Jan 2007
Let's Get it On
01/29/07 00:12 PersonalInformationPersonalPermalink
Did you know you can leave comments on this blog?
I'm just saying, is all.
Sometimes people send me emails or even call me on the phone, and reference my blog posts. Sometimes people even get pissed off about some of the things I write. But there are very rarely any comments directly on the blog.
The lack of comments is the reason for my tongue-in-cheek remarks about the masses of people who read the blog. But it struck me this evening that there really aren't a lot of collector blogs out there. Actually, I know of only one. This one, actually.
So maybe there are readers who aren't aware of how blogs work. So I'll 'splain.
Underneath each blog posting you'll see the word "Commentaire". That's French, I think. Because I'm using cheap, off-the-shelf blog software. Or, as the French say, "merde." Pardon my French.
Anyway, if you click "Commentaire", you can enter your name and email address, then enter some comments about the blog posting on which you're commenting. Then I can read your comment and leave comments on top of those. Then, some other guy can read both of our comments and leave comments about our comments.
Pretty soon, we're having all sorts of discussions, commenting on our comments, arguing with each other, sharing the love, being buddies, bitching about the hobby. It turns my random thoughts into more of a dialogue. All sorts of wackiness ensues.
It's a beautiful thing, this internet machine.
Anyway, feel free to talk merde in the Commentaire sections of the bloggy-thing.
I'm just saying, is all.
Sometimes people send me emails or even call me on the phone, and reference my blog posts. Sometimes people even get pissed off about some of the things I write. But there are very rarely any comments directly on the blog.
The lack of comments is the reason for my tongue-in-cheek remarks about the masses of people who read the blog. But it struck me this evening that there really aren't a lot of collector blogs out there. Actually, I know of only one. This one, actually.
So maybe there are readers who aren't aware of how blogs work. So I'll 'splain.
Underneath each blog posting you'll see the word "Commentaire". That's French, I think. Because I'm using cheap, off-the-shelf blog software. Or, as the French say, "merde." Pardon my French.
Anyway, if you click "Commentaire", you can enter your name and email address, then enter some comments about the blog posting on which you're commenting. Then I can read your comment and leave comments on top of those. Then, some other guy can read both of our comments and leave comments about our comments.
Pretty soon, we're having all sorts of discussions, commenting on our comments, arguing with each other, sharing the love, being buddies, bitching about the hobby. It turns my random thoughts into more of a dialogue. All sorts of wackiness ensues.
It's a beautiful thing, this internet machine.
Anyway, feel free to talk merde in the Commentaire sections of the bloggy-thing.
|
On summits and wrinkles and math
01/25/07 00:13 PersonalGeneral
YammeringPersonalPermalink
So I'm going to get together tomorrow night with some
collectors who want to discuss some of the "issues"
that have polluted the hobby message boards over the
last two months. The "issues" essentially amount to
this:
There are people who fraudulently alter trading cards with the intent of deceiving card collectors into thinking that they're getting a nice card that has lived through history in nicer condition than it really has.
There are people who like to buy cards who have until recently found that they are either too smart to have the wool pulled over their eyes, or depend on grading companies to do the work.
It seems that the latter is just realizing the degree to which the former exists.
Now, they're struggling to figure out exactly how much fraud they're willing to accept.
And they're probably also trying to square in their minds the dollars that they've spent on their collections.
The reality is this: the hobby has decided to value higher-grade cards at a premium. The logic behind this is that the cards have managed to survive in magnificent shape, and as such, are more scarce and more valuable than the same card with, say, a wrinkle across it.
The other reality is this: it is entirely possible - and unbelievably common - for people to use common household items to alter the condition of a card in such a way that it appears to be in better condition than it really is. As a result of doing this, people can dupe unsuspecting buyers into thinking they're getting something better than they really are. And if they can manage to slip their cards past a grading company - and many do - then the plastic slab becomes a license to steal.
The other other reality is this: it sounds simpler than it really is. It sounds very black and white. But consider the following:
* If the degree to which this is a problem is really brought to light, does it become an indictment of the competence of any grading company?
* If it does, what happens to the people who have invested hundreds of thousands - maybe even millions - of dollars in high-grade cards?
* And what happens to the dealers who have thousands and thousands of cards in inventory?
* And what happens to the auction houses who make a living selling this stuff?
* And what happens to the hobby - which is now driven by internet sales that are facilitated by third-party grading - if collectors lose confidence in the grading companies?
And don't think this is just a "high grade" issue, either. While the incentive to turn a 6 into an 8 represents the greatest financial upside (and potentially is the easiest alteration to make), the 6 may turn into a 7 instead. Or the "doctor" make take a wrinkle or crease out of a nice 4 or 5, and the card turns into a 5 or 6 due to some other issue. Or a scarce card is turned from a 1MK to a 3, as evidenced by a high-profile card that was rejected by my client Robert Edward Auctions and later found its way into a different auction.
And don't think this is just a "graded card" issue, either. Because the cards that are poorly altered are rejected for grading, and remain raw. And some of the old-school, super-knowledgeable collectors out there would be amazed at how many of these bad cards wind up in their collections because they really look pretty good.
Which leaves us here. A few guys are going to get together and try to make heads or tails of the situation, and try to figure out where to go from here.
My prediction? There will be good ideas kicked around, about hobby regulation, trade associations, codes of ethics, et cetera. But when the rubber hits the road, when a thief sees an opportunity to steal, and when a collector sees a card that they need, dollars will exchange hands and everyone will look the other way.
I've done it myself. Do I think I have altered cards in my collection? Of course I do. Wanna see some? Look here. It's an entire collection of moderately high-grade cards that were issued to CHILDREN inside packs of CHEWING GUM, almost 70 years ago. The cards were likely passed through two generations and never withstood so much as a corner ding? Puh-leeze. I'd be willing to accept the possibility that SOME of my cards lasted this way, but all 20-something of the Near Mint or better cards in the set? Not on your life.
A little closer to home (for you and not me), consider the most popular prewar set: T206.
Ever open a pack of 1980 Topps cards? You get a bunch of off-center cards, some corner dings, maybe a factory wrinkle. Right out of the pack, most of the cards are 7s.
What do you think it was like in 1909? When nobody cared about condition? When nobody cared about print registration, centering, rough cuts, or wrinkles? When the cards - which were primarily "stiffeners" that were designed to keep cigarettes from breaking or bending in a pack - were pressed up against loose shards of tobacco, eventually taken out of the pack by hand and delivered to some young collector?
Am I to believe that somehow a T206 card managed to make it INTO the pack of cigarettes in Near Mint condition? And then once it was IN the pack, it wasn't jostled or bent or crushed or folded or stained, for the entire time it was in the pack, being transported from factory to store to smoker to home?
And then it lasted in the collection of some adolescent turn-of-the-century boy who was smart enough to preserve the cards, never look at them, never expose them to sun, never drop them, fold them, touch them with dirty hands, wrinkle them, ding them, store them near something harmful.
And then the cards were passed to another generation, who treated them the same way.
And then probably another generation. And THAT generation discovered grading, and submitted the card to a grading company.
And through all that, the card somehow remained in Near Mint condition.
Impossible, right? I mean, when I think about it, I stop at the damn FACTORY, and say "no way they came out of the factory in that shape."
And yet the PSA pop reports would indicate that this has happened more than SIX THOUSAND TIMES. 6,176, in fact, which is the number of cards they've graded 7 or better. Not counting the qualifiers. That's almost 9% of all the T206 cards they've graded.
For the heck of it, I figured I'd take a look at other sets - similar sets, with similar stock, distributed a similar way - to see what percentage of those cards graded 7 or better by PSA. Here's what I found:
T205: 6.5%
E92 Crofts Cocoa: 0%
T207: 7.7%
T213 Type 2: 0%
T216 People's Tobacco: 0%
T214 Victory Tobacco: 0%
It seems odd to me that the card set that's most widely collected in the prewar arena, that has the highest number - BY FAR - of graded cards, that has a litany of people collecting graded sets in all conditions, happens to have the highest percentage of cards graded NMT or better.
Is it some anomaly? Some weird fluke that has resulted in a higher percentage of turn-of-the-century collectors taking better care of their T206 cards, despite probably not knowing the difference between a T206 and a T213?
Or is it because there are so many collectors of the most popular prewar set that there's more of an incentive for fraudulent behavior on the part of card doctors who can generate more aggressive bidding on a high-grade T206 common than they can on a high-grade T213?
So I really hope to see progress made, some monumental conclusion drawn. More likely, though, I'll be thrilled to meet some guys I've only spoken with online, share some stories, agree that card doctoring sucks, and then bid against them in the next auction for high-grade '38 Goudeys.
There are people who fraudulently alter trading cards with the intent of deceiving card collectors into thinking that they're getting a nice card that has lived through history in nicer condition than it really has.
There are people who like to buy cards who have until recently found that they are either too smart to have the wool pulled over their eyes, or depend on grading companies to do the work.
It seems that the latter is just realizing the degree to which the former exists.
Now, they're struggling to figure out exactly how much fraud they're willing to accept.
And they're probably also trying to square in their minds the dollars that they've spent on their collections.
The reality is this: the hobby has decided to value higher-grade cards at a premium. The logic behind this is that the cards have managed to survive in magnificent shape, and as such, are more scarce and more valuable than the same card with, say, a wrinkle across it.
The other reality is this: it is entirely possible - and unbelievably common - for people to use common household items to alter the condition of a card in such a way that it appears to be in better condition than it really is. As a result of doing this, people can dupe unsuspecting buyers into thinking they're getting something better than they really are. And if they can manage to slip their cards past a grading company - and many do - then the plastic slab becomes a license to steal.
The other other reality is this: it sounds simpler than it really is. It sounds very black and white. But consider the following:
* If the degree to which this is a problem is really brought to light, does it become an indictment of the competence of any grading company?
* If it does, what happens to the people who have invested hundreds of thousands - maybe even millions - of dollars in high-grade cards?
* And what happens to the dealers who have thousands and thousands of cards in inventory?
* And what happens to the auction houses who make a living selling this stuff?
* And what happens to the hobby - which is now driven by internet sales that are facilitated by third-party grading - if collectors lose confidence in the grading companies?
And don't think this is just a "high grade" issue, either. While the incentive to turn a 6 into an 8 represents the greatest financial upside (and potentially is the easiest alteration to make), the 6 may turn into a 7 instead. Or the "doctor" make take a wrinkle or crease out of a nice 4 or 5, and the card turns into a 5 or 6 due to some other issue. Or a scarce card is turned from a 1MK to a 3, as evidenced by a high-profile card that was rejected by my client Robert Edward Auctions and later found its way into a different auction.
And don't think this is just a "graded card" issue, either. Because the cards that are poorly altered are rejected for grading, and remain raw. And some of the old-school, super-knowledgeable collectors out there would be amazed at how many of these bad cards wind up in their collections because they really look pretty good.
Which leaves us here. A few guys are going to get together and try to make heads or tails of the situation, and try to figure out where to go from here.
My prediction? There will be good ideas kicked around, about hobby regulation, trade associations, codes of ethics, et cetera. But when the rubber hits the road, when a thief sees an opportunity to steal, and when a collector sees a card that they need, dollars will exchange hands and everyone will look the other way.
I've done it myself. Do I think I have altered cards in my collection? Of course I do. Wanna see some? Look here. It's an entire collection of moderately high-grade cards that were issued to CHILDREN inside packs of CHEWING GUM, almost 70 years ago. The cards were likely passed through two generations and never withstood so much as a corner ding? Puh-leeze. I'd be willing to accept the possibility that SOME of my cards lasted this way, but all 20-something of the Near Mint or better cards in the set? Not on your life.
A little closer to home (for you and not me), consider the most popular prewar set: T206.
Ever open a pack of 1980 Topps cards? You get a bunch of off-center cards, some corner dings, maybe a factory wrinkle. Right out of the pack, most of the cards are 7s.
What do you think it was like in 1909? When nobody cared about condition? When nobody cared about print registration, centering, rough cuts, or wrinkles? When the cards - which were primarily "stiffeners" that were designed to keep cigarettes from breaking or bending in a pack - were pressed up against loose shards of tobacco, eventually taken out of the pack by hand and delivered to some young collector?
Am I to believe that somehow a T206 card managed to make it INTO the pack of cigarettes in Near Mint condition? And then once it was IN the pack, it wasn't jostled or bent or crushed or folded or stained, for the entire time it was in the pack, being transported from factory to store to smoker to home?
And then it lasted in the collection of some adolescent turn-of-the-century boy who was smart enough to preserve the cards, never look at them, never expose them to sun, never drop them, fold them, touch them with dirty hands, wrinkle them, ding them, store them near something harmful.
And then the cards were passed to another generation, who treated them the same way.
And then probably another generation. And THAT generation discovered grading, and submitted the card to a grading company.
And through all that, the card somehow remained in Near Mint condition.
Impossible, right? I mean, when I think about it, I stop at the damn FACTORY, and say "no way they came out of the factory in that shape."
And yet the PSA pop reports would indicate that this has happened more than SIX THOUSAND TIMES. 6,176, in fact, which is the number of cards they've graded 7 or better. Not counting the qualifiers. That's almost 9% of all the T206 cards they've graded.
For the heck of it, I figured I'd take a look at other sets - similar sets, with similar stock, distributed a similar way - to see what percentage of those cards graded 7 or better by PSA. Here's what I found:
T205: 6.5%
E92 Crofts Cocoa: 0%
T207: 7.7%
T213 Type 2: 0%
T216 People's Tobacco: 0%
T214 Victory Tobacco: 0%
It seems odd to me that the card set that's most widely collected in the prewar arena, that has the highest number - BY FAR - of graded cards, that has a litany of people collecting graded sets in all conditions, happens to have the highest percentage of cards graded NMT or better.
Is it some anomaly? Some weird fluke that has resulted in a higher percentage of turn-of-the-century collectors taking better care of their T206 cards, despite probably not knowing the difference between a T206 and a T213?
Or is it because there are so many collectors of the most popular prewar set that there's more of an incentive for fraudulent behavior on the part of card doctors who can generate more aggressive bidding on a high-grade T206 common than they can on a high-grade T213?
So I really hope to see progress made, some monumental conclusion drawn. More likely, though, I'll be thrilled to meet some guys I've only spoken with online, share some stories, agree that card doctoring sucks, and then bid against them in the next auction for high-grade '38 Goudeys.
I'm still alive
01/24/07 22:55 PersonalInformationPersonalPermalink
Size Matters
01/12/07 23:19 PersonalNew PickupPersonalPermalink
Picked up some new, oversized cards at SGC today.
The T3 is one of two in my collection (the other is a beat up Waddell). The R303 is one of many that I own, but is one of my favorite cards - I love the photo. The Newsboy Ward is now forever protected from further damage.
But it's the R311 Cochrane that captivated me. I have a number of R311s, and I've always liked them, but in a slab, this is one dynamite card. I'll likely try and complete the set in graded form now that I see what they look like in the black holder. Stunning, IMO.
The T3 is one of two in my collection (the other is a beat up Waddell). The R303 is one of many that I own, but is one of my favorite cards - I love the photo. The Newsboy Ward is now forever protected from further damage.
But it's the R311 Cochrane that captivated me. I have a number of R311s, and I've always liked them, but in a slab, this is one dynamite card. I'll likely try and complete the set in graded form now that I see what they look like in the black holder. Stunning, IMO.
True Confessions
01/08/07 23:09 PersonalGeneral
YammeringPersonalPermalink
Like a bridge
01/05/07 23:34 PersonalGeneral
YammeringPersonalPermalink
It's so damn easy to get discouraged lately, what
with all these allegations of wrongdoing and all.
There are good guys in this hobby. Lots of them. I talk to them every day.
I belong to a community of some of the most honest, knowledgeable, straightforward guys you'll ever meet in the hobby. They're my friends. We look out for each other, help each other out, share personal experiences with one another. They come from every conceivable walk of life. When I first met them, they made the hobby better for me. Now that I've gotten to know them all, they've made my LIFE better. They're my friends, and they all have two things in common: cards, and personal integrity.
I do work for a number of companies that make their money in the hobby. I trust them implicitly. In each case, I started as a customer, and gradually built a relationship with them. In most cases I've become fairly knowledgeable about their businesses, and I'm very comfortable with and confident in them. The management of the two companies I'm closest with - SGC and Robert Edward Auctions - have become my friends, and I enjoy their company and respect them immensely. I respect the way they run their businesses, and the passion they have for the hobby.
Through my work and my collecting, I've met a number of others in the hobby that I've grown to like and respect. Some are friends, and some are people I've only met once or twice, but who have impressed me. Huggins & Scott. Chet Woods. Ron Vitro. Marshall Fogel. Barry Sloate. Jimmy Spence. Levi Bleam. Brett Hardeman. And so many more.
So once in a while, look around the hobby and try not to think about which auction house is fixing cards, which grading company is doing favors for dealers, which seller is shilling his auctions, which grader is slabbing trimmed cards. Instead, look at your cards, and your friends, and try and remember what got you started in this hobby in the first place.
It worked for me today. I got home after reading all the crap that went down today, walked into my card room, sat down, and immersed myself in the hobby. I still feel pretty good.
There are good guys in this hobby. Lots of them. I talk to them every day.
I belong to a community of some of the most honest, knowledgeable, straightforward guys you'll ever meet in the hobby. They're my friends. We look out for each other, help each other out, share personal experiences with one another. They come from every conceivable walk of life. When I first met them, they made the hobby better for me. Now that I've gotten to know them all, they've made my LIFE better. They're my friends, and they all have two things in common: cards, and personal integrity.
I do work for a number of companies that make their money in the hobby. I trust them implicitly. In each case, I started as a customer, and gradually built a relationship with them. In most cases I've become fairly knowledgeable about their businesses, and I'm very comfortable with and confident in them. The management of the two companies I'm closest with - SGC and Robert Edward Auctions - have become my friends, and I enjoy their company and respect them immensely. I respect the way they run their businesses, and the passion they have for the hobby.
Through my work and my collecting, I've met a number of others in the hobby that I've grown to like and respect. Some are friends, and some are people I've only met once or twice, but who have impressed me. Huggins & Scott. Chet Woods. Ron Vitro. Marshall Fogel. Barry Sloate. Jimmy Spence. Levi Bleam. Brett Hardeman. And so many more.
So once in a while, look around the hobby and try not to think about which auction house is fixing cards, which grading company is doing favors for dealers, which seller is shilling his auctions, which grader is slabbing trimmed cards. Instead, look at your cards, and your friends, and try and remember what got you started in this hobby in the first place.
It worked for me today. I got home after reading all the crap that went down today, walked into my card room, sat down, and immersed myself in the hobby. I still feel pretty good.
Anyone Seen These?
01/02/07 22:38 PersonalGeneral
YammeringPersonalPermalink
That's Alex "Some Tough City" Rodriguez. He plays third base for the Yankees.
Just in case you've never heard of him, I mean, since you're all wrapped up in your Ty Cobb and your Tris Speaker.
Anyway, Topps, which is a company that makes baseball cards (they actually started in 1951
, but you don't collect anything after 1943, so how would you know?), produced a set this year that's modeled after the T3 Turkey Red set.
The cards are small, though. Not particularly attractive, either, but they WOULD be, if they were the right size. Real nice illustrations, gorgeous backgrounds, stuff like that. There's a great card of Randy Johnson, doing what he does best - chatting on the mound with Jorge Posada, stalling for time while the Yanks get a relief pitcher warmed up.
Anyway, if you buy a whole box of these Topps Turkey Red cards, there's something called a "box topper" in it. It's a big plastic envelope, with this B18 blanket thingy inside.
Best-looking shiny card I've ever seen.
EVERYTHING about the blanket (except the Topps copyright info) is true to the old B18s. Similar material, similar design, even that weird, warping thing that B18s do. They're the same size, even. I've got A-Rod in a frame, right next to the real B18s I have of Bobby Wallace and Zach Wheat. They're cool. I saw a complete set of them sell on eBay for, like, $50 the other day. Worth every penny, if you ask me. They're just cool.
This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood card geek.