So what was the big meeting all about last night at the national with JP & Marshall?

[bigtrain]

Are we talking about a group of dealers led by a convicted felon and his friends?
Maybe the hobby needs a Commissioner. I nominate Jeff.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by bigtrain

Are we talking about a group of dealers led by a convicted felon and his friends?
Maybe the hobby needs a Commissioner. I nominate Jeff.

I can't be Commissioner -- I'm banned.

[barrysloate]

Mark- how can you ban a card doctor who works out of his basement? He never was a part of the mainstream hobby, and maybe has never even shown his face to collectors. So what organization is going to stop guys like this? Only the grading services can by identifying and rejecting his altered cards. But often the work is so good it can't be detected.

Any organization to clean up the hobby is great in theory. But I think it would be relatively powerless.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Mark- how can you ban a card doctor who works out of his basement? He never was a part of the mainstream hobby, and maybe has never even shown his face to collectors. So what organization is going to stop guys like this? Only the grading services can by identifying and rejecting his altered cards. But often the work is so good it can't be detected.

Any organization to clean up the hobby is great in theory. But I think it would be relatively powerless.

Or the auction houses by not taking their consignments.

[barrysloate]

Auction houses rarely turn down consignments.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Auction houses rarely turn down consignments.

QED. So it goes on and on.

[mark evans]

Barry--

No system is perfect. If there are card doctors so skilled that their work cannot be detected by expert graders, so be it. But what can be achieved through an association is to ensure that participating grading services maintain the necessary expertise to identify alterations so much as possible and operate in an ethical manner by avoiding card doctors and those complicit with card doctors where feasible.

The power of an association is derived from its members. Thus, it can only be as effective as its members wish. But, it seems to me that there is a two-fold purpose for dealers to operate ethically: the salutary business purpose of cultivating and maintaining effective customer relations, and to try to avoid finding themselves in the cross-hairs of law enforcement.

Mark