Wishlist for the hobby

[kingjammy24]

i'm curious about what sorts of things people wish would exist in the hobby. by "things" i mean anything really, from common practices to certain types of establishments or associations, products, services, etc. anything really that you've ever found yourself wishing would exist. i'll start:

- an enterprise solely devoted to the sale of pure research. specifically, an enterprise that would invest substantially in conducting research regarding all aspects of game-used items and parse off the findings into topic-related reports to sell to collectors. eg: if you're wondering about the history of new era caps from 1970-1980, they'd sell you a report detailing it all. or if you're interested in a report detailing the jersey sizes worn by cal ripken from 1990-1998, they'd research that and sell it to you. they'd sell pure research with very little interpretation. the interpretation would be left up to the collector who purchased the report.

as a collector, i have absolutely no need for any authentication service. i don't care about someone else's interpretations. what i want is the information to make up my own. (similar to how malta's release of the bat records finally enabled collectors to make up their own minds and devise their own standards rather than completely relying on bushing's interpretations). i have a huge need for the raw data and frequently find myself without the resources to discover the information i need. eg: i'm really interested in batting practice jerseys from 1987-1995. i'd like to know the manufacturers, styles, tagging, fonts, style details for every AL team during those years. unfortunately, i haven't the time nor the resources to find out. i can't blow $5k on videos, magazines, cards, etc. however, a commercial venture could justify that cost as they'd recoup it by essentially reselling the same research over and over. if they made a report on 1980-1990 AL BP shirts, for example, they would only have to create it once and it'd continue to sell for years.

large consultancies, research firms, think tanks, etc make a good living producing such customized research reports for companies. Toyota, for example, can easily find several top-tier companies that will prepare a data report showing the correlation between inflation and american vs japanese car sales for Toyota to use for their purposes. as collectors, we have a huge need for information and yet we're often forced to conduct the research ourselves, many times from unreliable sources. individually, many of us simply don't have the resources to find the information we need from primary sources. it'd be nice for there to be a pure research company with substantial resources that would spend their days studying video tapes, photos, conferring with equipment managers, players, manufacturers and then compile all of that information into topic-related reports.

- i wish auction houses would reveal the consigner behind every item. i understand why they don't. however, as a buyer it'd be very helpful in helping me to avoid items from dealers who i know offer bad items.

i'd be very interested to hear what others wish would exist in this hobby. anything really..including that bat rack shaped like scarlett johanssen.

rudy.

[allstarsplus]

- i wish auction houses would reveal the consigner behind every item. i understand why they don't. however, as a buyer it'd be very helpful in helping me to avoid items from dealers who i know offer bad items.

rudy.

Great wish on that one---like you said, it will probably never happen. That is another great thing about eBay that we take for granted.

- I (wish) would like to see on the large auction houses to use some identifier for the bidder so we can try to decide whether the bids are real and/or make sense. There is no way to determine on most of the auctions if shill bidding is taking place or if the auction house is bidding to a reserve or other funny business is taking place.

Andrew

[zonker]

i have a similar wish i wish russell and rawling's would release all order invoices on all jersey's shipped between the 80's till present. And if you were a genie my second wish would be that auction house's would offer a money back guarantee on all in house authentication's!, of course only if found out to be incorrect in there finding's! and last but not least i wish everyone who has ever been duped by a lou lampson c.o.a. has in there life time to a chance to return the favor!

[Vintagedeputy]

Adirondack bat records

[indyred]

Some good one's suggested.
I wish the MeiGray's system on keeping records on jerseys was used in all sports. Each jersey had a unique serial # tag and record data base when it was worn.
I wish MLB did another turn ahead the clock jersey promotion.
I wish NFL, MLB and NBA does a similar charity thing that NHL has done with one game special patched jerseys for charity. Like Teammates for Kids and Katrina relief that NHL has done the past two seasons. Where each team and player does it and and EVERY jersey is auctioned. Not like the pink bat MLB Mother's Day promotion, where certain teams and player's just keep them. Everything gets auctioned.
Would also like to see MLB do what NHL player's have done the past 2 seasons. Each player donates a game used bat from their stash after the last game of the season and the money raised goes to the old timers that need money.

[kingjammy24]

re: records

yes i was thinking the same thing! in the same way that LVS has released their order records, it would be unbelievable if russell, rawlings, and majestic (for jerseys) and rawlings and cooper (for bats) could do the same thing. it'd be incredible to see the order amounts, sizes, and customizations per player per year. i wonder if anyone's ever tried to get any of them to release their records? collectors of all 4 major sports would benefit. LVS releasing their records was great but there's obviously so much more information that needs to be made public.

anyway, a few more from me:

- even if the manufacturer's wouldn't release all of the ordering records, it'd be nice if they could devote a single person to communicate with collectors via email to order to confirm or deny ordering details. sure they'd be inundated but i'd gladly wait two or three months to find out what size a player really wore in a specific year.

- it'd be nice if equipment managers made themselves accessible in any way. maybe even a bimonthly, team-sponsored effort of "ask the equipment manager" where they take a few questions. anything would be better than nothing.

- it'd be nice if getty made their entire inventory available online. (what you see online is only a fraction of what they really have). it'd also be nice if they charged a reasonable amount for photos intended for private/non-commercial use. say $15-$20 per 8x10. they'd make a hefty profit. as it stands now, noone's ordering anything because the cost is so prohibitive.

- it'd be nice if major newspapers or the AP made their photo archives available online and charged a modest fee for purchasing the photos.

- it'd be nice if auction houses took fraud seriously rather than as a conduit to easy profits. at times it seems as if some of the better ones simply look the other way. the worst ones almost seem to be run by the forgers themselves. if they would take fraud seriously, then they'd actively participate on this Forum. after all, they've got free access to the opinions of dozens of niche experts and thousands of customers and yet none of them regularly post? gosh you'd almost think they're not remotely interested in improving authenticity. as well, many of them wouldn't have the reactions (or lack thereof) that they have when Forum members uncover garbage in their auctions. that is, if you were running an auction and were genuinely concerned with fraud, then if someone pointed out a bad item wouldn't you thank them? wouldn't you be awfully appreciative that they saved your ass from those consequences? despite the fact that collectors on this Forum have uncovered dozens and dozens of garbage items at GFC, AMI, Mastro, Historic, etc., i have never once seen russek, moreno, kieta, or allen come on to offer any sort of thanks and appreciation for the free work. instead, some of them have had hostile reactions, which is unbelievable when you think about it. AMI banned chris, eric and rob. Historic banned all incoming traffic from GUF. these reactions make little sense if they were seriously concerned about fraud. it's like giving the police a helpful tip and instead of receiving a thank you, they tell you, despite your tip turning out to be right, to get lost. i prevented GFC twice from selling a game-issued shirt as "game used". shockingly, i never received any email from russek thanking me. it almost makes me think he wasn't thankful.

keep the ideas comin'!

rudy.

[G1X]

My wishes are very basic and simple. First, I wish that good manners, proper etiquette, and common decency would return to the hobby. Second, I wish that communication skills in general would improve. Both have deteriorated badly in the past decade.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange

[kingjammy24]

here's a crazy idea. bear with me.

there are probably many retired common players and semi-stars who could use a little extra cash. perhaps they've squandered their money or simply would like to clear some stuff out. they've played a decent amount of time in the majors and have accumulated some nice pieces that many collectors would kill to add to their collections. 2 parties, one wants to sell, the other wants to buy and yet it's usually very difficult for the two to meet on the issue.

it'd be great for some service to bring together retired players who want to sell their collections and collectors in the market. most of the current focus is on breaking open a superstar's collection but there are still hundreds of common players out there with really incredible items for the niche collectors. there are a few specific common players who i'd gnaw my arm off to strike a deal with. most collectors probably wouldn't be interested in the least in these players but i'm certain that they hold many of my grails.

to this extent then, i'd like to see a service that contacts retired common players and semi-stars, solicits their interests in selling, and puts them in contact with collectors. additionally, many of the retired players may not be very computer savvy. the third party could do all the photographing, compiling, emailing, etc. all the player would have to do is open up their attic, decide on what they'd want to sell, decide on a price, and let the service do the rest. perhaps advertisements for the service could be sent along with their monthly pension checks. all they'd have to do is call a phone number to sign up. it'd certainly be an easier way for them to make money than signing autographs for 4 hrs at a card show. perhaps the league itself could get involved as a service to their retired players.

the items that would be uncovered from such an effort would likely result in the greatest supply ever seen.

rudy.

[Birdbats]

"it'd be great for some service to bring together retired players who want to sell their collections and collectors in the market."

This has been done for years. The "services" that do it go by the names of Mastro and Leland's and MEARS. Guys like Dave Bushing have been in the homes of more retired "common" players than you could imagine. You also had Geppi's (not sure what it's called now) that sold/auctioned nothing but items consigned by former players.

[kingjammy24]

"This has been done for years. The "services" that do it go by the names of Mastro and Leland's and MEARS. Guys like Dave Bushing have been in the homes of more retired "common" players than you could imagine."

i'm aware that some auction houses are proactive in seeking out player collections. for the most part, auction houses like mastro and lelands focus on high dollar lots and this naturally tends to exclude many common items. the average lot price at mastro's last auction was $50k. can you please tell me the last time mastro or lelands featured a substantial offering of common player collections (directly from the players)?

i was referring to a more "neutral" service that would offer collections regardless of their monetary value or prestige; a service that would repeatedly solicit thousands of retired players and offer any and all baseball-related items they're willing to sell, without having someone else cherrypick the most profitable items. there are currently over 2700 retired players. how many of those has bushing managed to visit? i'd be flabbergasted if it was over 15%. how many of those 2700 has geppi's gotten to offer their collections? mears currently has 112 game-used jerseys for sale. i'd like to see at least 112 from one year alone. i know they're out there. i'm not talking about some small-time effort that would result in 15 or 20 player collections coming up. by soliciting every retired player, it'd be realistic to see hundreds of collections coming to the market. stick an ad in every single pension check and see how many nibbles come back. it'd be a direct conduit from player to collector with minimal interference from cherrypicking middlemen charging 40% fees. more of an "ebay" targeted to retired players. it's hardly a niche currently filled by lelands or mastros.

rudy.

[Birdbats]

"can you please tell me the last time mastro or lelands featured a substantial offering of common player collections (directly from the players)?"

The big houses don't need to feature "commons" in their auctions because they sell them to collectors offline. If they buy a lot of 100 bats from Joe Average Ballplayer, maybe five big-ticket bats make the auctions; the rest get sold to niche collectors. Trust me, guys like Bill Mastro know dozens if not hundreds of collectors. They don't waste their time putting commons in auctions -- they have buyers for those.

"how many of those has bushing managed to visit? i'd be flabbergasted if it was over 15%. how many of those 2700 has geppi's gotten to offer their collections?"

I'm sure they've only scratched the surface of all the retired players out there, but they've certainly had lots of luck through the years making deals with the retirees who are willing to sell and not just pass stuff down to their kids and grandchildren. Geppi's made a big push to get items -- retired ballplayers solicited other retired players. Maybe the reason they didn't get many collections is because many old ballplayers are more interested in keeping their items in the family.

[grandpahoo]

i'd be very interested to hear what others wish would exist in this hobby. anything really..including that bat rack shaped like scarlett johanssen.

If I had one of those, it definitely be "game-used." Also, one thing I would love to have is a central repository of information regarding where to find certain items (e.g., a list of websites for all NFL teams who offer game-used equipment). I'm in the process of trying to put something together now, but I'm lazy and would prefer that someone else do the work and send me a copy.

[grandpahoo]

to this extent then, i'd like to see a service that contacts retired common players and semi-stars, solicits their interests in selling, and puts them in contact with collectors.

The far more likely scenario is that the company providing that service would contact the players, solicit their interest in selling, buy all of the stuff as cheaply as possible, and then jack up the prices when offering it to collectors.

[grandpahoo]

i was referring to a more "neutral" service that would offer collections regardless of their monetary value or prestige; a service that would repeatedly solicit thousands of retired players and offer any and all baseball-related items they're willing to sell, without having someone else cherrypick the most profitable items.

You might be sorry one day that you shared this hypothetical business plan in a public forum. Assuming someone had enough cash to get this type of business up and running, it could be really, really profitable.