Small Traditions LLC/SCANDAL UPDATE

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

and it replaces the "no buyer's premium" as a revenue stream.

[Peter_Spaeth]

According to a post today on Blowout, the Small Traditions website is permanently gone.

Anyone who didn't follow all the outed cards on Blowout, here's a link. Some stunners here.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1345291

[Snowman]

I wonder if he's actually in legal trouble or if he simply failed to succeed in running his own auction site. I'm guessing it's the latter since his eBay store is still fairly active with recent sales.

[samosa4u]

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

[Yoda]

I feel pretty confident that when PWCC launches its' new platform, we will see an avalanche of PSA graded cards on offer and undoubtedly some will have been messed with. But if you offer them, they will come.
As big as Ebay is, I am sure they miss the revenue PWCC provided, and it obvious that vintage, maybe outside of Probstein, has dried up on Ebay. The simplest solution, of course, is to stop buying any PSA graded cards and move to SGC or Beckett. That is wishful thinking.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I feel pretty confident that when PWCC launches its' new platform, we will see an avalanche of PSA graded cards on offer and undoubtedly some will have been messed with. But if you offer them, they will come.
As big as Ebay is, I am sure they miss the revenue PWCC provided, and it obvious that vintage, maybe outside of Probstein, has dried up on Ebay. The simplest solution, of course, is to stop buying any PSA graded cards and move to SGC or Beckett. That is wishful thinking.

What makes you think SGC or Beckett are any better at stopping altered cards?

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

What makes you think SGC or Beckett are any better at stopping altered cards?

It's more fun to join the psa bashing band wagon

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

What makes you think SGC or Beckett are any better at stopping altered cards?

Peter, I don't think for a moment that SGC or Beckett has any magic formula for detecting and stopping altered cards from receiving anything but an A grade. But it seems that all of the scandals we have seen over the past few years, Moser, you name it, have almost always involved PSA graded cards, much less than the other two whose pop reports are suspect at best. Their slick marketing supports auction results, SMR and pop features. As many have said, PSA knows how to play Money Ball.

[drcy]

Originally Posted by Yoda

As big as Ebay is, I am sure they miss the revenue PWCC provided

Makes one think it was a big (legal?) issue for eBay to kick PWCC off.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by drcy

Makes one think it was a big (legal?) issue for eBay to kick PWCC off.

Or that eBay got wind of the fact that there were plans in the works at PWCC to leave eBay completely and set up their own auction platform, so eBay retaliated in classic eBay fashion. Who knows why they actually did it, but to cut ties so publicly in the way that they did sure makes one wonder.

One thing is certain though. The premise of the email was clearly bullshit. eBay has never given two shits about shill bidding in the past. This was most likely about something other than cracking down on shill bidding. Perhaps the FBI was breathing down their neck and the legal team felt they had to make a drastic move to cover their asses. Or perhaps they wanted to damage the brand of a soon-to-be competitor who was already on their way out the door. I think those are the two most plausible scenarios. Time will tell. If it is cracking down on shill bidding though, surely that will become apparent via further actions against shill bidding. And if it's the FBI breathing down their neck, that will become apparent once all these indictments start rolling in (any day now... any day now...). But if neither of those things happens, then the scale begins to tip quite heavily toward them just trying to damage the brand of a competitor. Stay tuned, IMO.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

Funny how he ran his site and his own auctions for many years and didn't discover that. I think you're totally wrong here my friend.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

I don't think he took his website down because of what BODA did. He can make more money selling his cards through other auction sites.

Well he absolutely stopped running auctions specifically because of being outed by BODA. I am not IT dude but the server error that displays I think suggests it was more than an expired domain but that the data from the site has been wiped out.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Lorewalker

I am not IT dude but the server error that displays I think suggests it was more than an expired domain but that the data from the site has been wiped out.

It's not an expired domain. It means that he probably still owns the domain but that his server is corrupt for some reason. Could be he just needs to upgrade it. Could be that the server got hacked. Who knows. But he hasn't ran any auctions for what, a year and a half now? Is that right? He probably just doesn't have time or doesn't care to fix the server issues, whatever they are.

Though plausible, I highly doubt this is some new development in the FBI's ferocious pursuit of card trimmers.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Lorewalker

Well he absolutely stopped running auctions specifically because of being outed by BODA.

How successful was this auction site before that though? Was he a real player in this space? I'd never even heard of them before BODA posted about it.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Snowman

How successful was this auction site before that though? Was he a real player in this space? I'd never even heard of them before BODA posted about it.

If the site did not somehow mysteriously vanish you could see his prices realized and could see he was raking it in. He sold odd ball stuff and got more than every last penny for what he sold.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Snowman

How successful was this auction site before that though? Was he a real player in this space? I'd never even heard of them before BODA posted about it.

I bid on and won some cards thru Small Tradition. Never a problem.