I think that sometimes, we, the cynical collectors that we are, assume that the rest of the world is either as cynical as we are OR they are on the other side trying to scam people.
In fact, there is a huge percentage of people who fall in the middle. They are, for the most part, innocent and unaware. They neither know that the scammers are out there, nor that we see scammers under every rock.
Several years ago my wife surprised me for Christmas, with a framed photo collage including signed pictures of Mickey Mantle, Joe D, and Ted Williams. Where did she buy it? Why Neiman Marcus, of course. I have no idea if they're authentic and that discussion will never be had, as long as she's around! She just assumed that a trusted company like NM couldn't be selling anything bad. (I mean, it came with a Certificate of Authenticity!)
We are a fringe group, for sure. Maybe 1% of the population. An even smaller group is trying to scam people on these things. That leaves 98+% of the people blissfully unaware.
I'm sorry that this lady got dragged out of that group this time.
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