2016: SHOULD BE THE YEAR OF MAJOR SPORTS CARD and AUTOGRAPH CHANGES & RANDOM THOUGHTS

2016 Can't Be Worse Than 2015, Can it?

 

I guess I'll start with what's been happening with me and the hobby most recently:

 

 I keep getting phone calls from the same Asian woman who works for BECKETT Marketing. She called twice in 2015 (March and Sept.) I politely told her both times EXACTLY WHY I'll never pay for any Beckett Magazine again. She gave up after my explanation. Then she calls me a few days ago (Jan 8th 2016) and again, the same exact Asian woman. This time she said "we listened to your complaints and we have been making changes." So I told her to send me a copy for free so I can see these changes for myself. She made me hold while she asked her Supervisor. She comes back and says "we can add a complimentary 13th issue to any subscription you make" and I said "WELL THEN IT'S NO AND BECKETT STILL DOESN'T GET IT!".

Beckett did so much harm to the hobby by buying Beckett from Dr. Jim Beckett and then making all kinds of changes "THEY THOUGHT" would save them money yet keep their subscription base the same. They obviously don't know the first thing about this hobby because one of the first things they did was hire CHRIS OLDS whose the most boring person I could imagine running Beckett Baseball. He's not only boring, on his YouTube box breaks for Beckett I literally yawned more than once watching him. He's the WORST PERSON imaginable to open boxes to show new products to collectors because he never gets excited when he pulls very expensive cards (because he doesn't get to keep them) which shows how little he cares about other collectors. All of their Price Guides ARE WAY OFF the true values of all cards in this hobby (both ones that should have gone up & ESPECIALLY CARDS THAT SHOULD HAVE GONE DOWN DRASTICALLY AND NEVER DID!

 

BECKETT MEDIA HAS BEEN FOR SALE (AGAIN) SINCE 2008, AND COULDN'T FIND ONE INTERESTED BUYER! No surprise from me!, they made themselves USELESS as a Price Guide and useless as a neutral entity providing the TRUTH about what is going on in the hobby (especially about MAJOR screw-ups CURRENT card companies have made)!

 

ANY CHANGES BECKETT THINKS IT MADE WAS TOO LITTLE TOO LATE, AND THE ONLY PLACE THEY SHOULD START IS BY SENDING A FREE COPY TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD ANY SUBSCRIPTION IN THE LAST 3-YEARS (MINIMUM) AND SEND THEM A FREE COPY OF THE PRICE GUIDE THEY BOUGHT THE MOST IN THE PAST! (this Asian woman knew about guides I purchased going back to 2008!).

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WHY CERTIFIED CARD COMPANY STICKER AUTOGRAPHS WILL BE WORTH FAR LESS THAN NOW IN 5-YEARS OR LESS.

 

I NEVER understood why anyone would pay anything for a STICKER autograph when there are already, or will soon be On Card Autographs of the exact same player. We all know the only easy to pull autographs in most products in all sports are rookies. This is because card companies have far greater & easier access to rookie autographs AND they are the cheapest autographs for card companies to buy on average. Plus rookies are far more likely to return all items sent to them to be autographed ads rookies to establish a good relationship with card companies until they are making Multi-Millions dollars a year in their sports.

 

Card companies LOSE a lot of money if they send cards to be autographed and they are never returned. This happens far more often than any card company would ever admit. In the late 1990's and early 2000's card companies often had to buy a whole new set of printing plates if they wanted certain player autographs in their specific brand product because the player never returned the cards they were supposed to sign, OR they were lost in the mail. Those plates cost $5,000 for one set of four in 2001. The price couldn't have changed too much lower since 2001 since the technology is basically the same as 2001. THIS IS THE ONLY REASON CARD COMPANIES STARTED USING TONS OF STICKER AUTOGRAPHS ACROSS THEIR PRODUCT BRANDS! They first came up with lame excuses to make collectors & dealers alike that this was done for THEIR benefit and to eradicate Redemption cards which we all now know was a TOTAL LIE!

 

I had the very unique opportunity in 2001 to be invited to tour the Playoff facilities after befriending Ann Blake (former Playoff owner and one of the company starters) in March, 2001 right after I caused Pacific Trading Cards to lose ALL their baseball licensing for making ALL fake "Game-Used" bat and jersey cards in 2001 Private Stock Baseball. She & I spoke on the phone for 1-2 hours daily as she picked my brain for so many long-standing problems that not one of her current employees had a clue how to answer. This is what happens when card companies hire hobby know-nothings to deter theft which is what most card companies were doing by 2000.

 

After my full tour of Playoff, they had a party for the mail-room ($5.00 an hour) employee who came up with the idea to use Staples (or whatever stationary supply Super store) holo-foil return address labels for autographs. Right after the party I pulled this celebrated idiot aside and told him "You have created a way for card companies to get autographs that benefits ONLY them, and in several years these sticker autographs will be worth far less than On Card autographs which is the only way REAL autograph collectors collect autographs.". I told him how ignorant his idea was and how card company greed is the only reason they adopted his idea. I'm sure that dampened his "party" (and I'm happy I did that because no one knows his name or what he did even a year after he invented that idea). I always refused to "kiss" anyone's anything in this hobby since 1992 when I started fighting hobby fraud and I always spoke my mind to the person responsible as often as I possibly (whether a small dealer crook, or a CARD COMPANY OWNER crook) could unless card companies wouldn't let me speak to the responsible party.  

 

The PROBLEMS that sticker autographs started from the very first product they were ever in: 2001 Score Select Football which was supposed to be one of Playoff's Medium-Premium Football releases; which turned out to be THEIR WORST release of 2001, period. They sent me two review boxes (my first voluntary job for Playoff before they hired me). The first autograph I pulled out of Box #1completely rubbed off totally in one light swipe of my thumb. The ink was totally dry, but the ink literally disintegrated into tiny pieces??? That first box was missing the "GUARANTEED" FB Low Serial Numbered RC. The next box had the #'ed RC, but was missing the again "GUARANTEED" (which was printed right on the outside of the box) RC Autograph!
After Playoff have nearly every employeebusting many boxes of this product each and notingwhat was MISSING, they relealized that 66%-75% of all boxes were missing one of the "GUARANTEED" hits.
Then I dicovered that about 25% the FINAL SCORE inserts were missing the Serial Number on the backs. The highest any number of these FINAL SCORE cards made was 16, which were Serial Numbered to the number of WINSthe player's team won during the 2000 season. I still have a Peter Warrick FINAL SCORE with a blank space where the Serial Number was supposed to be! This is when the Bengals SUCKED and only won 2 or 3 games in 2000. But because these were so rare, BECKETT never listed any of these cards (back then they NEVER listed any cards that existed in numbers of 25 or less). So whenever this happens, no one knows what unnumbered cards would be worth (the rarest of all) so most people simply forgot they even existed. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET CARD COPMPANIES & PRICE GUIDES THINK FOR YOU! Plus it's TEN TIMES worse now since Beckett is the last Guide left and they've been USELESS since Dr. Jim Beckett (he's a doctor of statistics) sold out in 2005 a FILTHY RICH man right before the hobby collapsed worst than it have ever been. You can say a lot of things about Jim Beckett (both positive and negative), but he knew when to dump his company regardless of how it effected every collector; that's for sure!!!     

  

Back to sticker autographs... next sticker autographs caused players to unnaturally shrink their autographs to fit the SMALL size of nearly all stickers. This in the long-term either created two different autographs for many, many players; or caused players to shorten their autographs FOR GOOD. Now I'm not blaming playersin nearly all sports scribbling their initials for at least the last 5-years, but stickers were part of the reason!

Then there were a decent amount of WRONG PLAYER autograph stickers being placed on cards and upside-down autograph stickers. Plus the LARGE nunber of crookedly placed sticker autograph and the large number of players who couldn't stay within the lines of the stickers, so you'd get part of one autograph on a sticker, and part of another. Then there are the FREQUENTsticker autographs where the ink went off the sticker on large letters like the first letter of each name (first and/or last or both). THESE ARE UGLY AND TRUE AUTOGRAPH COLLECTORS WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS JUNK!

 

I've been trying to get Beckett to do a Certified Autograph Insert (CAI) ONLY Price Guide since at least 2001 by sending an e-mail to every Beckett employee I had an e-mail address for (I sent an e-mail to at least six employees every year since 2001). Yet they totally ignored me, even thought I sent this request with all the correct reasons WHY such a Price Guide is NEEDED with updated reasons every year, AND ideas for what should be included in an Autograph Insert Only Price Guide (like putting O/C for On Card autos/and STKR or something similar to identify sticker autographs, plus noting all CAI Variaions like the onceVERY popular 1996 Leaf Signature Series Carlos Delgado Blue/Black Ink variations) since Certified Autograph Inserts (CAI's) have been the HOTTEST Inserts from 1996-present (and much earlier in football with the Pro Line autographs- especially 1991 & 1992 which I credit Bill Barron with starting the CAI craze). It's never been easy getting Football autographs as compared to baseball. So when Bill Barron released 1992 Pro Line with an autograph per box (w/Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, Muhammad Ali, & Ali/Cassius Clay combos plusso many other HIGHLY SOUGHT after ON CARD autos ONLY) it ignited the whole hobby into loving CAI's and wanting MORE & MORE in every sport!!!

Then they finally did a yearly one in 2014 & 2015 and it was VERY EXPENSIVE!!! Considering the Executives at Beckett Media, I wouldn't take the chance buying either of these guides because chances are HEAVY that they out nothing in those Guides that I don't already know! I asked SEVERAL Beckett Writers for a Complimentary copy to no avail, and every collector I asked about these Guides never bought one. So I can't even find out if one is worth buying for over a YEAR asking dozens of collectors AND dealers about these books??? NO ONE KNOWS BECAUSE THEY NEVER BOUGHT ONE! So why can't Beckett send me a Complimentary issue? If they did it right, they'd get one heck of a positive review from me and non-stop promotion. Boy they are ignorant...

 

That has not changed to this day. In fact, autograph collectors who NEVER collected sports cards before started collecting On Card CAI's in a BIG way and their buying is still increasing every year. As much as this hobby shrunk since 2005, interest and prices of On Card CAI's have only gone up in a BIG WAY!  

 

I know all of the Forgery Certified Autograph Inserts because I caught the majority of them myself. Here are a couple of examples: 1995 Press Pass VIP Nascar LARRY PEARSON (about half are an OBVIOUS forgery version- Wal-Mart boxes had two of these autos per box and I pulled two Pearson autos out of one box with totally different autos in '95!), 1997 Upper Deck Legends FB DONNIE SHELL (a woman signed 2/3'rds of his autographs & the difference is STRIKING, but the card has a LOUD background so you need to look close: the perfectly rounded "D" version is the forgery).

 

 

 

Upper Deck promised to destroy all the forgery versions multiple times, yet these crooks kept releasing them, even in 2011 UD College Legends FB as "buy-backs". Anthony West was 100% responsible for promising to detroy these and lying to me more than once. So I flew to CA and spent hours with Jean Sargis (their Para-legal) on the Executive Floor up the black spiral staircase in their front lobby where I later learned NO NON-UPPER DECK EXECUTIVE WAS EVER ALLOWED UP THERE! We were pulling out the forgery versions TOGETHER while all Upper Deck Executives were at the Hawaii Trace Conference in 1999. Ironically Upper Deck lent THE LYING CROOK Anthony West to the FBI as their "autograph expert" for Operation Bullpen.

 

It's scary that I know more about this hobby than ANY card company Executive, the FBI, and any other CAI expert because I studied everything there was to know about these cards from 1990-present from EVERY angle and interviewed hundreds of hobby experts including: Sy Berger, Lloyd Pawlak, every Pacific Executive except Mike Cramer (who they wouldn't let me speak to), Richard McWilliam, Anthony West, Ann Blake, Dawn Ridley-Nash (NFLPA liscensor in 2001, who I recently busted for taking bribes from Playoff to derail my theft case to bust Playoff for multi-level fraud in 2001! After being on Facebook for MANY years with 500+ Connections she just TOTALLY DELETED her entire account PERMANENTLY when I accused her of turning a blind eye when she promised to help me get an "Inventory List" of what Playoff claimed was "stolen" but was EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM ONLY which INSTANTLY would have exonerated me which was totally within her power to bring to light after 3-YEARS of waiting), Ken Goldin, Donald Frangipani, Tim Flatt, James Spence, PSA/DNA, and that list goes on & on. I never left any stone unturned.

 

Ironically T.J. Schwartz who did the "On Your Side" article for Tuff Stuff every month for many years did everything in his power to try to STOP ME from fighting hobby fraud when I started online in late 1997. I liked what I THOUGHT he was doing; but he was never fighting hobby fraud he was just trying to drum up more business for his CA Card Shop "PORKY'S" which was named for his weight (I kid you not). All he ever did was bust really small companies committing fraud (mostly ones ALREADY OUT OF BUSINESS!) or crooks that wouldn't effect REAL card companies in any way: WHICH IS WHERE ALL THE REAL FRAUD WAS OCCURRING AND HE KNEW IT ALL ALONG! He called me "Cardcop" as an insult in his article on month, but I liked that name so I took it and have been known as Cardcop online ever since. I got so under his skin that he mentioned me (never by name) but clearly by repuation in at least three different monthly 1998 "On Your Side" articles. I just proved how worthless he was and in 2000 I was set to REPLACE HIM, but then SCD bought out Tuff Stuff and my replacement didn't happen. It was actually for the best anyway because Tuff Stuff had MANY restrictions as to what I couldn't say, and that's NEVER how I work. I tell the TRUTH ONLY, or tell stories based on strong rumors from several different angles that could never be disproven (because I was always correct enough). 

Hobby Fraud/eBay Lies/Fighting Back!: How Sports Card/Autograph Crooks Return on eBay

March 2014 UPDATE:

3/11/14



Well it's pretty much official: once again most things I predicted or knew before almost anyone else came to pass on eBay. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back- practically NO ONE else does...



eBay changed more stupid rules with more stupid/more confusing crazier rules in one shot from Feb-Mar 2014 than EVER in the history of eBay! This is because as I predicted, their lack of empathy for any of their members (mainly buyers) since 2009 caused them to bankrupted themselves! You can no longer see who bought what from any particular seller (the ID is scrambled randomly), so members can NEVER AGAIN bust a seller for shill bidding. Plus so many page formats were changed needlessly which just confuses everyone. Ever confuse a dumb person? Well, more eBay members are dumb that not = CHAOS!



I also stated in 2011 that I found out that eBay wanted to be a better Amazon. I knew that would never happen. So eBay pushed & pushed sellers to the point where 75% of all items on eBay became BUY IT NOW instead of auctions- that was 2012. Now that ratio is 90% BUY IT NOW/10% Auction and many auction prices START way above what anyone in their right mind would pay.  I only check Sports Cards & Memorabilia on eBay, but I'm pretty sure every other category had a similar change.

Sadly there are many more people NOT in their right minds than most of us care to admit or want to know. This was caused by: society in general, overpopulation, corrupt financial institutions, a corrupt government (that we lost ANY control over many decades ago) and more liars in the USA than not is what caused this mostly from the 1970's-present. 

If I can knock others, then I should turn that on myself. I'm the first to admit that I have General Anxiety Disorder & get occasional Panic Attacks, but I'm in my "right mind" ALWAYS. I think anyone with a 126 IQ who used EVERY ONE of those points to learn as much as I possibly could about anything that interested me and then shared that info to help others for free (only) would develop an anxiety disorder after dealing with knuckleheads for decades. I was the first kid in my WHOLE family (mother & father's side) to get some college education. Being stuck with a Sociopath mother as my only parent from age 2-18 (I left home literally the DAY I turned 18 on 1/7/85) made it all the more awful. I've been autodidactic my whole life (self educated), but I learn well from others as long as it's a subject I'm interested in. For instance, I passed three Regent's exams in Science in Junior High (Earth Science, Biology) and High School (Chemistry). I HATED CHEMISTRY because of a teacher who taught it HIS way! Once we got passed the Periotic Table, and basic chemistry which I loved, my NERD teacher decided to teach Chemistry with Advanced Algebra WHICH I ALSO HATED. At age 47 now, I can honestly say that I NEVER ONCE used one formula from the Advanced Algebra class (forced to take in High School as well) in my whole adult life- just as I told my teacher!
Advanced Algebra in Grade 10 caused me to start cutting classes to go to the computer lab in 1983 and teach myself how to program in basic. After a couple of months the computer teacher had me teaching his classes as a substitute when he had to take a day off. So I never got in trouble for cutting class and passed a few classes I NEVER WENT TO!!!  
By Grade 11 I wanted to kill my mother for so screwing up my head by basically using me as her slave. I cooked our dinner EVERY night and cleaned the house (I did HER chores). At age 17 I had to be home by 10PM on WEEKENDS (8PM on school days)!  Just a few years ago I asked my mother "what did you teach me to prepare me for everyday life on my own". Her answer" I taught you how to cook and clean." AND THAT'S IT! But in fact she didn't even teach me those things, I figured it out by myself. My mother wanted a daughter BADLY, so in her sick mind she raised me as much as one as she could. I blame my father for having a child with that nut-job to this day & he knows it. I never really saw him until I was 15-years old or so. He was no help at all. As a good older female friend once told me- "lucky you didn't wind up gay.". So I had to spend a good three years after leaving home teaching myself how to live in society as a man. At age 20 while living with my grandparents who I helped take care of- I was very lucky to be hired by Medtronic (a Fortune 500 company) as a Pacemaker Test Technician and Advanced EKG Interpretation/Education eventually became my 16-year career. I was the very first non-college graduate hired to be a Pacemaker Tech. by Medtronic. Ironically, the guy who took a chance of me (Bill) in 1987 became my best friend (Craig) from childhood's father-in-law as Craig married his daughter which I didn't find out until many years later.
I'm lucky I got to live the life that I did even though it was shortened by a terminal illness (severe Myasthenia Gravis).  So I have absolutely no regrets.

HOW BUY IT NOW KILLED eBay SPORTS CARD SALES!

 

Since it costs sellers nothing to just post an item, 75% of BUY IT NOW sellers put prices on their items that are so high (with no MAKE AN OFFER either???) that not even the biggest rich moron would pay those prices under most circumstances (99.99% of the time). What these Sociopathic/IGNORANT sellers never think about is the effect their actions have on the general public in our hobby: they are making novice collectors believe their cards are worth WAY MORE than they truly are. Then when they go and buy many more similar cards for say 25% less than BUY IT NOW prices elsewhere (thinking they are worth so much more than they truly are). Then they eventually learn THE TRUTH and QUIT this hobby! Do you realize this happened to many THOUSANDS of collectors in our hobby thanks to eBay sellers? UNFORTUNATELY, THE MAJORITY OF ALL COLLECTORS ARE NOVICES! Here's the PROOF:

 

Back in 1999-00 the Senior Editor of Tuff Stuff (Rocky Landsverk) who is also a collector took my advice and went on eBay to help get more accurate pricing information for his Price Guide that HE was in charge of. I explained that there are more accurate SOLD sale prices on eBay than he could ever get from just store owners who LIE to get the prices listed higher so they could make more money. At the time, there were literally hundreds of eBay ENDED AUCTION prices for nearly any popular card you could think of. Compared to today on eBay, there were well over TEN TIMES the number of sports cards selling on a daily basis & they sold for HIGH prices. I LOVED THAT EBAY! But thanks to all the BAD changes eBay made & the greed of the Hobby Elite, they are a shadow of the site they used to be & so is this hobby. And back then there was no MAKE AN OFFER OR BUY IT NOW on eBay. So these were TRUE sale prices that couldn't be fudged. So Rocky in his infinite wisdom took the STARTING BID PRICES and thought that was what cards were selling for and printed that info in Tuff Stuff for one issue??? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW STUPID YOU'D HAVE TO BE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT. Rocky had my help yet he NEVER mentioned anything that even hinted to me that he had NO IDEA how eBay worked! How can a Senior Editor at a Price Guide have no idea how eBay worked in eBay's PRIME in sports cards? Well that's exactly what happened and I tore Rocky a new back hole. He never spoke to me again and I'm glad. I don't talk to people that are THAT stupid and/or ignorant.

 

I don't know how eBay hung on as long as they did, but they'll be gone in a year OR they'll totally re-tool the entire site (AGAIN) and maybe it will work/maybe it won't. All in all I think all card & autograph collectors would be MUCH BETTER OFF if eBay went bye-bye FOREVER!!!  So those relying on eBay sales better start to ePray (if religious) because you'll need to find a "REAL" job soon!

 

Now eBay sellers almost never state how much they charge per extra single card won because eBay REMOVED that rule and reworded something that was supposed to replace that rule but to anyone with half a brain: the interpretation can be taken TEN different ways. Obviously lawyers wrote these new rules! It used to be a listed RULE on eBay that sellers: "MUST LIST HOW MUCH EXTRA ITEMS WON COST FOR SHIPPING & HANDLING OR IT IS CONSIDERED HIDDEN FEES WHICH IS AGAINST EBAY RULES AND CAN RESULT IN SUSPENSION.". I spoke with several actual eBay employee Specialists in 2010 when I was still cardcop05 and they ALL told me same thing once they realized the weight of a card in a top-loader: it is against our Overcharging S&H rule to charge more than .25 cents for each additional card won AND no card seller can charge more than $5.00 as a maximum fee if the entire purchase fits in a flat rate small Priority Mail box where boxes are free and so is home pick-up. Then there's all the stupid eBay sellers who still go to the Post Office to get postage put on their packages. They don't know that the PO has been charging TWICE ($3.07 for a 2-ounce package) what eBay's PRINT SHIPPING LABEL service charges ($1.69 for a 3-ounce package). eBay's Specialist told me this regarding that in 2010: "it's the seller's responsibility to find the cheapest/safe way to ship and it is an iron-clad rule that sellers can never charge for trips to the Post Office, gas, their time, or more than .25 cents for bubble envelopes because they are easily bought right on eBay for that price for almost any size with S&H calculated in". I found out that this particular Shipping & Handling Specialist worked for eBay for over TEN YEARS and was fired in 2011 because she (LIKE ME) refused to follow the new STUPID & CONFUSING RULES that never needed to be changed!!! My cardcop05 ID with a PERFECT Buyer & Seller Rating was suspended for life. Their reason "we wish to part ways with you.". Then chicken-spit sellers like tntnorthnj who I went after for severely overcharging S&H fees or had high hidden fees started leaving bad lying follow-up feedback only AFTER I was suspended so I couldn't leave responses to their feedback.

I got a free copy of the April issue of Beckett Football (because I don't pay for issues more than twice a year- if that). Seems like they changed a lot of prices WITHOUT using arrows again. So collectors have to do extensive research to see what changed which is the one of the STUPIDEST THINGS I EVER HEARD OF! How is it that 2010-2012 Absolute RPM RC ON CARD Autographs #'ed to 25 are only worth 1.5 times the version numbered to 299 or less? There are only TWO versions of these cards, so the one #'ed to 25 SHOULD BE at least 2.5 times the base card. Yet UD SP Authentic RC Patch(which aren't REAL patches)/Autographs WITH NO LICENSING FROM THOSE YEARS (IN THEIR COLLEGE UNIFORMS ONLY) are 3X (THREE TIMES) for the cards #'ed to an avg. of 25 while the base RC/Autos are #'ed from 299-699??? THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL BECKETT!

But then again Beckett's Senior Editor (Chris Olds) is a fat, lazy, boring, turd because no one better wanted to work for Beckett Media apparently. I tried e-mailing this lazy jerk TEN times since 2010 and he never responded. So I sent him a "LAST CHANCE" e-mail and he told me "I never received an e-mail from you" (HE'S SUCH A BAD LIAR- I keep copies of everything and he received EVERYTHING I EVER SENT HIM!) & he said I should be nicer. Of course I'd be nicer if I GOT PAID like he does yet I do much more than he's ever done FOR FREE so I'll be as angry as I feel- like I told him. He never replied again- that big fat useless chicken. And Susan L. another Beckett Editor who's stories could be seen in all sports issues of Beckett QUIT in JAN. 2014.  So their only writers are people I NEVER heard of (OR NO ONE EVER HEARD OF) so why buy Beckett EVER??? Plus they stopped printing "READER'S WRITE" which was the only Beckett section where you might actually get some real hobby truth. This was cut from Beckett months ago from what I learned. 

Remember- I told everyone who would listen since 1999 to only collect ON CARD Certified Autograph Inserts from trusted card companies (with the Authenticity printed ON THE CARD) of current established semi-star players or better, or retired semi-stars or better and collect them for the quality of the autograph, NEVER for the low serial number. I suggested always paying LESS than Beckett's low price. If you did that you now have a collection to be proud of that would cost you much more to replace now.
 

James

 

Sports Cards & Memorabilia on eBay: WORSE THAN EVER!!!

I'm now back on eBay for my FIFTH different time in the last 8-months when I was permanently suspended for FIGHTING FRAUD!!! When eBay suspends youx, just sign up again with the same info & you have a new working account to BUY & SELL! This is how bad eBay has gotten. So why is this so bad? The literally hundreds of awful crooks I had permanently banned from eBay since 1998 can just go right back on eBay! Then never used to be able to do this. But now that eBay fired most humans & relys almost 100% on the computer program the hired- IT JUST PROVES A COMPUTER CANNOT DO A HUMAN'S WORK! Hiumans don't understand why they dov what thjey do sometimes which is called emotions & computer programs have no emotions which is why eBay is so broken.

For every negative feedback you leave: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every complaint you make against someone else: IT GOES AGAINST YOUR ACCOUNT! For every non-5-Star feedback you get as a seller (regardless if it's warranted or not): IT GOES AGAINST YOR ACCOUNT & YOU PAY HIGHER FEES!  You cannot win on eBay no matter what you do anymore.

As I stated before I'm permanently physically disabled with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy & I cannot walk more than a few steps anymore at age 45. So I don't have the luxury like almost all of you do to go to shows or card shops anymore since 2005. So eBay is my only real choice to buy cards cheap.

I got four bad hobby boxes of 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter from Dave & Adam's Card World or DACW (the biggest buyers of illegally obtained cards in the USA for MANY years). They were all missing the third hit per box. And all I got out of four boxes was (8) common sports jersey/bat cards. I did not pull any beard cards, flower cards, or anything other than inserts that were more than one per box. There are several 1:144 & one per case (12-boxes) insert cards making the overall odds one per box. I GOT NONE OF THOSE IN FOUR BOXES!
The price difference between hobby & retail is HUGE with most Topps products these days. Retail boxes yield one hit if you are lucky, but hobby boxes are supposed to have three. Hobby boxes are supposed to have an autograph 1:63 packs, and retail are 1:200 packs. With all the common autographs & the doubnle printing of those common autographs they should have been one per box in hobby boxes & one in every other retail box. Anyway, hobby boxes average $75.00 a box, and retail were down to $30 a box, but are back up to around $40 a box now. I strongly suspect that DACW knowingly bought bad boxes from Topps yet sold them at no discount which they often do. If you ever see any recent boxes on DACardWorld.com for less than half of what they are selling for everywhere else- don't expect to pull the cards you are supposed to per box! Plus you are NEVER guaranteed that the card company will help you either. But after many e-mails, Topps did make good & they sent me an unripped rip card, a few Flora flower cards, a Bazooka back card & a common autograph. The same week I bought one retail box & pulled a Shawn Michaels ($175 in  Beckett) autograph redemption card!!! I'm sticking to retail boxes to complete my mini master set that I decided to make after this fiasco.

I need to further explain "bad boxes". Since I worked as a Senior Manager for a big card company, I know things that none of you will ever hear elsewhere & I never lie or exagerate which is why
 I have never been sued after fighting fraud & never holding my tongue in this hobby for over 15-years now online alone & 20-years total. Bad boxes occur when the card company has orders for more boxes than they have inserts for. So they keep making boxes after certain inserts run out. They always purposely make an overage of up to 20% of the entire print run to have extra inserts for replacements. But these are usually pulled FIRST & are NEVER used to put in boxes. When card companies sell the bad boxes they usually discount them greatly & let the buyer know they are bad boxes, but that's only if the printer tells them they did this which is not always the case. 

<<<<<NEARLY ALL CARD COMPANIES DO NOT MAKE THEIR OWN CARDS!>>>>>
They use big printing companies that have no connection to the card company at all! If this is news to you, then you've been relying on Beckett for your hobby info for TOO LONG! The Dallas/Ft.Worth, TX area is a hot spot for hobby elitism. Beckett is there, so is Panini (formerly Playoff), Heritage Auctions, and the printing company that prints & packages nearly all the cards in the hobby: Great Western Inc.. I took a late night peek at their entire card production area (all the way in the back next to the freight train tracks) in 2002 and thought it was quite interesting that nothing but Jamaicans were printing our cards. Now please don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Jamaican people. It's just when was the last time you saw a Jamaican card collector? I'm of the opinion that at least one person in the room making our cards should know almost all there is to know about our hobby. Even the boss was Jamaican. I stayed there behind their industrial sized shredder where no one could see me for well over an hour. A couple of employees even took pot smoking breaks on the loading dock- who's door was wide open! Maybe this is why there are so many screw-ups in card boxes!!!
I even pulled many cards out from under the shredder. I pulled a 2001 Fleer Flair Drew Henson partially completed RC - this card never existed according to Beckett!

 I also pulled a Press Pass football Draft insert of Julius Peppers that was different from the ones put in packs- I still have that card. You would think they would do a better job destroying these cards- BUT THEY DON'T! As far as I know Great Western still prints almost all the cards in  the hobby.

Be extremely careful on eBay, many sellers have hidden HIGH shipping fees, sometimes they don't send your cards if they don't sell for enough (because all you can do is get an immediate refund from them & then you won't leave negative feedback in their minds), and stay away from sellers with multiple bad feedbacks like tntnorthnj. Just lpook at his feedbackl, he averages (50) negative/neutrals EVERY MONTH! 

Probably for the last time (because of my illnesses) I donated over 40,000 cards to Toys For Tots in December. I made 400-count boxes for each child sorted by sport or subject with all stars & most indserts included. Plus every box had at least two Certified Autographed Inserts & every other box had a autographed Diamond King card by the artist: Dick Perez. Every year I'd write to a couple of famous people and always got 50+ by mail autographs to add. This was the 22nd year in a row I donated at least 30,000 cards a year. I wanted it to go to The Leukemia Society which was the charity that I started donating to after being inspired by my friend Gary Carter in 1989, but they told me "hospitals aren't accepting loose cards anymore because of the terrorism climate". I'm sorry, but that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard! For starters I was speaking to the person who knew me for 22-years & I won a National Award from them in 1991! What was I going to do put a bomb in a 4X6 inch box!

Always fighting for collectors for free for you, & sometimes at my expense!

James McCay