Al Reach Cabinet on eBay last night
 

I was watching with interest the listing for the Al Reach cabinet on eBay last night. (For those not familiar, the seller listed it last year, but there were suspicions it had been stolen years ago from the NY Public Library and it was taken down.)

The seller said he had sent it to the FBI and the NYPL did not have a claim on it as being their property, so he went ahead with the sale.

Not included in the listing was a back scan. On the back was a penciled "3", which is believed to have identified it to a certain part of the NYPL's collection.

So, if the NYPL and FBI really said there was no claim, why were there only two bidders on this (one a new bidder who bid three times)? If totally clean, wouldn't this have sold for more than $1351?

Would love other's thoughts on this. Was it because of future potential claims by the NYPL? Were most people sure that this was indeed stolen property, regardless of any claims (or lack thereof) by the NYPL?

The listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...vip=true&rt=nc

well it's not a t206 for one...


great piece, I missed the auction but does seem like a low price for what it is. The stolen concerns definitely could not have helped but who knows?

Not sure but, from my experiences, players or execs in street clothes almost always bring less than players or execs (managers) in uniforms. This is more a cabinet card of someone that was important to baseball than a cabinet that would be collected by most collectors of sets. There is still a good market and I think this card would have done much better in a major auction. All just my opinions. Others who collect the 19th century can probably give more perspective.

Reach had a long career as a player, primarily with the Philadelphia Athletics. But as Leon pointed out, he's older here and in street clothes, and those cabinets always sell for less. Add the taint that it might have been stolen, and you're not going to get a really high price for it.

Cabinets like that tend to fly under the radar on eBay. I do searches sometimes so I can tell you, it's hard to stay disciplined doing cabinet searches, it's like watching paint dry. Being possibly stolen, would an auction house even take the consignment? Plus the back's not that rare.

If I am not mistaking the seller said he can give the winning bidder the name and number of the FBI agent that investigated this and deemed it ok. Assuming everything the seller said is true I would have very few concerns about this piece, as far as the ownership.

I suppose you're right, what if they change their mind though? Seems kinda risky.

That is why I said "very few" instead of "no" concerns :). Been there, seen that too.

Well it certainly is a nice cabinet. Congrats to whoever got it. I'm sure it would have done much better in a "real" auction.

I think the winning price was fair.

I dont think that was a low "under the radar" price at all. He got much more than I thought considering the potential issues and even with a clean title that is about what the cabinet was worth in that condition.

Ok, it seems nicer to me then a 1300 piece. I'm glad I missed it :)

one of those things that should be worth more.

Heh, I own a whole collection of those...

As mentioned, there is a difference between a photo of him as a player and after retirement.

Though I don't recall seeing many of his photos from any year on the market.