THE MARKEL REPORT: Are Graded Baseball Cards Being “Juiced” (Aesthetically Enhanced)?

[Bobsbats]

Years ago there was a guy who would restore cards and place a small dot on the back to note the restoration. I haven't seen one of those dots in 15-20 years....It was just a matter of time before someone started getting their stuff done without the "dot" for a little extra cash.
The knowledge that is on this website in unbelievable. From the detailed work with this topic, to 19th century obscure question....if people dont know the answer here, the answer isn't known anywhere.

[Rich Klein]

Regards
Rich

[botn]

Nice going Dan.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I suspect Mr. Scissors will find an alternative ID.

[botn]

And I am sure he will be exposed again. Just a matter of time. Sure that Dan has plenty on him and will find listings under the new ID. Then again I could see ebay lifting the suspension after 30 days. They seem to think that site violators get reformed after 30 days have lapsed.

[Jacklitsch]

Susor made the NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/


September 9, 2009 8:21 PM By Michael O'Keeffe
Memorabilia world's opinion swayed on fraud
It wasn't that long ago that some sports memorabilia collectors would pull a Linda Blair and spew pea soup whenever the Daily News published a story that pointed out that their hobby was fraught with fraud. Some collectors, it seemed, preferred to bury their heads in the sand when confronted with evidence that their hobby had problems.

When our book about hobby fraud, "The Card," was published a few years ago, some of the guys at the card collector forum Net54Baseball.com acted like they were going through an exorcism. "The book portrays the whole hobby in a bad light," Net54Baseball moderator Leon Luckey grumbled. "The book sheds no new light on anything, is sensationalism at its worst, and is a piece of crap in my opinion."

"How sad that such a piece of rubbish gets published," a collector named Dan Markel added.

Maybe the fact that federal agents investigating allegations of shill bidding and other hobby fraud questioned industry executives and passed out subpoenas at the last two national sports memorabilia conventions. But a lot of Net54Baseball.com regulars - including Luckey and Markel - have become converts. Both now recognize that their hobby has significant problems

"A few years ago, fraud was a taboo subject," said Kevin Saucier, a collector who runs AlteredCards.com, a Web site to help fans protect themselves from the hustlers. "People just didn't talk about it. Now its come to the forefront of the hobby."

Markel, a collector who lives in Texas, is doing more than complaining about the hobby's crooks and con men. He led a group of collectors who conducted a lengthy investigation that concluded that a prominent eBay dealer was buying low-priced, low-grade cards, trimming them to enhance their appearance, and then submitting the doctored cards to PSA. When the cards came back with higher grades, the dealer, another Texan named Scott Susor, would sell the cards on eBay at premium prices.

Luckey recently posted the results of the investigation - called "The Markel Report" - on Net54Baseball.com.

Susor didn't return calls for comment, but his Houston-based attorney Bennett Fisher said Susor is an honest dealer who has never knowingly sold an altered card. "If they were trimmed, they were trimmed when Scott got them," Fisher said.

Susor considered filing a defamation lawsuit against Markel and others involved in "The Markel Report," but Fisher says a suit would be prohibitively expensive. "How much do you spend to fight something like this?" he asked.

Susor's eBay registration was pulled last week, which means he's no longer doing business on the Internet flea market, at least not under his own name. Spokeswoman Evonne Gomez declined to say if Susor had been banished because of The Markel Report. "I can't give specifics on this account because of privacy issues," Gomez said. "But the activity outlined on Net54 would not be tolerated by eBay.

"We have a very solid relationship with law-enforcement," Gomez added. "We take these kinds of allegations seriously."

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jacklitsch

Susor made the NY Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/


September 9, 2009 8:21 PM By Michael O'Keeffe
Memorabilia world's opinion swayed on fraud
It wasn't that long ago that some sports memorabilia collectors would pull a Linda Blair and spew pea soup whenever the Daily News published a story that pointed out that their hobby was fraught with fraud. Some collectors, it seemed, preferred to bury their heads in the sand when confronted with evidence that their hobby had problems.

When our book about hobby fraud, "The Card," was published a few years ago, some of the guys at the card collector forum Net54Baseball.com acted like they were going through an exorcism. "The book portrays the whole hobby in a bad light," Net54Baseball moderator Leon Luckey grumbled. "The book sheds no new light on anything, is sensationalism at its worst, and is a piece of crap in my opinion."

"How sad that such a piece of rubbish gets published," a collector named Dan Markel added.

Maybe the fact that federal agents investigating allegations of shill bidding and other hobby fraud questioned industry executives and passed out subpoenas at the last two national sports memorabilia conventions. But a lot of Net54Baseball.com regulars - including Luckey and Markel - have become converts. Both now recognize that their hobby has significant problems

"A few years ago, fraud was a taboo subject," said Kevin Saucier, a collector who runs AlteredCards.com, a Web site to help fans protect themselves from the hustlers. "People just didn't talk about it. Now its come to the forefront of the hobby."

Markel, a collector who lives in Texas, is doing more than complaining about the hobby's crooks and con men. He led a group of collectors who conducted a lengthy investigation that concluded that a prominent eBay dealer was buying low-priced, low-grade cards, trimming them to enhance their appearance, and then submitting the doctored cards to PSA. When the cards came back with higher grades, the dealer, another Texan named Scott Susor, would sell the cards on eBay at premium prices.

Luckey recently posted the results of the investigation - called "The Markel Report" - on Net54Baseball.com.

Susor didn't return calls for comment, but his Houston-based attorney Bennett Fisher said Susor is an honest dealer who has never knowingly sold an altered card. "If they were trimmed, they were trimmed when Scott got them," Fisher said.

Susor considered filing a defamation lawsuit against Markel and others involved in "The Markel Report," but Fisher says a suit would be prohibitively expensive. "How much do you spend to fight something like this?" he asked.

Susor's eBay registration was pulled last week, which means he's no longer doing business on the Internet flea market, at least not under his own name. Spokeswoman Evonne Gomez declined to say if Susor had been banished because of The Markel Report. "I can't give specifics on this account because of privacy issues," Gomez said. "But the activity outlined on Net54 would not be tolerated by eBay.

"We have a very solid relationship with law-enforcement," Gomez added. "We take these kinds of allegations seriously."

Actually Dan and I have always known there is/was fraud in the hobby. My beef with Okeefe was ONLY that he never brought the hobby out of the bad light he put it into with The Card. He quoted me after that, as that being my biggest issue with the book, and was correct. If he wants to say something else now then that is ok. BTW, I think it was already well known that the Wagner has problems so it's not like it was something new that we didn't already know. Besides that I think the book did shed some light on issues in the hobby...and that isn't a bad thing.
The only issue I have with this current blog post is he didn't go far enough with Susor and how much real evidence Dan and gang has on him. Maybe the whole story wouldn't have been as interesting? Regardless I still think Okeefe is doing a good job on helping to expose bad things in the hobby. I just figured I would comment since my name is thrown around a few times.....best regards

[calvindog]

Susor considered filing a defamation suit! What a laugh that is. Why would it be prohibitively expensive when if he needed money he can just spend 2 bucks on a raw card and shave it into $1000? Better than a money tree. And my advice to fraudsters who want to sue people who out them: filing a lawsuit is a lot tougher than actually serving it apparently.

And that damn O'Keeffee: still writing negative articles about the hobby. What a sumbitch. Doesn't he know that our hobby bankrolls so many worthwhile humanitarian ventures? Search for the swine flu vaccine? Cure for AIDS? Eliminating all world hunger? Comeon, Mike, lay off the 'great' guys and do your job already!