Forum members banned

  At least 2 popforum members were banned from the PCGS coin forum over Carolj photos and tag lines linking to the popforum.

More to come as PCGS investigates this rogue element commonly referred to as the "Rat Pack" known for forming attack missions on unsuspecting CU members in order to get them banned.
 
It backfired this time.  Even CU "russ" aka "flashbashbo" is walking the tightrope right now.


K6AZ fingers Carolj

  Is this the notorious Carol Bennett, aka Carolj, the PCGS CU coin forum administrator who does the banning?

Please email: askbiddle@msn.com if you can confirm the identity.

Special thanks to KStealheader for providing the photo.

Comments made about Carolj photo on the popforum.net where KStealheader posted it:

Mr. Kelso:   CarolJ just loves to be a nasty bitch.

Paigowjohnny:  I'd hit it !!  That is, in fact, CarolJello

Flamino:  Awesome. My post got pulled, and I got banninated . See ya 'round, CU fora; it was fun ... for a while.

SFdukie:  Unbelievable.
I always thought Carol had a sense of humor.
Who ratted us out? Really, I want to know. its not as if most of those CU weenies know about the hidden forums-there was a "tag" thread hidden in that faux "coins" forum for years.
I'd love for the weasel to have enough integrity to come clean. After all, if its important enough to tattle to Carol Jello, we deserbve a pm.

Has wolf visited the OFR anyone?

Yes-I was copying famingo! becasue in addition to the "hidden" couisn forum, there's a hidden sports memorabilia forum. My thread title was soemthing imaginative like "political thread"-its the link "x" in my post above. Its gone...

That forum, as well as the one Bob posted in, aren't in the CU "directory" or whatever it is they call their sitemap of forums. Which is why I think someone reading this thread ratted us out.

Oh well. I don't really care, just surprised. I knew there was a chance I'd get bammified, but had I really thought anyone would care, i wouldn't have posted it, at least not without saving my pms there. Lots of coin transaction addy's etc.

Coincopwife:  And don't forget ... posting pictures of carolj.

BiddlesBank over 200,000 site visits:

Started mid Arpil 2007 and closed for 3 months but the visitors keep showing up.  Thank you all for your interest. BB


There are lots of negative vibes at CLCT/PCGS.

- Every month, Collectors Universe would hold a "walk-in" at their corporate office, which customers could just walk in and submit their items to be graded. As recent as 6-8 months ago, customers would be lining in long line waiting for a chance to submit their coins or cards. So there would be about 20-30 customers are all time. Now, there are hardly 3-4 customers. In fact, at times, there are more security guards than customers.

- Every month, they have a company-wide meeting. At the last meeting, David Hall told the employees that they are working for a stable company, and that CLCT had done well even in bad economic times. Then in the following weeks, they started letting people go. Needless to say, employees felt like management was lying the whole time.

- Someone in here said that their gem business is their "fastest" growing business. Keep in mind that "fast growing" in this case means going from 10 stones to 20 stones in a month. While that's a 100% increase, I would not call that a business model. They have recent let go of a few employees in New York, where their gem division is located. I would imagine they're probably down to 10 employees in New York now, including one secretary, a couple grader, one imager, one photographer, one "controller", probably a programmer and a PC technician, and a few more soldiers here and there. Their CEO Michael Haynes is staking his life on their gem business. I'm willing to bet that their gem business will eventually do under or be sold off, and it will take Mr. Haynes with it.

- CLCT's IT department is really a hack crew. They are really not up to the task of maintaining a 24/7 solid IT operation. Ever wonder why their PCGS website is often down? That's because their web servers are always crashing, probably because their database keeps choking on them. Their solution? They have none. Instead, they would simply reset their web servers to fix it, until their site chokes again. Yet, their IT department is spending like crazy. If I were CLCT, I would outsource the whole IT department.

- CLCT's customer service department is also another hack. I've heard of so many complaints from customers calling in and ending up litteraly getting yelled at by their rude phone reps. At the minimum, customers would often get a heated argument from these sales reps. It is not a good thing when your customer service reps yell at your customers. I don't know how a customer oriented company like CLCT could have such a horrendously run customer service department.

I dropped by there headquarter one time when they had their monthly company lunch outside (usually the first week of every month). I didn't see David Hall, nor any of the execs. Apparently, monthy lunch is nothing more than lunch-truck service for the mass, while the execs probably go out to some hotel for a pina colada?

 

Quiz for today:
What well known & prolific CU poster:

1.  Did not know John F Kennedy was a President and not merely someone who appeared on a half dollar until last year.

2.  Uses this dumb icon to express his deepest thoughts:

3.    Never heard of Andrew Jackson until a school teacher told him today that he was as tough as old hickory.

4. Knows all about Ebay and he is held in great esteem by dim witted PCGS CU forum members that can't figure it out for themselves.

5. Is 50 years old and as dumb as a bell and rats out for Carolj, the only women who will talk to him.

Is PCGS on the ropes?
CLCT yahoo message says employees being layed off and moral low.

By "anh2sike"  LINK

While I don't know how to value this stock, but what I can say with good certainty is that the company's business is very slow.

- Revenues from their coin shows are 1/3 of what it use to be
- Customer service department is mostly sitting idle for the past 2-3 months because there are hardly any call.
- Their gem division continues to lose, with little customer base to show for
- They just let go around 15 employess, including a few coin graders and card graders.
- Moral is low there as management bears down on employees. I have spoken to a number of employees there and they all sounded uncertain about where the compnay is heading, and I doubt that even management knows. Bad economy will do this to any company though.

There are much much better stock to invest in than this one. I'm surprised that this is even a trading stock.
This could be fun.