true crime trading cards?

[Caustic Coffee]

Originally Posted by LaArana

They still seem to be too taboo to acquire anywhere. Highly lame. I clearly remember buying true crime related material from eBay when I was about 16. Fucking PC shitheads burn my buns.

You're completely fucking right about that. Years back, I remember bidding on (and losing) a letter written by "The Trash Bag Killer." The killer had something to do with the Omen, like he worked on the movie and turned out to be a killer or something and that just blew my mind at the time. I bid a couple times, but it eventually went for like 150 bucks or something and I came to my senses. I also saw a Gacy painting on Ebay before, but now they'll have none of it.

I have no idea who it was hurting to sell these items.

[LaArana]

I just did a bit of searching for the cause of the restriction. Andy Kahan from -=bah=- Texas looks to be a powerful force responsible for the decimation of murderabilia sales on eBay. The bastard.

One of staunchest opponents of murderabilia is Houston crime victim advocate Andy Kahan, who said he has been fighting the sale of "hideous" and "despicable" items for more than a decade.

"From a victim's perspective, there is nothing more nauseating and disgusting to find out the person who murdered one of your loved ones now has items being hawked by third parties for pure profit," Kahan told AOL News. "I am a firm believer in free enterprise and capitalism, but you shouldn't be able to rob, rape and murder – and then turn around and make a buck off of it."

Kahan said he started getting involved in 1999 in trying to stop the sale of murderabilia after reading an article about a New York serial killer whose privileges had been rescinded because the Department of Corrections found out he had artwork for sale on eBay.

"I just figured in my mind where there was one, there had to be others, so I went on eBay and did a search. I ended up finding hundreds of items for sale – everything from serial killer letters to artwork," Kahan said. "Probably like most people, I was under the illusion that this was not legal. How can someone be profiting from some of the most despicable crimes known to man?"

Kahan reached out to eBay's public relations department to learn more.

"They told me they were not the morality police and that as long as it's legal, they have an obligation to offer it to their customers and if I didn't like it, I should go do something about it," he said

So he started buying items and destroying them, he said.

"I got samples of serial killer hair, fingernails, clothing, sexually pornographic artwork, you name it," Kahan added. "Some of the items I kept so that I could use them later for more powerful presentations when talking to elected officials."

In 2001, eBay announced it would no longer allow the sale of murderabilia. The online auction sites' offensive material policy was updated, noting, "We'll remove your listing and suspend your account if you've been convicted of a violent felony and are attempting to use eBay (directly or through another person) to benefit financially from your criminal notoriety."

But murderabilia sellers simply set up their own online shops. As a result, Kahan took his quest to lawmakers.

"We started crafting laws. About eight states have now passed what you call 'notoriety for profit laws,'" Kahan said.

But he realized that most of the transactions are interstate commerce, not affected by state laws. So he pursued federal legislation.

Kahan met with Texas Sen. John Cornyn and drafted Senate Bill 1528 to stop the sale of murderabilia. The bill would make it illegal for inmates to use the U.S. mail as a conduit for shipping items to be sold for profit. The bill was initially picked up in the House by Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., but it has since stalled.

"They never had a hearing and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why we cannot achieve bipartisan support," Kahan said. "I was frankly told that because we lack a Democrat co-sponsor, it was going nowhere"

He said the bill currently is on "life support."

Gein does not understand why Kahan and others are so offended by his merchandise.

"This hobby is the same as collecting celebrity signatures, sport signatures and the like," Gein said. "The negativity should be used in a more productive way, such as to make sure these guys never get out of prison [by] writing to parole boards when their parole dates come up to ensure they are not released. I have sympathy for the families of victims, but at the same time, I have a right to run a legal business. ... this is something we profit from. Not the inmates."

Joe Hiles, a private collector of murderabilia and owner of skcentral.com, agrees with Gein.

"I collect the stuff because I consider them historical documents," Hiles said. "[It may be] morbid, gruesome history, but it is history nonetheless. Fifty years from now, if you mention a name like Anthony Sowell, you'll think of Cleveland history. If you mention David Berkowitz, you think of New York history. Sure, it's not a reminder of a good history, but it's still history."

Also, in my search, I found a muderabilia-friendly auction website:

Murder Auction

[LaArana]

Originally Posted by LaArana

Anyways, I'm still interested in only a few of these cards. I'm missing:

[G-MEN and Gangsters]
31 - The KC Massaacre
32 - "Pretty Boy" Floyd

This is blurry, but it says:
ECLIPSE ENTERPRISES True Crime II Trading Cardsblahblahblah
Even though they all say SERIES 2, I have 1-5. Weird.

OK, so thanks to the OP, I now have a complete series of II, and fifty million doubles / triples. What I do lack though, are the two I highlighted in my quote --> from series I. Can anybody out there help out? I have plenty I could trade in return.

[LaArana]

BUMP

Again, anyone with the first set of True Crime cards from Enterprise(1992), I'd love to get my filthy hands on # 31 and 32. If you have the Rodney King Beating cards - I also need A and B of those bonus cards : )

Help a brother out.

[ReptilianPig]

These guys don't get any attention amongst all my other "stuff." PM for any further details I have left out.