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Paul McCartney signed baseball

Today, I won an eBay auction for a Paul McCartney signed baseball. Looking at it, I actually thought there was a decent chance that it was genuine. I thought it had the right flow to it and the right speed. I really thought the slant and letter formation were pretty close, although I wasn't so sure about the slant of the two "c's". I have also seen the pointed "t" in authentic versions, and the conclusion of the "y" in this manner is often seen.
Overall, it didn't look too far off to me. And the seller told me he had obtained it in person.

While the bidding didn't go very high, that is not always a sign of an item not being genuine, because buyers often shy away from items without LOAs from PSA/DNA or JSA. In fact, I recently saw a White House JFK letter sell for only $240 without authentication. The savvy buyer sent it in to PSA/DNA, and they gave it a thumbs up.

Still, some of you may look at it and think, "What in the world were you thinking?" Well, apparently PSA/DNA thought so and sent me back an email stating it was "Likely Not Genuine", a few hours after the auction ended. I filed the quick opinion request a couple of hours before the auction was to end. I didn't know if that was enough time, but someone told me they got an opinion back in about 20 minutes.

Anyway, I have not paid yet. And I think I will accept PSA/DNA's opinion. So what now? Obviously, I will have to inform the seller. Do I need to call eBay? Will they allow the auction to be cancelled? Do I have to worry about negative feedback?

I hope some people here can advise me on what to do now. Thanks for your help, and here are a couple of pics of the ball.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Booth on December 29, 2014 at 12:45am

The seller will file a none paying bidder claim to eBay and they will contact you stating that you have so many days to pay before a non paying mark will be listed against your ID. You can contact both the seller and eBay of the PSA decision and see if that will help. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by James on December 29, 2014 at 1:05am

Thanks, Richard. After the auction was over, I also decided to check and see if there were any recent past sales of McCartney signed baseballs and what they went for. In doing so, I discovered that this is the third completed auction for this ball. I am the third "winner". Apparently, the previous two decided this ball would not be a good purchase. They may have done the same thing as I, and got a negative reply from PSA post-auction.

Hopefully, since eBay endorses PSA/DNA and the Quick Opinion, they won't strap me with the "non-paying" deal. Would they really expect me to pay for an item that PSA says is Likely Not Genuine, in other words, LIKELY A FORGERY?

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Permalink Reply by Dan Gregory on December 29, 2014 at 1:32am

I think if you contact the seller and send them a copy of the PSA / DNA Quick Opinion saying you do not want to go ahead as they failed it. For most sellers this will be the end of it.

If he refuses to cancel and tries to file a non-payment against you you can call eBay and they should cancel it based on PSA failing it.

Sounds to me like the seller knows it's bad and will keep trying to sell it.

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Permalink Reply by James on December 29, 2014 at 7:57am

Thanks, Dan.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Baldock on December 29, 2014 at 8:37am

I don't like that ball, it doesn't look like his M among other things. Don't pay, tell him you will contact E-Bay , he will back off and if not follow through with E-Bay.

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Permalink Reply by James on December 29, 2014 at 9:26am

Okay, good advice, Ian, will do.

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Permalink Reply by James on December 30, 2014 at 7:56pm

UPDATE: I contacted the seller and told him I no longer wished to purchase the ball since it failed PSA/DNA's quick opinion service. And I asked him to please cancel the transaction rather than making me take it any further. Although he never responded to me directly, I was notified by eBay today that the seller had cancelled the transaction at the buyer's request.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your thoughtful advice. It was much appreciated.