Doug Allen/Legendary just doesn't get it

I'm not sure how many other check out the memorabilia forums, but I look at them from time to time. It seems that absolutely nothing has changed with how Doug Allen/Legendary operates. This from thei upcoming auction:

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It amazes me that people still just them, but most people say stuff trumps all. Sorry, but for me, stuff does not trump my personals morals and ethics. Legendary, Doug Allen will never see a penny from me even if they have the one item I really want.

Jay

I can't understand why people consign to them (given their treatment of consigners) but I will admit that I bid with them as "stuff trumps all" although I will not bid as aggressively as I would elsewhere.

Seems like most of the stuff they have in their auction is from Legendary employees anyway. And if it's not, then they find the real old time collectors that don't know about their situation. Doug is a heck of a salesman, and I'm sure what he says appeals to someone that doesn't know any better or doesn't know of the auction house's situation.

I really think the true measure of their success will be a couple of auctions down the road when their own material has run out and word of their shady doing even reachs the unsuspected.

There was a question as to whether the items had reserves, wouldn't that be great if they could put there items up with out actually having to sell them.

Lee

Given that Doug already "sold" this jersey in a past Mastro auction, I'm sure that this jersey isn't going anywhere unless he gets the price he is looking for. He will either get a friend to bid on it, or create a fake account to run up the bid to the level he wants.

I remember when people were all upset that me, Lee and Dan Baretta were going to be conned by the Mastro gang when we got to see all the info about the DiMaggio streak bat. It was the last decent thing they have done since. It just seems to have been a downhill run from that.

Jay

I definitely don't think cards trump all, but I might have a different yardstick to measure where I draw the line. I think I'm more tolerant of some shady practices just b/c I think that some of them are so prevalent in the hobby that it sort of creates gray areas (meaning that good and reasonable people can take completely opposite sides - and passionately so - as to whether some practices are acceptable or not).

For me it's more a matter of what I think of an individual person. Sometimes it's related to ethics and other times it may be more about a perfectly ethical person that I happen to think is an ass. I won't spend a dime with any of the few individuals that I think have jerk personalities no matter what card is in play.

J

stuff trumps most to me... but I think ALL auction houses (and ebay) have or had participated in shady things to some degree so I would have to ban them all leaving me with a pretty small collection.

eBay is a tough one to boycott because there is much low dollar stuff there that auction houses won't touch and what people what outrageous prices for privately. Larger auction houses are much easier to boycott because they don't offer what eBay offers and the rarer stuff they offer can generally be found in other auction houses with a little patience.

Granted, almost no one is clean in this business, but when you have a repeated history seriously shady dealings like Mastro/Lengendary there has to be some point at which you say, screw it, I'm never going to deal with them again.

jay