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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

I think most of you who are defending JP Cohen are missing the point here. I can understand and appreciate why someone who has had all positive experiences with him would want to defend him. I respect loyalty, but that loyalty seems to be blinding some to the real issue, at least as I see it.

Go back and read Frank's post above. That is the real issue, if you ask me. It's not about whether or not a Memory Lane card has been trimmed or not. The fact is, how can anyone know they haven't been scammed in their auctions?

How can anyone who has ever left a max bid at Memory Lane not wonder if they were bumped up a bid or two, even if it wasn't all the way to their max? Of course, one could wonder this with any auction house, but how can you possibly not see how there would be a greater chance of being scammed from the auction house run by someone convicted of defrauding thousands of people out of thousands of dollars over a number of years?

The faithful JP Cohen supporters might still bid away in Memory Lane auctions, but I'll bet quite a few bidders no longer will. If you are a consignor and unaware of Cohen's fraudulent record, don't you think that might be pertinent information you'd like to have before deciding to consign your material to an auction house that will now be losing some portion of its registered bidders?

Memory Lane auctions might have always been on the up and up, but I'd honestly be surpised if they can survive at all now. Maybe that's the price you pay for having an auction run by a convicted con artist.

Some of the diehard JP Cohen fans remind me of Robin Williams in "The World According To Garp" when he and his wife are looking at houses to buy and a plane crashes into the one they happen to be looking at as they are standing there. Robin Williams says something like "We'll take it! The odds of another plane crashing into this house are astronomical!"

This guy's been ripping people off his whole life. How could he possibly keep doing it now that he runs a major auction house, right?

-Ryan