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SCGaynor Auctions

Scott Gaynor’s obsession with baseball cards started in 1978 when he was five years old. By the time he was eight, he was a full-fledged collector. That’s all he ever intended to be—a collector, not a dealer. But a series of chance opportunities changed the course of his professional life.

In 1996, Gaynor was a new college graduate, living in Baltimore and looking for a job in his major—law enforcement. Before he could find a “real” job, the owner of a local sports memorabilia store hired Gaynor to help him auction off some of his inventory by advertising the lots in trade magazines and collecting journals.

Around the same time, Gaynor started hearing rumblings about an upstart web site called eBay. Every now and then, someone would post a reference to eBay on one of the online bulletin boards and newsgroups he was a member of. “I remember seeing people posting, ‘I’m selling an item on eBay,’ and they’d tell you how to go to eBay and look for it,” Gaynor recalls. One particular posting still sticks in his mind: “Fake Roseville Pottery on eBay.”

Intrigued by all the buying and selling that was apparently happening on eBay, Gaynor visited the site and zeroed in on those collectibles that had captured his attention for decades—sports memorabilia. What Gaynor found wouldn’t have impressed him, even when he was five, unsophisticated, and just starting out in the hobby. Literally, he could have bought more baseball cards in a convenience store pack. “It seemed ...