Olympic 1911 card I bought on Ebay Hawke Collision

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Hello,

I obtained this postcard on Ebay of the Olympic. However sometimes you notice certain items get a lot more attention/people bidding for them. This I think had about 16 different people who were interested. The price was going up and up. I don't mind saying it cost £187 in the end. To me it was just a nice card and since I collect real photograph/postcards of the Olympic this because I liked it.

Although it is a 1911 copy of a newspaper article I cannot imagine there are many photo’s that were used on this card still in existence if at all. Saying that I know photo’s of Olympic seem to survive quite well, but again I imagine the pictures used on this card will be few and far between. There will be I am sure a 1911 newspaper somewhere with these pictures — but again I the ink would have faded quite a bit - so good presevation that they were put on a card.

There is some research coming up about the Olympic and the Hawke Collision on Titanica so I will read this with interest, as this is what the card is about. Does anyone know why this card sparked a lot of interest for people ?


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This is the cards description.

VERY INTERESTING PHOTO POST CARD TITLED -

"THE OLYMPIC AND THE HAWKE PHOTOGRAPHED TOGETHER DIRECTLY AFTER THEIR COLLISION IN THE COWES ROADS".

THE POST CARD IS UNUSED, THE PHOTOGRAPH IS OF A NEWSPAPER REPORT BY THE DAILY MIRROR SEPTEMBER 22 1911. IT SHOWS SIX PHOTOS WITH VERY SMALL PRINTED TITLES AS FOLLOW-

THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN WITHIN ONE MINUTE OF THE VESSELS CLEARING EACH OTHER AFTER THE COLLISION IN COWES ROADS

THE OLYMPIC BEING TOWED TO SOUTHAMPTON. FIVE TUGS ATTENDED HER.

MR MAGEE WHO PAID £2 TO BE TAKEN OFF IN A SMALL BOAT.

DRIVERS PREPARING TO GO DOWN TO SOUTHAMPTON , NOTE THE GREAT VENT IN THE VESSELS STARBOARD QUARTERS.

THE OLYMPIC HOME AGAIN. THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN ON ENTERING THE DOCK AT SOUTHAMPTON.

THE BOTTOM LINE ALSO IN V SMALL TYPE SAYS-

THE OLYMPIC WAS TOWED BACK TO SOUTHAMPTON YESTERDAY, AND WITHIN A QUATER OF AN HOUR OF BEING BIRTHED THE DRIVERS HAD GOT TO WORK TO ASCERTAIN THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE. THE FIRST PASSENGER TO LEAVE THE SHIP AFTER THE COLLISION WAS MR MAGEE OF SAN FRANCISCO WHO SLID DOWN A ROPE TO A SMALL BOAT.

THERE IS A SMALL CHIP IN SURFACE COATING ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE
 
Just out of curiosity, how do you find these postcards on Ebay? What words do you use in your search so you can come across them? And these are all from the UK Ebay site, right?
 
Hello Kritina,

I use to type in R.M.S Olympic. Now I type White Star Line Olympic, but often these come under the Titanic section for postcard and paper. Sometimes people who don't know the best way to list an item for an Olympic postcard use the word "Cunard" White Star Olympic. Because of this the card they are selling goes more unnoticed, as most won't use the word Cunard when they are doing a search on the Olympic. So you can often get some bargains. You can also try S.S Olympic but then all sorts of things come up which have nothing to do with the ship.

I think this item comes from the UK. But I always do a world search.

Anyway does anyone else collect Olympic cards and know why certain cards spark of more of an interest than others, as was the case with this one ?
 
Miles, you may have to take that one up with some of the more dedicated collectors. I think that some images will provoke a greater interest if they tend to be on the rare side. It's also possible that in some items, there may not be that much real interest at all, but the owner putting the thing up for bid will try to make it look that way. One way they do this is a very simple trick of using multiple shill accounts to jack up the price by making it look like more people are interested then there really are.

Whether that's the case with this postcard I can only guess. Some of the images on the thing I've seen befor. Some I haven't. It may very well be that this particular postcard and the arrangement of photos is sufficiently hard to come by that the interest of competitors is very real.
 
Yes Michael, you are very right - this is true. However when I looked at the other bidders most of them had (and there were more than usual) a high rating of feedback of over 100 or 200 stars. So this led me to believe that the bidders were genuine as I cannot think this seller has so many fake accounts with such high feed-back ratings to up his bid with.

As far as I can gather a real photo/pc of the Olympic taken in 1911 would sell for about £90.
I might be wrong, but that is what I have found with my experience.

I would be interested in what a dedicated collector has to say not just about this but in general.
 
Miles,

I was a dedicated Olympic ebay collector. Of course my interest (as would other peoples') varies. I am more interested in the interior or on board items. Sometimes if a rare exterior card appears it is tempting to got for that as well.

To be honest, I am surprised about the price of this card. I would have been less surprised if it used real photos, rather than a section of the newspaper.

Ebay is perhaps the worst determinant of an item's price. As has been mentioned, depending on how the selleter lists the item, and how many people watch ebay, will determine the price.

I once got a very nice Georgic booklet from March 1935, which lists Olympic's tours right up to Sept of that year. Of course a month later she was pulled out of service. This is rare information, but even as a booklet itself, I have seen similar Homeric or Georgic booklets go for about US$30 or up. I only got it for US$3!!!

This booklet was among other items, and the key words that allowed me to find it was Cunard (probably followed by booklet). The selleter was offering the lot for US$10. I didn't bid ... and no one else did. After the close, I expressed interest about just the booklet, and got it for $3!

There were weeks when I didn't watch ebay. During that time I'm sure there were items which I would have bid on, so the regulars (and there usually are regulars) didn't face any competition from me, so the item wouldn't have gone for as much.

All these are examples of how or why a price changes. To go back to your card, Olympic/Hawke items are rare. When they do come up on ebay, they go for a pretty penny (usually anyway). As I said I would have been far less surprised about the price you paid if the card used real photos, but at the end of the day it is still a rare card.

Daniel.
 
Thanks Daniel,
I agree it would be less surprising if they were the real photo's, but I bought the card with the idea that these real photo's if they are still around ( which is quite possible ) would be few and far between. So it is still a collection of rare images. I love the Olympic and can never get enough new pictures of her. She is my favourite ship. I think she was a bit better looking than the Titanic with her window arrangement and open p. deck ! I understand that real photo can mean that there can be a few real photo's of a picture you might like, as I often see pictures (RP/PC) on of which I have seen before - but they are all the same real photo's.

Good that you got a bargain with your book ! Have you seen this Titanic auction coming up on the 10 th June. I think the starting price for some of the items is a wee bit to much. There is a lovely photo of the Olympic which I like very much. You can tell it is a one off and it is taken from someone’s apartment in a very tall sky scrapper. He's written on the back something like - Olympic arriving in New York taken from the window of my apartment - so it's just a snap shot by an ordinary person
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So I might just bid on the lessor things.

Anyways thanks for your reply.

 
>>However when I looked at the other bidders most of them had (and there were more than usual) a high rating of feedback of over 100 or 200 stars. So this led me to believe that the bidders were genuine as I cannot think this seller has so many fake accounts with such high feed-back ratings to up his bid with.<<

The sellors might not but the same can't always be said of the people doing the bidding. Caveat emptor is always a smart axiom to go by in any auction, especially where you can't really see who the bidders are, only some information of uncertain provanance on a webpage. They may be honest, but then again, they might not be. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
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Yes you certainly do ! Talking about about Olympic pictures this is a link to one at this auction. It's nice enough ( tho first thing I would do would be get it out of that frame !) But I can't help but feel the start price let alone the estimate is rather high for what it is.

Have a look.

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2247194488&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT#ebayphotohosting

This makes me wonder about if they have had any real professional people in to tell them what things are worth or if they are just putting what I think is a very high start price & end price on something. The description is brief so you don’t know if it is a real photograph or not. I am sure I have seen images like this before — maybe even this image only smaller. So this makes me question some of the items and makes me wonder who has been advising them ? This also leads me to question who would have been authenticating some of the items now - although they are a big auction house. I am sure $1000 - $1500 estimate is rather high for an Olympic image you do not know is original as is the starting price. Maybe I am just over cautious but I might take part and this has led me to think, if they can't get it right with an Olympic photo then what about some of the other smaller items.
 
Out of passing interest here are 2 more pictures of the Olympic I bought, again from the treaded Ebay ! They both look like one off pictures and did not cost much at all. 1st one was £24 ($52?) and the second about £40. By the looks of the 1st one it looks as if it were taken in the early to mid 1930's - maybe.

Second one was taken in 1917 and has some writing on the back: Please see back of post card where a

which reads:

sailed Nov 6th 1917

H.M.S. Olympic

Nov 14 1917


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I found oftentimes there IS no rhyme or reason to the sellers'/bidders' frame of mind on eBay. I bought a postally used Olympic card converted to a Titanic memorial card a couple of years ago for $37.50. An identical card but postally unused and in worse shape sold for $103 the next week. The stamp had fallen off mine, but the cancellation had embossed through to the other side to reveal the date 3 MY '12. So, who would have thought an "Oly-tanic" postcard dated three weeks after the sinking was worth less than a rough, unused one?
 
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