This is the American Greed podcast presented by CNBC.

I'm Stacey Keach.

In this episode of American Greed.

Money, greed, lack of moral values.

Maybe he's a sociopath, I don't know.

Bill Mastrow helps turn a niche hobby into a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise.

He's referred to by some as the godfather of the industry.

He really, on his back, brought this industry into what it was and what it is.

And it isn't about kids getting baseball cards and packs of gum anymore.

Any hobby, business, whatever, where money can be made, the cockroaches fly in.

And like baseball itself, this industry has winners, losers, and cheaters.

And you had 10% of schmucks like me,

who just was walking in and getting my head handed to me.

But when the game is over, will Bill Mastro end up triumphant?

Sadly, the big lesson is that crime absolutely pays, and it pays a lot.

Jeff Evers has the collector's bug.

He wants to turn pieces of Americana into cash.

In around 1998 or so, I started to watch the Antiques Roadshow, and I thought, well, that seems like an interesting hobby.

So I basically collected collectibles.

The idea was to treasure hunt, basically.

And one day in 2007, an elderly man hands him a small box of gold at a simple garage sale.

He marches me into his garage and he points up at a box and on the side is handwritten baseball cards.

...