[Archive]

Posted By: E, Daniel

This post is in reference to all the truths half given, not stirred, that I read on this site. From the Gretzky Wagner, to card doctors, to dealers getting preferential treatment from Grading companies, yada yada yada.
It could all be true, but please, Leon, please, Barry, please anyone claiming knowledge, enough with the smoke and whispers.
Be men. Be women. Be courageous. Don't just tap away on your keyboards about creating super committees to vet the industry and save it from the grubby handed. Do something real. Say something honest that lets us all participate in protecting our passion.
Give us the real story, honestly told, events you would stand up in court for and vouch to be true. You would be amazed at the power of the truth. You would be surprised at how rarely those who are doing wrong will submit their criminality to the glare of public reckoning, because lies stink and everyone can smell it a mile away.
I'm getting awfully sick of reading posts from people who are, or claim to be - "in the know", and get constantly left at the alter waiting to hear people name names, or give complete and accurate accounts.
I really do respect all of you as hobbyists, collectors of great vintage or recent comers, and know that you have poured over cards, and writings and such, to become expert. But this whole thing of saying - I know people, who know people.....Or I am a dealer, and see it first hand.......
AND THEN JUST SAY NOTHING. IT'S ABSOLUTE BULL***T.

Do you really know, or have you been told something. If you know, then libel is not possible because, and here it is, IT'S THE PLAIN HONEST TRUTH.

So, spare me the - "I was collecting in the 70's and 80's and never ran across perfect vintage looking cards", ergo they do not exist.
Please, for a start, you were considered a bit of a dill - or nerd - back then, and collecting things outside of art and furniture and ancient baubels and statues was not exactly celebrated. Therefore, it seems incredibly likely that much of what was known of extant copies of cards was a mere layer of the cake, not the 4 tiered wedding monstrosity we know today.

I've heard repeatedly that EX, or EX-MT, or at best NRMT, is truly the best shape a card could possibly survive the last century in...
Umm, but isn't ex-mt a card that has all four corners, unbroken edges, lacking surface damage, and usually a decent image? How giant a stretch is it for a card to survive in just slightly better condition and make it to nrmt-mt? Seriously. Is it so damned hard. It made it to this point in the first place. Does every card have to look like a kid owned it and kept it in his back pocket? And just for illustration, and bravely making fun of myself at the same time, the stuff I own, whether furniture, or shoes, or eating plates, or my stereo, or cards, or whatever, I keep in the absolute best condition I possibly can. And that's pretty good. I'm anal. No worries there, and many people would look at my stuff and think it never got used.
Not true. I'm just awfully, awfully, protective of my stuff. Comes from growing up reasonably poor, is how I like to catagorize it.

So maybe, just maybe, an ADULT, with tendencies to keep things in fine order - was an original owner of some sportscards, and passed them down some 50-60 years later to a son or daughter who knew their parents tendencies and so barely breathed on the item from that time forward. Is it so unbeleivably hard to imagine?

I won't discount that shysters have been at play in the industry.
Or that others who make money from the hobby have let go of their ethics in search of gain.
But the posts you guys write, so plaintive and provocative, so bordering on the hysterical that images of chicken little are stirred when painting your pictures..........with these half spoken whispers of subterfuge, and criminality, that I just want to.....aaarghh!!!

It's absolutely aggravating.
So come clean.
Tell us all the truth.
Be better than the people you are protecting by not naming them.
Help the hobby.
Help me. I promise I'll help in return. I think everyone will.

And if you won't, just plainly because it would hurt your ability to continue to buy and sell these pieces of cardboard, or tarnish your image in the hobby's community with these mega dastardly criminal players - and that is what they most assuredly would be if what you hint at is true, then you are no better than them and should not claim a pulpit here to preach from.


Sincerely
Daniel