>Ok, this has reached ridiculous proportion. They deleted two threads w/my
>name in them tonight. I did not start them or have anything to do with
>them being posted.
Charlie? Is that you again???
Nick
> X-Received-Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 04:08:22 UTC (s03-b11.iad)
Well, yesterday at a coin show I saw a Morgan PCGS MS-64 "chop marks". So
something isn't right.
I don't normally get involved in urination competitions, but I would
offer if PCGS doesn't like you or your opinions, perhaps NGC would
welcome you and your beliefs. Just a thought.
Jerry
...
So let's see if I've got your story straight:
You think that PCGS's message board, owned and operated by PCGS I presume,
should allow you to make posts there that denigrate, belittle and criticize the
product they are trying to sell?
I know of no PUBLIC company that would allow that.
Well, how about customer reviews on a vendor's website? Quite a few times I
was ready to click on Buy but a few or even one informative, well-stated
negative review made me back off. And in my experience, censoring on a
vendor website is fairly rare beyond the usual strictures against profanity,
etc.
However, this "Laura Sperber" isn't getting any sympathy from me. Half her
post is all about her - whining at being a victim, bragging that she's a
thorn in their side and that she isn't going to let their censorship stop
her, on and on until I couldn't care less about it even though I agree that
the PCGS posting policies are reprehensible. A pox on both their houses.
If it weren't my practice not to killfile anyone, she'd have been plonked
long ago.
That's true but posts that would knock the retailer itself probably wouldn't be
allowed.
I buy from Amazon.com frequently.
You can give the 3rd party vendors a review about their performance but items
sold & shipped by Amazon itself do not offer that option.
I read the vendor performance reviews carefully before purchasing from a 3rd
party vendor.
I also read the product reviews but one bad review among other good ones usually
won't affect my purchasing decision.
Another place where I pay particular attention is on eBay - I seldom will buy
from a seller with less than a 98% positive rating, unless the item offered is a
superlative bargain.
I've seen plenty of reviews that figuratively equated the vendor with pond
scum. I seldom see extended, delerious rants so maybe the worst of those
are being deleted; but IMO a lot of online vendors have wisely adopted
policies of enlightened self-interest. The up side to allowing negative
reviews is that it builds credibility for the positive reviews that aren't
just obvious marketing plugs for the product. So just as I've bailed on
some purchases from an informed negative review, an informed positive review
can sell me on something that I had reservations about.
> I buy from Amazon.com frequently.
> You can give the 3rd party vendors a review about their performance but
> items sold & shipped by Amazon itself do not offer that option.
I buy through Amazon too, and have gotten many requests to review products I
bought. I'll have to pay attention now to whether they do that for their
direct sales as well as TPVs. Sounds like Amazon wants transparency on the
reliability of third-party vendors but considers itself above reproach?
> I read the vendor performance reviews carefully before purchasing from a
> 3rd party vendor.
> I also read the product reviews but one bad review among other good ones
> usually won't affect my purchasing decision.
Sussing out the reliability and usefulness of reviews is an art, not a
science. Sometimes a single informative, well-stated negative review will
send me running. Sometimes I just shake my head at the unrealistic, whining
pettiness of reviewers and ignore them.
> Another place where I pay particular attention is on eBay - I seldom will
> buy from a seller with less than a 98% positive rating, unless the item
> offered is a superlative bargain.
Doing the eBay version of "American Pickers" can be fun and profitable, but
you have to have the stomach for the risk and the aggravation. You also
have to have a sharp sense of where to spot the line between "superlative
bargain" and "too good to be true". Unless it's an item that I really,
really want and can't find elsewhere, I pretty much avoid the hassles and
risks of eBay nowadays. Too many horror stories from both buyers and
sellers.
In addition to coins, I also collect old board games from the 1950s and 1960s -
eBay is a godsend in that area and has allowed me to get many old games at
bargain prices.
I also collect beer coasters and eBay is occasionally helpful there also.
As far as coins on eBay - other than junk silver, I only buy certified coins and
then only from what appear to be reliable dealers.
What been coasters do you collect? Micros? Specific brewery, brand, or
time period? I have quite a few in my stock of breweriana.
Since Bruce has given a nibble on beer coasters...
Any interest in the old Avalon Hill war games? Granted, they were a niche
area of the board game industry so you're either going to have zero
interest, or for the few who were bitten by the war game bug, you may want
to snap them up. Somewhere I have a box of several that survived the switch
to computer versions. (Which I'm also willing to part with, though you'd
need an old X86 PC or virtualized DOS environment to play them. The
earliest ones came on floppies, but I probably can dub the 3.5-inch disks to
CDs.) The computer versions are mint in the original boxes, the board
versions of course have been played for the countless hours squandered in my
teen years.
Anyone who might be interested should e-mail me directly.
I collect any and all beer company coasters. US or foreign.
If you'll contact me with your address, I'll send you a couple dozen
different ones, mostly older US micros.
Looks like they have booted many more people, including distinguished
dealer and former NGC
grader Mark Feld. Even the discussion about banning people has been
banned. You can see
the cache on google here
but if you click on the page links, it says topic not found.
Why is PCGS CENSORING the FREE SPEECH of its customers WHO PAY THEIR
SALARIES?
A bunch of people were banned when David Hall was offended that
someone made a warning
that some PCGS full bell line half dollars at a Heritage auction were
not what most collectors
considered full bell lines, and people should not trust the PCGS FBL
designation. Why doesnt
PCGS see this as an opportunity to improve their grading rather than
ban the messenger?
I saw David Hall's response to bushmaster8, and it was both petty and scary.
Has anyone noticed the number of posts is way down? Only the koolaide
drinkers are willing to post.
"Steve Spradlin" <coing...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8fe86ffa-37f5-43c5...@x11g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
I've been sitting on the sidelines watching this thread. Now I have
something of value to offer.
First, censorship of their discussion board by PCGS isn't covered by
the First Amendment. Basically, it's their backyard, they can set the
rules anyway they want. And you're under no obligation to play if you
don't like the rules.
Second, David Hall is a poor businessman IF everything being tossed
out in this thread is true. I don't read PCGS's board so I can't
verify. But I own a home repair business. One of the things I tell
all of my customers, "If you like our work, tell your friends. If you
don't like our work, tell us." Something DH should consider.
Jerry
"A satisfied customer will tell five of their friends;
A dissatisfied customer will tell ten."