Claim:
John Hinckley Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981, makes $3,500 a month on eBay by selling the same portrait of his cat he paints.
Rating:
Research In Progress ( About this rating? )
In mid-July 2024, the claim circulated on social media that John Hinckley Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981, makes $3,500 per month by repeatedly painting a portrait of his pet cat, titled "My Cat," and selling it on eBay for hundreds of dollars per canvas.
According to the viral X post , which has received over 1 million views as of this writing , "The man who tried to assassinate Reagan makes an income just painting the same portrait of his cat over and over again and selling it on ebay for hundreds of dollars," adding, "It's a monthly income of $3500."
(zeta/X)
Hinckley has his own dedicated X account with more than 63,000 followers, where he frequently posts about "My Cat," with links to where it's available for purchase, including his eBay store, /kingsmgoods , as well as the online art gallery ArtPal . Since December 2022, Hinckley has posted the cat portrait for sale on X more than 200 times.
The background, cat's color, and fur pattern usually vary slightly in the feline-centric paintings.
To get to the bottom of how much Hinkley makes per month selling his original artwork "My Cat" on eBay, we asked the artist and his lawyer, Barry Levine, for comment. We will update this story once we receive an answer.
We also asked eBay's chief technology officer if there is a mechanism on the auction and sales platform that allows the public to see how much revenue a seller makes in total or monthly, but received no immediate reply.
Hinckley Promotes His Feline Artwork on Social Media
Hinckley's most recent post about his cat portrait appeared on July 13, 2024, the day of the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump . While Hinckley has mostly sold the artwork on eBay, his X post states: "Art of the Day: 'My Cat'. Buy at: https://ArtPal.com/hjohn8325?i=23john8325?i=236942-2 ."
On ArtPal, buyers can purchase the cat portrait in several reproduction forms, including art prints starting at $19.97, and framed prints up to $104.97. Generally, Hinckley writes the same statement to accompany his X posts about his feline artwork: "My original CAT painting is for sale on Ebay. Use link. Only ship to U.S," along with a link to that version of the portrait. As of this writing, Hinckley did not have any items or original artwork listed for sale in his eBay store.
Hinckley's eBay store lists past sales and buyer feedback, noting that items ship from Williamsburg, Va. , where Hinckley has reportedly lived since his release from St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., in 2016 . Authorities confined Hinckley there for nearly four decades after his attempted assassination of Reagan when he was just 25 years old .
Although "My Cat" is not the only painting Hinckley, who is also a singer-songwriter, displays for sale on social media, he first posted the feline artwork on his X account in April 2022 to advertise a gig in Connecticut where he was scheduled to perform:
eBay Seller Hub Protects Identity of Sellers
Snopes conducted its own research into Hinckley's "My Cat" sales using the eBay Seller Hub , a dashboard on the platform designed to help sellers manage their listings.
We searched within the past three years for "JOHN HINCKLEY ORIGINAL PAINTING SIGNED 11x14 ABSTRACT ART BRUT OUTSIDER ART RARE," the description the artist gives "My Cat" when listing it for sale on the platform. We also limited the parameters of the search to paintings sold in the United States and in new condition. We did not look for any used or resold items under this search term, as Hinckley had listed "seller does not accept return" whenever he posted the artwork for sale.
The eBay Seller Hub found "no active results" for "JOHN HINCKLEY ORIGINAL PAINTING SIGNED 11x14 ABSTRACT ART BRUT OUTSIDER ART RARE," but displayed several pages listing past sale results that matched the description given by Hinckley of his cat portrait. These paintings were sold by eight sellers, but the tool did not identify who those sellers were, nor did it allow for itemization of artwork sold by the sellers.
According to the information we were able to unearth using this search, artwork matching the description given of "My Cat" sold for an average price of $502.79. The price ranged from $175.00–$1,975.00. However, Hinckley often reuses the same description for "My Cat" for several of his paintings, including portraits of people and abstract canvases, which were also listed on the eBay Seller Hub.
The eBay Seller Hub indicated that "My Cat" first sold on the platform on March 7, 2022, for $350. That listing was the first to include a photo of the cat portrait, followed by another sale of the painting for the same amount the next day, March 8. Neither dashboard listing mentions the seller's identity. Before March 7, 2022, the sold listings of Hinckley artwork featured either a portrait of a person or an abstract canvas.
"My Cat" has sold on eBay on multiple occasions — while the sales price is always listed, the seller identity never is. To add, not every listing matching the description included a photo of the artwork sold, making it impossible to determine whether that sale was of "My Cat" or another Hinckley artwork, and thus impossible to calculate the average monthly sales price of the feline painting on the platform.
The "About" section of Hinckley's eBay store /kingsmgoods notes that it has been on the platform since Oct. 6, 2017, and has sold 669 items since its launch, with "100% positive feedback" from buyers. EBay does not provide a function to identify an itemized list of these past sales unless the buyer chooses to disclose that information in feedback.
In sum, while Hinckley has indeed taken up painting after his release from psychiatric care, frequently painting portraits of his pet cat to sell on eBay, no verified information supports the claim that he earns specifically $3,500 per month from selling these paintings.
Our findings indicate that eBay does not offer a mechanism for people to see how much a seller makes from selling a specific item. Seller earnings and sales data remain private and are not publicly accessible. While eBay users can view a seller's feedback score and some details about individual transactions, including the sale price, specific revenue figures are not disclosed, nor are they aggregated for repeatedly sold items.
Therefore, we have rated this claim as "Research in Progress."
Snopes has previously reported on Hinckley Jr.'s release from psychiatric hospital .
Sources:
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