You've gots to be kid'n

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Posted By: ramram 

What can possibly be going through the minds of somebody like this? Where did our school systems go wrong when people like this slip through the cracks? Can you imagine the listing fee?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50133&item=3821002336&rd=1

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Posted By: hankron

Irrelvant to the auction's other issues, I get a chuckle from scammers who set a minimum bid higher than anyone gullible enough could possibly pay ... It's like with that recent Federick Foto Babe Ruth. If the scammer had set the minimum at a few hundred instead of a million, he might have gotten some bids.

The other key to scamming 101, is that you want people to think they are getting a steal.

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Posted By: jay behrens

At that price, you need to sell 12,000 copies of that litho at $1,000 each. And then you would only get back you intial invest. You would still have to cover printing and other costs. Somehow, I really doubt there 12,000 people willing to pay $1,000 for a reproduction.

Jay

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Posted By: joejoe

Yeah, listing fee was .10. Ebay had a special the other day which this guy obviously used.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

I emailed this seller and asked how he arrived at his starting bid. This is the answer I got, presented without comment.


My apologies for not responding sooner -

My uncle was Adrian Anson, who played in the National League in the late
1800's, and who is portrayed on the print. It was through family ties that I came
into possession of the original, which was produced in 1895. As far as my
research has shown, I believe this to be the only one of its kind in existence
today.

Because of its rarity, and although I had the original preserved so as to
avoid further deterioration, I hated for it to be lost forever, and so I decided
to reproduce it as a high end, limited edition lithograph.

At the end of 11 years of research, design, prototypes, and finally,
obtaining the copyright, I was ready to produce and market it, but I became ill with
throat cancer. After intensive chemo, the cancer was gone, but I suffered
damage to my esophagus as well as nerve damage, and was forced to shelf this
project.

During my illness, I was encouraged to consider selling the copyright to
someone who would be able to carry out my plan of reproducing this print. I did
some additional market research, finding that what I had intended to ask for my
lithograph was in the range of some of the other sports lithographs available
on the market. Plus, this had the bonus of being more unique because it was
so rare.

Having a substantial business background, (I owned and operated an aircraft
parts business before I retired), I determined the value of the project as a
business investment, and therefore came up with my starting bid - in part,
because it is so rare, and in part, because of the income it would have generated
had I been able to continue as planned.

I hope that this answers your inquiry. Thank you for your interest.

Good luck to you,
Stan Daniewicz

cg

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Posted By: mikemac

I do not have expertise in the area of copyright; however, would that item have copyright protection once copies were sold, given that the original was produced in 1895? Also, the picture says copyright pending. I think that anything written & produced today has copyright protection with transferable reproduction rights without registration with the Copyright Office - the creator just has to be ready to enforce her rights when she discovers unauthorized copying. Finally, who was the original copyright holder and how in the world did this guy obtain the full rights? Luckily the starting bid is so high, no one is likely to scammed on this item. Can you imagine if he started bidding at $500? Someone would bite. In any event, still, I'd like to see the rationale/calculation that generates the value of that starting bid, just as an academic exercise.

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Posted By: hankron

There's no copyright involved here.

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Posted By: Gary B.

Maybe because I'm fresh off almost getting scammed by someone, but I couldn't help but send this guy a query. God forgive me:

i'm sorry to hear about your ailing health. is the thorazine, lithium or prozac not working, because you really need to be certifiably insane to think anyone would be this crazy.

Hmmmm, if I were a multi-millionaire with 12 million dollars to throw away and looking for an investment opportunity, what would I do? I KNOW! I'd send it to some stranger with zero feedback to gain the rights to reproduce a poster that I would be lucky to sell 500 copies of (if I work REALLY hard) at $50 each.

Let's do some math then. $12,000,000 - $25,000 = $11,975,000. Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally people who are millionaires are somewhat intelligent since they worked hard to get their money. If they inherited it, had an incredibly low I.Q., perhaps a chemical imbalance in their brain, were impulse shoppers, happened to have seen this auction, then I think you would have a 1 in 12,000,000 chance they would go for this INCREDIBLE business opportunity.

You really are a marvel to the species, my friend...

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Posted By: hankron

Beyond that, selling copyrights that you know you don't own or otherwise have the rights to sell is against the law.

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Posted By: Jason

Someone should bid. What would be the fees on that deal? about $400K?

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Posted By: barrysloate

I just sent the guy an email and told him that I thought twelve million was kind of low, and that $40-50 million would be a price more reflective of its value, since there are at least three or four people out there who would like to own a repro. Even an original only sells for about $10K. You'd need to sell 1200 originals just to break even. And yes, nothing like a seller with zero feedback. He may not be a scammer though, just a bit delusional.

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Posted By: Gary B.

"I just sent the guy an email and told him that I thought twelve million was kind of low, and that $40-50 million would be a price more reflective of its value."

I agree, 40-50 million is a more accurate value. Even then it's a great deal, because lets face it, there are HUNDREDS of millions of dollars to be made with this image. If only I had a spare $12 mill...


"He may not be a scammer though, just a bit delusional"

If he's not a scammer, he's more than just a BIT delusional, he's more of a "let's call the men with the white coats to come and inject him with thorazine, strap on the straight jacket, lock him up in a rubber room and give him high-voltage shock therapy delusional."

Just one man's opinion.

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Posted By: ramram

O.K. this half-wit listed this item back when ebay had a special listing fee of ten cents or whatever but what about now? My understanding is that if he sells the item (ha ha) he won't have to pay listing fees (for a relisted item) but if it doesn't sell he will have to pay them. Can you imagine the listing fee?? He's even dumber than anybody has given him credit for. After all the emails that he's received telling him what a moron he is he has still relisted the item (at the same price!!).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50133&item=3823164573&rd=1

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Posted By: barrysloate

what is the listing fee for a 12 million dollar lot? Isn't it 1%. That would come to $120,000. The fact is that if someone paid him even $5000 for the rights to reproduce that poster, I think at that level it would be a difficult task to recoup the initial investment. Does he really think that anyone, even someone who is not familiar with the baseball hobby and is merely looking for a business opportunity, is willing to give twelve million dollars to a stranger? Someone with that kind of money might be looking to buy an apartment building or a shopping center, not a picture of some 19th century baseball players. It always fascinates me what some people are thinking. I feel bad for the seller if he is really that sick, but why is he even wasting his own time?

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

Barry - I think that listing fees top out. My son sells classic cars from the fifties. Last December he sold a pair of 50's Buick covertibles for $60,000+ and I think the fees were about $200 - Peter

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Posted By: jay behrens

Listing fees for eBay Automotive are different form the fees in the regular auction area, but the insertion fees does cap at $4.80, unless he has a reserve, then you are talk about a percentage of the listing price.

Jay