Posted By:
Dan Mathewson...but, not completely.
First of all, listing items in the "graded cards" category on eBay just because they are graded is fraud. I don't care that eBay "allows" it, it is still fraud as they are not "cards". They are cut out pieces of toilet paper from magazines, encyclopedias, TV Guide, FingerHut, whatever... This is knowingly and intentionally misrepresenting a commercial transaction. eBay may claim to "not know" whether or not these are really classified as "cards" because they are not pro's in vintage cards. Big deal. They are not knowingly and intentionally committing the act. AAA and Roy Huff, et al, are knowingly/intentionally doing it as "professional graders" and collectors, they know they aren't cards, and that makes thier misrepresentation "fraud".
Additionally, they have added "legitimacy" to their items by slabbing them in their cheap little "holders" giving them a grade and authenticity and sell their own graded stuff. That'd be like getting rid of the USDA and letting Stuart Anderson and everyone else grade their own beef ... now, take that to every other market. Regulators and Graders should (must) be third party and indifferent. These guys do it SOLELY for their own profiteering via selling their own graded stuff. The occasional fool that falls into their web and has something graded by them is just extra revenue gravy (but, probably very infrequent). Criminy! Everyone that uses AAA and sells AAA crap lives where??? In Hawaii, right off of AAA's office doorstep. I mean, c'mon...how ridiculous and obvious is that???
Each individual step along the way, by itself, is arguably legal in its own right, but everything they do entirely, as a package, is solely to deceive and defraud people. They sell garbage to people who don't know they are buying garbage: willful and knowing misrepresentation.
On top of ALL THAT, if it is true that they are slabbing RECENT reprints of the '54 SI Cards (which it appears they are from the paper described in an earlier thread) then they are knowingly slabbing reprints and labeling them as original, flooding the market with more worthless garbage. Again, illegal.
This degrades the entire collecting market in a variety of ways. One being, novice collectors buy this shat from PacificVintageSports and Roy Huff, et al, and discover at some point they were ripped off. They lose trust for everyone in the trade, including those of us who are reputable, and who don't scam for profit, and who are in this for the real joy and interest of vintage trading/collecting. It often takes a LOT to recover someone from a loss of trust due to deception.
It also floods our market with worthless crap devaluing everything out there.
These guys are at the VERY LEAST highly unethical and very costly to our vintage card market. Purposely deceiving people is a form of fraud. It matters nothing to me that eBay "allows" this and that. Hell: we have complained to eBay directly about Broadway Rick's direct, illegal and unethical, eBay policy-violating shill bidding. And what do they do? Nothing. That jackass even admitted it in the MSNBC commentary/article later on!!! Still, nothing! Every bidder in his auctions could have (and should have) charged him with internet fraud.
Next thing you know, Roy Huff and PacificVintageSports will be showing up with Power Seller and Square Trade logos on their auctions. Won't that be pretty?