but wasn't going to say anything."

P.s. I don't follow eBay much, much less follow bid pattern charsm and am not accusing any current eBay seller of anything. I don't have enough knowledge to even comment on individual sellers And I'm also not a lawyer, and my legal references where hypotheticals and to prove general points. There are enough lawyers on board to point out when my People's Court education is lacking.

P.s.s, by 'you' I didn't mean you. I'm sure your head has no dents.