Jim Crandell's personal thread

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Posted By: Solomon

"For sake of argument lets say I did $250K of business with XYZ Auction House and I bought a card for $10K that is a PSA 8. I then take it in to show Dave Forman--he looks at it and says this is beyond the shadow of a doubt a trimmed card. The president of the auction house comes to SGC listens to Dave and agrees. So that I will keep doing business in the future with him he writes me a check for $10K. Then he goes to PSA and attempts to get a refund."

That's not a matter of doing what's right - that's a matter of doing what's smart. Anyone in business does this for it's best customers. Anyone who thinks the "little guy" is treated the same as the "major player" in any industry is delusional. I'm buying 200 Toyotas this year. I just got them to warranty an $1100 repair that was borderline. Think it's a coincidence?

The pre-grading era auctions were based solely on the reputation of the individual. Mr Mint (as a convenient example) was the one making the claim the card was MINT, the finest example he'd ever seen, and by implication unaltered. It was Rosen's reputation, no one else. So it would be natural to look to Rosen for a refund. But now, if we saw a 53 Bowman Yogi Berra in Mastro's auction, described as the finest example they've ever seen, and NOT graded - would anyone pay 95% of PSA 9 money? Everyone is going to be screaming the obvious question. So Mastro (et al) offering a PSA 9, you're buying it because PSA says it's a 9, not because of the pseudo-intellectual writeup in the catalog on the American experience of living in 1953. I would then think you should look to PSA for restitution if it's not right. You can use the 2x4 approach of "I spend enough money to not deal with this"...but the price is going to be spending a lot of money in one place. And if PSA refuses to buy it back - 99% of the time it's going to be in the next auction.


As far as the Coach's Corner comparison...it would be the equivalent of Mastro hiding behind using PRO as their grader of choice. How can you even sell the stuff with a straight face? I never could. I don't see how you can equate the good faith basis an auctioneer would put into selling a legitamitely graded/authenticated item, by a major company (PSA, SGC, PSA/DNA, JSA, etc.), vs. pushing crap graded by a fly by night operation.