OT: Honus Wagner on Ebay

[joelsabi]

anyone see that honus wagner cards up on ebay? bidders name was private and it was pretty beat up and sold for $160. was it a replica? it look real to me.

[ndevlin]

Put some links if you can...

[Rob L]

http://cgi.ebay.com/HONUS-WAGNER-T20...ayphotohosting

No question, it is not real. Not only is the color registration wrong, the printing is black instead of brown, font is wrong, and the T206 wagner cannot have a Polar Bear back.

[ndevlin]

On tobacco cards, I highly recommend buying them only if they are graded, from PSA or SGC of course! Not only can the tobacco cards might be good/authentic, ALOT of these bad boys have been trimmed!

The best way is to buy only the graded ones and again, I highly recommend this! And you can buy HOF'ers from $30 and up. Really not all that bad.

[David]

There are roughly 50-75 T206 Honus Wagners known to exist, and about 5,000 have been put up for auction on eBay. Thats all you need to know about the random T206 Honus Wagner you see on eBay.

The only genuine T206 Wagners on eBay have been offered by major auction houses, like Robert Edward Auctions and SCP/Sotheby's. The only exception was a wealthy, known collector who offered one in a SGC or PSA holder. Other than these examples, a genuine T206 Honus Wagner has NEVER been offered for auction on eBay.

[David]

It should also be noted that it is against eBay's policies to offer something for auction where you can't state its authenticity. The policy is if you don't know if something is real or fake, original or reprint, don't put it up for auction. Thus, this listing was against eBay's rules and should have been removed.

Besides, common sense would ask why would you want to buy something valuable from someone who states he can't tell if its real or fake. "My friends purchase from dealers who know how to authenticate and stand behind what they are selling. But I stick with strangers who state they have no clue what they are doing and don't allow returns or refunds."

[David]

Very lastly and on the topic of common sense: If the seller seriously thought the card might be genuine, why didn't he send it into PSA or SGC to find out if it is worth a small fortune? If he thought it could be genuine and worth $100,000 why would he sell it for $152?

Common sense says that him letting it sell for $152 shows that not only is the card a reprint, but that the seller knew it was a reprint. There's no way on God's green earth the seller would let someone have a T206 Honus Wagner he thought genuine for $152 plus shipping. He wouldn't let someone have it for $50,000.

[David]

If a guy says he has a game used 1921 Babe Ruth bat he's willing to sell for $152, you aren't going to think "That's a good price." You're going to think, "There's something seriously wrong here."

[Vintagedeputy]

You can tell by the Wagner, Pittsburgh printing that its a fake.

[joelsabi]

You can tell by the Wagner, Pittsburgh printing that its a fake.

I thought the Pittsburg was correct. the font size for "P" in pittsburgh is larger than the rest of the name.