Rick Probstein interviews Bill Mastro

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I won a Probstein auction this summer. It was an SGC graded sports card.

A week later, I asked them for tracking info. They informed me that, "due to an ebay glitch this item was double listed and we no longer have anymore in stock."

So, I won a straight auction with (apparently) no shill bidding. That's great; however, they didn't honor the high bid and wouldn't ship the card.

This same item (cert # and all) appeared in a Probstein auction a short time later, where it sold for more money.

Surely, that's frustrating. But it's definitely not the norm, and that doesn't constitute fraud. Someone simply made a mistake. They have thousands of listings ending per day. Sometimes, they double post by mistake. I've consigned hundreds of cards with Probstein. The vast majority go through with no issues.

Originally Posted by JeremyW

Travis/Snowman- I'm guessing that you have never been shilled, to the best of your knowledge? Some have & it's not a great feeling.

Yes, I've been shilled. More than once. If it's an obvious shill bidding job, I report them to eBay (who then always does nothing about it). But I know what a card is worth to me and what I'm willing to pay for it. If I would have paid the same amount for a Buy-It-Now listing anyhow, then it just doesn't bother me all that much if I got shilled in an auction. Most shill bids are just effectively hidden reserves.

Of course, we all know that countless consignors shill their auctions with companies like Probstein, et. al., but that doesn't mean that Rick himself (or anyone being paid $X/hr to list cards for him) is shilling his own auctions. It's just an absolutely ridiculous claim to make without evidence, and nobody has shown any evidence of that whatsoever (and sold prices do not constitute evidence of this claim, despite the thousands of internet trolls who seem to think otherwise). It doesn't even make sense. It would just be a completely stupid thing for him to even try to do. The risks so greatly outweigh the benefits that it would be completely asinine of him to even try.