Quote:
Originally Posted by calvindog
Due diligence? Comeon. If annyone has been keeping score lately, auction houses basically get away with whatever they can -- until they're caught. Even when the auction houses are caught they don't 'fess up. I remember earlier this year in Goodwin's auction he had a Cobb card listed as the only one graded by SGC. I proceeded to post my own, identical, SGC-graded card on the board. Slippery Bill immediately banned me from his auction -- but never changed the false 1 of 1 population claim in his listing.
Has anyone ever seen an industry in which such a large percentage of the population has either: been in prison, are about to be in prison or belong in prison? Auction house principals rest comfortably with the understanding that there are simply not enough prosecutorial resources to indict all of the bad guys in the hobby.
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In principal - agreed. So how do we "out" these guys that take advantage of all the unwilling victims? Does this need to be brought up with the FBI investigators looking at Mastro? Would it be safe to presume that they are looking at other auction houses as well? I know I ended up with a refund check a few years ago from Sotheby's who along with a couple of other VERY high profile auction houses were accused of unfair trade practices when there was apparent collusion in setting their buyer's premium. I also know there have been a couple of times with major houses where I am 98% certain in hindsight I was "bidding against myself".