Posted By:
Jeff LichtmanJoann, I think there is just general disbelief at the claim by anyone that they will make an attempt to clean up the hobby -- especially when a principal of said company has long been vilified for authenticating the very items he sells at auction without disclosure being given (unless it is asked for, of course - har har!). Just because someone says that they will be honest does not necessarily make it so, sad to say. I have long said that in the unregulated industries of sports auction houses and third party grading the opportunity to make money easily by defrauding customers is just too easy and too lucrative and is impossible to imagine it does not exist on a regular basis. Shill bidding, I believe, is rampant and difficult to detect - especially when auction houses do not maintain bidding records from past auctions (gee, why?). MEARS makes clear that it believes the industry is being investigated by law enforcement and this is their attempt to reform the industry from within. Good luck. In many industries where fraud is rampant for a long time, the fraudsters become so used to making a percentage of their money in such a fashion that getting them to stop it voluntarily - even at the threat of possible law enforcement intervention - is nearly impossible. My belief is that a major scandal will rock our little hobby at some point soon and shake out some of the problems. I applaud the ideas set forth by MEARS but I'm hardly convinced that they will have any true impact.