American Greed-CNBC

[kmac32]

Fascinating to quote Mr. Spock

[mechanicalman]

Can anyone explain the Goudey Ruth 53 initially in a low grade SGC and then in a PSA 6? What was the story behind that?

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by mechanicalman

Can anyone explain the Goudey Ruth 53 initially in a low grade SGC and then in a PSA 6? What was the story behind that?

Totally agree here. Interesting that PSA substantially upgrades an SGC graded Ruth for Mastro. Especially when any SGC card submitted to PSA now would get a downward adjustment. Yet PSA cards bring a premium over SGC? Not that SGC is better than PSA (or BVG), or vice versa, but man.....

[Bobsbats]

Nice job Jeff and Ryan !! Tonight's show was informative
and remembering watching the FBI floating around the Nationals was always fun.

[Orioles1954]

I know Ryan and can vouch for his character. He came off very well tonight. The show didn't seem cohesive or very well put together. The Evers fellow added nothing to the program in my opinion.

[Bkrum]

His whole story came off very poorly. He rips off a guy at a garage sale and the cries that he got ripped off by poor auction result to the tune of a 45k profit. His story about the "pristine" Aaron rookie was comical. The only interesting part was the potential evidence of the Ruth being resold by Mastro at a higher grade.

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by Bkrum

His whole story came off very poorly. He rips off a guy at a garage sale and the cries that he got ripped off by poor auction result to the tune of a 45k profit. His story about the "pristine" Aaron rookie was comical. The only interesting part was the potential evidence of the Ruth being resold by Mastro at a higher grade.

It could have easily been sold, shipped, reholdered and reconsigned.

[Kenny Cole]

Originally Posted by Bkrum

His whole story came off very poorly. He rips off a guy at a garage sale and the cries that he got ripped off by poor auction result to the tune of a 45k profit. His story about the "pristine" Aaron rookie was comical. The only interesting part was the potential evidence of the Ruth being resold by Mastro at a higher grade.

I presume that you are only talking about the one guy on the show. Because for those of us who repeatedly bid in Mastro's fixed auctions and won, at least for me, the whole story once again makes my blood boil.

[JTMRedSox]

Can anyone explain the difference in grading on the Ruth Goudey ?
I am searching for the catalogs that first had it in a group and then was sold separately . Can anyone identify the two different catalogs in question ? I believe the first offer ( by group ) was Dec. 2007 . When was it offered as a PSA 6 as individual lot ?
Again , assuming it was the same card , I've seen no good explanation for the discrepancy in grading ( different companies aside ) .

[slidekellyslide]

According to Evers it appeared in an auction 6 months later.

[Corporal Lance Boil]

Forgive me for what I about to say. Most people won't care, anyway.

What a boring episode of American Greed. I set the DVR and was excited, et al, and literally had to pinch myself to stay awake.

Not only did I not learn anything new about the scandal, but that was just bad television.

CLB

[irv]

Originally Posted by Kenny Cole

Yes, and irrespective of whatever his detractors want to say, Jeff was one of, if not the first, people to call Mastro and Allen out He gets lots of credit from me for that. Ryan Christoff is also a member and he also deserves a ton of credit. Fair is fair.

Kenny

I agree, and we all owe them a ton of gratitude for doing so!

Originally Posted by WWG

As I was watching the show on how the Wagner card was altered, I keep thinking of the 1936 Joe Dimaggio rookie debacle with PWCC.....................

......................and PSA.

[rdwyer]

This is the statement that got me:

"Crime absolutely pays, and it pays a lot"

Also, sign me up. I'll do 2 years in prison for millions!

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Corporal Lance Boil

Forgive me for what I about to say. Most people won't care, anyway.

What a boring episode of American Greed. I set the DVR and was excited, et al, and literally had to pinch myself to stay awake.

Not only did I not learn anything new about the scandal, but that was just bad television.

CLB

With over 8500 registered members there is going to be every different opinion under the sun. My wife and I watched it. I asked her today at lunch if she thought it was good. She said "yeap". Personally I thought it was great. It was well put together, polished and professional. I just wish the episode was 3-4 hours instead of 1.

.

[ElCabron]

I thought they did an excellent job with the show, especially since there was really 3 or 4 hours of material to cover and only 1 hour to do it in. That’s the reason it seems like more should have been covered. There simply wasn’t time. I would have liked to have seen a little more focus on Doug Allen, for example. Mark Theotikos literally wasn’t even mentioned. Nothing about John Rogers, either. They also could have talked about how several former Mastro employees who were involved in shady practices there now work for major auction houses. Or the shill bidding list, which outs several board members as shill bidders. So when there’s an entire thread about whether or not PSA got a free pass, I just don’t see it. There simply wasn’t enough time. PSA would have been low on my list of what I wanted to see covered, behind all of the people I just mentioned.

I thought Jeff Lichtman did a great job and I hope more of his detractors will take Hank’s classy lead and give him the credit he deserves. You can still think he’s an asshole, but he deserves a lot of credit for his role in all of this.

Brian Brusokas (FBI) was excellent, but I wish we’d gotten to hear more from him. Many of you will remember him from the National when he spoke at the Net54 dinner. Brian is far too humble to ever acknowledge it, but he was the driving force behind this entire investigation, and without him, Bill Mastro and Doug Allen would still be ripping people off to this very day. The entire hobby owes him a HUGE debt of gratitude for everything he did and continues to do for us. His impact on this hobby has been quietly and anonymously enormous, and all of it for the greater good. Oh, also, he was the only one on the show to pronounce “Honus” correctly. Respect.

I don’t know that Evers guy, but it’s weird to me that everyone is so focused on him. I think he rubbed everyone the wrong way when he bragged about his $500 garage sale score than he “only” got $49,000 for. It was a bad look. Personally, he lost me the minute he said “La-jwahhhhhh” and then said it was the second rarest card in the hobby. It was clear that he’s not one of us. He was just a guy that got a deal on some cards at a garage sale and then tried to sell them with Mastro. But I have no problem with his $500 deal. He didn’t rip the seller off. The seller agreed to sell. That’s how garage sales work. It could have easily been a box of fakes and he'd have been out $500. It shouldn’t matter what he paid, the cards are still the cards, and he still got burned by Mastro. Although, I’m not sure about the Goudey Ruth and how that went down, because it’s not impossible that someone bought it the first time, got it into a PSA holder and then re-consigned it. But I think he was probably right that Mastro kept it in house and re-listed it in the new holder. In a perfect world, the time spent covering that would have gone to more Doug Allen coverage or some of the other things I mentioned earlier. But there’s no 1-hour show that was going to please everybody. I thought it was produced well and really enjoyed it.

I think a lot of people might have missed what I thought was the funniest part of the whole show when Peter Nash made a brief cameo. A classic, perhaps unintentional, easter egg.

Sorry there weren’t enough Siberian tigers and murders to prevent your narcolepsy from taking over. It’s not every day there’s an entire hour of television specifically about our hobby. I guess that’s not entertaining enough for everyone, though.

-Ryan

[Mdmtx]

The guy that paid 500 bucks for a box of cards from an unknowledgable seller is just as bad in my opinion.

Mark

[Jim F]

Originally Posted by Mdmtx

The guy that paid 500 bucks for a box of cards from an unknowledgable seller is just as bad in my opinion.

Mark

A guy who ripped off an old man and turned $500 into $49000 probably should not be going on tv griping that someone cheated him

[CrackaJackKid]

I hope Brent and Betsy at PWCC are watching!

[WWG]

Originally Posted by CrackaJackKid

I hope Brent and Betsy at PWCC are watching!

As I was watching the show on how the Wagner card was altered, I keep thinking of the 1936 Joe Dimaggio rookie debacle with PWCC.

[ngnichols]

Haven't seen anything I wasn't already aware of that had happened or is currently happening with auction houses that are on eBay right now.

[orly57]

Poor guy who made only 49k on his $500 garage sale purchase. I'm sure he went back to the guy he bought them from and said "I ripped you off. Here is 24k." He's whining about getting ripped off when he raped the guy for $500. Can't say I felt for him. I will say that I would kill for that Dihigo postcard Ryan has.

[Joshwesley]

Isn't lichtman on this site?

[Kenny Cole]

Originally Posted by Joshwesley

Isn't lichtman on this site?

Yes, and irrespective of whatever his detractors want to say, Jeff was one of, if not the first, people to call Mastro and Allen out He gets lots of credit from me for that. Ryan Christoff is also a member and he also deserves a ton of credit. Fair is fair.

Kenny

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Kenny Cole

Yes, and irrespective of whatever his detractors want to say, Jeff was one of, if not the first, people to call Mastro and Allen out He gets lots of credit from me for that. Ryan Christoff is also a member and he also deserves a ton of credit. Fair is fair.

Kenny

As one of those who defended Mastro and company in the early days of Jeff Lichtman's outing of their misdeeds, I have concluded that I owe him an apology. At the time, it seemed unfair to tar them without offering specific proof, but if I had taken the time to look into Jeff's background I would have realized how qualified he was, from several standpoints, to be making those allegations. At any rate, anything that helps clean up the hobby is worthy of plaudits, so good work, Jeff!

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by orly57

Poor guy who made only 49k on his $500 garage sale purchase. I'm sure he went back to the guy he bought them from and said "I ripped you off. Here is 24k." He's whining about getting ripped off when he raped the guy for $500. Can't say I felt for him. I will say that I would kill for that Dihigo postcard Ryan has.

+1