Editorial: BE NICE

This week has been a crazy one. In addition to the madness that is my life, I had the most spectacular appraisal (with the most incredible field find story ever) happen on Wednesday. Some day soon I'll relate the nature of this field find, but suffice to say that it was very, very high end fishing tackle from a very, very famous figure in history. I was excited as a school kid just being able to see it! I put the gentleman (who we'll call Bob) in touch with several dealers as well as several collectors so he could get a number of appraisals for his tackle.

Unfortunately, Bob had listed the tackle on the internet, and got into contact with a well-known collector. After sending pictures of some (not even a small percentage of the total) of the tackle, the well-known collector made Bob an offer on a single reel which, in my opinion, was less than 50% of its actual worth.

Well, I bring this up because after contacting some of the folks I put him in touch with, Bob had a better idea of the value of the reel (and other tackle) and when the well-known collector emailed him, Bob said he was getting the reels appraised by several others. The well-known collector's response? To send an email calling Bob a pejorative term, and then to call his son an equally hideous term.

Unacceptable.

The bewildered Bob sent me a copy of the email and I could only wonder if he felt this was what all collectors are like. They are not. But there are some hideous trolls out there, and they give us all a bad name.

So I am taking the time to tell you, your words and actions reflect who you are as a person. Be nice. Be honest. Be truthful. And if you are, it will all come back to you...and if you aren't, lots of us are paying attention, and I promise that this, too, will come back to you. In spades.

-- Dr. Todd