Mastro/Legendary Article in Today's NY Daily News

[sportscardtheory]

If I ran an auction house, it would be 10% or more up front and pay in full within 60 days or the item gets returned or re-auctioned at the discretion of the consignee. You don't get your item until it's paid in full and lose your down payment if after 60 days you haven't paid, no questions asked. See how simple that is? It's called running a legitimate business with your bread and butter in mind first and foremost. Your customers are the consignees, NOT the buyers/bidders.

[drc]

Until the buyer pays for it, the consignor is the owner of the lot. The auction house facilitates the sale, charging a fee for the service, but never owns the lot. Obviously, a contract will have agreed upon ground rules and time lines for sale and payments-- for examples, a consignor can't pull a lot in the middle of an auction, an unsold lot is to be promptly relisted, unpaid for lot goes to the underbidder or a bidder has to allow at least 30 days before receiving payment .

If the late lots have not been paid for, they still belong to the consignor, even if they were shipped a year ago. I don't see why the consignor can't go to the non-payer's house and pick up his stiff. If the buyer never paid, the items certainly don't belong to him and some might label the items as stolen property.

Beyond the practical pitfalls of shipping early (the buyer might not pay), I don't believe the auction house has a right to ship before payment. Unless there is contact details allowing the practice, the lot isn't theirs to ship before payment. Once purchased (paid for) by the winner, then the lot should be promptly given to the new owner.

[Peter_Spaeth]

I am surprised that the principal focus of this thread has been a few (presumably) unpaid consignors instead of (1) serious accusations of shill bidding against Mastro by a lawyer and board member with unquestioned credibility, and (2) revelations that the principal of the #2 grading service (#1 by far on this board) continues to buy and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of cards. To me anyhow that is the far more interesting story line.

[WarHoundR69]

CGC is SGC's sister company. I'm wondering if Dave Forman has his comics CGC graded and then resells them. That might fly a bit under the radar.

A point of interest to me since I also collect comics and have many CGC graded examples

[MikeU]

Originally Posted by WarHoundR69

CGC is SGC's sister company. I'm wondering if Dave Forman has his comics CGC graded and then resells them. That might fly a bit under the radar.

A point of interest to me since I also collect comics and have many CGC graded examples

They have not been a sister company for years now.

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I am surprised that the principal focus of this thread has been a few (presumably) unpaid consignors instead of (1) serious accusations of shill bidding against Mastro by a lawyer and board member with unquestioned credibility, and (2) revelations that the principal of the #2 grading service (#1 by far on this board) continues to buy and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of cards. To me anyhow that is the far more interesting story line.

I am surprised about that as well, Peter. It is a shame that Mastro has been unable to pay it's consignors, and they have justifiably been criticized about that for weeks. Also we have read about allegations of shill bidding for different auction houses for a long time.

For me the biggest news from reading the NY Daily News article and see that Mastro and Dave Forman is involved in litigation regarding hundreds of thousands of dollars for purchases made by Forman. I use SGC or grading and I rely on SGC for purchases and I am not exactly comfortable with hearing this news. Some are ok with it, but I don't like hearing that the president of SGC allegedly owes Mastro $400,000 for purchases, and that the president of SGC still consigns cards on such a large scale.

[Bicem]

agreed 100% Wes.

[slidekellyslide]

Nothing surprises me anymore...Dave Forman was at one time associated with Gary Moser (one of the REAL bad guys in this hobby).

[barrysloate]

I'm with everyone else. I consider Dave a friend but as soon as he purchased SGC he should have completely stopped his involvement in buying and selling baseball cards. The appearance of impropriety is enormous even if everything is done on the up and up. SGC has long been the darling of the Net54 board, but I think it has taken a huge hit today.