Sometimes I am speechless,,, you got to read this one

[Rob D.]

Yeah, how stupid. Imagine someone who doesn't collect sports memorabilia going to a charity auction and buying an item about which she's not an expert. Yeah, imagine her being naive to think that a charity would not sell a bogus item.

And the gall of her to seek an expert's opinion with the expectation that her letter wouldn't be posted on a public message board to be ridiculed.

Some people. Geesh.

Edited to add: I realize this person made obvious mistakes during the course of her story. She doesn't realize that if the auction house sent the ball to be authenticated, being contacted three weeks later isn't all that unusual. And we all know she shouldn't have taken such a leap of faith by buying such an item at a charity auction.

But not a week goes by on this board (both on the card and memorabilia sides) during which a collector -- who obviously has more expertise in our hobby than does this person -- either posts about getting scammed on eBay or Craig's List or bemoans being sold a fake card. Or posts an item he bought with the question, "Is this real?"

So if it's OK for people who supposedly have knowledge about the hobby seek help, then why does this woman deserve such criticism?

[Jim VB]

I think that sometimes, we, the cynical collectors that we are, assume that the rest of the world is either as cynical as we are OR they are on the other side trying to scam people.

In fact, there is a huge percentage of people who fall in the middle. They are, for the most part, innocent and unaware. They neither know that the scammers are out there, nor that we see scammers under every rock.

Several years ago my wife surprised me for Christmas, with a framed photo collage including signed pictures of Mickey Mantle, Joe D, and Ted Williams. Where did she buy it? Why Neiman Marcus, of course. I have no idea if they're authentic and that discussion will never be had, as long as she's around! She just assumed that a trusted company like NM couldn't be selling anything bad. (I mean, it came with a Certificate of Authenticity!)

We are a fringe group, for sure. Maybe 1% of the population. An even smaller group is trying to scam people on these things. That leaves 98+% of the people blissfully unaware.

I'm sorry that this lady got dragged out of that group this time.