US Caramel Lindstrom

[Archive]

Posted By: Jaime Leiderman

Wasn't L.F selling both Lindstroms at about $170k in past sale catalogs?

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1060203476

Also, want to hear thoughts about SCD grading


JL

[Archive]

Posted By: Marc S.

I am not a fan of SCD grading...I think it is merely a convenient outlet for Larry Fritsch to get his cards graded.

Their cards seem to be generally overgraded, with two gimmicks that greatly annoy me. First is the "untouched" designation for any card that is graded straight from a pack. (no -- they do not authenticate the pack). The second is the grade of 11 -- for cards that are simply too strong for a GEM MINT 10 grade.

I can think of only two dealers who have even used SCD's services besides Fritsch. Fritsch used SCD because they gave him a sweet deal (including a TON of free advertising in SCD publications). Most Fritsch cards are either bought by uninformed collectors or by collectors who are going to crack them out of their holders and try to get a similar grade from PSA or SGC.

Their website for grading is supposed to be:
http://scdabeta/default_krause.asp

but I cannot get it to work.

Also, isn't it Joe Merkle who is behind SCD's grading? If memory serves me correctly, he left SGC under the most auspicious of circumstances.

[Archive]

Posted By: John

he had them both for sale for $174,900,though the one up for auction is much nicer than the other....the other one has a punchhole,and stamp mark on the back
As far as SCD grading,i would like to see what kind of grades some of the cards Larry had in his catalog got,compared to what he described them as...if they give the same grades he did,you know theres something wrong with SCD,and if they give worse grades it might alienate one of their best customers....i see their deal with Fritsch as a no win deal,he might be one of the biggest dealers but everyone knows he overgrades cards,and it suprises me they graded anything vintage from him,i thought it would be all newer cards and basically nothing worse than 9's just to avoid what i mentioned above

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

I have only bought about 20 cards from Fritsch. Bad news is I had to send about 5 back because of unbelieveable overgrading. The 15 I kept were ALL just regularly overgraded (1-2 grades)....Good news is I learned my lesson......I will say, however, that they gave me refunds with absolutely NO questions asked. Unlike some other dealers...ie Broadway xxx (whatever his alias is today).....best regards all

[Archive]

Posted By: petecld

My experience with Larry is about th same.

I've kept about 75% of what I ordered and sent the rest back. At least he accepts returns no questions asked and so far hasn't banned me from ordering from him beause I did return cards.

[Archive]

Posted By: Bruce Moreland

The "untouched" thing is idiotic, clearly a dumb idea that was not filtered out by a person with some sense.

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1059995501

That is some very bad centering on an 8.

bruce

[Archive]

Posted By: petecld

Hey, go easy on SCD. Be thankful. . .

We had to guess which big name/high volume dealers SGC and PSA were giving special treatment to.

SCD is quite open about which dealers get special treatment.

[Archive]

Posted By: Julie Vognar

I would occasionally buy Colgans from him, but only in nr-mint (I did buy a red border Speaker, ex+, which i sent back because the whole surface of the card was red--you could barely see speaker. At this point, I got a letter from Fritsch, saying, why didn't I send him a list of the Colgans I had, and he would tell me what he had for sale that I didn't have-- in nice shape. I had about 100 at the time, so that was time consuming. I clearly wrote on the page, "these are the Colgans I have." A month later, i got a curt note from him saying, no, thanks, he didn't need any of the cards I had written down.

Which reminds me, do you think maybe Mastro is spreading himself too thin? Could contribute to careless authentication.

Julie

[Archive]

Posted By: Marc S.

Along that vein, I would be very interested to hear if anyone on this board did invest in the private placement offering that Mastro was putting together last year. And, if so, either what the results have been or whether their expectations were met.

Marc

[Archive]

Posted By: MW

I hate to say it, but Pete's right again.

[Archive]

Posted By: vorthian

<< Also, want to hear thoughts about SCD grading >>

At the last Rosemont, IL show I was able to view several SCD cards. If you are used to PSA / SGC type grading, expect them to be .5 - 1 grade off. Granted, my viewing sample was small but that is all I have to work with at this moment.

On a side-note, the Lindstrom is going to tank - no way it's going to come close to 80k.

Lastly, Marc pointed out the "deal" - one has to wonder if that was enough to off-set the realized prices being poor.