"Jake Sullivan" ............

[Leon]

The reason I didn't post this earlier is because Bill Row.ett III and I spoke at great length today when I returned his call (from today) complaining about a board member. He told me he would come clean on the board and then just a little while ago he recanted and said he wouldn't. I was giving him the opportunity first. When I called him earlier I had already received some very damning info from a rock solid board member. (see below). When I called I asked him about the incident below. In our conversation he went from not remembering, to maybe remembering, to denial and eventually to full admission. All in one conversation. These things can affect folks lives and I don't just throw crap out here as many board members do. I try my best to make sure there is accurate info. I truly think about the whole situation. Because of the constant lying to me by Bill, I have decided to cut and paste exactly what was told to me and what was corroborated on the phone today by Bill himself. Also, I hope this is the end of a very sad situation. After today, giving him time to respond if he wants to, I most likely will not allow Bill back on the board. Just too many lies for me. (as well as the admission of shilling). All of this while he was acting like a fool on a probable witch hunt of Henry Yee. I hope this explains why I wasn't just throwing this stuff out here. I really wanted the mea culpa from him as he said he would post on the board. Please also understand that in my mind this whole thing stops here, concerning Bill, and if anyone contacts him personally or business wise, or hassles him off of the board, and it is proven and I find out about it, then i will deal with those individuals and contemplate suspension or banning. It really needs to stop on the board. Even though he did some bad stuff a few years ago I don't think he should be hounded off of our board for stuff that happened on the board. thanks....

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A couple of years ago, I had sold a number of baseball bat pen/pencil sets on eBay, one of which (the Ted Williams set) Mr. Row.ett was very keen on owning. He wound up as the under-bidder, and contacted me afterwards to see if I could persuade the winner to sell them to him at some price over his high bid. The winner declined, but through that contact, Bill asked me to list a number of similar pens and pencils that he had as extras on consignment. I did, and after the auctions ended and most of the payments had come in, went ahead and sent him a check for his portion of the procedes though I still had not received payment from one bidder: Jake Sullivan. So some time goes by, during which I send several invoices to Jake with no response. I finally ended up filing all of his wins as Unpaid Items, re-listed the items in another round of my own auctions (since I had already paid Bill for them), and make a mental note to never send out consignment checks until I had received all payments, no matter how much of a hurry the consignor is in.

So a few weeks later, I get word from Bill that he has a few more things to consign, and not having made the connection yet, I tell him to send them on. So I run his items in one of my weekly auctions, and the bidding goes really well, only when the final bids come in I see that this son-of-a-gun Jake Sullivan won 3 more lots (second lesson learned: go ahead and ban any bidders that give you problems from future auctions). Not only that, but another bidder who won several lots, but wound up underbidder to Jake on one, contacts me about some suspicious-looking bidding. It seems that Jake had only ever bid on one other item prior to bidding on my auctions, and had bid exclusively on my items within the last 30 days that eBay would show results for. Basically, to any outside observer it would appear that I was shilling my own items, though I knew that was not the case. I explained to the gentleman that I had had problems with this particular bidder before, thanked him for bringing the matter to my attention, and wound up selling him the item Jake had outbid him on for his underbid price. Whether the guy believed me or thought I was just making up an excuse to cover my butt, I'll never know (I admit that, despite being the truth, I wouldn't have believed it if the roles were reversed).

So, I'm getting ready to send Bill his next consignment check, when I notice that his mailing address looks familiar. I hadn't noted it the first time around, but it was the same address as this Jake Sullivan used! Long story short, Bill had consigned his items to me, used the Jake Sullivan alias to bid up his own items, and accepted payment for items that he himself had bid on and won (but never paid for), all without saying one word to me about it. And apparently would have been content to repeat the arrangement ad nauseum had I not finally caught on.

When I confronted him about it, he basically acted surprised that I had any problem with him bidding on his own items, as it meant more money for both of us. I gave him a lengthy explanation regarding how I didn't appreciate the position he had put me in as a seller, and the various ethical boundaries he had crossed with both his shilling and his accepting payment for the items he "won" under his alias, sent his remaining items back to him, and vowed never to do business with him again.

I remember well the name Bill Row.ett, but had completely forgotten about Jake Sullivan until I saw your post re-naming him. I got this sinking feeling, went back and checked my records, and sure enough, there he was.

Without knowing what you and Bill discussed this afternoon, I will say this: He has no business bad-mouthing anyone regarding shill bidding, whether those accusations are based in any reality or not.

I will also say that, unless his interactions with Henry Yee in his recent auctions were other than what he communicated to me via PM, his most recent claim of fraud is not based in reality. (As in, even avid conspiracy theorists would dismiss it as "that's impossible/ridiculous"). He made other, even more incredible claims about Henry Yee himself, but given his misguided assessment of the situation with his own bidding, I would feel silly even repeating them.





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[Splinte1941]

I'm BillRow.ett and I agree with and support the above message.

This will be my last post and I want to apologize to anyone (everyone) I have offended.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Splinte1941

I'm BillRow.ett and I agree with and support the above message.

This will be my last post and I want to apologize to anyone (everyone) I have offended.

Thanks Bill. I consider this a closed issue but felt the board was entitled to know. best regards

[ibuysportsephemera]

Leon...Just a suggestion....I would lock this thread and be done with this mess.

Anyone who would use the same alias on this board after the story above might be a little.........(fill in your own adjective, since I don't know the guy personally).

Jeff

[barrysloate]

Bill- this particular issue aside, your posts over on the memorabilia side these past few weeks were nasty and quite rude to a number of long time board members. I don't think you contributed anything at all during your stay.

[glchen]

This probably won't amount to much, but I think Will should be forgiven especially since the shilling incident happened long ago. In the Henry Yee thread, he was trying to make the peace, and many others have questioned the high prices coming out of the Yee auction, not just Will. The shilling situation on ebay is obviously really bad, no question about that. Hopefully, Will has already provided recompense to the seller in question for the items that "Jake Sullivan" won.

On a side note, I personally don't think there is shilling going on in Yee's auctions and attribute the high prices to a popular seller. When novices ask questions on how to ensure that the items that they buy are authentic, the response often includes "buy from a reputable seller." In regards to original photos, there are few sellers more reputable than Henry Yee who "wrote the book." Therefore, if you are looking to buy these photos, you would definitely trust Yee's auctions more and be more willing to pay a higher price for them. That is how I look at it.

[jgmp123]

Leon,

Thank you for bringing resolution to the issue.

[D. Bergin]

Wow!!! Considering the hiding others have taken for a lot less, I see no reason to go easy on this guy................and I'm usually a live and let live kind of guy.

[Jlighter]

This explains most things. I still don't understand the Brooklyn Bridge comment.

With regards of the perpetrator I think justice was served, although I am severely dubious that he has learned his lesson.