1919 Reds Pennant

[mjkm90]

Don't be pulled in by the fact that experienced baseball collectors or even pennant collectors bid on this piece.

Many vintage baseball collectors have specialties as you know. A person may be an advanced collector of cards, photos, or bats, but know beans about pennants, gloves, and jerseys. Unless they handle and study a particular niche over time, mistakes can be made. Just think about how many Black Sox collectors there are who simply search for anything 1919 Reds and Sox. Any of them would want this piece and 90% may not have a single pennant in thier collection.

Regarding this pennant specifically...NOBODY has experience because these are all one of a kind. Those who bid were pulled in by the allure and look of this pennant, but wishing it real doesn't make it so.

If it was $50 I might keep it just to hang on the wall, but never for a significant sum. I would get a sick feeling in my gut every time I walked past this piece if I paid serious $ for it. Run away and forget it. You will not be sorry you avoided this mistake. You can purchase an amazing and 100% genuine pennant for significantly less than this and enjoy it forever.

[barrysloate]

Even if there was a slight possibility it's vintage, and I don't believe it is, how could you enjoy owning it? It's still $3000, and every time you look at it there will be that little voice asking if you in fact made a giant mistake. It's very easy to acquire period materials and thread, and it wouldn't be very hard to duplicate it if you had a little experience working with fabric. Given it is unlikely to be real, how could you not return? It's not worth the risk.

[Shoeless Moe]

The interesting thing will be to see when the seller re-lists. Were one of the 4 other bidders not a member of this forum, if so it's still going to go high.

Seller could still get anywhere from 1500 to 3 grand if # 2 bidder is not a member.

[gratefuldog3]

If the pennant still remains questionable at the end of all this, I can tell you I really do not think the seller would even consider relisting the item. He's as upset with the ordeal as I am,( the buyer ), perhaps more if at all possible! Scott

[7nohitter]

Yup, the seller, based on the description in the original auction, seems to be on the up and up....never mind the fact that the buyer stated the seller has ALREDY refunded him!

[Ladder7]

What a BS diatribe. May have missed it. He talks about his mean old lady and some crippled friend in Michigan... Where is the mention of the darn provenence?

Always leery of an extensive description. Those sales never work out. This seller is a smooth smoothy and has a few of yoos buffalo'd. Now needs to scramble to protect his feedback.

[Shoeless Moe]

Originally Posted by Ladder7

What a BS diatribe. May have missed it. He talks about his mean old lady and some crippled friend in Michigan... Where is the mention of the darn provenence?

Always leery of an extensive description. Those sales never work out. This seller is a smooth smoothy and has a few of yoos buffalo'd. Now needs to scramble to protect his feedback.

Eggs-actly!

[gratefuldog3]

I really haven't got that impression. Seems possible to make a mistake. However, what do I know?

[Leon]

Wow, this is an interesting thread. I too was fooled but I also know that many, many times I go outside of my specialty (we all know what that is) I lose some confidence. With that lost confidence comes a higher percentage of mistakes.

The reason it wasn't brought to light BEFORE the auction ended is almost no one on the board will "out" ongoing auctions as to not alert more folks. About 99% of the board understands that when an ongoing auction gets outed, it won't be a great deal, in the end, for anyone except the seller.

Seller seems very stand up. It would be nice to back track and find the real culprits. I am not 100% dismissing anyone though, if ya'll know what I mean, until that provenance comes out. I have seen too much and am a bit jaded in that sense.

[gratefuldog3]

Just thought I'd mention one more thing before I dismiss myself from this thread. The pennant is going back today. I spoke with the seller this morning, believe what you will, and it is his intention to destroy the pennant so it never appears in the hobby again. I guess time will tell. Scott

[perezfan]

It's great that he intends to destroy it. But better yet would be if he could go back to the person from whom he acquired it. If the seller could identify and "out" the source who is feeding these into the hobby, it would serve a greater justice than simply destroying it

The recent batch of these pennants that's surfaced is disturbing, and it would be nice to nip this trend in the bud.