Posted By:
PaulAbout 18 months ago, I purchased a D304 Ty Cobb from Bricol Enterprises in an SCD auction. For those of you who don't know, Bricol is a regular advertiser in SCD. They mostly auction memorabilia, but occasionally have a few vintage cards.
The card arrived and it rested happily in my collection until I decided to trade it (and other cards) for some amazing Puerto Rican cards of Negro Leaguers. The collector I was trading with concluded it was counterfeit, throwing a bit of a monkey wrench into our deal. But fortunately he was very understanding and it all worked out fine.
Anyhow, I sent the card off to SGC for comfirmation and it came back counterfeit. I contacted Brian Collard, the owner of Bricol, to see if there was anything he could do. Remember, this was 18 months later. His response: please send the card back for a full refund with our apologies. I sent it back and received the refund.
To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. I was stunned. I can think of a thousand legitimate reasons why a dealer would be justified in not taking a card back after 18 months, and with the reputation so many dealers have for less-than-admirable conduct, I really did not expect this at all. I have to give Bricol and Brian Collard an A+++ or one of those newfangled "Pristine 100"s for the way they handled this.
The one reaction that I hope no one has to this post is that Bricol deals in bad cards. I was fooled by the card for 18 months and Bricol obviously was as well. Anyone dealing in a large volume of merchandise can make a mistake, especially with a card not frequently encountered. What matters is how they respond to the problem. To me, the important thing is that, even after 18 months, Bricol stood by its merchandise and gave me a full refund.
Paul