Source- PennLive.com
David Herrell said the sheer volume of items in Roger Hooper’s memorabilia inventory gave him a sense of confidence.
Herrell said he saw no reason to doubt the authenticity of the baseball autographed by home run hitters Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle. The same went for the supposedly unopened wax packs of sports cards that were among the thousands of dollars in items he said he bought from Hooper, a West Shore dealer, in 2006.
“He had so much,” said Herrell, 33, a student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. “It was such a large quantity of stuff. I felt it couldn’t be bad.”
Authorities claim that some items Hooper sold Herrell were fake and others, including the wax packs — their name comes from the 1970s and ’80s, when cards and a stick of bubble gum were wrapped in wax-paper packages — showed signs of tampering.
The Cumberland County district attorney’s office has charged Hooper, 47, of Lower Allen Twp., with deceptive business practices. It has caused a stir in the collecting community, where fraud is a constant fear.
Authorities also are contacting past customers of Hooper. People with concerns about their items can contact county Detective Sgt. Earl Bock at 717-240-7764.
In court papers, Bock said hundreds of dubious items that were sold for more than $60,000 have been identified.
Hooper said the charges are “totally false” and that he never knowingly sold bogus collectibles or tampered with any memorabilia. The charges, he said, involve only a few of the millions of collectibles of all types packed into the warehouse at his Thompson Lane home.
“The whole thing comes down to somebody filled [prosecutors’] heads with a lot of hogwash and they acted on it,” Hooper said. “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.”
He vowed to fight the charges at a preliminary hearing before District Judge Charles Clement next month. But he said the allegations have ruined his reputation and imperiled the collectibles and auction business he built over 30 years.
Corky Goldstein, Hooper’s lawyer, said his client shouldn’t have been arrested. No auctioneer can vouch for every item sold, Goldstein said, and Hooper never marketed any items deceptively.
“At most, this is a civil matter,” Goldstein said. “That’s where it belongs, in the civil courts.”
Authorities based the criminal charges, including counts of theft by deception and dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, on claims by Herrell and Ned Kerstetter of Carlisle, who listed items for Hooper on the eBay Internet auction site.
Kerstetter, who didn’t return a call for comment for this story, went to the district attorney in August 2007, claiming Hooper defrauded him, Bock said. Kerstetter also filed a lawsuit against Hooper in county court that hasn’t been resolved.
Bock said Kerstetter claimed that in 2005 he agreed to list items for Hooper under Kerstetter’s name on eBay in return for a commission on each sale. Later, as Kerstetter got busier with his computer sales and service firm, an associate of Hooper’s did the listing under Kerstetter’s name, the detective said.
Hooper used Kerstetter, an acquaintance, as the seller because Hooper had been banned from eBay for “shaky dealings,” Bock stated in court papers.
The detective said Kerstetter soon began receiving complaints from buyers that items were not as advertised. Some buyers complained that wax packs of sports cards, which have collectible value only if they remain unopened, had obviously been opened and resealed, Bock said.
“The cards in Hooper’s packs had fingerprints on them. They were supposed to be untouched by human hands,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Smith said. “Understandably, people started screaming foul.”
Kerstetter began receiving threats along with complaints when Hooper refused to give angry customers refunds, Bock said. Kerstetter, worried about his online selling reputation, used about $60,000 of his own money to reimburse them, Bock said.
Hooper said Kerstetter had approached him about listing items because Kerstetter wanted to make money. Hooper said he had been barred from listing items on eBay, but the company never told him why.
EBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said her firm doesn’t discuss issues or investigations regarding customers, but it does cooperate with law enforcement in investigating reports of fraud.
Hooper said he addressed most buyer complaints relating to the listings on Kerstetter’s site and made refunds. But he refused requests by Kerstetter to satisfy buyers who complained after the return period, which usually lasted 30 days.
“I fulfilled all of my obligations with Ned,” he said.
Herrell’s accusations involve items he bought from Hooper in an April 2006 auction, Bock said.
When Herrell tried to sell 14 unopened wax packs of 1971 Topps football cards he had bought, an expert at a New York collectibles firm told Herrell the cards showed signs of tampering, the detective said.
When Herrell complained to Hooper, Hooper disputed the expert’s finding and advised him to “just list the stuff on eBay,” Bock said.
Two other experts told Herrell a baseball he’d bought from Hooper that supposedly was signed by Mantle and Williams was a forgery, Bock said. He added that Hooper had given Kerstetter a similar ball.
Hooper said the items Herrell bought were among more than a thousand lots sold at the auction Herrell attended. All the items were open for public inspection and for evaluation by experts before the sale, Hooper said. He said it was clearly stated in the auction terms that he wasn’t guaranteeing authenticity for many items.
Authorities raided Hooper’s warehouse in May after seeing another online listing for an auction he was to hold that month. Scores of items, from sports collectibles to coins, were seized, court documents stated.
Hooper said he didn’t know of the criminal investigation until police appeared May 22, handcuffed him and executed a search warrant.
The Hooper case has caused considerable talk on at least one online chat room for collectors and auctioneers.
Experts said the collectibles business is innately risky.
Fraud, “is everywhere,” said Jim Spence of James Spence Authentication of Parsippany, N.J., an autograph-verification company.
“The biggest victims are the new collectors,” said David Cordier, owner of Cordier Antiques & Fine Art of Camp Hill and a columnist for The Patriot-News. “When you’re buying at auction, there is risk involved. That’s the sad part, because the new collectors will keep the business alive.”
Herrell, a collector for about 20 years, said he’s still “dabbling” in the market.
“You can’t be too careful,” he said. “You need to know who you’re dealing with.”
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