Rick Probstein interviews Bill Mastro

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Collectorsince62

The interview was like listening to Pete Rose. A brash personality who knows a lot about the history and inner workings of his industry, a very tarnished reputation after being on top of his world, semi-repentant about his deceit, simultaneously embraced and hated . . . but interesting as hell.

That's a good analogy, as Mastro is certainly a polarizing figure. I did enjoy hearing Mastro's thoughts (like him or not). My name appeared on the "You've been shilled List" when it was released... and yes it was a real downer. So while I'm certainly not a fan of Mastro or what he did, I was still quite interested to hear the story from his perspective.

Pete Rose (even at his advanced age) probably knows as much about baseball as anyone alive today. I would've put Don Zimmer in that category before he passed, as well. The hobby equivalent is undeniably Mastro. Like Rose, he is still passionate about the hobby and expresses a moderate degree of remorse. Whether it's remorse over what he did or just at getting caught is open to interpretation. Still, some of my best pieces came from the early days of Mastro Auctions (dating back to Mastro & Steinbach).

I agree that Probstein should stick to his "day job", as his interviewing skills were awful, to the point of maddening. Just as Mastro would hit on an interesting topic, Probstein would interrupt him or change course. Just let him speak, for Christ's sake. A good interviewer lets the person complete their thoughts and then bases the follow-up question(s) on what's been revealed (assuming the interviewer possesses good listening skills). Johnny Carson was the master of this, and even Leno was far superior to the current Late Night crop.

Anyway, Mastro's stories of the early days were engaging. I would've liked to hear more about his federal prison experience and how he built his auction house into the empire it was back in the day. Sounded like a follow-up interview might be in the works.