Anyone who wonders what Evan Mathis is up to...

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

He's trying to "unify the trading card industry"

Received this email today.

__________________________________________________ ______

Hi there!

CardSeer's initial mission is to unify the trading card industry by allowing users to search live and completed auctions from as many industry sites as possible. We are rolling out of beta and hard launching our listings search feature soon. You can see where we are now at app.cardseer.com

At no cost to you, we can feature your live and completed listings, all which link directly to you. If you approve, please reply to this email and CC xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. xxxx will then get us what we need to have you integrated quickly.

We will be scaling into other verticals but all your listings will still be searchable on CardSeer to start. We will also be rolling out AuctionSeer in the near future where we have live and completed auction data across all categories.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your time!

Evan
Founder, CardSeer
(m) 205-966-5115

[oldjudge]

Who is Evan Mathis?

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Who is Evan Mathis?

The collector's antithesis of John Galt

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Who is Evan Mathis?

Former NFL player and controversial figure in the hobby. Lots of virtual ink on Net54 about him.

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Former NFL player and controversial figure in the hobby. Lots of virtual ink on Net54 about him.

The amount of vintage uncut sheets he's acquired over the years should make some collectors who view their collections as investments a bit nervous. It's a crazy amount of uncut...that might not be uncut any longer...

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Who is Evan Mathis?

One of the all time greats in the hobby. He has exposed it for what it really is countless times. Weirdly very few seem to care and most carry on like he or the many many like him don't exist.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Who is Evan Mathis?

Some chump who brags about trimming cards.

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Some chump who brags about trimming cards.

+1.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Some chump who brags about trimming cards.

He didn't come across to me as being braggadocious. I interpreted it more as him showing everyone what goes on behind the curtain.

The vast majority of people still don't get it. They still think it's a few cards here and there and a handful of bad actors. But it's literally millions of cards. There is no such thing as a gem mint vintage card. The only way to get one is to make one. If you get a truly perfect pack pulled card with the nicest factory edges, corners, and centering you can get, the best it can grade is a 9, and realistically probably an 8 by today's standards. You'd have to pull a Mathis if you want a 10. And all these trimmed cards that pass through grading have shifted the grading scale accordingly. The graders see a "perfect" card and instead of flagging it as trimmed, they instead think that cards in that condition truly do exist out of the pack. So they adjust the scale accordingly, and the best untampered with cards can now no longer achieve mint or gem mint grades. Those are now reserved for cards that look perfect. Or too perfect rather.

Anyone who buys high grade vintage isn't collecting cards. They're collecting slabs. If you want to pay to play that game, then the hobby will provide what you seek. I don't know the extent to which he was/is involved in the trimming scandals and/or profiting from it in the past, but at least Mathis was willing to show you what's really behind that curtain so that we can all be better informed buyers.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Whatever his motive, or personal ethics, Mathis shared some important truths about what goes on in this hobby.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Whatever his motive, or personal ethics, Mathis shared some important truths about what goes on in this hobby.

No doubt, it was great information, seemed more a tutorial than an expose to me though.

[chalupacollects]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Whatever his motive, or personal ethics, Mathis shared some important truths about what goes on in this hobby.

You might say the Jose Canseco of cards...

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Snowman

He didn't come across to me as being braggadocious. I interpreted it more as him showing everyone what goes on behind the curtain.

The vast majority of people still don't get it. They still think it's a few cards here and there and a handful of bad actors. But it's literally millions of cards. There is no such thing as a gem mint vintage card. The only way to get one is to make one. If you get a truly perfect pack pulled card with the nicest factory edges, corners, and centering you can get, the best it can grade is a 9, and realistically probably an 8 by today's standards. You'd have to pull a Mathis if you want a 10. And all these trimmed cards that pass through grading have shifted the grading scale accordingly. The graders see a "perfect" card and instead of flagging it as trimmed, they instead think that cards in that condition truly do exist out of the pack. So they adjust the scale accordingly, and the best untampered with cards can now no longer achieve mint or gem mint grades. Those are now reserved for cards that look perfect. Or too perfect rather.

Anyone who buys high grade vintage isn't collecting cards. They're collecting slabs. If you want to pay to play that game, then the hobby will provide what you seek. I don't know the extent to which he was/is involved in the trimming scandals and/or profiting from it in the past, but at least Mathis was willing to show you what's really behind that curtain so that we can all be better informed buyers.

While I agree with the sentiment, I get a lot of "old timer" collections in on consignment and still pull the occasional 9 on a vintage card that is beyond reproach. For instance I just got a 1968 Topps Hockey set in a 50 year old cigar box, got tons of 8's and a couple 9's including Gordie Howe. I've also gotten 9's on commons from 1955 and 1956 in the last year from similar sources. Now if you are talking pre war, I haven't personally submitted a 9, but wouldn't be surprised if there are a handful of legit ones out there in old collections.

Again I agree the majority of new high grades on vintage are suspect, but the problem is you can't just assume everything is bad, though I guess that's one way of protecting yourself.

[Lucas00]

This is the guy that made a card trimming tutorial correct?

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

This is the guy that made a card trimming tutorial correct?

Correct

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

He's trying to "unify the trading card industry"

One industry under Evan, indivisible, with high grades and profits for all?

LOL

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by Eric72

One industry under Evan, indivisible, with high grades and profits for all?

LOL

I'm not happy unless I can buy high and sell low.....I will leave all that profit making garbage for others.

[todeen]

I scrolled past Adam's post at a 6yo birthday party. NSFW. hahahahahaha. Can't explain Ken Jeong's hand movement to young children without disapproving looks from their parent.

Sent from my SM-G9900 using Tapatalk

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by todeen

I scrolled past Adam's post at a 6yo birthday party. NSFW. hahahahahaha. Can't explain Ken Jeong's hand movement to young children without disapproving looks from their parent.

Oh, they'll find out soon enough on their own.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by todeen

I scrolled past Adam's post at a 6yo birthday party. NSFW. hahahahahaha. Can't explain Ken Jeong's hand movement to young children without disapproving looks from their parent.

Sent from my SM-G9900 using Tapatalk

he's rolling dice, obviously.