Article about Collecting and Fraud in the Hobby

[Snowman]

I don't understand the argument that selling a doctored card can be considered mail fraud if the underlying act of doctoring a card is not itself a crime.

People collect sneakers. Some pay big bucks for them too. You can clean up an old pair of Jordans and surely get more money for them than you could if you sold them grungy. Surely, there are sneaker "purists" who would prefer their sneakers to have never been "tampered" with, but that doesn't mean they get to set the rules for everyone on what is and isn't allowed. It's not a crime to clean and sell sneakers. It's not a crime to clean and sell comics. Surely, it's not a crime to clean and sell baseball cards regardless of how much profit someone makes in the process.

I've said this multiple times before, but I maintain that someone could openly admit to altering cards in front of a jury (even without having representation) and they would never be convicted of a crime under any and every circumstance imaginable.

The arguments for criminalizing this sort of behavior just comes across to me as wishful thinking on the part of those who would like to impose their views on others.