Collectable baseball cards, or serious sports collectables in general, are hardly the creased and scuffed Hank Aaron card you might have kept from childhood. As the interest in sports memorabilia has climbed, the cost of rare cards has reached hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars if in pristine condition. The shady, sometimes unethical world of sports memorabilia!
With the rise of online sales, card collectors much like fine art or antique collectors, are buying treasures over the internet provided, of course, authenticity and certifications are maintained. An Oregon online sports memorabilia organization called PWCC Marketplace has just come face to face with bad ethics. It is not the first time and it will not be the last.
Who is Gary Moser?
Gary “Scissor Hands” Moser is the acknowledged bad guy of the vintage baseball card community. He has been cheating customers since 2002 with trimmed or altered cards and shilled bids. The cards he offers up for auction are not counterfeit, but many are damaged and flawed and then altered to make them look in perfect condition. A parallel example might be the antique automobile industry where someone might sneak in fake engine parts and sell them as the original.
Moser will consign his flawed cards to an online marketplace like PWCC, bid against himself, and then reap the profits. The suckers are the collectors who bid against him. Once the unsuspecting buyers some come to realize that the cards have been altered (they are required to authenticate for insurance purposes), it is often too late for them to go after Moser. Make no mistake, but that Moser and his compatriots are masters at making damaged cards look new. Everyone knows it except for the unsuspecting.
On Sunday, June 2, 2019, PWCC issued a statement of apology in part, copied here:
“We are obviously very aware of the issues surrounding the cards submitted to us by Gary Moser. First, we want to apologize to all those who have been affected by the purchasing of trimmed or altered cards. We are not disappearing or burying our heads in the sand about this… We understand that we are responsible for our part in this mess and will do all that we can to make it right in connection with Moser-submitted cards as well as other submitters who may have altered cards of which we auctioned… we are no longer selling any Moser-submitted cards.”
It is all well and good to admit culpability, but many online forums are more upset at PWCC than “Scissor Hands.” They believe PWCC buried its head for years and said nothing.
The Shady, Sometimes Unethical World of Sports Memorabilia – Yes, but…
At this time, PWCC is claiming to work with an independent authentication agency and with law enforcement. However, while unsuspecting customers might not know unethical sellers like Moser, PWCC knows him well.
On Monday, June 3, 2019, PWCC issued a telling, albeit brief follow-up statement about Moser, saying that Moser “has been using our platform to facilitate [read that shill] or sell altered cards.”
PWCC has been allegedly caught doing this sort of stuff on more than one occasion. In fact, some customers allege it was unethical practices that forced the company to move from California to Oregon in 2014. PWCC has a lot to lose if a lack of ethics is fully proven. Their online platform is big business.
The PWCC auctions move about $50 million in vintage cards annually. Obviously, their forum sells a wide range of cards, from $150 cards to a Mickey Mantle card that edged a half-million dollars. PWCC gets a cut of every card sold on its platform.
Interestingly, when pressed for details about the number of Moser-altered cards they sold, they revealed nothing; not the number of suspect cards or even which law enforcement agencies they are cooperating with to clear up the mess.
As with any fraud, PWCC had everything to gain by overlooking Moser’s past. The company has acknowledged they are in part responsible but why did they wait so long to admit it? Were they driven by opportunity and the need to increase profits? Did they rationalize the possibility of fraud occurring as being a “leave well enough scenario?” I don’t know, but I do know that Moser seems to have made them a lot of money over the years. Buyer beware. Bad ethics in play.
