Mastro Sports Auctions

[trsent]

Re: Mastro Sports Auctions

Did you compare Bill Mastro to OJ Simpson?

Sorry, I stopped reading your post after that.

Everyone know I am a fan of Bill Mastro but I think Doug Allen thinks the rules are made by him, in case you are concerned about where I stand.

[rose14]

Re: Mastro Sports Auctions

I have been dealing with Bill Mastro and Mastro Sports Auctions for over 10 years now and I can tell you that my dealings with Bill and Brian Marren were great over the years. I have been to their offices about three or four times over those years and everything and everyone was very professional, everything you would expect from a top notch auction house. I always looked forward to every Mastro auction and knew it would be loaded with some of the best items in the sports collectibles industry.

I have seen a noticable change in the company since Doug Allen arrived at Mastro. It appears to me that the amount of questionable items has gone up considerably since Doug's arrival. In my opinion it seems that in the last few years Mastro Auctions abilitly to safely authenticate items prior to auction was poor and that those auctions were about quantity instead of quality.

[suicide_squeeze]

Re: Mastro Sports Auctions

Did you compare Bill Mastro to OJ Simpson?

Sorry, I stopped reading your post after that.

Everyone know I am a fan of Bill Mastro but I think Doug Allen thinks the rules are made by him, in case you are concerned about where I stand.

trsent,

Read it again if you'd like, but please.....understand the analogy.

I was simply saying you can't judge a book by it's cover. No matter how personable, professional, caring, etc. a guy comes off, he could be the devil in disguise. I was in NO way, shape, or form comparing Bill to O.J.

Look, obviously something was wrong. Hopefully the truth will come out, but the "truth" may be nothing more than what we already know:

-There was some card doctoring. Without a picture or proof of who did this.....no charges will be brought.

-There was "shill bidding" going on. This could mean a LOT of things. But I'll summerize by saying if the item was owned by someone in the auction house, and you ended up bidding on it and WON......you probably got lambasted because you were bidding against someone in the company who either got he wanted for it, or jacked it up to a pre-determined point where he locked in his investment in it.

And guess what the consequences would be if one of the bidders didn't win an item that was being bid up by an insider of the company? That's right, nothing. No buyers premium to pay, no listing fees.....NOTHING. It was a win/win sitch for them.

So you ask..."How could they get away with this?" Easy, they tell the Feds "Hey, we're collectors too. If our consigners have no problem with us bidding on items in our own auctions, what is the problem? We sincerely wanted to win the item we were bidding on. Sure. Right. And it probably took very little planning and effort on their part to represent the item being "owned and consigned" by another individual. Am I speculating? Yes.
Am I way off base? You can decide for yourself.

Go ahead, trsent, stand up for your man. I have no problem with that. But if you want to comment on a post, at least READ it through and try to get the meaning......please.

[suicide_squeeze]

Re: Mastro Sports Auctions

I have been dealing with Bill Mastro and Mastro Sports Auctions for over 10 years now and I can tell you that my dealings with Bill and Brian Marren were great over the years. I have been to their offices about three or four times over those years and everything and everyone was very professional, everything you would expect from a top notch auction house. I always looked forward to every Mastro auction and knew it would be loaded with some of the best items in the sports collectibles industry.

I have seen a noticable change in the company since Doug Allen arrived at Mastro. It appears to me that the amount of questionable items has gone up considerably since Doug's arrival. In my opinion it seems that in the last few years Mastro Auctions abilitly to safely authenticate items prior to auction was poor and that those auctions were about quantity instead of quality.

O.K. Bill's the greatest guy in the hobby.


So what happened? If Doug Allen is the "bad seed"......why did Bill allow this to escalate into his own self demise? Did he just not want to do it anymore? Did he make too much money and just not want to fight the fight anymore? Did he sell the business he obviously loved dearly only to get weaseled out by the Satin of the industry?

All you guys do is praise Bill for the past, but with no substance behind it other than to state (essentially) "It had to be Doug". And quite frankly, the super bad experience I had with Mastro was ALL ABOUT Doug.....he personally orchestrated the biggest buttf&$king I've ever had in my entire life......so believe me, there is no love loss with me and Doug.

But again.......WHY would Bill be the scapegoat? Why would he stand up for the very same guys who did him in? I mean c'mon???

It just doesn't make sense.....if there was absolutely no culpability on his part. As good of a guy as he seemed to be.