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Re: Legally Powerless trade Organizations

Good idea in general, but who is going to carry the liability insurance when
the members get sued for slander for falsely accusing a seller?  It would
happen, just a matter of time and numbers.  If you don't think this is
possible, you really need to look at the world we live in today.......

Joel


-----Original Message-----
From: dean bessey <deanbessey@hotmail.com>
To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
<meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Saturday, November 20, 1999 6:40 AM
Subject: Legally Powerless trade Organizations


>I thought that some list members might be interested in these two sites
>which are totally unrelated to meteorites. The first one is the site of the
>american philatelic society and the second one is american numismatic
>society. These represent two societies that are among the worlds largest
>resource organizations for stamp collectors and coin collectors.
>Particularly look at membership and code of ethics in the philatelic
society
>and its reference to authtenticity and their comment that "membership is a
>privelidge and not a right". Members have to be approved and voted on
before
>they get membership. True their biggest job is marketing the hobby but many
>efforts are made (More so in stamps than coins because stamps are easier to
>fake than coins and there are many more fake ones around - there is even a
>large segment of collectors that collect fake stamps) to ensure that the
>hobby is not filled with criminals. They work closely with the fbi (Which
by
>the way has a special fraud stamp devision) and help out and report, as
will
>as be a resourse for information. I know of one individual that had a court
>order specifically prohibiting him from dealing in stamps for a 10 year
>peroid. Your membership in the APS is a valuable commodity (Just look at an
>eBay type online auction site www.stampauctions.com and see how many people
>puts their aps membership number as reference). Complaints are always
>available for viewing.
>Do they have any real power? (Other than to kick somebody out of the
>society)  Not one bit. Nothing prevents a criminal from setting up shop and
>selling stamps outside of the scope of the APS (And many do). However, When
>the American Philatelic Society complains the FBI listens.
>I wont even get into powerless societies dealing with ancient artifacts and
>the efforts they go through and the clout that they have. Interpol has a
>division on that that has a budget bigger than some third world governments
>and they certaintly use powerless societies as a resource. Stolen artifacts
>may be more of interest but if somebody sold a very expensive item to a
>museum that was a fake Interpol and the FBI would be interested.
>There are societies around for almost anything. You could surely find a
>needleworking society or a volkswagon bug club in many major cities. The
>biggest job of any society is a resource group as well as marketing group.
>However the FBI or local police will probably listen if a blatently
>fraudulent or criminal act is reported by an official organization than by
>one individual.
>Meteorites need a organization such as this. (Remember that Marketing also
>means information - one of which makes new colectors knowledgable, which is
>in short supply in the meteorite community) There is no money to start it
so
>work will have to be done by volunteers but almost any organization
>origionally got its start like that.
>Dont knock an organization just because it has no real legal power.
>Look at this website:http://www.west.net/~stamps1/aps.html
>One of the links from it here is
>interesting:http://www.stamps.org/aps/aboutaps/ethics.htm
>Then look at this site:
>http://www.amnumsoc.org/
>Of course no matter what you do, there will always be criminals. No matter
>what resources, the APS, FBI, Interpol, and The US government puts into it
>the stamp hobby will always have con-artists.
>Unlike meteorites though, the stamp hobby has a resource group that people
>can go to for unbiased information and help - not to mention a group that
>the FBI can (And do) use for help. Lets not forget the marketing and
>information importance either. More collectors means a better hobby for
all.
>Sincerely
>DEAN BESSEY
>
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