Shanus-REA suit

[slidekellyslide]

Haulsofshame.com had breaking news in my email today...surprisingly it wasn't this story.

[oldjudge]

Dan-That link was already posted in the Goodwin thread. Pretty busy news day for a quiet hobby.

[Kawika]

Never a dull moment.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Dan-That link was already posted in the Goodwin thread. Pretty busy news day for a quiet hobby.

Wow...looks like I have some catching up to do. I pretty much stopped reading that thread when it went to the Peck and Snyder discussion.

[milkit1]

If there's 1 thing I have learned in this business is not to trust somebody who has a song called pop goes the weasel

[Michael Peich]

At least Charlie Sheen no longer collects.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by milkit1

If there's 1 thing I have learned in this business is not to trust somebody who has a song called pop goes the weasel

Not trying to pick on the guy, but if you think Pop Goes the Weasel was bad(sadly, I still kinda like the song), you should check out Gas Face. It's absolutely horrendous, and to make matters worse, it has Gilbert Gottfried in the video.

[ls7plus]

This story reminds me of why I don't collect memorabilia, aside from a few game-used (?) bats. Purely in the abstract, and not taking sides with either party here, there are just too many times where big bucks are paid for what turns out to be nothing more than a story. Stories are almost always subject to dispute. Joe Jackson game-used uniform, anyone? I certainly would not even begin to question Rob Lifson's character, and I don't know Corey at all, let alone well enough to even begin to comment on the particulars here. The prior poster was right: Let's just root for the truth to come out!
Secondly, is anyone suprised to see that O'Keeffe is the author of this piece? This gentleman has made it abundantly clear in his book, "The Card," that he doesn't understand the attractibility of the collectibles our hobby is founded upon, and his dedication to pressing (pun intended) his perspective upon everyone else he can reach is beyond rationale dispute.

Larry Smith

[DanP]

Originally Posted by ls7plus

This story reminds me of why I don't collect memorabilia, ...

Larry Smith

I'm with you Larry; I have some autographed balls, jerseys, etc. but nothing I spent enough $ on to upset me if I found out they were fake.

After reading the article all I could do is picture six experts being called, all with different "expert" opinions on the dates (kind of like the experts on the economy, stocks and the weather).

Dan Paradis

[49leaf]

I do hope this works itself out. But oh my from rapper to baseball historian expert etc. LOL!

[Hankphenom]

"The hobby is mostly filled with low-life hucksters, some of whom grow up to own important auction houses," says a longtime collector of early baseball material. You can count the number of people who are smart and educated and honest on one hand."

This statement is patently absurd, and offensive. This hobby/business if full of smart, educated, and honest collectors and dealers. I doubt the percentage of bad apples is any worse than any other field: politics, law, religion, finance, medicine, etc., and probably a good deal cleaner than many.
Hank Thomas

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

"The hobby is mostly filled with low-life hucksters, some of whom grow up to own important auction houses," says a longtime collector of early baseball material. You can count the number of people who are smart and educated and honest on one hand."

This statement is patently absurd, and offensive. This hobby/business if full of smart, educated, and honest collectors and dealers. I doubt the percentage of bad apples is any worse than any other field: politics, law, religion, finance, medicine, etc., and probably a good deal cleaner than many.
Hank Thomas

Hank, I can assure you that there is a higher percentage of people in the hobby/business with criminal records than there are in the field of politics, law, religion, finance and medicine.

[19cbb]

Collector sues over 'foul balls'

By BRUCE GOLDING

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/m...iFWJ3fGZPM9IMK

A baseball-memorabilia collector is crying foul.

Corey Shanus, a Westchester lawyer who has amassed a treasure trove of artifacts from the national pastime, filed a $600,000-plus fraud suit yesterday against a dealer he claims duped him into buying two fake balls.

The Manhattan federal lawsuit says Shanus relied on expert advice from Robert Lifson of Robert Edward Auctions before bidding on two "trophy balls" purportedly from the 1800s.

But Shanus says testing shows the balls contained a material introduced in the 1900s.

Barry Kozyra, a lawyer for Lifson, said called the suit "frivolous."

[mark evans]

Regardless of the percentage of crooks in the hobby, I've always understood the parties in this case, whom I don't know, to be two of the hobby's "good guys." For their sake and that of the hobby, I should hope for an amicable resolution.

With regard to criticism of O'Keeffe, he's a journalist publishing a story he believes to be of public interest. He owes the hobby only the duty of getting it straight.

[ls7plus]

Kudos to Dan Markel for a great, informative post. Boy, what a mess!

Jeff and I are both lawyers, with my understanding being that he's been quite successful in trying some very tough, high profile cases, and I applaud him for that, while I focus primarily on rather routinely handling some high dollar appeals in the Michigan appellate courts and US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cinncinatti. However, I've seen some real scam jobs and out and out criminal behavior in the practice of law also, present company most definitely excepted. I've posted before about studying the area of coin collecting for a period of more than 20 years, because I think that its 120-year head start as an organized hobby over ours gives a reasonably accurate preview of what ours is likely to go through (collectors thinking patterns seem remarkably similar, whatever their focus). Coins have also experienced a huge number of frauds and scammers over time. I think its just indigenous to human nature whenever big $$$ are out there.

Our hobby will overcome and survive, however, just as other fields of endeavors have, although perhaps not without suffering many more black eyes along the way.

With respect to Mark's comments on O'Keeffe, I would respectively disagree. Although I read and enjoyed "The Card," and there is no question he writes well, I think there is little question he has an agenda to push, just as many writers in various fields do, and writes with an easily discerned animus towards the hobby. That said, participating in this hobby has always been caveat emptor, and most hobbyists thoroughly understand that. If they don't, heaven help them, as the unsavory characters lurking out there certainly won't.

Best to everyone,

Larry Smith

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Hank, I can assure you that there is a higher percentage of people in the hobby/business with criminal records than there are in the field of politics, law, religion, finance and medicine.

You can assure me? You can prove this? I'm guessing the percentage is about the same.
Hank