NY Times covers the scandal

[thenextlevel]

LOL, Moser would look for undergraded cards to bump without altering them. Has this moron seen his before and afters. That’s a flimsy defense.

[swarmee]

Pretty good piece for its brevity. Glad they contacted Ken Kendrick about the issue. Surprised they didnt show any images from the before and after. Neither Brent nor Joe Orlando wanted to talk, very unlike them, and still didnt say which law enforcement agency they're working with.
And Moser throws PSA under the bus; that's rich.

[barrysloate]

Peter- did The Times contact you directly, or is that just a quote from one of your posts?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Peter- did The Times contact you directly, or is that just a quote from one of your posts?

I spoke with the reporter at some length, and also directed him to some background materials.

[conor912]

The last paragraph says a lot. The bellwether card of the hobby, when discovered trimmed, increased in value 4 fold. I imagine it'll be hard to gain sympathy from the masses when it appears the alterations are making everyone, including the buyers, rich.

[groundskeeper]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Surprised they didnt show any images from the before and after.

Anyone wanna throw up a quick link to some examples? I saw the 52 mantle PSA 4.5, but nothing else. Thanks!!!

Also, yeah, this is so annoying. I guess you get more fraud when the values go up, but these people are such scum. Sucks.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by groundskeeper

Anyone wanna throw up a quick link to some examples? I saw the 52 mantle PSA 4.5, but nothing else. Thanks!!!

Also, yeah, this is so annoying. I guess you get more fraud when the values go up, but these people are such scum. Sucks.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showth...90614&page=110
Just keep scrolling forward or back. Hundreds of examples.

[groundskeeper]

Originally Posted by swarmee

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showth...90614&page=110
Just keep scrolling forward or back. Hundreds of examples.

SWEET JESUS!
Hats off to the people who did the investigative work.
PWCC eneds to go.
PSA needs ...to....i don't know?
I'm done buying cards over 6!

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Notwithstanding the lame rhetoric by Orlando and Moser and the mute response by Huigens, I'm glad to see this scandal is making national news. The more publicity, the more pressure will be put on PSA to proactively address the problem. Great work Peter!

By the way, has anyone heard from Michael O'Keefe of the New York Daily News? He was the lone voice in the wilderness in the media many years ago on hobby news like this.

[darwinbulldog]

I do have one question. Does anybody know what are these "25 rarest baseball cards" that Ken Kendrick owns? Surely there are more than 25 unique baseball cards, so the claim can't be accurate; I'm just wondering which cards are being touted as the 25 rarest.

[jhs5120]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I do have one question. Does anybody know what are these "25 rarest baseball cards" that Ken Kendrick owns? Surely there are more than 25 unique baseball cards, so the claim can't be accurate; I'm just wondering which cards are being touted as the 25 rarest.

Not really the rarest (unless you consider them the rarest for their condition?), but certainly some of the most valuable.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...on-on-exhibit/

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by jhs5120

Not really the rarest (unless you consider them the rarest for their condition?), but certainly some of the most valuable.

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...on-on-exhibit/

Thanks for the link. I love that he has the D Backs collection on all flips. Very smart. Even if determined to be altered, the cards are still from Kendrick's D Backs collection, which will make them valuable (exactly like the “Gretzky Wagner”).

[oldjudge]

Glenn—Ken’s collection is more condition rarities than really rare cards. He has the trimmed Wagner, a PSA 10 ‘52 Topps Mantle, and other high grade cards such as the M101-5 Thorpe, a nice, albeit blank back, M101 Ruth, etc. None of the rarest cards in the hobby are in his collection.

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Glenn—Ken’s collection is more condition rarities than really rare cards. He has the trimmed Wagner, a PSA 10 ‘52 Topps Mantle, and other high grade cards such as the M101-5 Thorpe, a nice, albeit blank back, M101 Ruth, etc. None of the rarest cards in the hobby are in his collection.

Oh, okay. [yawn]

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Glenn—Ken’s collection is more condition rarities than really rare cards. He has the trimmed Wagner, a PSA 10 ‘52 Topps Mantle, and other high grade cards such as the M101-5 Thorpe, a nice, albeit blank back, M101 Ruth, etc. None of the rarest cards in the hobby are in his collection.

I harsh assessment of what by almost any standard is at worst one of the top 2 or 3 collections in the world, at least as far as I'm aware. The article is actually referring to what are generally accepted as the top 25 cards in the hobby in terms of value, significance, and popularity. Keep in mind this article was written by a journalist who obviously doesn't collect. A few details are bound to be incorrect.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

Notwithstanding the lame rhetoric by Orlando and Moser and the mute response by Huigens, I'm glad to see this scandal is making national news. The more publicity, the more pressure will be put on PSA to proactively address the problem. Great work Peter!

By the way, has anyone heard from Michael O'Keefe of the New York Daily News? He was the lone voice in the wilderness in the media many years ago on hobby news like this.

Mr. O'Keefe, as was the case with most of the Daily News staff was laid off years ago. He's out of the sports card reporting business.

Rich

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Mr. O'Keefe, as was the case with most of the Daily News staff was laid off years ago. He's out of the sports card reporting business.

Rich

Mike quickly was hired by Newsday in New York and is doing well.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

Mr. O'Keefe, as was the case with most of the Daily News staff was laid off years ago. He's out of the sports card reporting business.

Rich

Michael O Keefe is now with Newsday. I offered him information on a story about the hobby but he told me that his newspaper would not have been interested.

[frankbmd]

PWCC needs to start their own HE chat board with only members of exceptional quality, whose foreheads receive an indelible sticker. A threshold of net purchases from the marketplace would be a qualifying requirement for the forehead sticker (or a tattoo or branding as of cattle in the wild, Wild West).

Then PWCC should also consider starting a college of Card Restoration that would grant degrees to the students leading to full certification of Card Doctors. Why should the fraudsters have to linger in the alleys out of the sunlight. Let them be credentialed as in Medicine, Law and Engineering. The valedictorians of the college could also receive plaques, which could be displayed proudly, perhaps in The Vault.

I’m sure PSA would be complicit and create a division of the college to certify graders. In a year or two I would expect a “bumper” crop of graders to qualify with their own plaques for display in the Vault.

Why should their (PWCC and PSA) elite clientele have to be bothered by allegations of fraud thrown at them by the rinky-dinks of Net54 and Blowout. The gentlemen who want to redefine the hobby, just need to think outside the box.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Credit for getting the reporter interested in the story belongs to another member, but I'll leave it to him whether he wants to acknowledge that.

[Johnny630]

NYT is complete Bird Cage Paper but I might buy one tomorrow ...

[jsanz]

Wow, this is going beyond the message boards. It might get picked up by other media now. I was waiting for this to happen. Baseball cards are finally getting some attention out there in the real world.

[Dpeck100]

I found this part interesting.


It was upsetting,” Mr. Kendrick said of learning that the card had been altered. “I heard the rumors back in 2007 when I acquired the card, but they weren’t confirmable. I wanted to have the card, and I still want to have it.”

But the controversy only increased the value of the card. Shortly after the news broke, Mr. Kendrick said, he received an offer to buy it for four times what he had paid. More recently, an insurance appraisal valued the card at more than $10 million.

[Scott L.]

Kudos to you Peter and the other board member.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Dpeck100

I found this part interesting.


It was upsetting,” Mr. Kendrick said of learning that the card had been altered. “I heard the rumors back in 2007 when I acquired the card, but they weren’t confirmable. I wanted to have the card, and I still want to have it.”

But the controversy only increased the value of the card. Shortly after the news broke, Mr. Kendrick said, he received an offer to buy it for four times what he had paid. More recently, an insurance appraisal valued the card at more than $10 million.

Then he should have no problem sending it back to PSA for an Authentic Altered slab.

[Throttlesteer]

The story has been getting a lot of coverage here in the NW. Here are a couple recent articles, even though they lack any teeth.

https://www.bizjournals.com/portland...ace-under.html

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/...d-scandal.html

[brad31]

Think the article was well done.

Interesting that Moser was not afraid to talk to the media although PSA and PWCC were. Of course his claims are BS about just cracking and regrading without doing anything to the cards.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

NYT is complete Bird Cage Paper but I might buy one tomorrow ...

No politics please.

[Throttlesteer]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

No politics please.

I agree, but not liking the NYT doesn't necessarily suggest a political slant. Is there an assumption that the NYT is political one way or another????

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Throttlesteer

I agree, but not liking the NYT doesn't necessarily suggest a political slant. Is there an assumption that the NYT is political one way or another????

Is that a serious question? Do you think he said what he said because he feels the writers aren't literate enough for his tastes? I don't think so. It's politics, period, and I would like Net54 to remain a politics free zone, as per Leon's rules.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Throttlesteer

I agree, but not liking the NYT doesn't necessarily suggest a political slant. Is there an assumption that the NYT is political one way or another????

The Times is generally considered to be very liberal.

[jchcollins]

Kendrick thinks Brent is a great guy, shocker. I must admit I'm intrigued by the fact that it seems the more discretionary income you have to throw at cards, the less you really care about this issue. The collectors / investors with truly deep pockets like Ken could care less, why IS that? Seems to me they are just increasing their stereotype as rich fools who buy something only to be able to say they own it, then throw it in a safety deposit box or lend it to a museum and then forget about it.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Kendrick thinks Brent is a great guy, shocker. I must admit I'm intrigued by the fact that it seems the more discretionary income you have to throw at cards, the less you really care about this issue. The collectors / investors with truly deep pockets like Ken could care less, why IS that? Seems to me they are just increasing their stereotype as rich fools who buy something only to be able to say they own it, then throw it in a safety deposit box or lend it to a museum and then forget about it.

There's caring about the money, then there's caring about the principal. He clearly isn't bothered by the latter, and the former is a rounding error on his balance sheet. In my experience, the more money you have, the more you can afford not to care about it.

[jhs5120]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Kendrick thinks Brent is a great guy, shocker. I must admit I'm intrigued by the fact that it seems the more discretionary income you have to throw at cards, the less you really care about this issue. The collectors / investors with truly deep pockets like Ken could care less, why IS that? Seems to me they are just increasing their stereotype as rich fools who buy something only to be able to say they own it, then throw it in a safety deposit box or lend it to a museum and then forget about it.

To many people, cards are a commodity. There is little (if any) nostalgic or personal value assigned to them. Brent understands that, Kendrick understands that and many others understand that.

The article talks about “purists” who believe alteration is a cardinal sin. Others look at alterations as an investment - improving the quality of an asset.

The purists will never understand that rationale and the people who have no nostalgic attachment to baseball cards will never understand why it’s an issue.

[Baseball Bob]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the Dallas oilman Mr. Donald Spence and the impact this might have to his extraordinary collection, virtually all of which is PSA-graded.

[toledo_mudhen]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

NYT is complete Bird Cage Paper but I might buy one tomorrow ...

Both of my birds are Independents

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by toledo_mudhen

Both of my birds are Independents

La Cage Aux Folles perhaps?

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by Johnny630

NYT is complete Bird Cage Paper but I might buy one tomorrow ...

Gee whiz, I wonder what they will now do with their 127 Pulitzer Prizes, including two this year. And I am sure more will be awarded to them.