The Death of Direct Sales

[Archive]

Posted By: Steve Dawson

Fred C:

"Does it really matter who is president? Is McCain going to put a Goudey Ruth in my pocket (slabbed of course)? Is Obama going to get me a green portrait Cobb? I say the politicians have done a wonderful job. Bruce, you're right, with this market CRASH (well it's not yet complete, it's still got a way to go before it's CRASHED) we should finally see the price of card board coming back to levels that were once enjoyed only a few short years ago. For those of you that were able to dump a lot of inventory recently, I salute you! For those people whining and crying about their card board investments taking a dump, just stop it. To me this stuff isn't for investment, it's for ENJOYMENT. I'm going to enjoy buying card board at reduced price levels."



Now that is the best post I've seen on this thread; and I agree with you 100+% , and I apologize for furthering the off-topic discussion.



Steve

[Archive]

Posted By: larry

direct sales of tough stuff test issues regionals etc
has been dead for 5 years
all the good stuff is in auctions
every national there is less and less

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Fred, I agree.

And I also think that the invective has been so ugly during this campagin (as well as during the past eight years) that I sincerely hope that regardless of who wins next month that the other side will be as supportive of the President as possible. In these scary times we really can't afford not to.

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

Barry,

Sorry but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck its a duck. He is a socialist.

The bottom 40 percent of wage earners pay no taxes. We have a steeply progressive tax system that already takes the incentive out of making money. Hussein Obama would increase this even more--and substantially.

Dan,

Why can't a businessmen pay bonuses to retain a workforce. Otherwise, their money spent is out the window.

Its a people business and without talented people there is no business.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Jeff- that's an excellent point. Once the election is over everyone has to bond together. We're in the most difficult financial times I've ever witnessed and it will take a huge effort from everyone to get things working again.

I do not envy the mess Obama is going to inherit, but he's a smart man and I will support him.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

If you want to call him a socialist I don't have a problem with it. So he's a socialist. Let's move on.

And the bottom 40% of the country can barely afford to pay taxes. They've been struggling for a long time just to pay the bills. You think the bottom 40% can afford their own health care? Not a chance. If health care were made more affordable for them is that socialism?

[Archive]

Posted By: paulstratton

Rob D.,

I was thinking the same thing re: the BST posts.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

"If you want to call him a socialist I don't have a problem with it. So he's a socialist. Let's move on."

Funniest lines of the thread. Barry, Obama being a socialist is not exactly the kind of point that you can move on from. You're aware that we live in America, right?

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

I plan and I hope what is left of the Republican Party and conservative movement fight the radical plans of the left wing of the Barack Hussein Obama party every step of the way. This stuff about lets all pull together around a radical liberal agenda is bs. When Obama wins lets gear up immediately for fight his left-wing agenda on all fronts.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I'm sure these folks will be HUGE supporters of Obama if he gets the presidency.

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

Barry,

Glad you agree he is a socialist--okay lets move on from there. This is a country built on democratic principals and capitalism--not socialism. How can you support the antithesis of what made this country great?

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

I don't think the country is as great as it once was. I think many of the things that made it great have been compromised over the past eight years.

We are now heading in a different direction with new leadership. I don't have a clue whether we will be better off or worse off, but it's time to try a new approach. And like I said, I will support the new president.

You can't tell me the last eight years have been great for the United States (well maybe you can, but most wouldn't).

Edited to add: Jeff and Jim, my socialist comment was tongue in cheek. No, I do not in any way think Barack Obama is a socialist, but I figured Jim would get off my case if I said that. Now let's move on.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Barry, socialism is not a new approach; just an old failed one.

And I'd agree with you that the past eight years have not been good ones; however, to say that America is not as good as it once was sounds like a Democratic talking point.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Jim- I just read your other post. So you feel that instead of everyone working together it is better to fight tooth and nail to maintain some right wing agenda? I got to tell you, that's a really stupid plan.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

How about I rephrase that: I think America has a chance to be better under new leadership. Can you live with that?

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Barry, I don't disagree with Jim when he says that he thinks conservatives should fight Obama's radical agenda tooth and nail -- that's what America is all about, political discourse. However, the nasty political garbage that goes on in America these days -- designed solely to frustrate the opposing party even to the detriment of our country -- has got to stop once and for all.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I won't say that I think America isn't as good as it once was but these things are disappointing.

-Torturing detainees
-Spying on ourselves
-Economy as bad as it's been in my lifetime
-Partisanship on a level I've not seen in my lifetime

Now with that said it appears that we are on the eve of electing our first black president...not possible in the recent past...we almost nominated the first woman to a major political party as president...not sure why this hasn't happened in the past, but it is a step forward.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Radical agenda? Sounds like right wing gibberish to me (sorry Jeff, if you give it out you have to take it too).

[Archive]

Posted By: Craig

With all due respect Barry, socialism is hardly a new approach. C'mon man, you're smarter than that.

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

Craig- don't understand your point.

[Archive]

Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

For the past two hours, we were attending a private lecture with Steve Forbes

Forbes was quite articulate with regard to why we are in such mess, whose fault
it is and what has to be done

The reasons

(1) Fed printed too much money in 2004
(2) FASB Created "mark to market" which met financial institutions and other public
firms had to adjust balance sheet monthly to reflect perceived value of assets not
the actual value they would realize--i.e. it would be like if you changed the valuation
of your collection everytime there was a price change on VCBC or in the SMR
(3) Poor oversight at the SECon (a) Naked shorting (b) Uptick rule on short stocks
(4) Democrats support, including today (Barney Frank) of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
(5) Bush's promotion of a weak dollar

Forbes put the blame on both parties, but primarily on regulators who do not understand
basic economics. He called the crisis the most unnecessary tragic event in American History
and had some suggestions

(a) Eliminate Mark to Mark
(b) Fed buy preferred stock of financial institutions
(c) reinstate the rules regard naked shorting of hedge fund and reinstate the uptick rule-
you have have a stock tick up before you can short it

He assumes that Obama will be President and either Larry Summers or Steve Ratner (Hedge Fund fame)w
will be Treasury- indicates that the biggest mistake they can make will be to raise taxes- it will kill
any chance of recovery ---i.e. Clinton tax raise in 1993- vis a vis no tax rise under JFK in 1961

Our Problem With Poor Liberals

We are sick and tired of the - "its their fault attitude"- there is nothing wrong if someone wants to work
7 days a week and earns $50 million a year- A Rod works 6 months and earns that with endorsements
and he doesn't even perform

This country is built on risk taking- Greed is good makes sense- without greed there would be no rich
people and no motivation. That, however, does not mean someone should break the law. Those who break
the law must be severely punished.

Unless one wants to win the World Series every year and unless you want to win
every client and ravage your competition you can't be fabulously successful.

How many Board Members who complain about the rich work 18 hours -7 days a week- 50 weeks a year.

People who work that hard deserve whatever success they achieve. Society owes nothing to those who are able to compete, but chose not to



Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Barry, I'm hardly a right winger; not sure there are too many right wingers that are pro-choice and for gay marriage. But your response is typical of the crazy left--if you dare to criticize The One you must be a right wing nut job.

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

Barry,

Working together to all support the Barack Hussein Obama agenda--it makes me want to throw up. Barack will take the Daily Kos/moveon.org agenda and run with it. The dems may even get 60 seats in the senate. The country will lurch decisively to the left and I think its up to all right-thinking Americans to fight this every step of the way--not to say lets all try socialism.

Jim

[Archive]

Posted By: Fred C

SOCIALIST?

Well I'm back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSA.....

USSA = United Socialist States of America

You guys shouldn't have sucked me into this conversation....

I'm sorry, please forgive me if I have a hard time sympathizing with people that are overdrawn or economically strung out because they can't manage a budget. Let me see... I make so much money in a month or year and my expenditures are limited to that amount. What's so frigging hard about that? Oh, the banks took advantage of people... I think not... I think people need to learn a few basic principals in math. Addition. I add the amount of money I make to what I already have. Subtraction. I make sure my expenditures do not exceed what I have on the plus side of my bank account.

Socialist is when the government is going to lower not only the interest rate but the PRINCIPAL amount of the mortgage for someone that wasn't too good at economic planning (addition/subtraction). Socialist is having me, the responsible tax payer, pay for the reduction in home mortgage principal by having to pay taxes that will not go towards services that might have otherwise been available. I live in the San Diego area. Each foreclosure on a recently made loan is making hundreds of thousands of dollars evaporate, poof, gone. The government needs to let the market correct itself. Providing a bridge until the unevitable foreclosure occurs is not a bright way to spend our money.

Ok, I'm going to stop before I go into cardiac at the key board just thinking about it.

As was mentioned earlier. I would hope that all parties slow down and create a common goal of figuring out how to fix this mess. Who ever becomes president had better take a hard honest look at the books and they better start on the road to recovery by taking 12 steps back and saying "yes, we screwed up in the past, here's what we did wrong and lets not repeat it".

Well I'm back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSA.....

Sorry about that....

[Archive]

Posted By: Joe D.

barry:

"I don't think the country is as great as it once was. I think many of the things that made it great have been compromised over the past eight years."


Barry... just possibly someone too far right is NOT a good thing....
and just possibly someone too far left is JUST AS BAD but for different reasons.
and just possibly - someone in the middle - is exactly who we need.

McCain is about as right wing as Bill Clinton.



"How about I rephrase that: I think America has a chance to be better under new leadership. Can you live with that?"


I agree with this.... America has a chance to be better if we do not have an extreme left or extreme right guy in there.

I think maybe you are a McCain supporter and you just don't know it.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

Jim, using Barack's middle name like you do only makes you sound like the idiots in the two videos I posted. And while Obama is the choice of the Kos crowd they have not always agreed. Obama voted for immunity for the telecoms, I would also guess that the majority of the Kos crowd was against the bailout and Obama voted for that too. There is no lock step and anyone who thinks Obama is pushing a Socialist agenda is buying in to the propaganda.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I would have been fine with McCain if he'd chosen as a running mate someone like Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge. Sarah Palin scares the bejeebus out of me.

[Archive]

Posted By: Joe D.

btw....

from the media - -
I remember 4 years ago hearing Kerry had the election sewn up.
I remember hearing there was no way bush would bet re-elected.
I even heard on the way home from work that Bush was readying his concession speech.

but I also remember the next morning.... bush won the election.


I can't help but not believe the media or the polls.

[Archive]

Posted By: Alan

Let's get this thread back talking about vintage cards before Leon locks it.

[Archive]

Posted By: Tom Boblitt

that with the demise of the economy, Obama has picked up steam. How can anyone think that he's some fix-all with the economy? It's just beyond comprehension. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge McCain fan, but he's the lesser of evils right now. Someone on the radio said the other day when you have to vote between the lesser of evils, evil still wins..........

[Archive]

Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Sara Palin is totally unqualified (but hot in a dirty librarian way, but I digress).......but.......I'd rather have the unqualified person on the bottom of the ticket than on the top of the ticket.......

[Archive]

Posted By: Marc S.

I think the VP candidate is important in this election unlike any other in recent generations.

Actuaries have determined that there is a 25-30% probability [based upon actuary table and underlying risk factors] that McCain would die while in office. As McCain is the oldest potential first-term president ever, that puts Palin in a spotlight unlike any other recent VP.

I categorically cannot endorse an American system led by McCain, and the risk factor of it happening is too large to dismiss as negligible.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Tom, it's simple: in the eyes of the masses the Republicans are responsible for screwing up Wall Street because they are in the White House; therefore, McCain is being punished for it. While Obama may not have any tremendous idea on how to handle the problem his best attribute is that he is from the party perceived to be less responsible for the debacle.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

Tom, it's a matter of opinion, but what bothers me is that McCain is 72 years old and who knows how healthy he really is....scares me to have someone who apparently has the same intellectual curiosity as George W. Bush that close to the presidency. 5 schools in 6 years to get a bachelor's degree in journalism???....I'll take Obama's brains over Palin's so called executive experience any day of the week. She left a town of 7,000 people in 20+ million dollars of debt that had no debt when she took office. Her 20 months as Alaska governor in which she's spent the majority of it at home is not executive experience that really translates to the presidency IMO.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

The Democrats should share some of the blame for the mess we are in, but like Bruce said above and I also heard this from some smarty pants on msnbc today...one of the big problems with what happened was the regulators who were overlooking this are anti-regulatory and thus always turned a blind eye. If McCain would drop Palin from the ticket I'd vote for him three times. I like it when we have one party controlling the executive and the other controlling the legislative.

[Archive]

Posted By: PC

Why all the fighting and negativity? Focus on the bright side ... our children and grandchildren no longer have to pay for the mistakes of the past few decades, because we're paying now.

And who knew the PSA set registry was the mortgaged-backed CLO/CDO of the hobby. Please, no lamenting the demise of the $1000 PSA7 T206 common.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

My current claim to fame with the big financial dire straights Iceland is in is I as in Iceland when I was a kid. The most geographically exotic place I've been too, with glaciers, ancient lava and moss landscapes, geyser, hot springs, etc. Some places resembled a foreign planet rather than a foreign country. Plus, they are a tiny island of Norwegian-ethnics that was generally isolated for centuries from other countries, and the people today speak an ancient Norwegian Viking language. This is fascinating to people interested in Ancient Scandinavian and Viking history and literature, as the Icelanders in essence speak a lost ancient language.


Icelandic field of moss covered lava

[Archive]

Posted By: paulstratton

The best thing I heard all week was that someone knocked Dick "It's not my" Fuld the hell out while he was running on a treadmill.

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

I agree that McCain is far from the ideal candidate. I wouldn't call him the lesser of two evils because I do believe he is a good man and an American hero. I don't believe he is a true conservative and my vote for him would be an anti-Obama vote.

That is until Palin was named VP candidate. She is tremendous. Maybe she does lack experience but she would be a far better President than the top of the Democratic ticket. I vote for ideology. She is a true conservative and I think a good choice for the #2 spot.

For those of you who won't vote for her due to experience look at the person you are voting for in the number 1 slot on the Democratic ticket!!A person even less experienced and whose first instinct is raise taxes.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Paul, I enjoyed that as well. That knockout plus the poor bastard didn't get a severance package. Life just sucks sometimes.

[Archive]

Posted By: Todd Schultz

IMO, McPain has had several opportunities and once had the personality to separate himself from Bush sufficent to win the election. The economy certainly has taken its toll on him, but I believe he could have overcome it, or at least stalemate it. However, his campaign has been a series, seemingly unending, of missteps and blunders. I believe it's possible, but extremely unlikely, that he can pull it out, yet each day it seems to get worse. I don't recall where a candidate, in a hole, ever continued to repeatedly ask for a bigger shovel.

Someone said on one of the talk shows recently that McCain reminded him of Bob Dole when he ran in '96. Recognizing that his opponent was probably a better politician and orator, Dole could not believe that his lifetime of experience and service was not sufficient for him to win, resented the possibility he could lose, and became basically downright irascible and obstinate at the end. I agree and would add that Obama's people are spot on in calling McCain erratic and thereby unsteady--the very attribute McPain says is critical for the President. He's been both a freakin drama queen (gotta suspend operations and return to Washington, wherein I will literally phone in my vote) and putatively resolute (the fundamentals of our economy are sound). I don't know if it's his personality or the receipt of poor advice, but he appears to become less impressive as a candidate each passing day. I have serious complaints against the Republican Party and they way they run most elections, but would say that McCain is indeed a maverick in the way he bucks his own party and is his own man. I believe he sold out all of that when he hired Karl Rove, Douglas Holtz-Eakin and others to steer the ship, and when he named Sister Sarah as VP. His "country first" mantra disappeared that day, and his occasional repeat of that term since just makes him look worse.

When George Will puts a fork in a major Republican candidate, the fat lady is at least warming up for her song. We'll see on 11/4, after which, as Barry and others have noted, we really need to band together. We must realize that there will be alot of so-called solutions that will carry a bunch of bad with the good. It will probably even be unfair at one level or more. We need to be vigilant on what is going on, understand that risks may lead to some failure, and work towards something that will be better and stronger in the end, for the next generation. My two cents, probably now worth less.

EDITED TO ADD: Can't believe I forgot to mention Rick Davis as a man who added who knows how much unwanted weight on McPain's shoulders, although how he failed to foresee that albatross beforehand is beyond me and is the Senator's own fault.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

Even Ronald Reagan raised taxes Jim.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

There you go again Bruce, getting everyone all in a fluster! For today's most obvious statement, I am under the distinct impression that you revel in being the spark which ignites widespread controversy.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jim VB

Jim C,

I've tried very hard to stay out of these discussions. Most on this board would have no idea which way I will vote, but you may force me to tip my hand.

You wrote - "That is until Palin was named VP candidate. She is tremendous."

Unless you're kidding and I'm too tired to get it, that is the dumbest thing I've ever read. She is utterly incapable of handling the job she aspires to, let alone the Presidency. Even most die hard Republicans admit she was a political gamble to fire up the race. It almost worked, until they let her speak. If you watched 5 minutes of either major network interview or any of the "debate", you have to come away knowing she is incapable of this.

Based on this decision alone, I have to question McCain's judgement.

All the other discussion between sides on the relative pluses and minuses of McCain and Obama have some merit. But all logic goes out the window if you think she'd be good as VP (or God forbid, President.)

[Archive]

Posted By: Fred C

The way I see it the economy is a bipartisan hose job. It's not a Republican disease or a Democratic illness, it's a combination of both parties ignorance of balancing a budget and trusting people wouldn't be greedy. How's that saying go? Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts, absolutely.

[Archive]

Posted By: sagard

Let's quit calling the Republicans conservative. If you want to qualify them as social-conservatives go ahead. Calling them conservative is calling a PSA 8(OC) simply a PSA 8. It's misleading and doesn't reflect the truth.

Read up on fiscal conservatives Bacevich, Sullivan, Will, and many others to see what has been going on with our faux-conservative party.

McCain was leaps and bounds the best choice back in '00. Sadly now I seriously question whether he would outspend the liberal Obama.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jay

Well, let me get into the mud too. Up until a few months ago I was undecided, but leaning toward the Republican candidate. In the last several months, however, I have become an Obama supporter. Why--one is judgement. Selecting a Vice Presidential running mate by what is between their legs rather than what is between their ears does the country a disservice. McCain's political grandstanding by rushing back to Washington for the vote on the bailout package was counterproductive and politics at its worst. Second, the small minds of some McCain supporters who think that the name that Obama was given at birth somehow diminishes his qualifications for office make me want to stay as far away from them as possible. Third, eight years of a dolt in the White House is more than enough. Do I think that Obama is a great candidate--no. Is he the better choice in this election--undoubtedly yes.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

There's all this talk about judgment...why doesn't anyone mention the judgment of someone who doesn't stand up and walk out of a church when that someone's spiritual advisor repeatedly blasts America, white people and Jews -- for 20 years? And McCain has the bad judgment, right?

[Archive]

Posted By: J Levine

Two points from me.

First...Fred, I am sorry but I manage my money very well. I am a teacher on essentially a fixed income. I live in California and have now been working without a contract for 19 months. My income increased this year by exactly 1.75 %. The price of gas has increased by 25%, food by 9 %, power by 6%, water by 15%, and natural gas by 3%. It has nothing to do with my budget but as the economy worsens and prices increase I am getting to the point were it will become difficult to keep myself going. Many people are in the same predicament that I am in. Teachers, nurses, government employees, police, fire, etc. and anyone else on a fixed income are feeling pressure. It is unfair for you to blame us for complaining that the current economic crisis is hurting us.

Second...we do not live in a democracy. It drives me insane every time I hear this. We live in a republic. A true democracy is one citizen one vote. If this were true we might have a different president right now.

Joshua

[Archive]

Posted By: Jay

How about McCain's judgement in paling around with Marylin Shannon? In case you missed it, she was the one praising the woman who attempted to kill a doctor at a legal abortion clinic.