In an episode of "Seinfeld," Jerry is nervous about having to take a lie
detector test. George tells Jerry how he's been able to lie his way through
many situations over the years by following one simple philosophy: "It's not
a lie if you believe it."

That must be the same philosophy used over the years by the on-air
personalities who are asked to sell sports cards on Shop At Home TV. Sometimes the things they say to sell cards are so ridiculous, you have to assume they truly believe it. Otherwise, nobody in their right mind could make these claims (at least not with a straight face).

I had not seen cards for sale on Shop At Home for several years, primarily because I avoid all home shopping networks. But last Saturday, I accidentally flipped past the Shop At Home channel and was stopped by the offer of the hour: a collection of cards and items depicting at least 50 Hall of Famers for $99.99 (plus another $10 or so for shipping).

I only watched this segment for about 10 minutes, but that's all it took to hear some remarkable claims. For instance, the headline item in this collection was an autographed Steve Carlton first-day cover. The hosts immediately proclaimed that this item alone was worth the $100 price for the whole collection.

Truth be told, an item like this is probably worth $25-$30.

The other big-ticket items in this lot included George Brett and Robin Yount rookie cards, both graded "10" by Beckett. That would be pretty cool if those were the Topps rookie cards of these Hall of Famers, but instead, the cards were from the far less popular (and unlicensed) SSPC set.

Again, the hosts proclaimed that these cards together were worth the $100 price tag. Again, they would be wrong because the book value for the cards is about $7 each.

Now, they were correct that the cards were graded 10 by Beckett, but this 10 was by Beckett's lower-priced Collectors Club Grading, and a BCCG 10 only means the card is "Mint or better." It doesn't carry the same premium as a 10 from the standard Beckett grading service.

They also promised cards of 50 "current or future Hall of Famers," which I don't doubt was accurate. Although most of the cards I saw pictured were mid-1990s cards of guys like Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, and few of the cards I saw would be considered premium cards.

Consumers who purchase items from TV shopping networks are generally being coaxed to make an impulse purchase. If they pay more than what they could find the same items for elsewhere, well, that's their own fault. In this case, I'm not sure consumers would have been getting "ripped off" in terms of what they were paying, but by no means were they getting several hundred dollars worth of items as the hosts were suggesting.