A nice article from Chis at SCD

pariah1107 wrote:It's always good to be vigilant, and there is a lot of corruption in the hobby, but some of the threads across the street are simply vindictive, and often petty. "Let's start a list of bad dealers", "this so-and-so screwed me over", or "this is just a really bad person"..... over a $5 card, it's ridiculous. Many of these threads devolve into hateful exchanges between members who didn't have a dog in the fight to start with.

lots of agendas (new and old), and interests must be protected to the death...cyberly-speaking.

pariah1107 wrote:It's always good to be vigilant, and there is a lot of corruption in the hobby, but some of the threads across the street are simply vindictive, and often petty. "Let's start a list of bad dealers", "this so-and-so screwed me over", or "this is just a really bad person"..... over a $5 card, it's ridiculous. Many of these threads devolve into hateful exchanges between members who didn't have a dog in the fight to start with.
.

Yup, and I did get involved last night, mainly because I had had enough of their drivel. And I suppose you must be right that some of those posters have their own agenda, through gaining power over some sort of blacklist or whatever. And the whiners are guys who haven't even been on the message board that long, less than a year I suppose.

Mostly they want the list so that they can gain power and control over who is on it. It is pure and utter nonsense. Some jackass last night called me a moron with character flaws who runs with bad people. It was insane, especially since he lied about twenty times in order to protect his integrity, ironically. But sometimes you just have to put your foot down.

It is not that hard to not get ripped off in this hobby. It is 2013, so buy graded cards. Most cards are graded these days. Get them from an auction house or ebay and know ahead of time how much you are willing to pay and you will be alright. Yes, there can be some shill bidding, but you don't have to put in your max bid immediately, you can wait and bid up incrementally.

It will never be perfect. But if shilling is such a sore spot, then just wait for REA to come around twice a year because you know they have great stuff and don't shill bid. But nobody is sacrosanct. We are all just humans in this hobby and when there is money involved then there is bound to be some foul play, and that will be eternal.

i don't read the main page over there much anymore, since the stuff from these new guys are unreadable...but you're right J it's mostly just common sense.  hypertension is hereditary in my family so i use the "block" feature liberally.

edit:...and you're arguing with a guy who still don't think ryan braun used ped and argued that position relentlessly, even after braun came out with an apology after the suspension.

cccc wrote:i don't read the main page over there much anymore, since the stuff from these new guys are unreadable...but you're right J it's mostly just common sense.  hypertension is hereditary in my family so i use the "block" feature liberally.

Well, I think you're pretty much right, it has become unreadable. I only got involved with this one because I didn't want to see any blacklist or what that would do.

cccc wrote:edit:...and you're arguing with a guy who still don't think ryan braun used ped and argued that position relentlessly, even after braun came out with an apology after the suspension.

Yikes. I hadn't realized it was that bad. Sounds like a good candidate for the ignore list.

BTW, what is it with these new guys? They act like they're police officers when in fact they don't even know a damn thing. I can't remember when a single one of them ever said anything the least bit interesting about baseball cards.

the holiday inn express prewar collector:

1. bash psa
2. complain about ebay
3. start collecting t206
4. refer to said set as "the monster"

you then suddenly have the power to determine trimmed cards in holders through crappy computer scans and 100% certain you were shilled for that $16 t206 common in VG last night by a seller with 4 feedback.

Shouldn't there be twelve steps?

5) Maintain plausible deniability in any transaction... reference in the third person or payment by third party check is recommended.

It boils down to this, if you like train wrecks, you go across the street. If you want good, solid info without the teenage drama, you come here.