Are We Baseball Card Whores?

This question came to mind again for after Rob Lifson brought up the fact that the case against Mastro has moved a step further to going to court. It pretty much fell on deaf ears.

Are we willing to deal with known criminals or possibly criminals as long as they have what we are looking for? This appears to be the case with Mastro and potential consigner and bidders. I think that enough evidence has come forward on the case that it should throw up red flags, especially for the bidders, but there auctions continue to do well.

Is it that the bidders are not aware of what is happening or they willing to take a chance because they have something we want?

Just a thought, I personally do not do business with people I feel are in the wrong or have had a bad experience with. I feel I can spend my money with more reputable people.

Lee

I missed it. Link(s) please?

I am unable to find the thread. I will email Rob and see if it got deleted or find out which thread it was posted.

Lee

Here's the NY Daily News article:
Feds' memorabilia case heating up



BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Monday, September 8th 2008, 9:20 PM


Several sports memorabilia officials have testified in recent weeks before a grand jury in Chicago that is investigating Mastro Auctions and fraud in the collectibles business.Additional
hobby insiders are also scheduled to testify before the grand jury,
sources said, while others have been asked to provide records and other
documents. "There has been a parade of people going to the grand jury," said a source close to the case. "The feds are closing in." The
grand jury deliberations are part of an investigation into memorabilia
fraud initiated last year by the Chicago division of the FBI, whose "Operation Foul Ball" smashed a multistate autograph forgery ring in the 1990s. Although the target of the investigation is Illinois-based Mastro Auctions, sports memorabilia's largest auction house, other businesses and individuals may be involved. Some
of the hobby insiders who received subpoenas to appear before the grand
jury are former Mastro Auctions employees. "The FBI told me I am not a
target, but they want to talk to me," said one former Mastro worker. Mastro Auctions president Doug Allen did not return a call for comment. As the Daily News first reported, investigators from the FBI and the United Postal Service crashed the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill., in August, delivering subpoenas to industry executives and questioning memorabilia companies' employees. The investigation of Mastro Auctions has focused on shill bidding, card doctoring and other allegations of fraud.

Thanks for the article, it is written by Mr. O'Keefe even. He seems to be a good watchdog for the hobby but needs to be better informed on some issues in the hobby.

Lee

The sad truth is, most collectors, especially though looking for rare and high end items, are collecting whores that do not care where an item comes from as long as they can get it. This is not exclusive to our hobby. Every hobby is like this whether it is comic books, stamps, art, etc.

I used to have the highest regard for Mastro. It was a breath of fresh air when Doug Allen stepped forward and admitted that Mastro "cleaned up" items. But almost immediately after that he started back peddling and going into PR damage control mode rather than continuing to own up to the issue. Mastro lost all credibility at that point. It certainly doesn't look good when one of your former senior staff members was known as "Le Cuillere" which is French for The Spoon.

For those new to the hobby and don't understand what that means, the removal of wrinkles and light creases from a card is done by a technique called Spooning. It is known as such because the most common item used to do this was a spoon.

It's sad to think that people still blindly believe that Mastro is innocent and is a becon of light in this hobby. And people were worried that my brother, Dan Barretta and myself were going to be bambozzled and conned by Mastro when we went to examine the evidence regarding the Joe DiMaggio "Streak" bat. At least none us blindly believed the bat was real. We actually took the time to see all the evidence and based our conclusions on that.

My dislike for Mastro now is based on past dealings with Bill Mastro himself and what has transpired over the past few years. I wonder what all the Mastro defneders will say if Mastro is found guilty of any of these charges? The shill bidding charges are going to be tough to prove as Mastro seems to have conviently lost all their bidding records from the time frame in question.

Jay