Alan Rosen "Mr. Mint", what's his business angle?

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Posted By: Hagar Henderson

OK, he's always advertising that he's buying but I've never seen an ad where he's selling. How does this guy operate? When does he actually sell the cards?

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Posted By: JimB

He buys at extremely low prices and then sells to dealers who still make a profit.
JimB

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

He tries to be easy to find by non-hobby sellers... he'd demand and get a prominent booth at the entry of a show, he'd run advertisements that folks would stumble upon.

And, he'd flash cash. A big spread of $100 bill catches attention. It was like bait for a willing seller.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Rosen used to hold auctions.

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Posted By: scott fandango

he sure doesnt use his proceeds to fix his teeth...jeesh this isnt england

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I don't think physical appearance attacks are appropriate. A hobbyist can be held responsible for his shipping time and grading, not his height or ears.

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Posted By: scott fandango

when is see his "smiling" face in many publications, waiving money at me, all is fair game.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I've seen his advertising, so I understand your point.

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Posted By: boxingcardman

Since the hobby's grading standards have evolved and have taken the frothy BS option away from dealers, Rosen's presence in the hobby itself has done a 180. Back in the day, so to speak, he used to be a major retailer. At large shows he would have a set-up like Levi Bleam's looks today, with many minions staffing it, a briefcase full of cash, and lots of self-promotion. He would conduct regular auctions of his best "finds" to sell at retail and he also had a network of wholesale dealers he fed with his discards.

In the late 1980s I attended a large show at the Moscone Center in SF where I got to see him in action in his heyday. Here is how his shtick worked when he was at his peak: A walk-in with a box of 1950s cards stopped at his table. Rather than asking "what do you want for these?" like most dealers would, Rosen sat down with a pen and paper and inventoried the box, assigning values as he went. At the end, he tallied up the numbers and told the guy that was his offer. I remember watching this transfixed and being very impressed with how professionally he conducted himself as compared to other dealers. As I recall the lot was around $5300. He then said loudly "the briefcase please," at which point one of his bobo's handed him a metal attache case. Rosen opened it, pulled out a big stack of Benjamins, and rapidly counted out 53 $100 bills. He then told the guy that he was not interested in having him shop the offer, so it was take it or leave it time. The guy stared at the cash and the cards for a long time (he'd said it was a childhood collection, and I believed him because he looked like he was going through hell), then took the cash and walked. The next day, I overheard Rosen talking about the deal with one of his stooges. He said that he'd broken the cards into two lots and wholesaled them for $3,000 each to some other dealers, a quick 10% profit. Since the cards were pretty distinctive, as I walked around the show I found them with other dealers. As far as I could tell, the cards had been broken down at least once more and wholesaled (I heard one of the dealers saying he'd bought half a lot from some other dealer for $1750). In the end, as far as I could tell, there were at least four lots out there with a "value" of around $7,000.

The thing that I took away from watching it was the professionalism, which I realize is a funny thing to say since many here think of Rosen as a joke, which he kind of is when sophisticated collectors are involved. But when it came to dealing with the public, it was great salesmanship. Unlike most dealers, who behave like the Cheshire Cat when a walk-in comes by, Rosen put the seller at ease by doing everything on paper and above-board, and making his offer a firm one. It was a very effective technique.

All that changed with price guides, the internet and 3rd party grading. As noted above, the market has effectively put Rosen out of business except in instances where people truly cannot do for themselves, and grading killed his auctions. He now targets the ignorant and wholesales the booty to other dealers in his network.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: David Skoglund

For some reason it reminds me of the way some car dealerships went to a "the list price is the price" policy. Before that you talked to the salesman in his office, and then he had to go "talk to his boss to see what he could do for you" and this whole routine. It could go on for hours and get you nowhere.

By making it less of a negotiation and more of a "fill in the blanks on the baseball card worksheet" exercise it would seem to the non-savy seller to be a more objective process.

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Posted By: JimB

"grading killed his auctions"

I partially paid my way through grad school in the early 90's on his auctions. I would buy cards he descried as "mint" assuming they would get PSA 8s, which they did. Then I would flip them to PSA dealers for double what I paid. This was when he was actively campaigning against grading and everything in his auctions was raw. Those were the good ol' days with Rosen.
JimB

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Posted By: Hagar Henderson

That's fascinating. So he's basically paying lowball prices to people who don't know what their cards are worth and then selling to other dealers.

I would think in this day it would be difficult to find people with good stuff that don't have any idea of it's value.

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Posted By: B.C.Daniels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w_yhUdy82A



BcD

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Posted By: Anthony S.

wow, that's Joe Pantoliano in that vid.

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Posted By: dan mckee

Al having a table set up like Levi ever Adam. I remember him buying tons and then selling to dealers. Kit Young actually was paying Al a large chunk per year to get first crack at everything. I think that only lasted a few years. Joe Espisito of B&E was in line for stuff as well. Al had what we call "drop" dealers that he would bring stuff and they would HAVE to buy it. First time they refused they were off of his list. He had that kind of power then as tons of stuff was going through his hands. In all fairness about the low balling, I shopped a collection of tobacco around a National years ago that dad had bought. The highest offer I got was $8K. I went over to Al and we wnet back and forth a bit but he paid me $11,5K. I never had a problem with his dealings. He offers and you can easily say no. Most of the stuff he gets now is dealer stock that I am guessing just isn't moving. I am not sure what he does with it now. Dan.

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Posted By: Robert B

He gets alot of flak probably due to his
goofy personality.
But in my dealings with him
I considered him to be very fair and honest.
In the 80's I approached him with a '53 Topps Mays.
He looked it over and gave me an offer.
He didn't bad mouth the card, put it down
and then try to steal it.
He was straight forward and fair.
I recall at one time he was thinking
about taking his business public,
good thing he didn't.

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Posted By: Todd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtPmIm8Xf_o