Originally Posted by DWS44
Hello Everyone…I’m Dave Smith (aka DWS44), the thoroughly embarrassed owner of that 1915 Cracker Jack Connie Mack Card…or whatever the heck it really is. A nice person who contacted me via ebay this morning to tip me off let me know that news of my card was spreading through the forums and was kind enough to send me a link to this post. I just joined your forum so I could explain this situation as it has unfolded this morning.
Some quick background. I was a big card collector starting around late 1986 through the 90s during my teen years and into college. During the time I put together quite a collection, and with my parents, also owned/operated a successful card shop through most of the 90s in Johnson City, TN. After college I got into other things and when I moved to Charlotte in 1999, I packed up the card collection and the vast majority I hadn’t touched until this spring. Like a lot of others, Covid suddenly gave me more time at home to play with cards and start getting things ready to sell. As some noted above, a majority of my collection was of the 80s/90s era, but I did have a fair number of older cards as well. IOW, I’m not a newbie to card collecting…just maybe a little rusty. In fact, I have already sold complete sets of 1959 and 1961 Topps cards and a few other older singles on ebay, with positive feedback on those listings, if you’re bored enough to want to search my feedback. I’ve been buying and selling on ebay since the late 90s. I ALWAYS do my best to be honest in my dealings and in my listing descriptions. That’s how I was raised, how we ran our card shop, and how I try to operate in life.
Now…the Cracker Jack card. I ran across this card back in the spring with some of my older cards. The best I recall, we found this card in a large collection of cards we bought back in the card shop days, so it’s been in my collection since at least the mid 90s. I kept it in my collection for the coolness factor of being the “oldest” card in my collection, though I had never really considered or verified its originality. It looked old, and that was cool enough for teenage me. Fast Forward to present and me selling things. I know enough to know that counterfeiting has always been a thing, and since I didn’t know the originality of this card, I tried to do some research. I understand some may have found a Reddit post that I made back in the spring trying to learn more about the card. I hang around some other Reddit groups, so that was where I thought to ask. Consensus from a handful that responded was that it was probably a fake but suggested that I probably needed to send to PSA to know for sure.
As for PSA…some noted that I had not listed anything else that is PSA graded. Back in our collecting and card shop days, PSA grading was not as big of a “thing” as it has since evolved into. I had never been through the PSA process. When I decided to start selling the collection, I decided I was not going to start going through all that, though I probably could have sold some of my bigger cards (Jordan, Griffey, Jeter RCs) for considerably more. I just didn’t want to chance damage to the cards in shipping or wait several months for them to come back. With respect to the unknowns on the Cracker Jack card, I figured what the heck…I’ll at least be able to experience the process, and then I’ll know for sure what I have and can list it safely knowing what it is.
I sent the card off on June 8th. In the paperwork, I specifically stated that I wasn’t sure if the card was original or not. I received the card back on October 13th. I thought that part of the PSA grading process was authentication and that they would not grade reprint or counterfeit cards. Perhaps I was wrong in that assumption, but I swear on a stack of Bibles that what you all see in those pictures is exactly what I received back from PSA. 100% unaltered. There was no mention in the paperwork of it being a reprint/counterfeit/fake, so I assumed it was actually a real, original, card and last night I got around to posting it for sale. I wake up this morning to a message from the person I mention above that the card was an obvious a fake. The person seemed sincere, so I went to cancel the auction, but found I already had a few bids. I then added the addendum you all posted above that it may be a fake despite the PSA grading and I also contacted the person who was high bidder at the time if they wanted to retract their bid. My first instinct was to leave it that way, let people decide for themselves if they still wanted whatever it is, and figured that would probably kill bidder interest anyways. As the morning progressed, I continued getting bids, as well as more people contacting me that it was obviously a fake, found out about my listing being posted and discussed at forums, people tracking info about me, etc. That’s when I just cancelled the bid and ate the ebay fees to do so.
So…there it is. The full story. I apologize for any misunderstandings about the list, but like I said…it is not my intent to misrepresent or mislead anyone. There is absolutely no way I would intentionally tamper with a PSA case or swap in a fake card to try to make a buck. That is not how I operate. I’m rather proud of have 20+ years of 100% feedback on ebay and other forums that I’ve sold items. Reading comments here are enough to turn my stomach, and I am embarrassed for posting something for sale that would put me in that light with collectors. I would take my collection out in the back yard and set it on fire before I’d want people to think I’m dishonest or a scammer. And I’m pretty sure that my first dealing with PSA will also be my last. Uggh. For the record, I have also contacted PSA over the matter, but the autoresponse I got back said it would probably be five days before I would get any response.
If you read all that…thank you for your time. I hope that explains the situation better for you all. If you have been following this on other forums, I would welcome you to extend a link to my explanation to the other sites as well.
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10-26-2020, 01:49 PM
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