Mr. Mint -- Alan Rosen

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

Bald pate
Cheesy goatee
Rolex flash
Pressure deal
Where are my cards, Alan?

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Posted By: DJ

Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional japanese poetry.

Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

I.E

Sudden spring storm-
a family of ducks paddles
around the deserted lake.

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Posted By: Andrew Parks

A haiku is three lines long:

Line 1 = 5 syllables
Line 2 = 7 syllables
Line 3 = 5 syllables

But you get an A for effort!

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Posted By: Tim James

I am in total shock as to how long this thread has gone.The guy's seemingly "unethical" ways of acquiring the product he desires,might have ruffled some feathers along the way,but that's the way the hobby goes.The kid around the block had a better collection than I,but he had ways of making that happen.Like him or not,he got the job done.Some collect for personal enjoyment,some for profit.People who are willing to put their money on the line to better themselves are the one's that make this country the greatest in the world.We might not agree on the method the man gained his stature,but the way it has been accomplished is what the "american dream" is all about.

[Archive]

Posted By: Andrew Parks

I have only seen Mr. Rosen once and never spoke to him. However, it seems pretty clear that he has treated some on here pretty poorly all in the name of the "All-Mighty Dollar". If he did, indeed, treat those the manner in which they told it, I can not support that.

Some of you have written that he has treated you with respect and kindness. That is both encouraging and refreshing, and it definitely needs to be told to balance the "horror" stories that others have told.

However, I am alarmed at how many of you seem to have a non-chalant attitude about the unkindness, greed, and pride that he seems to throw into people's faces just because he's improved the hobby. If he has indeed acted and said some of the shocking things that have been reported, then the man has serious problems. How can his unkindness and greed "make this country the best in the world" for one example?

If the man brought many things into the hobby and had a huge hand in making it what it is today, then I am not so sure where to quite put that on the "Mr. Mint Success Tree". The bottom line is this - the man has seemed to do many unkind, greedy, prideful, and tasteless things to completely innocent people.

Some people try to copy the methods of those who are successful. Unfortunately, in our society, the definition of success is wealth. If he has done what some of you report, then there are probably hundreds of other dealers who are willing to follow his lead in an attempt to reach the success status that this man has achieved. It's very possible that for every "important act" he has given to the hobby, for every kind gesture he has offered to others, it is counter-balanced by another side of him that is controlled by greed and pride.

I am not perfect, nor are any of us, but as I was reading some of these stories on this thread I could only have pity and compassion for the man named Alan Rosen, and I hope he sees what's truly important very soon.

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

At this point we're just having fun with it, i.e., the haiku contest. No need to be distressed at how long the thread is going.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Coin dealer does cards
Legend in his own minds' eye
Good for the hobby?

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Posted By: Scott M

There once was a dealer with much cash.
The reputation he gained was "all flash".
He called himself "Mr. Mint".
To his customers he said things I cannot print.
How'd he become so successful being so brash?

Scott M

Edited to add that I would have done a Sonnet but 14 lines is more than this particular subject is worth...

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Posted By: Julie

I asked if he
Had a Hack Wilson; he said
No; I like your cap.

Sort of --embarassing. here's another real one (this is known as sneaking poetry in):

Dead my old fine hopes
and dry my dreaming, but oh
iris, blue each spring!

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Posted By: jay behrens

Are you writing poems? You're writing a poem aren't you? There's no poetry in baseball! :-p

Jay

I like to sit outside drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home I would be arrested, so I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: leon

as I see it.....

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Posted By: taraizzy

I thought i would add my 2 cents on Mr Mint. Back in the late 1990's I brought my 2 boys to the National Convention in Chicago. Mr. Mint was giving away free mini bats that he was autographing. So with aprox 7-10 people in line to get a free bat, an elderly man approaches him and hands him a ticket stub for possible purchase. What happened next, shocked everyone in that line. Mr. Rosen began cursing at the elderly man and told him that what he had was s*** and to get away from his table. He raised his voice loud enough to be heard from quite a distance. I have never forgot that incident.

[Archive]

Posted By: John

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey,
Along came a spider (Al Rosen) and sat down beside her,
And said, “what ya got in the bowl bitch? I’ll pay cash for it”
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

I only ever had one experience with Al Rosen it was my very first Ft. Washington show a few years back. I had brought my laptop I handed the computer bag to my wife and went to the restroom. When I came back she said lets move away from this area please. I asked why she explained that while I was in the bathroom Rosen approached her and said what’s in the bag your holding for the guy in the bathroom. About a few hours later we walked by his booth and he said “hey man what do you have in that computer bag?” I just laughed and said a computer he turned and said “sure what ever” in a sarcastic voice. Truth is it really was only a computer, I wonder if he would have bought it.

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Posted By: T206Collector

...at a card show in White Plains, NY. He creeps me out. He was being well-ignored.

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

Back in the "Old days" the hobby could be bery profitable for Shady Con-Artist cracters like Hager/Rosen. Because of the e-net and word of mouth... Both these guys can not MAKE IT ANYMORE with their current practices. Yes, we will all see Rosen still at some big shows sticking to his game plan, but the days of Grandpa walking into a show to sell something good is drying up.

This thread going so long only shows that people do care who gets ripped off or not and is a very good informative thread for new people to read.

I would like to see Leon do a rating of dealers like the VCBC does each year. One vote per IP address. Lets make this a very informative place for everyone to make up their minds on who to deal with. Good people (most dealers) should be rewarded as bad dealers should be pointed out as well!!!!!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I always ask myself "If this dealer sat down next to me on a bus would I want to move?" If yes, I don't go to his table.

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Posted By: Julie

No, I didn't write the "real" haiku--onl the one about Rosen and Hack Wilson and my cap (which happened). Real one's almost 1000 years old.

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Posted By: dan mckee

edited to put my foot in my mouth

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin'd Post,
And then Home with Joy. --Anonymous, 18th Century

These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double-
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance." --Franklin P. Adams

"In our sundown perambulations of late through the outer parts of Brooklyn, we have observed several parties of youngsters playing 'base,' a certain game of ball...Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms...the game of ball is glorious." -- Walt Whitman, 1846

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Posted By: Julie

Do not be remembering the most natural man ever to
wear spiked shoes,
The canniest fielder and the longest hitter,
Who squatted on his heels
In a uniform muddied at the knees,
Til the bleacher shadows grew long behind him.
Who went along with Chick and Buck (sic) and Happy
Because they treated him so friendly-like,
Hardly like Yankees at all.
With Williams because Lefty was from the South too,
And with Risberg because the Swede was such a hard guy.
Who made an X for his name and couldn't ague with
Comiskey's sleepers,
But who could pick a line drive out of the air ten feet
outside the foul line
And rifle anything home from anywhere in the park

For Shoeless Joe is gone, long gone,
A long yellow grass-blade between his teeth
And the bleacher shadows behind him..."

Nelson Algren

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Good for the hobby?
If by good you mean awful
Rosen is your man.

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Posted By: Thomas Walcott Sr

This guy is like varmant to this industry I watched him spit in the face of a show exibitor in Chicago and I was asked by the police to sign a statement which I did along with 7 other witnesses. After the police spoke to Rosen he was shaking the other atendee decided not to press charges the officer in charge told me it was put on record and any further actions he would go to jail maybee that is what he needs.

[Archive]

Posted By: Thomas Walcott Sr

Does this guy have any freinds in the entire hobby/

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Archive

Posted By: John_B_California

For all of his faults, he's still a brilliant marketer. How many dealers in any business (cards, coins, stamps, antiques) have branded themselves this well? When he steps outside and eats a hotdog at the National, people think he's a rock star.

He reminds me in some ways of Donald Trump. Lots of flash, cash and hyperbole. Trump has his ice water and fragrance, Rosen has his baseballs and bobble heads. I'm waiting for the Mr. Mint Visa Check card....

Things that make you go hmmmm