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Joe_G.Here is the original thread which was interesting in itself => http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=153652&messageid=1085895899&lp=1086382739
As planned, I met the seller in Niagara Falls Saturday morning. The offer was made and discussed to make the exchange the night we arrived (my girl friend & I) in the early hours of the morning but it was just too late and my eyes were tired. That was the same conversation that I learned he wasn't Kelly but instead James (James Stewart). Kelly is his girl friends name that he's been using on eBay.
The following morning I received a call from James again from the casino and learned he spent the night with his friend there (no sleep) which didn't seem to comfort me. We made the short drive over to the casino and met up with him in a small breakfast area. Turns out James is younger than me, 26, with a very non-typical hobbyist look to him (black leather, mean looking goatee, etc).
But that is where all the concern took a turn for the better, James knows his collecting and has many stories to tell. It was obvious that he is fairly well off. His main interest for some time was collecting rookie cards of everyone in the Hall of Fame. After conquering everyone from post WWII he turned efforts to the earlier issues including tobacco and 19th century. However, after obtaining many key cards his interest faded a bit and he is now shifting his collecting efforts to other memorabilia like autographs etc. He recently was taken for over $4,000 on a Cy Young autographed baseball but luckily got his money back. Also had stories about some of his finds/pick-ups while flying around the US (Atlantic City) etc.
Lots of stories, but lets talk about the card itself.
His N172 Brouthers looked much better in person than in picture in terms of looking real. I have very high confidence in its authenticity both with the naked eye and under a 10x loupe on the front, back, edges, etc. Beautiful card that I'd fully expect to grade around SGC88+ except for a very light signature that was erased from the back likely many years ago. The signature is hard to find, requiring the proper light and angle to detect it was ever there. I don't know how far this will drop the grade, it would be a shame to receive an SGC60 or 70 because of this small issue but I've seen it before.
So that is where I'm at, very happy with a beautiful Brouthers card hoping SGC won't drop the grade too far for the small indentations left on the card back. I'm over-nighting a package to them for "next day" grading to see how things go.
I'll get back to James once graded. I hope he didn't gamble the $1300 away, not because I think I'll need it back but because he seemed like a nice guy. I'll update this thread with the cards grade and some better quality pictures.
James still has some 19th century cards to sell off including an N172 Anson and McCarthy. I believe both are already slabbed by PSA with the Anson being a PSA 5. He isn’t very happy with the amount the Brouthers fetched and isn’t sure how he’ll sell the remaining cards. I do know he’d like around $4 - 4.5k for the Anson.