Are there more thieves in the sports card industry than other collectibles markets?

Different breed of people, I guess? I can't speak from experience, as I've never been in the coin, or stamp hobby, but I always got the impression the people that do these hobbies are older, and more mature, as cards a lot of teens to early adults are just in it now for the bucks. Maybe there's more profit to be made in cards, not sure, but that would bring greed into the equation, right? Bottom line is people in general just plain suck. Most everyone is only out for themselves. Selfishness, and greed. I've seen it myself with my own family, imagine strangers are no different.

 

What I also found out that thieves/cheaters will buy a set of cards, replace the ones they have damaged with your good ones and say yours was damaged and send it back for refund. I did trade or sell a lot in forums but now mostly on ebay and this kind of thief goes on a lot. You really have to cover your butt and take a lot of pictures at every angle and whatnot and even then sometimes ebay will still side with the buyer which is bs.

Also on some forums I think it's the collector that's been around longer than tries to pull something. They been at it long that they can work their way around a lie and steal. All they do is get banned but then they sign up with a new id and email and their back in business.

 

The most stories I hear of this is mostly on ebay and beckett's. Most trading sites that are well ran rarely heard of problems.

 

I had a 1970 Nolan Ryan stolen from my table at a card show once, but that's my only real theft. (I think my brother took a 1963 Willie Mays from me, but that's another story - I've never really had a bad experience on any of the forums I use, but I agree with debgram, there are unscrupulous people out there who will try and pull anything.

 

Theft and deception is quite common dealing with cards.Trading
sites and Ebay.Most sites set must send first tags on new comers
and once they earn (10) feedback it is at your own discrection as
to who sends first if anyone.But I have found that in more than
3 cases the newcomer does 10 low end trades and then hits
up for a big trade.Only to not come through!Ebay newbies do not
have a send first moniker thus a lot of people are hesitant to deal with them.
You have to start somewhere,we all did.I am glad the good traders
out weigh the bad by miles.

 

Pete,
I could not agree with you more. Back in 2007 I attempted to purchase a 1935 Goudey Babe Ruth via Ebay. I worked with the seller but he insisted he would only take a postal money order and I would have to ship it to a Fed Ex office in San Diego, well we agreed I would pay half up front and the rest upon the arrival of the card. Needless to say this story did not have a good ending. I was defrauded out of $1,700 and I could not get ebay, the postal inspector or the FBI to do a damn thing. I contacted the Internet Fraud Division and filed a complaint. They followed up and said I should get in touch with the DA in my home town or San Diego where the theft actually occurred. I was lucky enough to find the right DA and a sting operation was set up once I gave them the entire email address which identified the exact location where the emails were being sent from and it was a cafe in San Diego.
Long story short the guy they arrested had defrauded more then $156,000 from Ebay and other sources. He and his partner were arrested and I had the pleasure of being in a news story along with Tony Gwynn on the unscrupulous people surrounding the sports card and memorabilia industry.

They were arrested and sent to jail for a minimum of 1 year and max of 5. The paid a small restitution fee which was collected from the DA's Office in San Diego. The two clowns spent about a year in jail and were released. The only pleasure I had was seeing the two idiots behind bars in court.

 

I have had some issues with autographs of historical figures and Hollywood mega stars. I once bought a Bogart auto and when it arrived the photo was the same but my item was signed in Sharpie!!!! Historical artifacts are also suspect as there are many reproductions that look pretty authentic.

 

Pete I did have it on a disc some where. Let me see if I can locate it. If I find it I will try and post it or email it to you.

 

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/baseball-card-collector-helps-break-up-theft-ring/nJXcM/

This is the web page for Channel 2 the local Atlanta Channel that did the first interview. The one that ran in San Diego had Tony Gwyn on as well.

 

http://www.10news.com/news/san-diego-men-at-center-of-sports-collectible-scam

This is the story in the San Diego area. I used to have a video to go with it where it showed me and then Tony Gwynn talking about the Hobby and people taking advantage of others...