Fraud in the hobby

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Fuddjcal

Many of us have our own business making 100's of thousands per year. Guess how many of the guys try and fuck other people? ZERO. Guess how many guys try and pick up the bill? All of them.

That's very real.

I went to a hydraulics convention, mostly to get a certification as they were doing the class/testing there.

Boss sent me with a company card saying "be responsible with it, but buy a round or two"
Sat at a table with 10 guys, more than half of them company owners or executives at a large company. First round comes, 11 cards hit the table.
The guy who was a VP of a big company picked them all up, handed his to the waitress and stacked the others. I think in order by company size and whether the person was an owner.
Looked at me and asked if it was my first time with a company card.
"yes"
"Ok, then this means something to you"
And he put mine on top of the stack for the next round.

That was the only time they let me buy the round all week, except for one time when it was all employees at the table.

Great bunch of people, and we just happened to have a common industry and not much more.

[egri]

Originally Posted by steve B

That's very real.

I went to a hydraulics convention, mostly to get a certification as they were doing the class/testing there.

Boss sent me with a company card saying "be responsible with it, but buy a round or two"
Sat at a table with 10 guys, more than half of them company owners or executives at a large company. First round comes, 11 cards hit the table.
The guy who was a VP of a big company picked them all up, handed his to the waitress and stacked the others. I think in order by company size and whether the person was an owner.
Looked at me and asked if it was my first time with a company card.
"yes"
"Ok, then this means something to you"
And he put mine on top of the stack for the next round.

That was the only time they let me buy the round all week, except for one time when it was all employees at the table.

Great bunch of people, and we just happened to have a common industry and not much more.

Right after I commissioned, I went out to lunch at the O-Club with a CDR and a retired CAPT who are both family friends. When the bill came, the three of us took out our cards. The other two pushed mine out of the way, and the Captain looked at me and asked "Do you know how many times I touched the bill as an Ensign? Never.", and the Commander nodded in agreement.

[Seven]

On the subject of fraud:

I try to not allow it to affect my enjoyment or the connections I have made with other collectors. While they're have certainly been times where I have been effected by it, at the end of the day the good in my opinion outweighs the bad. I love talking cardboard with people that are truly interested in the hobby. While it is a little unfortunate that in recent times the business aspect has been getting more coverage, it just is what it is. The people that are strictly in this for the money will come and go while the people that collect and trade for enjoyment will stay.

As things get more popular, and valuable, the chances of fraud always increase. Art, photography, etc have been things brought up by previous posters. It's why I try to be as diligent as possible when buying cards, doing my research, posting here, or purchasing from sellers I explicitly trust.

I've only thankfully had one negative experience with fraud, and it wasn't even mine directly. I recieved a Jordan Rookie, years back from my father, I don't know how much he paid for it, but it was holdered by SGC. Turns out after some research and posting on here, the card ended up being fake. The original slab was cracked, a fake was inserted and then the slab was resealed. It's unfortunate, because it was a gift, and I could never bring myself to tell my father, something he spent his hard earned money on, for me, turned out being something that wasn't real, because he was fooled by some shady conman. Despite the card being fake, the emotion is still there, so are the memories of the gift itself. Those are genuine and real, so I take a little bit of solace in that.