ScruffyLookingNH said:
It shows the lack of engagement by a lot of the new collectors. I don't know if there are any SWFUK equivalents in Germany or what the FB scene is like there but this is just a lack of knowledge and a lack of knowing their subject. I wonder how well known the whole TT thing is in Germany, anyway?
As far as I'm located in Germany I would like to write down my point of view.
Please excuse my spelling and formulations, but I will do my best to explain and I hope anybody will understand what I mean.
Yes, we do have an equivalent for SWFUK in Germany called "lichtgeschwindigkeit.de" (whicht means "lightspeed"). For a long time it was a good running forum, with many experienced collectors. But after some personal disputes and the upcoming of facebook, many of the experienced collectors have left the forum (and joined the FB groups)and there is no longer a collecting community comparable to what you have with SWFUK. That's the reason why I also joined this wonderful forum, but my home is still LG, where I'm a long time member and well known collector (I think/hope) :wink: .
The TT topic seems to be a kind of taboo, cause also over here many collectors have spent (and lost) a lot of money in buying TTs over the years. Especially the german cards, of course. So when the Toy Tony scandal popped up, we had some guys, like Wolff (wbobafett), who tried to help getting the mystery solved.
Some collectors wanted to get rid a fast as possible of their TT MOCs, but most of them kept them in silence. Sadly the german community is full of greed and "dick-comparison-contests" (don't know, if this term is used in english - means to prove that one collection is better than the other).
As a result of this, the experienced collectors educated theirself - but did not spread the word and kept their knowledge shut. So nowadays I often see the newbies or those whose english skills are not that far to join the international community are simply don't know what the TT scandal really was about or where to educate theirself (don't kow how often I referred to Jasons page, but I think it did not helped a lot).
Sadly the newer colltectors are often willing to invest large amounts to see their collections growing as fast as possible - just to show "mine is bigger". Those guys buy everything - fakes, repro-stuff and so on - cause they simply don't know what's the real deal.
And all this mirrors those auctions. The seller might know about this card being a TT, but don't mention it. The experienced collectors are out - so the price don't get as high as if this were genuine MOCs - but some newbies see their chance to get their hand on a rare item - and hey, it's graded - so it must be OK.