T206 O'Hara on Ebay

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Posted By: T206Collector

Not the greatest feedback rating, and the image is a little unsettling, too. This looks real to me, and I'm inclined to trust the seller. But this is a lot of money on an ungraded card. Thoughts? Comments?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5195609511&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

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Posted By: Tim James

Red flags on this one.The blue is way too vivid,and the creases are too white.Looks like a doctored reprint to me.

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Posted By: Todd Schultz

and is hit and miss on returning e-mails. Has tried repeatedly to sell m101-4 and 5 reprints, but I think lately has identified them as such. Proceed cautiously.

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Posted By: Ben

I'm sure we've all seen plenty of cards from the "famous Brian Cataquet collection" in the pre-1930's on ebay. His scanning and customer service skills leave ALOT to be desired, but I think the O'Hara is probably ok.

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Posted By: Tim James

It would be nice to see a scan of the back.Also, this is not a scan,it is a digital picture.

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Posted By: Rob

"100% AUTHENTIC GUARANTEED!!!"

I was inclined to bid, but he pushes too hard for a card that sells itself.

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

Brian does that with most of his cards - it's just his way of expressing himself. He seems honest enough, just sometimes doesn't respond to questions.

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Posted By: FatBoy

i've dealt with brian in the past (20 or so years sporadically).

like others have said, lacking in salesmanship, but does indeed have a collection and does know cards etc.

keith

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

The card looks ridiculously fake. My experience with the seller was not a good one -- unless you like being ignored.

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Posted By: Rob

He doesn't take PayPal, so I won't bother. I'll save for something else.

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Posted By: dan mckee

Card is original, Brian has been around forever, used to work for David Festberg and the late Bob Bostoff, God Bless Bob's Soul!

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Posted By: Ed Hans

I think the O'Hara is real. The effects you see are the result of cranking up the brightness and contrast in a photo editing program. Not my favorite seller either.

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Posted By: T206Collector

First of all, I believe it is 100% authentic, but just to be sure I will be sending it to SGC tomorrow to be authenticated. I will report on that further. I put the seller's original ebay scan below, then follow it with my scan. What a difference a scan makes!

Seller's scan:



My scan:

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Posted By: Tim James

I must appologize for my first response to this thread.If I had seen a scan like this,rather than the first digital picture,I would have had a different opinion.

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Posted By: Robert

Congratulations 206 collector on your win

basicgreatguy@hotmail.com

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Posted By: dan mckee

I bid and lost, I knew it was real, you should receive a 1 maybe 2 from SGC. Dan.

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Posted By: Robert

Ahh Now I know who outdid me on it lol I figured there were some here from the board eye ballin it I just didnt know who lol Even though me and Dan lost out on it I am glad that the card found a good home
Robert

basicgreatguy@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Gary Nuchereno

So let me see If I understand this. He took an authentic card and by trying to enhance the colors he made the card look like a fake,and probably cost himself a few bucks for his efforts. Thats different anyway

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Posted By: martin dalziel

I don't know that he tried to enhance the colors or not. My old digital camera made everthing look like those bright colors in the ebay scan.
Theres many a bargain to be had on Ebay by picking up items with poor scans, bad images, wonky photo's, etc. - call them what you will.

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Posted By: dan mckee

He doesn't try to enhance the colors, all of his pictures are distorted and look different. I would say he is just not a great photographer.

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Posted By: Brian Lindholme

I would say that the cards are good enough...not TOO far from the descriptions if you get past the self-hype.Pictures are terrible, shipping is mysterious and he refuses to respond to inquiries.
He should not be selling his cards...he should hire someone with a clue about customer service and etiquette. His was the most bizarre eBay transaction I have ever had. (over 400 smooth ones). He could make some money in this business environment(sky rocket priced vintage)with some fine material but I think he costs himself money by not understanding business...at all.
Too bad.
But hey, that O'Hara is a nice card, n'est ce pas ?

Brian

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

are highly distorted. I think he resizes them to all be like 400x400 instead of going with proportional sizing to keep the dimensions straight. If you look at everything he has up, it's all distorted.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I've purchased a number of items from him. His scans are always distorted and his responses to inquiries are terse or non-existent. All items arrived, typically badly packed. One of the items was an obvious fake provided you know what you are looking at; since it was a very obscure boxing issue, I suspect that he simply followed whatever catalog he'd seen the item in but had never actually handled one before. I did not bother chasing after him; frankly, the item was cheap and I was swamped at work at the time and did not have the energy to pursue matters. I would deal with him if he had something I really wanted but I would not commit big $$ to it. I do not believe he is malevolent (like Festberg or Hager), merely incompetent as an internet seller.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

He used to work very close with or for Festberg. I know they were closely allied based on proximity or some working arrangement. They're both in the Bronx I think. They were at the National probably 5-6 years ago together I think (Cleveland if my failing memory serves me).

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Posted By: leonl

I met Tobeecat (Brian) a few years ago, or maybe last year-I don't remember, at the National. He's a little young and very eager. He sells cards for a living and is not a bad guy. Does he probably need some work on etiquette and customer service? Yeap. Is he a bad person? Nope. Does he try to screw people over? I doubt it. Give the guy a little bit of a break.....I think if we met half the folks in person, that we talk about on the board, there would be a little friendlier atmosphere. I am not making excuses for poor customer service though. regards

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Posted By: Judge Dred

I've purchased an item from Brian and it was better than the picture indicated. If he'd learn to scan his cards and answer questions a little better he'd definitely get higher bids for his material. The O'Hara picture posted in the ebay item description was terrible but that's the way he does things. Perhaps he'll figure out what he's doing wrong and improve his income. I believe he's an honest seller but just a little "self" misguided.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

Argh, My first true bad experience came from David Festberg, hopefully he has allied himself better then him. There has been a previous thread about Brian to which he responded. We all pretty much came up with the same conclusion, that if he would be a little better with his scans and customer service he would get alot more bidding from board followers.

Lee

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Posted By: dan mckee

Brian worked for festberg when ebay first came up. Brian was dave's ebay man but came close to a nervous breakdown. Brian is now on his own and is an honest guy. I recommend him. Dan.

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Posted By: cn

I was just wondering what happened to him. He used to advertise heavy in SCD and the Trader Speaks. I stepped out of the hobby for about 8 years and now the only time I hear about him is on this board.

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Posted By: Chad

I just won a T206 McGraw in one of his auctions. It's hard to tell from the scan how rough it is, but for a 12 dollar winning bid, I'll cross my fingers. Only, I have no idea how I'm supposed to pay for it yet.

--Chad

Check that. Now I do! Hope this works out. I'd avoided his auctions until reading this thread. Things seem a little less impersonal now, anyway.

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Posted By: T206Collector

So now I'm pretty happy with this purchase.

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Posted By: Rob

Excellent steal!