I'm an Ohio reporter working on story about the problems with dealer Tom Noe in Ohio. Would like to hear from anyone familiar with him, Mike Storeim, Daryl Mercer or Mark Chrans.
Mike Storeim posts under the username numispro at the CU forum http://forums.collectors.com/categories.cfm?catid=26 Many there know him and Noe professionally.
Originally Posted by The Cave Troll, ----------------------------------------------------- i know nothing except that a bunch of reporters are trying to cause trouble for coin collectors ----------------------------------------------------- I cannot agree with this statement, This one is the fault of a so called "public servant" The reporters are just trying to do their job...perhaps we could educate them a little bit while they're here?
Im confused. What would a reporter have to gain by wrongfully accusing a coin dealer? And if any coin dealer is ripping people off, isnt in the best interest of our hobby to expose these people ourselves so reporters dont have to do the job for us? inkstained, if I knew anything about this person myself that was wrong, Id spill my guts in a heartbeat. I dont like dishonest businessmen. Ive owned my own business for nearly a decade and I give everyone the same respect and never rip off or short anyone. I expect the same in return.
This is a story about how 'rare coins' 'politics' and 'investment' just don't get along. Something is bound to go wrong.
To those who've answered, thanks. For Cave Troll, this isn't a witchhunt. Another way of looking at it would be that one or more unscrupulous dealers are giving the whole business a bad name. I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of collectors and dealers are honest.
knowtracks, Just the kind of answer I would expect from an honest man! We have things out in the rural areas that many of the city folks would really like if they would just give it a try. Seems they don't understand us and we don't understand them at times. I think in the end we all want the same things but see different ways to achieve those goals. I am kind of old fashioned and see things as right or wrong, no in betweens. Guess I would have made a lousey lawyer!
inkstained - last I read on the story, it wasn't for sure that the dealer was the problem. Has this now changed with more information?
Are you kidding?!? This is little more than reporters and politicians trying to make themselves wealthy and/or famous by dirtying someone else's name. This is the same old story as always: Political party X isn't in power and one of their strategies for regaining power is to find a scandal that can be connected to party Y. Then they trash some people's names so that party Y looks bad and is hurt in the next election. There are always willing accomplices in the media who understand that no matter which party is in power a scandal will always sell more papers than reports some one actually doing something positive. This isn't particular to only one party, either! I can't emphasize this enough. US Grant ran his government by letting everyone under him get away with whatever they wanted; Woodrow Wilson was president during the Teapot Dome scandal (maybe the largest scandal in US history); LBJ oversaw some of the dumbest moves we made in Vietnam (including the hiring of Sect. McNamara); Nixon resigned because he tried to cover-up a scandal; Clinton was impeached for his extra-marrital activities, and now Bush has received money from an alleged less-than-ethical businessman. Hmmm...this isn't new and it isn't unique and I'm tired of hearing about it. I thought this was a forum for discussing coin collecting and I see no connection between the OP and coin-collecting. The big losers in all of this are going to be the collectors who have a stained public image now because of one allegedly unscrupulous individual and the political wolves who see this as nothing more than a means to an end are gonna screw things up. I dread the day when governments try to "regulate" the coin industry (supposedly for our own protection!) More government involvement in my hobby will be detrimental, more government ALWAYS is. I hope this whole mess just goes away, even though I know that there is too much political "hay" to be made for that to be possible. Actually, I also hope that this whole thread is deemed OT and removed.
Cave Troll, whereas I see your point, I think this is a numismatic discussion - of sorts. It is a discussion that involved current afairs in our hobby, just as discussing how the silver explosion in the 80s effected buying and selling trends, and so forth. But I read some about this subject, and it was a bad idea from the start, it was poorly monitored in execution, and (go figure) problems were discovered in the result.
but I would request that the media does not refer to this as 'coingate'. that does have a pretty nasty ring to it, and is sort of misleading considering where the real problems exist.
This is my point, though. No matter what I put in the brackets in your statement (this time it happens to be about coins) this is really all about alleged government fraud, not about the method of the alleged fraud. The problems here are on the government's side of the equation, but coin collectors who are not associated with this coin fund except by being collectors are going to be damaged.
TCT, when you're right, you're right. This thread has been skating very close to the edge of what is permitted, and the time has come to move on to other things.
