I have just been made aware of the situation involving Dean Faragi, a highly regarded REA employee, that is being discussed here. I am not happy with the situation, and it is an internal matter for REA to deal with. I do appreciate that the matter has been brought to my attention but it appears that exactly what has transpired has been mischaracterized. Dean did not do anything whatsoever relating to shill bidding. What he did do, and this is not a practice condoned or tolerated at REA, is represent to a PSA registry set owner that the two A&G flag cards he was offering privately (that were actually up for auction on eBay and closing that night) were his (when in fact they were not, they were just on eBay) and soliciting an offer which he intended (and actually did) use to bid on the cards, with the intention of selling them to the PSA registry collector if his bids were successful. This is not a practice condoned or tolerated by REA. It is also the first and only time Dean Faragi has done this. It is easy to contact PSA Registry set owners via the PSA website. When he saw these cards closing, he contacted the PSA Registry set owner. It is REA’s policy to not solicit PSA Registry set owners at all via the PSA website. What Dean did was stupid, but it was not shill bidding. The fact that he represented to the PSA set owner (contacted via the PSA website) that he owned the cards combined with the fact that he bid on the cards on eBay (armed with the offer he solicited) is being misinterpreted. To be clear: He did bid on the cards. He did not own them. Anyone who has ever dealt with Dean knows that he is a great asset to REA and to the hobby. We run a tight ship at REA. This is not in keeping with what is allowed at REA. But it is a far cry from inaccurate suggestions that Dean was in any way shill bidding. His stupidity was in representing himself as the owner of cards that he did not in fact own, and soliciting an offer for these cards. Dean is well aware of the mistakes he has made in this situation, has apologized profusely, and assured me that nothing like this will ever occur again. His apology is accepted.
Sincerely,
Robert Lifson
President
Robert Edward Auctions LLC
www.RobertEdwardAuctions.com