THE MARKEL REPORT: Are Graded Baseball Cards Being “Juiced” (Aesthetically Enhanced)?

[WhenItWasAHobby]

Thanks everyone for the interest. Good work Greg (BOTN) in figuring out who the main culprit is: eBay Power Seller "scottsusor". This party bought all of those raw cards on eBay and later re-sold them in graded holders on eBay.

CLARIFICATION NOTE: The rationale for not initially disclosing whose card doctoring was displayed on the first part of this thread was to make the reader first determine that those cards were altered before finding out who the culprit was. The reason for this approach is due to the slobbering love affair many PSA collectors have for this seller. All attempts to warn these folks of this kind of nonsense in the past, even with scans, were for the most part futile.

There have been some very interesting and hysterically funny developments over the past 24 hours. As of 5:00 pm today, I'm quite certain eBay buyer/seller "scottsusor" has no idea that he has been the main focus of a large scale investigation for 3 years and doesn't know we have mounds of visual evidence against this party nor has he seen this thread. He was given negative feedback on the '61 Topps Cheney by me at noon today and in return filed a complaint through eBay for a revision of the feedback with claims of being libeled by me. Can we all yawn together at the count of three for him challenging me in a lawsuit? Anyway the feedback stated:

Sells altered PSA graded cards without disclosure. STAY AWAY! AVOID!

After receiving this frivolous threat through eBay requesting to resolve the feedback, I came up with this idea to propose to him: I'll remove the negative if he signs a sworn affidavit stating he doesn't alter cards, etc. I haven't heard back. If he does sign it, he should get an easy perjury charge with the local courts instead of dealing with the Feds who are backlogged on other fraud cases. If he refuses, it makes him that much more guilty.

UPDATE NOTE: Over 60 hours have passed with no reply to my request for him to sign a sworn statement guaranteeing that he hasn't altered cards and then re-sold them. I think it's safe to say at this point he knows he's been exposed.


See our e-mail exchanges below. This speaks volumes regarding the credibility of this seller. (Bold text added for emphasis. E-mail, phone and mailing addresses deleted).



Hello Scott,

You know, I do realize now that I might have been somewhat
hasty in giving you that negative since it is possible
that those two cards were altered before you received
them.

Here's what I'm willing to do. If you sign a sworn affidavit
that is legally binding in a court of law and give me a legally
binding copy of that affidavit stating to the effect that
any of the raw cards you've received as a buyer the past 5 years
either through the mail or at shows are always in your possession
until they are sent to a grading company. Furthermore you will
swear that while these raw cards are in your possession you or
anyone else has not altered the paper stock of the cards before you've
submitted them to PSA.

If you are willing to do this, you have my word of honor that I
will change the negative feedback to a positive. This has to be
done by the August 31st of course and I'm sure you'd like to do
this sooner than that. If cost is an issue, I will be willing to help out.

I have to agree on the way the document is worded before you
sign off on it. No weasel language.

Let me know.

Dan



From: Scott & Doreen Susor
To: Dan Markel
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 3:31:02 PM
Subject: Re: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #310156210162

Hello Dan,

While highly doubtful due to PSA's rigorous grading
process, it certainly is possible that the cards in question
are trimmed. As PSA people always say, humans grade
the cards and humans make mistakes. It is also possible
that they were cut shorter than standard at the Topps factory,
but not short enough for PSA to reject due to not meeting
the minimum size requirement.

All I can do is what I've done, to offer you a full refund on
the card/cards that you are unhappy with.

Also, if those cards are indeed trimmed, you may have
concerns that I trimmed those cards before sending them
to PSA. I can assure you that I did not. I would never
send in a card that I knew for sure to be altered. That
said, I have sent many cards in to PSA over the years
that PSA rejected due to evidence of trimming. I did not
trim any of them. I have gotten better over the years in
knowing what to look for, and there is much more to look
for than just the card being undersized, but I have to admit
that I'm still not perfect as I still get one rejected as
trimmed here and there.

The worst purchase of cards I ever made was a bunch
of 1957, 1958 and 1959 Topps cards several years ago.
This was before I knew what to look for as far as trimmed
cards goes. I sent them all in along with a few others of
the same years and something like 70% got rejected
with evidence of trimming! I was stunned, dismayed and
embarrassed. I contacted Joe Orlando at PSA and he
explained in detail what the problem with those cards
was and helped me to understand what PSA looks for,
and what I should look for in pre-grading, for evidence of
trimming.

Some cards are just done so well that I can't even tell
with close eyeball inspection plus magnification that the
card has been altered, and I guess that would also be
true for PSA graders. But I can tell you that a lot of
trimming is going on out there in the raw card world by
a lot of different people. I buy quite a few cards on eBay
myself, from various sellers. In my pre-grading process,
I end up discarding about 1 out of every 7 or 8 cards I buy
as not being trimmed or at least looking like it even if it
hasn't been. I don't think its necessarily the people selling
the cards that did the alteration but somebody did it before
it got to them, probably as part of a complete set that the
seller bought to break and sell.

Again, if you want to return the cards you are unhappy
with for a full refund, please do, and I will send your refund
either via PayPal or by mail if you prefer.

Scott Susor
P.O. Box
Houston, TX 77255

If you'd like to discuss this further on the phone, please
feel free to call me at

Regards,
Scott





----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Markel
To: Scott & Doreen Susor
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #310156210162

The reason is that a local long time dealer/collector named Dan Markel wanted to see this '61 Cheney PSA 8 very badly and upon inspecting it declared without question it is trimmed and same with the '64 Osteen PSA 8 that was recently purchased from you.

From: Scott & Doreen Susor
To: mondo.cards@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:47:39 PM
Subject: Re: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #310156210162

Not to my knowledge. PSA is very good at detecting
altered cards. Why do you ask?

----- Original Message -----
From: eBay Member: mondo.card.company
To:
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:17 PM
Subject: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #310156210162

eBay eBay sent this message to Scott Susor (scottsusor).
Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more.
This member has a question for you.

Do not respond to the sender if this message requests that you complete the transaction outside of eBay. This type of offer is against eBay policy, may be fraudulent, and is not covered by buyer protection programs. Learn More.
Dear scottsusor,

This card you sold me wouldn't happened to be trimmed would it?

- mondo.card.company

Answer the question

1961 TOPPS #494 TOM CHENEY Pirates PSA 8 NM-MT
1961 TOPPS #494 TOM CHENEY Pirates PSA 8 NM-MT
Item Id: 310156210162
End time: Jul-25-09 19:50:00 PDT
Buyer:

mondo.card.company (1014)
100.0% Positive Feedback
Member since Jan-11-99 in United States
Location: TX, United States
Listing Status: This message was sent while the listing was closed.