Leon, how come you and some of the other guys don't start a grading company?

[marvjung]

Well, I asked the question because I felt there's just a tremendous amount of high quality knowledge on this board - there's so much information, even after three months, I still randomly go through pages to read past posts.

As for conflict of interest....well...hmmm....Rob Lifson doesn't have a personal collection? Bill Maestro didn't? It seems that several of the higher end auction houses have members that have personal collections. Am I wrong?

Just a thought

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by marvjung

As for conflict of interest....well...hmmm....Rob Lifson doesn't have a personal collection? Bill Maestro didn't? It seems that several of the higher end auction houses have members that have personal collections. Am I wrong?

Just a thought

Good point, and most auction houses have taken steps recently to make sure there is no impropriety...honest auto-bid, keeping bidder records, et cetera.

I still wouldn't buy a GEM MINT encapsulated card from someone who works at one of the grading companies.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

I still wouldn't buy a GEM MINT encapsulated card from someone who works at one of the grading companies.

So you're saying you won't buy cards from Beckett Media?

[Leon]

Actually they are Grandy's restaurants in Tarrant County (Arlington and Ft Worth). They have been doing a lot better lately and today we found 21k that forgot to be deposited. We have a new point of sale system and the merchant services sales (credit cards) weren't being deposited yet. lt is a good day today!!

Whenever I talk to Chad D, the west coast collector, we always joke about the restaurants. The joke goes something like "how do you make a million dollars in the restaurant business?" Answer- You start out with 2 million.

[V117collector]

Originally Posted by Leon

"how do you make a million dollars in the restaurant business?" Answer- You start out with 2 million.

That was funny!

[ksfarmboy]

Leon, we used to have a couple of Grandy's in Wichita. They had the best rolls I ever tasted and the food was pretty good. Never understood why they went out of business. Wichita is pretty fickle though. If I ever make it down to Arlington I'll have to try it out.

[Leon]

Grandy's is a 35 yr old chain and still has about 85 restaurants. They have gone through some rough times in those years. Mainly when they went from all company owned stores to franchises they let some bad operators in. That was the beginning of hard times. I just saw numbers today from my 2 stores, from last weeks sales, and they were better than any week in the last few years. I hope it's a sign of good things to come. (knock on wood). They have a good value proposition but it's all about the management.

[sb1]

I think you would be surprised at the number of collectors/dealers/auction house owners/employees that have collections. Most had or still have quite a bit.

Scott

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by sb1

I think you would be surprised at the number of collectors/dealers/auction house owners/employees that have collections. Most had or still have quite a bit.

Scott

Scott,

I think the biggest conflict comes in when you add third party grader into that list.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by sb1

I think you would be surprised at the number of collectors/dealers/auction house owners/employees that have collections. Most had or still have quite a bit.

Scott

Actually I'm not surprised about that....I can't think of an auctioneer in this business that doesn't collect. I would be much more concerned with an employee or owner of a grading company dealing cards.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Abravefan11

So you're saying you won't buy cards from Beckett Media?

So Beckett sells encapsulated cards that they own?

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

So Beckett sells encapsulated cards that they own?

I think their stance is they grade the card, then provide the service to sell the card for the owner.

So no they don't own the card.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by Abravefan11

I think their stance is they grade the card, then provide the service to sell the card for the owner.

So no they don't own the card.

Do they charge a flat fee to sell or are they taking a percentage of the final price?

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Do they charge a flat fee to sell or are they taking a percentage of the final price?

That I don't know.