My 2 cents
Hi all,
I was made aware of this thread last night so I decided to join and throw in my 2 cents because I've had many dealings with Brent on higher dollar cards. A few here probably know me from the CU message board hey day, but that's neither here nor there.
I've consigned a decent amount of high dollar cards ($5k-$30k) to Brent over the years and have bid on stuff as well. I've never been asked to bid anything up, and I would've absolutely declined had I been. I've always found his customer service to be above and beyond what I've received from almost every auction house I've dealt with (pretty much all of the major ones). In my years of dealing with Brent and his crew, I've never had the sense that any impropriety has occurred. In fact, a few years ago there was a several thousand dollar proof card I consigned to him where Brent was made aware during the auction that it was not quite exactly what was represented; nothing nefarious, but it was information pertinent to the card that we both agree should be disclosed. Brent notified me that he felt it was the right thing to do once the auction ended to notify the winning bidder of the new info and give him the option to pass on the card which I agreed was fair. The bidder declined to pay which was understandable, so we relisted it in the next auction and disclosed what we had learned and it sold for around 40% of what it did the first time. This was a clear case of where it would've been very easy to not say a word, let the 1st guy pay and book a nice win. Brent chose to be proactive and do what he felt was right, which I respected and agreed with even though it cost me several grand and him several hundred.
I didn't come here to speak about the DiMaggio tirefire because I'm not involved and it seems there are already enough hot takes. I agree that the request for Cortney to bump up his bid is not a good look and probably something Brent regrets doing. All I can say is that I've done enough high-end business with Brent (not to the level that Cortney has, but definitely significant) to make an informed decision about his character and intentions with regard to the hobby. I've never done business with Cortney so I can't speak intelligently about his character, but from a distance it appears as if he feels doing a good amount of business with somebody gives him the right to treat them poorly; like a regular at a high-end restaurant treating the waitstaff like crap. The "$20 collector" line in post #405 says a lot about who he is in my eyes. I do sympathize with him with regards to the DiMaggio- if Brent had knowledge that the card had been soaked/toned/whatever, that should have been disclosed before making the private sale. My guess is that if Cortney treated people in a more respectful manner, this whole deal would've gone down differently.
Anyway, I know I'm a newbie here and my opinion will be taken with a grain of salt which is fine. But after reading all of the posts piling on Brent, I felt the need to speak up on his behalf based on my experience.
Lee
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