http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/S...ew?m=tm&bn=3748&tid=4405&mid=4405&tof=1&frt=2 This feud is just getting silly, but it's interesting (very insightful) reading never-the-less.
Laura is somewhat hotheaded, but I didn't realize things had gotten so bad between her and PCGS. Moderation on their forum is a little heavy handed sometimes, but with all the flaming that goes on in their US forum it's not really surprising.
a good read! and here i sit not even knowing there was a probelm anywhere ... i need to get out of the house more
This person makes an excellent point. I've been to many boards where people assume they have some God-given right to post whatever they want regardless of what rules the owners of the board set. Free speech only applies to public venues, not privately own message boards. I've seen so many people decide they want to constantly bash the owners of the board then get indignant when told to stop, as if the owners were required to put up with it for some reason. If someone comes into my house and contantly insults me, I'm going to kick them out, and if they refuse to leave, I'm calling the cops. I'm not required to put up with them. Now PCGS may not want to get a reputation of trying to quash all dissent when people raise legitimate issues on their boards, but there is a reasonable limit to how much they should be expected to put up with. It is a board owned and operated by PCGS after all, and if people don't like it, they're free to go to other message boards or create their own.
I've been following the fight on Yahoo off and on for some time. I'm sure Ms. Sperber is very good at what she does, but like many other people with accomplishments to their name, she doesn't seem to realize that expertise doesn't give her the right to say whatever she wants whereever she wants. It's ego I guess. But on the other hand, if what she says is true, PCGS has some serious problems too.
Laura's numismatic reputation in the industry speaks for itself, she is respected as an expert in the field. She can be coarse, but you can count on what she says to be true. BTW, she has been at war with PCGS for some time now.
Gee Whizakers!!! I'm glad I buy mainly junk silver!!! This thing has gotten way too emotional. Period. Based on above comments, the lady seems to be well respected, but for someone like me who has never heard of this feud, I'm shaking my head as fast as a bobble-headed figure on the dashboard of a '79 Chevette! It's pretty obvious that she thinks she's God's gift to Coin Collecting. And Apparently PCGS thinks the same. When is the Super Bowl of Coin Collecting? Get this over with once and for all!!!!!
ok, maybe someone can shed some light on this situation for me??? who is this woman? why does she hate pcgs? how long has this been going on? what started it? is there any truth to her rants? i am waaaaaay to new to all of this to know who and whats going on. thanks
PCGS has a history of questionable activities that are public knowledge and I suspect that we only know the tip of the iceberg. My hats off to Laura for being the only major player in the coin community to have the gears to take them on. IMO Laura's approach to this matter is commensurate with the type of people she is dealing with.
True, but there is a bit of a difference between opinions and facts. In many cases, Laura cites facts, not opinions. And she is far from being the only knowledgeable & repsected person in the hobby to have a low opinion of PCGS. The only real difference is most of the others choose not to voice their opinions on public coin forums or issue their own newsletters as Laura does. But speak to them in private, and you'd be surprised what a lot of people think of PCGS. It is not flattering.
They PCGS/CLCT would be best served by totally deleting the forums simply because they are a Publicly Traded Position (NASDAQ) and the current posting habits many of the forum members follow actually does influence the UP or DOWN stock ticker movement. I'm really surprised the Securities Exchange Commission hasn't intervened yet... If CLCT was traded like another MSFT you can be sure that company controlled Press Releases, Quarterly Reports, & SEC Form 4s & 8Ks would be just about all the information being discussed. Take Care Ben
I'm guessing Laura is owner/CEO of Legend Numismatics? It's amazing that things like this go on, and I don't even know about it, but then again...I have never, nor do I plan on purchasing, any slabbed coins (except in the instance that one day I am buying some sort of key date, and I want to be sure it's authentic). Another reason I'm glad I'm a member of this board and not some volatile one, as other coin boards appear to be!
Bone, i would agree with that. Back when I had CLCT stock, I used Ragingbull.com to monitor what people thought about it. I didn't even know that CLCT had internal forums where you could comment on the stock. I think that is very, very rare - in my experience anyways. I guess it makes them look "cool", but you're exposed to a lot of stuff. You probably have to have a battery of 2-3 people just to defend the company on these forums!!!!
What evidence do you have in support of your claim that the posting habits on the PCGS forum influence the CLCT stock price? A number of publicly owned companies have discussion boards and some of them give posters even more leeway than PCGS does. It would take a lot more than what goes on there to get the SEC involved.
I use Ragingbull.com too and you're correct about not knowing about the CLCT forums. The violations happen when they encourage and allow the negative comments to remain about their competitors. But the biggie is when they don't squelch company rumors before they are released to the stock holders via press releases. Heck, I knew more about the 'Miller Lawsuit' from the CLCT forum (old SportsCard section) than what was released by the company. Bad, Bad, Bad business practice... All one has to do is type in the acronyms used by their competitors into the PCGS search engine and on the first page you'll find threads with dispariging comments. Lack of corrective action taken by their forum moderators is just as bad (if not worse) than actually being the one directly responsible for the negative posts. When does it go too far and the SEC get involved? It doesn't take much, just ask Martha Stewart, LOL remember, perception is everything... Take Care Ben
And yet NGC slabbed coins (and I assume ANACS as well) will typically only bring 80% of of the same grade PCGS coins. But we all propogate the myth... praise PCGS, Amen.