Guess Frank was 'CONFLICTED'

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Posted By: David

At appears that Frank honestly doesn't know whether the item is new or old (though suspects it's old), and his eBay description reflect this. It doesn't appear that the description is bad.

However, I would think it would be prudent and good for business, to find out what something is for sure, before auctioning it-- unless it is a truely esoteric item,

As a seller, my practice is to pick from the piles or stacks of stuff (literally) items for the day's sale. Sometimes I pick out an attractive item that would look good in a sale, but I'm not certain of its origin/true identity ('Is this an original 1920 or later generation') or have a seed of doubt about its authenticity ('I know this came as part of a group lot from PSA/DNA, but I heard that Red Faber signed for a lot of his autograph requests'). In these cases I either make a determination at the moment ('Let's get out that article Jimmy Spence wrote on Faber and his signatrue'), or I simply put the item aside for another day when I have the time and knowledge to make a determination. I will say to myself, "Put this item aside, and pick up another one for today."

Naturally, when selling an item, there will often be minor details in question or even for healthy debate ('This T206 likely was a printer's scrap, but I can't be certain,' or 'This is a later generation wirephoto, but I can't tell you exactly when it was made. Probably the 1960s'), but where I'm not certain if an item is from 1880 or 1980, or if it's authenticy is not resonably certain (Faber versus wife) I'm certainly not going to put it on eBay, even if I say I don't know if it's Faber or his wife.

I understand that others may do it differently, and that can be perfectly okay, but I don't see any benefit for me as a seller to put up item where I say "It's from either 1880 or 1980, but I can't tell which one."