Question re: Clean Sweep/Verkman Auction

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Posted By: Aaron M. 

Has anyone had any experience with him or his auction? Is it really just a sale masquerading as an auction? (I'm interested in one of the items, but the minimum bid is far higher than the item's actual worth--even by Mastro standards!) Also, I've sent two e-mails asking him questions and neither was responded to.

Is this an outfit to stay away from?

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Posted By: Marc S.

Be wary.

There are numerous stories of overgrading / overpromising, not to mention overpricing. I have bought a few selected items from him in the past (typically unique items that I have never seen elsewhere). Inspecting cards first is great if you can - but you usually cannot. Would be happy to respond in greater detail offline if you e-mail me.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

Searches pull up a lot of other related posts, including these:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1068537513&lp=1070167795

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1067582355


Bill

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Posted By: Todd

I've won a few things from him, most recently the following 4-in-1 Exhibit from 1936:

http://www.csauctions.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000031776

I believe I won it at less than my max bid. The card was advertised as NM. As you might see, the corners and edges are borderline NM, but there are some focus and print dot problems with Lyons. The card is probably ex-mt, but I won't complain, as the scan was sufficient to form my own opinion.

I won a couple of $20ish dollar cards sight unseen, that were advertised as lower grade and were pretty much as advertised (vg-ex and ex+).

I also received my cards promptly. I know others have had problems, but not me.

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Posted By: botn

If you are someone who typically enjoys getting less than what you thought you were getting or prefers to be disappointed, I say go for it.

A friend of mine bought an E101 Wagner from him that was described as VGEX. No image of the back of the card and a less than honest description too. Upon receipt he tried to get a refund or a partial refund for a card that was Good at best. PSA agreed. He has since given me the card, as he was disgusted having paid 600 or 700 for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31718&item=4128571374

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Posted By: The Old Stuff

I particapated in a few SV Clean Sweep auctions. In the first CS auction (in which I participated) I won a few lots and the cards were delivered promptly but the cards were graded very liberally. I figured that maybe this was an abberation.

In another CS auction a Joss M116 card was described as Ex. I won it and it was delievered promptly with a few other items that (to Clean Sweeps credit) were pretty close to the description, albeit a little bit liberally graded. The Joss M116 had back damage and came back graded as an SGC30 (an accurate grade for the card). After that auction I decided to steer clear of the CS auctions. It's one of those things where you live and learn.

I figure you can listen to others and avoid a mistake or you can find out the old fashioned way and live the nightmare. This is America and that's the beauty of it all, you can chose to do what ever you want to do. I suppose in some cases experience is the one thing that people don't want.

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Posted By: Aaron

Thanks for the links -- they were very insightful.

Verkman truly does not seem to know what he is doing. The item I'm interested in is: (1) incorrectly identified (wrong league, wrong year, etc.); (2) described as "NM" and "pristine" despite the fact that there is writing on it; and (3) described as not having been offered since the Halper sale, despite the fact that it has been offered several times since then(most recently a year ago by Mastro when it sold for less than than Verkman's minimum bid).

I could chalk 1 and 3 up to me being more knowledgeable than he is regarding the item (though 3 is deceptive to collectors not familiar with the item), but 2 had me wondering since he ignored my two e-mails requesting additional images. The feedback tips the scales.

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Posted By: Anonymous

Other than his general rudeness at shows, I also had a negative experience in one of his auctions. I was high bidder on an uncut sheet he graded as Ex. Now, I realize uncut sheets are bigger and one needs to have a bit more leniency on condition, but this sheet came with two tears which were about 2 inches long each and numerous HEAVY creases. Nobody in their right mind would call this Ex condition! I called him immediately upon recipt of the item. After hassleing me for more than a week in back and forth conversations, he finally agreed to refund my money after threats that I would write letters to hobby publications about the incident. To his credit, he did give a full refund, not counting shipping costs, but he was rude and self righteous every step of the way. I would never bid on anything he offers again. Just from casual glimpses at items he has pictured in color ads in SCD, it is clear that he is still grossly over grading. No wonder he doesn't like using grading companies.
Jim

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Posted By: leon

One buy and one return (0% average).... He can't grade for crap......later

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Posted By: Bill L

as years ago. But, he does do returns. And, he does have some stuff. Just bid/buy @ 1.5 to 2 grades lower than advertised.

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Posted By: Mike Pugeda

Just saw SV at Ft. Washington. Just plain rude and seemingly arrogant. Have bought items from him in the past, but after this last episode, never again. I really can't understand why some dealers continue to treat people this way and how they stay in business.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Verkman is concerned about his business, so much so that he hired public relations counsel and tried like heck to get his name out there before the public. Problem is, he doesn't need name recognition, he needs name restoration among the collecting public.

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Posted By: J Levine

"Access for 1208 to Clean Sweep Auctions has been restricted until further notice."

After sending a couple of e-mails back and forth with Steve Verkman (all cordial) including one in which I apologized for the name calling, he has restricted my auction access...his loss of business, I rarely bid on anything and rarely won more than a couple of items valued no more than $25 but that is still more money he has given away...he pushed for details about the last time I saw him at a show and how he was rather rude to a friend of mine who is just getting into the hobby and was asking questions...I just did not want to rehash the incident since nothing could be done now anyway...Never got an apology either... oh well...just thought you all might want to know how he is handling his business.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

You should thank him. He did you a favor.

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Posted By: bcornell

See http://www.csauctions.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000035187 for the amazing answer.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

without looking, is EX+. Based on the fact that only a small amount of paper and text is missing.

I was close. Amazing that he writes The back is clean as well with no damage of any kind. I hope that he takes a small portion of the auction proceeds and gets himself an eye exam. He could use a pair of glasses that are not rose colored.

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Posted By: Aaron M.

Just to wrap this thread up (I think), in response to my posts and the thread discussing his auctions, I received an e-mail from Steve Verkman last night. After an e-mail exchange, I finally did receive the additional images I originally asked for.

I'm not sure if the criticisms he received will translate into changed business practices, but he was extremely civil and polite to me.

Almost as an aside, this is the second time in as many weeks that I've been contacted by the head of an auction house based on something I wrote on this site. (Doug Allen of Mastro wrote AND cold called me at work to discuss Mastro's policy of allowing its employees to bid on Mastro items.) Has anyone else had this experience? I think this speaks to the impact and influence this site has on hobby professionals.

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Posted By: Steve Verkman

Dear Board Members,

I would like to think that we are all well meaning collectors who sincerely care about this hobby.
For this reason, I would encourage anyone to email me personally at info@csauctions.com to discuss any outstanding issue. I do not wish to discuss individual matters on a public board.

ISSUES FROM THIS THREAD

1. Company policy on grading. Grading is subjective and biased in the sense that a buyer will want a card to be a grade lower and sellers a grade higher. I would be very surprised if you guys think PSA/SGC/Global grade correctly in most cases. What I try to do is be consistent. We at Clean Sweep are human and mistakes can occasionally get made but if that takes place they are always recitfied. For most auction lots, WE PROVIDE THE LARGEST SCANS IN THE HOBBY. We would like the bidder to decide. We offer a full return policy on any item for sale from our retail catalog or online store (www.csauctions.com). Also keep in mind that lots of people submit our cards to PSA and have the cards come back a grade higher than our grade.

2. Incident with Aaron on Jubilee Ball. This is a jubilee ball from an important dinner that took place in 1926. We listed the year as 1925 as opposed to 1926. The ball we have WAS NEVER auctioned before and is fresh to the hobby. As mentioned, this is a ball and we had three images posted. The images were emailed today as the item had to be pulled and photographed for the web; this can take a week in some cases.

3. Communication with Levine. It is difficult to apologize for something that I do not know about. I emailed Levine and asked him when this took place and he refused to tell me when or any other details. I also did not appreciate his profanity.

4. N29 Getzin card in current auction. Sorry for error. Item was corrected on our web site. Again, obviously if we were trying to be deceptive, we would not post enormous scans of the front and back of the card.

5. BOTN (Schwartz). All I ask is that people keep in mind that there are two sides to any dispute. This has apparently been gone over ad infinitum and it is not going to help anyone to do so again. From looking at Schwartz's ebay profile, he has had five negative feedbacks lately and has had nine different people leave him negative feedbacks.

Thanks much,

Steve

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I would just like to add my experience with Verkman auctions. I won 2 Breisch Williams cards in an auction, he misplaced one of them and the other one was not even the card in the scan (mine had staple holes that was not in the scan). The person I spoke to was pleasent but the only way he rectified the mistakes was full refund and the misplaced one (obvious), as far the winning the card not in the scan, I was told he would take care of me in future auction. I did not quite understand why it couldn't be taken care of right away, so I have shyed away from his auctions.

Just my Experince

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Posted By: botn

4. N29 Getzin card in current auction. Sorry for error. Item was corrected on our web site. Again, obviously if we were trying to be deceptive, we would not post enormous scans of the front and back of the card.

So when my friend purchased the E101 Wagner from you, in which you did not provide a scan of the back with the severe back damage and the misleading written description, was this deceptive?

5. BOTN (Schwartz). All I ask is that people keep in mind that there are two sides to any dispute. This has apparently been gone over ad infinitum and it is not going to help anyone to do so again. From looking at Schwartz's ebay profile, he has had five negative feedbacks lately and has had nine different people leave him negative feedbacks.

Based on what I understand about your retail practices and inability to grade, you may want to pay more attention to your own business and less about mine. Satisfying your own customers seems to be a foreign concept to you when given the opportunity and the facts. Commenting on things that you really have no information about only makes you look desperate.

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

Cudos goes out to Steve for replying to all the comments left for him on the board. My personel expierence started out a little rough with him, but He's OK in my book now. Almost everything I have bought from Steve was consigned to Mastro last year, where it realized alot more money than I spent. I kept the cool stuff like 1953 salesman 3 card panel with Mantle and the 1955 Spic & Span Aaron. In my opinion Festberg, Rosen, Pavletic, and Hager are people I would stay clear from. It might be a good thread to show the Dealer Survey that the VCBC does once a year... Maybe someone could post it? JC

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Posted By: J Levine

Not once did I use profanity in any e-mail. How do you know? I am a first grade teacher and do all my e-mail from school with a heavy filter. There is no way I could use profanity as the school filter would not let it out.

I gave him a reason why I would not discuss specifics since I did not want to rehash it. It was in the past and I apologized for the Jerkman comment. The specifics were not important since the damage was done and I wanted to put it past us. Still do.

Can I now? Not sure, I never used profanity and am appalled that he would say that. In fact, in several of the e-mails which I will cut and paste below I was very nice...

E-mail #1

Steve,

Unfortunately, my temper got the best of me there...I have bid and been satisfied on most lots...however...i did meet you at a show recently and you practically made me feel like an idiot for even walking up...not only were you and your staff rude to my friend who was not all that knowledgeable about cards (I am but was looking at something else) but you were rude to me, a long-time customer (heck, I think I bought from you when you were still with Solomon Cramer). Granted, I spend little on your auctions (I am a teacher!) but I am still a customer. My friend as we walked away asked if all dealers were like that...I told him no. Most dealers enjoy taking the time talking to potential customers and explaining the cards. He, being a studio exec., had money to spend but chose to spend it elsewhere. I was still peeved when the Network 54 post happened. Looks like I am not the only one though. If you would like a little free advice, educate people, be nice and respectful and tell your staff the same, because you never know who might drop $5000 at a show or auction. Use this advice or don't. Heck, ban me from your auctions if you must but again, just remember...you never know when a paying customer will come by.

-Joshua

E-mail #2

In response to his pestering about specific details...

What does it matter? If you read the other posts, I am not alone in what happened...I would rather not argue about it. I am sorry if I offended you but I was feel I was wronged as well...like I said, my temper got the best of me...

-Joshua

E-mail #3

more response to him asking for more details...

It does not matter what time I came, which show I attended, that is what does not matter. If it mattered to you and I were you, I would have apologized and told me you make a better effort in being nicer to the buying public. I would have also written something on the Net54 board possibly explaining actions, grading policy, etc. I brought it up on the Network 54 board because someone asked...I responded to your e-mail because on further review I could have been a little more diplomatic on the board.

-Joshua

That was my last communication with Mr. Verkman. I will let the board now judge. Thank you,

Joshua Levine

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Posted By: Aaron M.

"2. Incident with Aaron on Jubilee Ball. This is a jubilee ball from an important dinner that took place in 1926. We listed the year as 1925 as opposed to 1926. The ball we have WAS NEVER auctioned before and is fresh to the hobby. As mentioned, this is a ball and we had three images posted. The images were emailed today as the item had to be pulled and photographed for the web; this can take a week in some cases."

In addition to listing the wrong year, the ball was described as commemorating the 25th anniversary of the American League. The ball was actually issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National League.

The ball was described as "pristine" and "Near Mint" despite the fact that it had handwriting ("baseball from 1925") on the side of the ball. The side-panel with the handwriting was not pictured in full on the auction listing (I pieced together the text of the writing from the three other images), so my request for additional images was for that particular panel so I could more closely examine the writing.

The ball was also listed as having not been offered since the Halper sale. I felt this description was intended or could be construed (as I certainly did) to mean that no example of this ball (not this specific ball) had been offered since then (despite the fact that Mastro and Lelands have offered it at least four times since then).

One last note: When I e-mailed Mastro and Robert Edwards recently requesting additional images from their lots, I received a reply within 24 hours. I sent two seperate requests to Clean Sweep and did not receive a reply for a week (until Steve responded to this thread).

FWIW.

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Posted By: dan

Steve, you did the right thing coming onto the board. Thanks, I have been trying to get you to do that for sometime.


Now for my 2 cents: I have been buying from Steve for ions now. Yes I have returned a card or 2 (not bad considering the volume he handles) but he has always been great and refunded my money. I also must state that most of the deals are perfect. I continue to buy from him through his auctions and in person, he gets great stuff. Steve is also always my BEST customer at the National each year! He usually cleans me out before I can get set up. I would like everyone here who has dealt in the past or has never bought from Steve to give him a try. He has an excellent staff who is very friendly and he gets a "thumbs-up" for entering this board with the possibility of getting destroyed. Hey dad loves him, so yes I am a little bias.

Steve, you still need to fix the Getzin auction, title still reads "EX-MT". Dan Mckee.

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Posted By: Sean_C

4. N29 Getzin card in current auction. Sorry for error. Item was corrected on our web site. Again, obviously if we were trying to be deceptive, we would not post enormous scans of the front and back of the card.


Auction description:

Fine example of this card from a tough 19th century issue. Clean front with no staining or other distractions. The back is clean as well with just the tiniest possible scrape at the bottom border. Great for an N29 type, a Tiger collector or if you simply need this card!

Possible scrape? 4 letters have been altered by the paper loss!

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Posted By: botn

Usually when he uses the word "scrape" it means only 3 letters have been affected. See my original post on the E101 Wagner at the top of this thread that Bill referenced. Here it is again http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1067582355

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Posted By: Julie

after a couple of horrors, I did get a really nice one (which has been checked out by Mark Macrae--a M101-2 Jackson--)--and I will let you know how (hopefully) successful card # 2 is, when it arrives.

It is certainly true that all non-acution cards--which always seem to be the ones i want!--you have to get scans of, or get a money-back guarentee. The auction cards, of course, NOW, have HUMUNGOUS scans, so it doesn't matter how he grades them--you can see for yourself!