Public enemy #1

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Posted By: Scott Levy

It seems like the board is always bashing PSA and eBay (often with good reason) but who is Public Enemy #1? Yes I know that shady characters and true scam artists deserve the top spot....but let's just look at the hobby bigs for now....

Maybe Wonka can create a claymation death match between Meg Whitman and Joe Orlando to decide the outcome

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Posted By: Steve Murray

is in the running. She's left the sinking ship.

"January 25, 2008, 1:59 pm
Going, Going, Gone: Meg Whitman Leaves eBay
By Adam Cohen

Meg Whitman, the long-serving C.E.O. of eBay, stepped down this week. It is the end of an era for eBay, and something of a nostalgic moment for me. I wrote a history of eBay a few years ago, The Perfect Store: Inside eBay, and Ms. Whitman was one of its heroes: the brash Harvard M.B.A. who took eBay from a fledgling website of uncertain prospects to the $40 billion company it is today.
It’s hard to imagine just how small and chaotic eBay was when Ms. Whitman took over 10 years ago. Pierre Omidyar, the company’s visionary and decidedly uncorporate founder, was still running things in distinctly laid-back fashion..."

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Posted By: Anthony N.

we might be wishing Meg was back, the way things are going.

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Posted By: Eric Brehm

I re-entered the hobby about two years ago, after a 20 year hiatus, and the two main things that made we want to get involved it again were eBay and third party professional grading. Those things are far from perfect but without them the hobby would be very different than it is today.

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Posted By: Jason L

and this Board, to be honest.

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Posted By: leon

Scott Elkins....

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Posted By: MikeU

Speaking of roosters, I was saddended to hear on the radio last week that I believe Lousiana justed banned legal cock fighting. Apparently they were the last State in the Union to ban the practice.

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Posted By: joseph fornal

MR. MINT

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Posted By: Bob

What eBay to this generation, Sports Collectors Digest was to mine. The minute I picked up my first issue in 1978 (I think), I was hooked. The "voice
of the hobby" tops my list. A certain advertiser (large one at that) just ended an auction within their pages and a Mel Ott signed jersey fetched a whopping $177, a signed Mel Ott baseball bat brought an incredible $186 and a Tim Keefe cut signature could only muster up $80, about 1/4th the price of a Michael Phelps signature. I have not even looked at an SCD (it will give me that dirty feeling) in ten years and the day they finally close their doors, full catered Kansas City style BBQ at my New Jersey home!

Bob

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Posted By: Matt

Bob - wow. I wonder what the folks who won those lots think about the hammer price.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The two enemies are unethical sellers and ignorant buyers.

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Posted By: Jason L

"The two key enemies are amoral sellers and ignorant buyers"

may they forever do battle!

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

that Mr. Mint came after the post about cocks?

I know there are people that frequent here that work for or worked for SCD who are honorable people but you just CAN'T ignore the relationship that they continue to maintain with THAT auction house (they really don't rise to the level of an auction house........more like a trailer) that just COMPLETELY obliterates any shred of decency that they might still be clinging on to with that publication. It really is a shame.............

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Jason, what you say is correct. Scammers require the ignorant to make their money, because the knowledgeable identify the scams and scams. A seller of the Brooklyn Bridge requires a rube to do business. And a seller of a AAA graded shard of paper requires a buyer who knows precious little about grading companies and the baseball card hobby.

There's nothing wrong or errant with being ignorant about baseball cards or Hollywood posters or silver coins if you aren't buying the material. Albert Einstein and Grace Kelly led full and exciting lives while being ignorant about baseball cards. Of course, neither collected baseball cards so their ignorance didn't matter. J. Paul Getty became a billionaire while never knowing the difference between a Topps and a Bowman. Of course his money was put into oil not sports memorabilia.

Now, if Albert Einstein said he was interested in starting buying baseball cards, I'd recommend he buy a Standard Catalog, give the list of reputable and unreputable graders and sellers and tell him to start with inexpensive purchases. "And remember, Albert," I'd say. "This is baseball card buying not Princeton nuclear physics. Do your homework."

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Posted By: Mark

Tom...

Nice one re. Mr. Mint!

And regarding your comments on SCD / CC... I could not agree with you more. Very well said!

They may not be big enough to be "public enemy # 1", but they certainly top the "sleaze factor" list, and have given the hobby a bad name by circulating a lot of trash (not to mention ripping off thousandss of people).