Bill Mastro denies widespread fraud in his auctions -- yesterday.

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Originally Posted by wheitman

I wanted to clarify a couple of things I read here. I was not present when Bill Hughes took part in grading the trimmed Wagner for PSA. However, Bill Hughes came to my home both before and after he had graded the card. Shelly was present both times. Before the card was graded, I told Bill that the card had been trimmed and should not be graded. Later, after he informed me that the card had been graded, I asked Bill how a trimmed card could be graded. He told me that the measurements of the card were within the acceptable tolerances. I informed him that the skinnier T206s were all American Beauty backs. His response to me was "well, we had to grade it."

I was present when Shelly called McNall's office. He made the call from my home phone and I was the person who had bet him on whether he would call or not.

I've always wondered why no one has explored the McNall/Hall connection when it came to grading this card in the first place. Bruce McNall had made his "fortune" dealing in rare ancient coins and, of course, David Hall was a long time dealer in coins who founded PCGS for the grading of coins. Incidentally, Bill Hughes told me that his grandparents had acquired loads of coins in their pawn shop and had dealt with David Hall quite often, which is why and how Bill became connected to David Hall and his new company, PSA.

Thanks for posting this and welcome aboard. If this is true, then I find PSA's actions extremely disturbing to say the least and the "rendering an opinion" defense seems very feeble at this point.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

Thanks for posting this and welcome aboard. If this is true, then I find PSA's actions extremely disturbing to say the least and the "rendering an opinion" defense seems very feeble at this point.

I'm sure Doug Allen is dry cleaning his proffer suit in an effort to unload on PSA in order to save himself. Just a hunch.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Originally Posted by calvindog

I'm sure Doug Allen is dry cleaning his proffer suit in an effort to unload on PSA in order to save himself. Just a hunch.

Jeff,
I have a question for you. If Bill proffered as well as Doug, do we know they fully cooperated and did not make statements that can be proven false? If so, is this something that can be brought to the attention of the presiding AUSA to go back after him? In most of the comments I have read relating to Mastro, it really doesn't appear that he is very remorseful or cooperative with the process.

[wheitman]

Tried to email you, but it would not go through. Email me at wheitman@aol.com

Bill Heitman

[brob28]

Bill, welcome to the forum nice to see you posting. Just wondering if you still have copies of The Monster for sale? I see them on EBay from time to time, but it would be really neat to pick one up from you directly.

[wheitman]

Yes, I do, but not many. Email at address in earlier post.

Bill

[Denali]

Even after Mastro's admission, I am still confused about the story behind how the card was cut from its original sheet.

Mastro admitted to trimming the card, which presumably refers to having altered the card after it was cut from its original sheet.

So then, who cut the card from the sheet to begin with?

This MOK Daily News article (excerpts from his book "The Card") states that Alan Ray sold the card to Mastro, and that when he sold it to Mastro, it had already (presumably) been cut from a sheet. The article also shows the photo of the card as originally sold to Mastro before Mastro trimmed it:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...ticle-1.220710

Ray said he took the photos before he sold the card to Mastro in the back room of a Long Island collectibles shop in 1985. Ray wanted $25,000 for the Wagner - a lot of money in those days even for the Flying Dutchman - but Mastro balked, telling Ray the card was off-center and improperly cut. Mastro refused to complete the sale unless Ray threw in dozens of other cards the collector had brought to the shop that day. Ray later said he felt bullied, but he needed the cash and agreed to Mastro's terms.

But Peter Nash wrote in the following article that he was told that Mastro trimmed the card and was also told that Mastro cut it from a sheet:
http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=14545

One of our sources, a veteran collector of high-end artifacts who was once a close associate of Lifson, revealed to this writer back in 2000 what he described as the true story behind the Wagner as he heard it directly told to him by Lifson. Our source will remain anonymous and from here on in be known simply as “Hobby Deep-Throat ...

Referring to a direct conversation he once had with Lifson, “Hobby Deep Throat” said, “He (Lifson) told me years ago that Mastro trimmed it.” He added, “He told me that Mastro cut it off from a full sheet and there was a guy on Long Island that had the sheet.”

These two articles conflict with one another.

So, who cut the card from the original sheet? Mastro? Ray? Someone else?