Not sure if this has been posted..Mastro in the Chicago Tribune

[Jim VB]

I guess I don't see this as a black eye for the entire hobby. When a store I have a gift certificate for goes belly up, I don't hold the entire industry responsible, just that store and their owners.

I see this as a black eye for Mastro, for sure, and for the principals involved. The attempt to walk away from a financially struggling company and start up another company, with the purchased assets of the first, while not addressing the liabilities, is both troubling and transparent.

I don't even think that Mastro's, er... I mean Legendary's biggest problem is bidders boycotting. They will still have some, if not most bidders. Their biggest problem will be consignors not consigning, going forward. If word is out industry wide that a company is having trouble paying consignors, it won't take long for those consignments to dry up. When that happens, the whole bidder thing takes care of itself, very quickly.

As far as the hobby goes, there are still plenty of auction houses around and most pay their consignors, and pay them on a timely basis.

[calvindog]

Has anyone ever seen John Rogers and Doug Allen in the same room together?

[RichardSimon]

Jim, what I should have said is that there are so many individual black eyes getting publicity in the hobby that another one just adds to the negative public perception, especially when it happens to the industry "giant".
The king is dead, long live the king.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

Jim, what I should have said is that there are so many individual black eyes getting publicity in the hobby that another one just adds to the negative public perception, especially when it happens to the industry "giant".

That's fair enough, but there are far too many good guys in this hobby to tar them all with the same brush.

I agree that continuing negative stories make the hobby look bad to any outsiders (if they bother to read news stories about baseball cards anyway.) But these outsiders don't feed and don't fund our hobby anyway. We "insiders" do. And we can continue to help clean it up by funneling our consignments and our money to the guys we know are clean.

Mastro being unable to, and/or refusing to pay their bills, should leave no mark on the other guys who operate cleanly.

I'll also add that I'm not naive about what has gone on, and still goes on, at many major auction houses. Cards are "sold" and then up for auction again far too often to be a coincidence. The volume of high grade material available is striking. I've collected, on and off for close to 30 years. How is it that there is more "mint" material available than there was 30 years ago. Not just a little more, but much more. Big finds account for some, but who is kidding whom? (Barry, did I get that who/whom thing right?)

I collect both Sports and Non-Sports. Looking at shows and auctions would lead me to one startling conclusion. For the last 100 years or more, people who collected routinely took better care of their baseball cards than they did their Non-Sports cards. Those damn kids were preserving their T206's carefully, while trashing their T59's! They were protecting their 1933 Goudey Baseball Cards at the same time they were destroying their Indian Gum and SkyBirds!

Obviously, like in every other phase of life, fraud and deception follows the money. It hit the Baseball Card hobby years ago while we weren't paying attention. It only grazed Non-Sports. It hit the autograph industry hard, while missing other collectible hobbies.

While I appreciate the help of the media and law enforcement, only collectors can clean it up.

[Anthony K.]

I see there is still trouble surrounding Mastro in this hobby.

Still upset over the shady doings and business practices between them and PSA in the 90's (which I am sure still go on today).

[zork1974]

Originally Posted by Anthony K.

I see there is still trouble surrounding Mastro in this hobby.

Still upset over the shady doings and business practices between them and PSA in the 90's (which I am sure still go on today).

So -- should I be worried about purchasing PSA graded cards?

[turtleguy64]

Well,consider this story .It was reported in the form of a letter to the editor of Sports Collector's Digest about 4 years ago.Writer said that he sent a large group of turn of the century cards to PSA fror grading.They were all returned as reproductions.He turned around and forwarded this group to the big auctionhouse at that time(take a guess-he wouldn't name them).Voila! Cards were put in their auction after being graded by PSA.

[Peter_Spaeth]

There are certainly many legitimate criticisms of PSA but I don't believe they would intentionally slab a bunch of reprints, even if great guys were involved.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Of course, the website could be out of date, but according to the Illinois Secretary of State, Mastro Auctions now goes by the name Ketap Company and the President of Ketap is none other than Doug Allen.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Entity Name KETAP COMPANY File Number 61148272
Status NOT GOOD STANDING
Entity Type CORPORATION Type of Corp FOREIGN BCA
Qualification Date (Foreign) 07/10/2000 State DELAWARE
Agent Name RICHARD L WEISS Agent Change Date 06/26/2007
Agent Street Address 801 SKOKIE BOULEVARD 100 President Name & Address DOUG ALLEN XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, BURR RIDGE, IL 60527
Agent City NORTHBROOK Secretary Name & Address MATTHEW ROSZAK SAME
Agent Zip 60062 Duration Date PERPETUAL
Annual Report Filing Date 00/00/0000 For Year 2009
Assumed Name INACTIVE - MASTRO AUCTIONS, INC.

Old Corp Name 03/13/2009 - MASTRONET, INC.

[barrysloate]

Looks good to me.

Edited to add you can just as easily get away with "who is kidding who" as in "who's who" (you wouldn't see "who's whom").

As I get older I forget the rules anyway.

[calvindog]

But wait, Dougie has nothing to do with Mastro. And nothing to do with paying off Mastro's debts to consignors. And has nothing to do with any lawsuit against Dave Forman. Yet you mean that Doug Allen is presently the President of Mastro? Now it makes sense: just have your dogs bark at Mastro's President (Allen) and you can get paid by Mastro's President (Allen).

I am stunned at this turn of events.

[barrysloate]

Jim- better leave the cleaning up to law enforcement, because I don't believe collectors are able to do it themselves. Collectors are addicted to the stuff, and when you're addicted you need help from the outside.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Jim- better leave the cleaning up to law enforcement, because I don't believe collectors are able to do it themselves. Collectors are addicted to the stuff, and when you're addicted you need help from the outside.

That's a huge part of the problem Barry. This stuff is like heroin for some. We're just pumping it into our veins. But some get upset when the media reports problems.

O'Keefe fielded a question at the dinner that asked something like this "I saw a dad and his son, going through the show today, buying lots of cards and spending $10-$20. Why don't you report that?"

I almost spit out my (free) beer. Why would an investigative reporter write about that?

As Lance said on one of the other threads, we have to control it by who we give consignments to. The guys with no decent consignments will get poor sales results and that will take care of them.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Jeff one would like to think the Illinois official state website would be reasonably up to date, and it does mention the name change on March 13, 2009, which I believe coincides with the Mastro-Legendary transaction. So apparently something was filed at that time to indicate the name change but that filing did not indicate a change in the president. But, as I said before it could be inaccurate. No information about Ketap's officers is available through the Delaware secretary of state's website.

[Jim VB]

Translation for Jeff's post:


Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

[Anthony S.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jqQsDklQEM