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...those who feel they don't like you or what you do? It's what you tried to do. You not only fully supported slabbing casino chips, you had many of them slabbed and set up a table at the CCGTCC convention to (try to) sell them. You actively sought to infect this hobby with the disease that is slabbing - a disease that has destroyed other hobbies - and you did so out of greed, period.
"A collector whom i have a great deal of respect for wrote me an email this morning. In it he said
'Mark, I know what kind of person you are and how you run your business. I would not take the time to respond to the naysayers. As you know i have spent almost 000k with you since we started doing business 12 years ago. I am honored to be a customer of yours I apologize for the responses you get from the militant faction of our great hobby. Just keep in mind that they are a extremely small part of the hobby. (based on the 519 members, of which some have passed away or left the hobby, i would say they might represent less than half of 1 % of the hobby's ranks) Just keep up the good work and i will see you next time i get to Vegas. P.S. i bought 11 of the chips last night. Paypal right now.'"
...so your respected source (one who has obviously filled your pockets with cash) estimates that over 500 people represent .5% of the hobby?!? That would mean their are about 100,000 people who collect chips as a hobby....! Wow! Delusions of grandeur abound in your tightly knit circle jerk of two.
"I am going to take this good mans advice and will no longer respond to anything but positive remarks or questions to my posts."
That's just fine, but don't expect there to be no negative posted responses to your usage of this forum to inform newbies to this hobby to your past actions. You can ignore them. Others won't.
"Again for those whom are on the list, Please do not read my posts. They are not for you. Also, When you come in our store and ask to see the chips on the site (they are kept in a vault in our store) your I.D. will be checked against the list. If you are on the list consider this as your notice that you will be trespassing if you attempt to enter our store. You don't want to be here and we don't want you here (can't stand the negativity and i consider you a potential threat to the safety of my employees and family). Again, This is just our way of helping you to keep your pledge."
I've never read a more convoluted statement made by someone representing a business. On the list is considered trespassing? Or is it just admitting to being on the list (or cross checked by you)? Since you were allowed to have a table full of slabs at the convention but slabs are now banned from the convention floor, by your own reasoning shouldn't you be banned from the convention floor, even only as a potential customer (or more likely, a seller without a table)? Your rules should work both ways. ...and the safety concerns expressed by you of your employees and family are, were, and always have been pure paranoia.
"To those of you whom i do business with. Thank you again for your patronage. This will be my last post mentioning the list period."
And I'm a 14-year-old girl.
"We will not process and order or a bid online from a person on the list however. If the watchguards of the list would provide me with a list of the emails i would post them directly into my blocked bidder list on my website so that they do not have to go through all of the hassle every time they inadvertently try to do business with us. You can appoint someone to bring the list in and post it to the blocked bidder lists and then take the copy of the list back. I wont waste time giving my word about not using the emails for any other reason...."
Sounds like someone who is sooooo afraid for the safety of his employees and family wants someone else to keep track of people who never were, aren't, and never will be a real threat. Do it yourself.
"To those of you who say i am in it only for the money. I have been collecting chips since i was 18 years old. I am 50 now. I have a tremendous collection and having the store has allowed me to sell them to myself at a fair price."
How many of those chips did you "sell to yourself" were slabbed? When did you realize that slabbing chips was a foolish investment on your part (or are you even willing to admit it to this day)?
"I have six long double row boxes (no, not slab boxes) that comprise my collection."
Good for you.
"I have a list of collectors i have done business with over the years that have shown me the same level of respect i have shown them. They will get a list and a disk with pics on them and they will go to the highest bidders from this group when i pass."
I'm sorry, and I really hate feeling this way about anybody, but it looks like you are instructing your heirs to continue your warped legacy concerning only this particular part of what might remain of your estate should you pass. Your last sentence in your first paragraph of his post 'Most people on this board are old enough to make their owns decisions. I will let them do so.' must not pertain to your own family.
"Your welcome in advance for this opportunity as i know many of you will be thankful( and will love the currently one of a kinds and high grade examples in the collection). Does this sound like someone whom is just in it for the $$$? I think not."
Yes Mark. You are only in it for the money, no matter what you think. Why else are you posting here? Let the free market determine your sales in places other than a forum known to have actively (and successfully) opposed what you personally tried to do to this hobby.
"This is for the self proclaimed new collector who posted in the chain. You have never met me, you have no idea how i do business as you have never done business with me yet you wrote the following statement 'provide a better service then you ever could. You sir, could care less of the hobby.' It just amazes me that you have taken the time to form an opinion so negative of someone you have never done business with or met! Have you ever asked me a question about chips or how to get into the hobby or what do i collect and why? Of course not. If you had you would have heard about my over 30 years of collecting experience, bad decisions and good ones, rewards and losses, cool stories and hoards. This knowledge comes from years of COLLECTING not selling and buying but COLLECTING. I share all of this with my customers for the asking. It's part of running a successful business. Try being a leader who thinks for them self and not a blind follower who listens to a few before forming a decision so laced in negativity."
You have made (at least part of) your millions involved in what originally was a hobby that became an industry due to slabbing. You wanted chip collecting to follow the same path to the point of heavily investing into it by having a large number of chips slabbed. That wasn't done from a hobbyist position, no matter how long you collected or how many chips you collected. New collectors deserve the truth about slabbing and your participation in it. How about you tell Derek and everyone else here just how many chips you had slabbed? ...not expecting an answer to that question, but your presence here (and singling out a newbie for "advice") begged for it.
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