Yes that was me, but where the seller got the idea I was Canadian beats me.

And he was one of the "enemies" I made on E-Bay, in fact without intending to, I think I screwed up his auction. The instrument he has, realistically is worth in the neighborhood of about $4,500.00 to $5,000.00 U.S. Keep in mind that OOO-28s have always been valued a little under the D-28s. I consulted with Frank Ford, George Gruhn, and other luthier/dealers who I know. They agreed with me and verified I wasn't losing my mind.

As for the seller getting pissed at me, if you read his description of the instrument he alludes to the fact that E-Bay might go down so bid quickly on this. I figured if he was in that much of a hurry he might want to dispense with the auction and sell it. I asked him what his bottom line was via email and he said he'd prefer to let the auction run its course. I asked whether what appeared to be a huge crack on the side of the guitar was a flash thing from the camera or indeed a crack. He nonchalantly replied that that was part of the work done at the Martin factory 30 years ago. (Why wasn't the crack addressed in the description? Did he think it wouldn't be noticable? He states in his description that his reserve was fair. I rescinded the bid because of the crack (figured what else was he hiding about it?...and also that my maximum reserve which I set at $5,500.00 was too high, and it was.) This got his nose out of joint because my final actually bid was 3,500.00 but was not as high as I was prepared to go. He assumed it was. I wrote him a final email and suggested he remove the remarks. They had no impact on me at all and only made him look bad and being a money grubbing greedy weasel. I told him I might have been prepared to go as high as 5K. He laughed and said his reserve didn't even come close. FAIR RESERVE MY ASS! The informed buyer is the nemesis of these shysters and they hate being exposed. Anyway that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. :-)