Posted By:
Anonymous"So when I hear about someone like the Anson purchaser you describe, well...his "sink or swim" technique obviously didn't work."
Scott - the thing is, most people new into vintage collecting just aren't aware of the huge scam problem and people selling fake cards as authentic. What brought me back to card collecting awhile back was someone selling a Cobb and a Ruth strip card for what to me seemed like a great deal. I had already agreed on a price with the person, but wisely decided to do some more research before handing over my cash which led me to this board. I was quickly told they were undoubtedly fakes, and of course now I would know by looking at the scans of them for a 1/4 of a second they were fake, but it took me awhile to build up my knowledge to recognize this.
It's all well and good to warn people to start slow, but people either don't find that warning at first or are hesitant to believe that the person is ripping them off (after all, who wants to believe THAT?) - sometimes it just happens that a person gets ripped off before they know enough to find the right information that would have prevented it happening. It could even happen to a veteran, though it's FAR less likely - still with ebay you never know unless you're ALWAYS dealing with an established long-term seller, but honestly, if it was limited to just those people, it would be very limiting, at least for someone like me who doesn't buy very high dollar items.
Barry also has a point about newbies getting overcharged - I can say from being somewhat of a newbie, and a year ago being much more so, that I would guess most newbies are bound to get burned, or at least overcharged, unless they're willing to do a great deal of research before purchasing anything, and generally the level of enthusiasm that leads one into buying something like that for the first time will outweigh patience, especially if you're talking about $50-$250 - it's not like a person is buying a house here.
The issue of cards being tampered with adds yet another wrinkle that is obviously a tough one to ferret out even for qualified professionals - take the doctored cobb that was independently graded by the 3 major companies - if it's being done so well that it fools experts (although of course it could be argued that there are more expert experts than at the grading companies), then how does one REALLY know what they're dealing with ever? What can we do but proceed cuatiously, at least rely on our own personal integrity in what WE do and hope for the best understanding there are many pitfalls out there to watch for?