Send lawyers, guns and money

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by pwilk17

I do not mind if any auction house owns material in one of its own auctions as long as it is disclosed prior to bidding commencing and there is absolutely no shill bidding period. The auction house can take its chances like any other consignor (obviously they may promote their own items more than others through catalog placement etc.). I absolutely do not believe any owner/officer/director and employee of any card grading company should be allowed to purchase, have cards graded or sold from their first day of employment until their last - period!

This post is comical. What if the auction house promises to divulge ownership interest in cards in its auctions -- and then does not do so?

What if the auction house promises not to shill bid -- and then does so anyway?

What if the auction house bids on their own material -- with improper knowledge of what other bidders are doing?

And yes, let's have contracts signed, many carefully worded contracts. And who will enforce them -- God?

[pwilk17]

Calvindog - What do you think of the owner of SGC buying (and not paying entirely for) and selling millions of dollars worth of cards in shill bid auctions? What do you think of auction houses that are unethical? What do you think should be done? Do you think all auction houses management and employees and the card grading companies management and employees are all crooked? I do not believe so. Calvindog - if you think my post is comical - do you think everything is OK the way it is? What do you recommend to help with a solution? I think Ethical corporate polices and standards like PSA’s should be mandatory in all of these companies. PSA’s section regarding conflicts of interest is excellent and it is a good start. Hopefully the companies we deal with including PSA have honest principals who will hold themselves and their employees to these standards for the betterment of the hobby community. If you are laughing at all of this – what do you recommend Clavindog?

[morgan118]

Some of the business practices in this hobby are just like any other industry where there are lots of dollars involved. Most of the opportunities for individuals looking to make a profit are driven by building relationships with influential people. This can be done with dealers, customers or grading companies. When dishonest people are exposed to these opportunities they take advantage of them until found out about such as what just happened in this article.

Again this is not unlike what goes on in any industry. I still believe that without the grading companies there would be much less of a market for baseball cards and there would be very few opportunities for sales to be made via the internet. As an example of this compare ungraded prices for items on E-Bay versus items authenticated and graded by SGC or PSA. Usually there is no comparison between the two. I would have to say that anyone purchasing ungraded high dollar items via the internet is running a great chance of being disappointed when they receive their item.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by pwilk17

Calvindog - What do you think of the owner of SGC buying (and not paying entirely for) and selling millions of dollars worth of cards in shill bid auctions? What do you think of auction houses that are unethical? What do you think should be done? Do you think all auction houses management and employees and the card grading companies management and employees are all crooked? I do not believe so. Calvindog - if you think my post is comical - do you think everything is OK the way it is? What do you recommend to help with a solution? I think Ethical corporate polices and standards like PSA’s should be mandatory in all of these companies. PSA’s section regarding conflicts of interest is excellent and it is a good start. Hopefully the companies we deal with including PSA have honest principals who will hold themselves and their employees to these standards for the betterment of the hobby community. If you are laughing at all of this – what do you recommend Clavindog?

Hard to believe that even a casual reader of this board would be questioning Jeff's stance on corruption in the hobby. He has always been more vocal than almost anyone else.