Just an observation from an outsider

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Posted By: Anonymous

I have lurked here for several years. I do not own a single baseball card or any items of vintage memorabilia. Never have. I am, however, fascinated by your hobby and I enjoy reading the posts, viewing the scans and especially hearing of new "finds".

I just wanted to give you an outsiders view of some recent threads here which seem to have escalated in the last several weeks. There seems to be alot of animosity on this forum. Alleged shady auctions, in-fighting, religious banter, politics, name calling, personal attacks. I think all of this really detracts from the stature of the forum and your hobby, in general.

Most of you have probably collected since childhood and cherish the purity of the game. But.... your hobby is also big business and along with that comes folks who operate in the shadows, so to speak. Your hobby is ripe for fraud and there is virtually no oversight. Condition = opinion. Establishing provenance is often impossible.

Absolute free speech cannot exist on forums such as this. There must be strict rules enforced for posting including zero tolerance for personal attacks, religion, and politics. The internet makes it all too easy to "go off" on someone whom you will never meet in person.

So, just from an outsider who has enjoyed this forum , and who hopes to continue to do so, treat one another with more kindness and courtesy and allow the love for your hobby to draw you together. The cream will always rise to the top and those who take the low road expose themsleves for who they are. I hope you guys can get it together. I enjoy visiting this forum.

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Posted By: peter ullman

touche!!! why can't we all just "get along?!?!"

pete in mn

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Posted By: leon

Nice post "observer". I do find it very difficult to monitor the board sometimes. There is a fine line between censoring and free speech. I find it almost impossible to distinguish and do understand your point about personal attacks. Zero tolerance is reserved for folks families and a few other things. As I told a board member this morning, via private email, if they incite those comments then I am slow to step in. I still believe in NO censoring if at all possible. I believe that is what makes this forum good and America great. I also understand that freedom of speech on this board is not an absolute but I do try my best to keep it that way. Lord knows I, and most banner advertisers, have taken our bullets. I truly wish we could all get along a little bit better and remember this is our hobby even though a lot of money is involved. Thanks again for the post. best regards....

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Posted By: John S

In my opinion it has actually been relatively civil over the last six months+.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I've always said that if a graduate student in psychology needed a good source of material to write his thesis, this forum would be perfect fodder. I am a regular poster and have been for years but I am both fascinated and mystified by how innocuous threads manage to spin out of control. And I still can't explain it.

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Posted By: PAS

Remember the Monty Python skit "Argument"? "I want to have an argument." "No you don't." And it goes from there.

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Posted By: peter chao

I agree with you, we have been on relatively good behavior. A few months back we were really at each other's throats. I think the turning point may well have been when Ryan suggested we play bingo with some of the acronyms that were being used by Board members. Sometimes a little bit of levity goes a long way in relieving tensions.

Maybe I've become so use to the remaining discord that I don't notice it anymore.

Peter C.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

In the Monty Python sketch, Michael Palin pays for an argument, but mistakenly enters the verbal abuse room (where he's called a "snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings"). He's directed to the correct room but is dissatisfied with the quality of the argument. He goes to complain but mistakenly enters the hit-over-the-head-with-a-blunt-object class. He also discovers that the complaint room merely contains a man behind a desk who complains.

Does that remind anyone of a visit to Net54?

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

I wish to register a complaint. Not more that a half an hour ago you sold me a dead parrot.

Oh you mean the norweigian blue, Lovely plumage.

The plumage doesn't come into it, the parrot is dead. The only reason it stood on the perch is you nailed it to the perch.

No, it pineing for the fiords, he just resting. Lovely plumage the Norweigian Blue......

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Posted By: ockday

Love that Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H6DSoqZz_s

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Perhaps Net54 is more like the episode of the British Sci Fi comedy Red Dwarf, where Lister leaves his half eaten chicken curry on the transmographier and accidentally creates a monster that is half man, half Vindaloo. Don't you hate when that happens?

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

It's near the end of the month and we haven't had a serious argument this month...there must be something wrong. There must be a controversial issue or two we can start arguing about?

Peter C.

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Posted By: David Davis

Lister - "Does anyone have a popadom the size of Lake Michigan?"

Red Dwarf is absolutely the funniest show ever. There are only 3 or 4 grim episodes out of approx 50.

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Posted By: Richard Masson

I'm still trying to get my arms around the thought of someone who has never owned a baseball card and lurks on this forum for a number of years.

I don't spend any time on the Pez or beanie baby chat boards because I don't own any.

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Posted By: peter chao

A while back we had a posting from a guy that was writing a research paper on us. He found us to be an interesting group of addictive-compulsive individuals, I think that the guy should post the final draft of his paper for our review.

I'm sure his final paper was interesting.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Richard -- there are such things as Pez chatboards?

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Posted By: jay behrens

Jeff, there is. I check them out once in awhile because that is what my son collects, so I need to know what I am buying for him. There's even a board for people that collect action figures. There is a board out there for just about every collectible. Wouldn't surprise me to find a board for people who collect belly lint to knit into sweaters.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Jay, I hate to ask this -- but are there 'rare' Pez dispensers? And if so, why are they rare? How much do they cost?

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Posted By: peter chao

E-Bay started with auctioning off Pez dispensers, I suppose there are rare ones.

Peter C.

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Posted By: dennis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEZ

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Posted By: Bill

There are rare PEZ dispensers. My ex used to collect them and I flipped through a few price guides for those things. Some of them really get up there. My aunt used to work for the company years ago and has some older ones kicking around somewhere.

If it can be collected, there is probably a message board for it.

Change your socks, drink water, and drive on.

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Posted By: Neal Kane

eBay was not founded out of selling/collecting PEZ dispensers. That story was created as a PR stunt.

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Posted By: peter chao

Neal,

I still see stories about how E-Bay started out by auctioning Pez dispensers 12 1/2 years ago. So how did they start out?

Peter C.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Jeff, lots of rare ones. Mostly ones from when the company first started over in Europe. When I used to collect The Banana Splits memorabilia I was able to get the Totem Candy dispenser for the show. I eventually sold it for $800 about 5 years ago.

Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

Yes, there are rare pez dispensers. I own 2 varieties of Bullwinkle Pez. See them on ebay occasionally.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

"There is a fine line between censoring and free speech. I find it almost impossible to distinguish ... "

Gee, aren't these antonyms?

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I was Bingo for Halloween when I was a kid. I'd kill for a Bingo Pez dispenser.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Jeff, Totem had the license for The Banana Splits and Bingo was the only one they made. Be prepared to spend $1k or more. The guy writes the books you see in bookstores about Pez and other candy dispensers told me about 5 years that he had seen fewer than 10 of them in the past 25 years.

Here is the one I used to own.


Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: Neal Kane

Peter, here ya go ...

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/19221.html

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

That's a sweet Pez dispenser - damn thing looks just like Bingo. As crazy as 1K sounds for it...is it really so crazy considering what is spent on cards?

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Posted By: leon

I guess I should have phrased it "there is a fine line between free speech and anarchy.." ....I think the gist of what I was saying is I don't like to censor stuff....It didn't come out technically very well though.

edited to change "jest" to "gist"...I wasn't thinking..as usual

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Yes Jeff, it is.

And Leon: Who am I to question the clarity of the writing of another?

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Posted By: jay behrens

Leon, certainly jest about gist

Jay- had to beat Barry to punch

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Here's some more Splits stuff. The first are some one-shot preproduction models. They are now owned by Hana-Barbera along with most of collection. The other is a rare cereal premium ring that sold for around $250. Nice ones sell for $400-500.



Jay

The richest person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.

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Posted By: DMcD

What this thread needs is a Seinfeld reference . .