[the 'stache]

I watched a video last night of "Mr. Mint", which I'd seen once before a few years back. I forget the name of the man, but Rosen was buying a large collection from an older man in Wisconsin. This was a collection that he'd been building for his entire life. He made mention of how his son did it for a while, and I forget what happened. The son stopped collecting, and gave his collection to his dad, who kept collecting. Anyway, the man ended up getting $80,000. As has been already alluded to, Mint was just ripping through binder after binder of cards. He'd look at a sheet of 9 cards, like '54 Bowman Football or something, "twenty bucks", then after he was done adding it up, he'd just throw the binder across the table, and start ripping through the next one.

The elderly gentleman, who was in a Packers Super Bowl XXXI shirt, had recently undergone a surgical procedure. I couldn't believe my ears when Rosen made fun of him for only having one testicle as a result. Later he also made jokes about Polish people, and generally disparaged people in the midwest. One of the people sitting at the table, when they were poking fun at the man's weight, lifted up his shirt, and was flapping his big, fat belly. It was just disgusting, and completely unprofessional. I watched the rest of the videos, and at the end, he'd made 8 stacks of $10,000. Then the guy asked if he could get his picture taken with Rosen. Mint stacked the money into two of $40k each, stood behind him, fanned out the money, and smiled for the camera.

He might have increased exposure for the hobby at one point. He might have had some polite conversations with people when he wasn't busy being a diva. He might have been a big name in the hobby, too. He certainly thought he was important, and that he deserved preferential treatment. But Al Rosen struck me as a completely classless human being. It was appalling to see how he belittled this man, and just threw around binder after binder of cards as if they were nothing. They weren't stacks of pristine '52 Topps Mantles, so it became obvious that Rosen thought this whole collection was beneath him. After he made his offer for everything, and the gentleman accepted, Rosen pulled out $30,000, bragging that he'd brought $110,000. The man said he didn't have any more. I mean, Rosen gave him $100 for a full set of the 1955 Topps All American football players. $100? The man could have bought a price guide, or done some research on his own. But, perhaps foolishly, he expected that Al Rosen would deal with him in good faith. And while Rosen is there buying for his client, he still had a fiduciary responsibility to treat the other parties involved respectfully. I thought, "ok, $80,000. The collection was clearly worth a lot more than that. Several times more. But when I read the comments, I learned that something had been cut from the video. The man had a collection of '52 Topps Mantles. Rosen told the man that they looked like they were fakes, and bullied him into selling them as reprints. But the kicker was when Mr. Mint and his little entourage went to breakfast. They'd heard that some place nearby made great pancakes, so they all went there, and Rosen called the man, and asked him and his son to join them. When the bill came, Rosen gave it to the old man, saying "you're the one with all the cash." He and his group left. The old man's son had to stay at the restaurant while the old man went home and got the money to pay for everybody.

I literally wanted to throw up. It doesn't matter how much money you have. Being wealthy doesn't give you license to demean another human being the way Rosen did. And if I'd been there when this happened, I'd have thrown them out of the house. I'd have been very tempted to do something else, but unlike Rosen, I have class, and I wouldn't have acted on my urges, no matter how badly I wanted to give him a piece of my mind. Al, you and your son, and your business partner, and the police officer you paid to come with you, and your limo driver, and your personal chef--you can all get lost.

Edit: I have amended two comments, one about the behavior of the people at the table that might have been an inaccurate representation, and a second comment about the size and quality of the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle group that the seller included in this $80,000 deal. I made the original comment about the Mantle collection based off of posts I'd read from multiple people on Youtube and a forum. It has been pointed out to me that what I'd posted is not accurate, so I have removed that portion of my post.