Which alleged practice concerns you the most?

[Reginald Marsh]

The reason failure to pay consignors stands out to me is very simple. No matter the subject matter whether it be cards,antiques,paintings and so forth if consignors do not get paid then there is simply no great stuff to bid on.

For example.....if a guy consigns a 50,000 card and does not get paid then he will generally file a lawsuit and then says to himself well F&^K this and never for any reason consign a high dollar card hence the only way to get great cards is through estates and that is tough. Trust me we all know who hustles in the game and provides great things to bid on for the high end collectors, burn them a few times and cards get locked up and sold privately.

Schill bidding is so hard to prove.......hmmmmm........look how long the feds have been looking at Mastro and tah-dah nothing but drama and nobody is locked up or sentenced. The feds will never prove it and it just leaves a negative cloud over the hobby.

[barrysloate]

1-4 has been going on for so long you kind of expect it. It's lost its ability to shock or surprise.

But #5, failure to pay consignors, is completely off the charts. So that one gets my vote.

[ibuysportsephemera]

The first 3 relate to decisions we can make as collectors and the outcome is somewhat within your control. Not paying a consignor is a totally different concept. I guess shill bidding also fits into a category of situations that are not within your control as well. So my vote goes to 3 & 5.

[Bicem]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

1-4 has been going on for so long you kind of expect it. It's lost its ability to shock or surprise.

But #5, failure to pay consignors, is completely off the charts. So that one gets my vote.

ditto

[Al C.risafulli]

In my case it would be shill bidding and related practices. I think shill bidding has the biggest negative impact on the hobby since it artificially inflates values, and hurts both buyers and sellers.

Each of the other things are, in my opinion, bad. However, each is also somewhat mitigated by knowledge. The more I know about a given issue, or about the hobby in general, the less likely I am to be victimized by any of those things. And while I've certainly encountered each of them (except #5), I think it's #3 that I can protect myself against the LEAST.

-Al

[JasonL]

I was going to write that until I saw your post at the end...

Shill bidding gets my vote.

[calvindog]

I would add that "too many great guys in the hobby" is probably a bit troubling to me. If there were any more "great guys" I might go bankrupt. Also, not enough fake Mickey Cochrane jerseys.

[V117collector]

I would like to add another category to the list which needs to be closely monitored at all times.

1) COMPUTER HACKING from other members! Anyone who needs to break in to another member’s computer is complete and utter loser!!! You know who you are