Mansfield, Ohio Coin/Pawn Shop Raided

I have no clue who you are putyourhandsup. I can only think of a few employees that are still there from when I was employed, not counting Larry and Donna. 4? Employees, not counting Larry and Donna are there from when I was employed there.

And if you know who I am, that's fine. You can, by all means, contact me outside of this forum, and confront me about what I said. Call me up. Send me a facebook message. I can give you my perspective on the whole thing.

If you are open again, it's not surprising to me. Larry is a very resourceful person. I see that the ebay account is still NARU'd, so that means:

New account or not selling on ebay.
I'd assume, if I go to Amazon, I'll find the same thing.

As far as the scum comment, I hope you took it in context. I was certainly not referring to the people I worked with. When I worked at Abon, I loved the people I worked with. It was actually, one of the biggest things that I wrestled with in my decision to leave. I had made a great many friends over my time employed there.

But, I absolutely, 100% positively, do not agree with the ethics surrounding the business model that was the coin grading. I was there. You can't give me the stock answer of "SGS and Abon are two different companies with a business relationship". That wont fly with me. I was there, listing boxes of teenage mutant ninja turtles cards, sports cards, gruesome greetings, dark age, power rangers, & true crime cards. I remember all the boxes of FPG Art Cards, and the uncut sheets. And I most assuredly remember the conversations that led up to, starting to grade coins, and list them on ebay.

And in the beginning, it wasn't something I had a problem with. Were they overgraded? Eh.... maybe. But darn they were good looking coins. Were you there then? Were you part of those conversations? But when the business model changed, and the "Make them all 70's!" policy took hold? Well, then I had a problem with it.

To me, it felt more and more like a gigantic lie, and not a difference of perspective. It was no longer selling really nice coins. It was selling coins in a case, with a number that was a lie on the label.

And when I decided to start looking around, for in the field of ecommerce, and ebay? Do you have ANY IDEA the negative connotations that come along with saying that you were employed by the ebay powerseller Aboncom? Companies asked questions in interviews, nodded, and never called back.

In an interview, I was asked something along these lines:

T - "We see here, that you have been employed at Abon Cards and Coins in Mansfield Ohio."

ME - Yes, I have.

T - "What guarantee do I have, that if you join our team, you wont lead my business down the same road?"

ME - The business model of Abon is why I'm looking to move on

T - "I don't think that this company would be a good match for you."

Wow. Talk about a kick in the gut. And it happened. Over, and over, and over, and over.

And that doesn't even touch on the issues related to my name being drug through the mud once people found out that I worked there. And I sat there, in that chair at Abon, and kept my mouth shut far longer than I should have. I watched as my chances of moving on to a larger company, and heading up an online sales department dwindle, the longer I sat in the chair.

At which point, I just couldn't take it any longer. I took the first job I could to get me out of there. And eventually, people stopped dragging my name through the mud. I stopped getting messages on social media from people who read the information with my name attached to it, and hating me, without knowing me.

So before you tell me too far? Even for me? Come walk in my shoes in the aftermath of working there, and then we can talk about what is too far, and what isn't.

EDIT:
Well, I've done some checking, and I can scratch off two of the names of people that worked there when I was there, as they both haven't been back since the raid. So, two possible employees plus Larry and Donna.

And both of the employees are family.

It is more than a bit surreal to me, to sit here communicating with an ex-Abon employee who saw it from the inside. Up until this point, Abon was essentially a punching bag for us, a target, a rolling gag. One of the most-hated entities in numismatics, in the same league as ebay seller Centsles and Alibaba. I cannot count the number of people I've had to tell that they just threw away considerable money on an SGS coin. Abon has done significant, long-term damage to the hobby, driving away potential new collectors and souring opinion of the hobby in the public mind. It's not at all hard for me to imagine that Abon has driven hundreds of collectors or potential collectors away. I've heard them say it on the way out, never to post again.

Now, it's a news story with an arc, and what appears to be a denouement. Humans are involved. For crying out loud, they RICO'd them. That's how you know the Feds really want you to go down - they charge you under RICO.

With that in mind, thatguyoverthere, I strongly urge you not to be too specific regarding your time there. You don't want to get yourself dragged into it, and this forum is very efficiently indexed by Google.

This is one heck of a story. I can already see a documentary forthcoming...

Thanks for the deep insights, thatguy. Good luck and be careful.

Nothing major yet. They have advised a pair of people I know (still employed) that they will be looking to bring them in for another round of questioning. They are REALLY trying to make sure that they have this all lined up, and are ready to put a now on it. Wouldn't surprise me if they serve indictments against more employees soon. It will be an easy way to cut deals to get them to testify, and keep them from flip flopping too much.

It's tough. Without divulging too much personal information, that job did a lot for me. The "perks" of the job so to speak. Larry was a pretty awesome boss for a while. If I needed time for this, or for that, or to deal with something, not a problem. It allowed me to accomplish other things in my life. And for that, I'm grateful.

But, on the other hand, while the "perks" of the job (scheduling, pay, etc...) were pretty good (And that was even before things got questionable due to SGS), when it got sketchy with the SGS debacle, it could be hard. You could walk on egg shells for weeks, or even months. And ending up on his bad side, was just never a good idea. You would end up with the worst tasks, impossible tasks, and my god you were always wrong.

The summer before I left, I'm fairly confident, I could have looked out the window at a bright, sunshine filled, cloudless sky, and comment about it, only to have him say that it was a dark and dreary day, just because I COULD NOT be right.

The sad thing is? Some of the "early" SGS coins (smaller, hard plastic slab with the chincy white label) aren't "that" poorly graded. They are probably on par with an ICG or SEGS grade, some of them, might even come back from the big boys graded a point less. Because like I said, in the beginning, it was all about the eye appeal. That's why the focus was solely on UNC and PR quality coins. Even for a while the "certified" but not graded Circulated stuff, was done up, because it was eye appeal.

But, as the reputation didn't build the way they hoped, the price point started to fall. That's when the flood of 70's happened, and it all went downhill pretty fast.

Nothing of any merit. The News Journal has been distracted by a series of awful things here in the city. Cops fatally shooting a man in a vacant house, the county prosecutor committing suicide, and a few other equally terrible events.

I can say that the buying list for Abon has changed since the charges were announced. They are now ONLY buying DVD's, Coins, and Jewelry. Since I'd be recognized on sight, I haven't tried to go in and see how things are working in the post indictment world. I can say that the crew working there is a skeleton crew, mostly family + the employee who was named in the indictment. (Who I'm pretty sure was the person who previously posted here trying to call me out) The Non Familial employees that I knew personally are all gone, moved on to different jobs.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for details. I'm hoping that something comes out soon.

While we wait on other news to filter in, you can take a look at a story from earlier this year, that would have put a serious crimp in the business model that they were operating under. Taken at face value, it seems to be a pretty cut and dry case of a small business owner trying to oppose legislation that would cost him a lot of money.

But, then the raid happened... and well, now I think it casts it in a very different light.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com...ion/7760941/

That's a lot of house for the money (at least it is compared to price per square foot in my neck of the woods). The listing says it includes a parking lot that fits about 50 cars.