For those who follow the business Collectors Universe Inc. (CLCT) you will notice that their shares have plummeted recently. I've held this position (5 years, bought at around $4.00 right after the split) thru law suits, autograph scandals, and just about everything else. Friday I hit the SELL button and it actually took 25 minutes for only 50 shares to sell. I made a few bucks on this adventure and that's the name of the game... Take Care Ben
My memory is failing me, but I also bought some probably back in 2001 or so. My memory says I bought at about $8. At the time, my interest was in the sports card side of the business. Anyways, after about 3 months, I got cold feet and sold for a small loss. And THEN, in the next month or so, it went all the way up to $11. Yet another case of "don't do as I do....."
Ben: So, what are the shares selling for today? Or as my stockbroker usually says; Buy high; sell low?
The stock is a turd. Collectors Universe is a company run for the benefit of the insiders, not the stockholders. Their coin business is slowing. Their stamp business is practically non-existent. Their autograph business is a total joke in the industry. Their diamond business has about as much chance of unseating the current #1 & #2 as Britney Spears has of winning the Parent of the Year Award. And I believe they are paying their dividend out of cash reserves - not free cash flow. This stock is a total turd.
You know it never really impressed me, there was always more bad news reported than good. Glad I dumped it... take Care Ben
Laura Sperber, or at least someone who claims to be her, has been flaming CLCT and PCGS on the yahoo message board for some time. I don't own the stock but I've been following her threads and I presume she is expert enough to know. Does anyone know exactly what the grading problems are at PCGS and if they are true?
I saw that David H--- Numismatics has a table at FUN, is that not a major conflict of interest and against the court order? I'm not being sarcastic, my question is a serious one........
What court order are you speaking of Jack? Regarding the conflict of interest issue - some people automatically consider it a conflict of interest for a person who deals in coins to be a part owner of a grading company. Either way, I believe that there is more than one dealer who is a part owner of a grading company and it's how they handle the potential conflict of interest that really matters. I leave that assessment up to the marketplace participants.
Typical complaints about grading are usually based on dissatisfaction with consistency and "gradeflation". Laura is often very vocal in expressing her displeasure.
That is somewhat of an understatement. But she is an excellent example to point to when folks make claims about favoritism shown to large dealers and submitters.
No you don't. You go after the people who own grading companies and sell their own coins on eBay. You've been very vocal about this. You don't allow the marketplace to sort it out. Or are you referring to PCGS & NGC only? Do you remember a comment from David Hall saying that he took a submitters coins to the grading room and said something to the effect of "see what you can do"? What safeguards are in place to prevent him from doing the same for his coins.
Greg, I was speaking of grading companies that I consider to be legitimate and which offer authenticity and grading guarantees, even though I believe that the grading guarantees can be illusory. I am certainly not quiet or shy in my disdain for self slabbers (or similar operators) who pretend to be independent and/or who seek to attract suckers with their beyond-liberal grading.
Greg you should make a little more in the way of an explanation when making such a comment. It is way too easy for someone who doesn't know the whole story to read way too much into that comment. As for the second part of your comment, I don't know of a single thing that could stop him. Except maybe the fear of getting caught eventually.
I forget the exact details and it appears that the post has been deleted over there. I believe it had something to do with a submitter who was very unhappy with his recent grades and he showed a bunch of them to David Hall. David picked maybe 20 of the coins and took them back to the grading room and asked the graders to "see what they could do". To me, that was a moronic thing to post as it appears he was using his influence as President of PCGS to get the graders to do something that they weren't interested in doing before (i.e. grading the coins higher). After all, when you boss says to you, "see what they could do", is he really saying "see what they could do" or is he saying "do this". I feel it would be legitimate to question why DH did this. Was it for a friend? Was it to make a big submitter happy? Was it in the interests of correcting some glaring grading mistakes? We'll likely never know the truth - especially if we have to rely on DH to tell it.
As you should know I share no love for David Hall either. And I certainly agree that it was moronic for him to make such a post as that one. But if I recall correctly he took the coins to the graders under the Presidential Review, and yes he did indeed say just that - see what you can do. I also agree with you that the comment could easily be misconstrued. However I also seem to recall that none of the coins in question were upgraded as a result of the Presidential Review. Now I do not say any of this to defend David Hall or PCGS - it will indeed be a cold day when that happens. But rather just to tell the whole story so people can understand it instead of making blind assumptions.
At the time he made the statement, I do not think the Presidential Review service existed. I think the comment was made in 2003. I also recall that several coins did upgrade and his reasoning was that they deserved the grade. I think these coins were given to DH at a show. Maybe there have been more threads on this topic? Too bad PCGS has a habit of deleting the original threads whenever DH says anything stupid.
