The Namath Helmet - An Epilogue

[aeneas01]

as i recently mentioned to chris cavalier, i was shocked by the number of folks that contacted me privately about the namath post - folks from within the industry and collectors alike. frankly, this left with the distinct impression that the game used universe is monitored by many more eyes than i had originally thought - and that the game used universe has indeed made a name for itself in world of sports collectibles.

i was very tempted to share some of the emails i received with forum members, especially the emails that i received from a few in the business, but i eventually decided against it as a matter of fairness - however i will say that i was very encouraged by the support and sincerity most expressed.

with that said, i would however like to share with the forum my thoughts concerning how two sports collectible publications chose to report on the heritage incident - sports collectors digest which bills itself as the "the hobby's oldest and largest publication" and sports collectors daily.

when heritage announced that they would be offering “...arguably the most significant football artifact ever to reach the auction block” and that it would highlight their upcoming auction, both publications included the press release on their websites. rich mueller of sc daily left it at that and did not editorialize - he let the press release speak for itself. however chris nerat of sc digest did feel the need to editorialize by offering the following to his readers: "the provenance of this bad boy is rock solid...".

let me repeat this again, nerat stated that ..."the provenance of this bad boy is rock solid...". he did not say that "according to heritage" or "according to chris ivy" the provenance was solid - no, instead nerat chose to boldly, equivocally and in no uncertain terms announce to his readers that the history of this "bad boy" was "rock solid." and by extension the implication was made that nerat was privy to information that allowed him to make such a statement, information above and beyond what heritage had announced in their press release.

and nerat took matters a step further - he also announced to his readers that "I think it can bring six figures... I really think it can fetch that much at auction".

of course we now know that the history of the helmet was far from "rock solid" - and i think it's also pretty clear that the helmet will never fetch the six figures nerat claimed it might. in short, both sc daily and sc digest trusted that heritage had done their homework and, as such, plugged the authenticity of the helmet - and to some extent, they were both left with egg on their face.

but what's most telling about these two publications is how they handled the news once it became clear that the helmet was not as advertised; that the helmet's provenance had been proven suspect and that heritage had pulled the auction.

rich mueller of sc daily wasted no time by responding via his blog - he wrote a piece entitled "namath helmet in question" in which he credited game used universe and admitted that although heritage did pull the auction "...the move didn't come before a fairly heavy publicity blitz surrounding the piece... including a headline story in these pages". but more importantly, rich made it a point to offer these events as both a reminder and a warning to his readers to do their homework; he also made it a point to state that he hopes that these events will also serve as a "wake-up call" to auction houses and dealers.

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/sports-collectors-blog/namath-helmet-in-question.html

and sc digest? nerat, associate editor of sc digest, chose a slightly different approach in his blog - he attacked game used forum members by calling them "instigators" and "bad for the hobby." but before nerat took aim with both barrels he reminded readers that he was qualified to speak about such matters, that he was an expert - or as he put it "Also, keep in mind I worked at a major auction house for two years..."

so apparently it was o.k. for nerat, an auction house veteran and an associate editor for a sports collecting publication, to announce to the public and his readers that an item to be auctioned off is "rock solid" and should "fetch six figures". that's good for the hobby. but when a concerned and understandably jaded collector questions whether there is anything about the item that might tempt the auction house to relist the item with an amended description, that's bad for the hobby. i don't think so.

i'll tell you what's good for the hobby: a sports collecting publication that recognizes when the industry has erred and reports it honestly and fairly while at the same hoping that a lesson will be learned - rich mueller and sc daily is good for the hobby. and i'll tell you what's bad for the hobby: a sports publication that makes excuses for the industry when it has erred, that marginalizes such errors while at the same time criticizes those that they are supposed to inform, the collectors - chris nerat and sc digest, in this case, is bad for the hobby.

[helmets]

Great post.
Pretty much sums it up...

[JimCaravello]

Ditto.......awesome follow up thread.............

[cohibasmoker]

Robert,

A very lucid posting indeed. I have a question and a statement:

First the question: do we know who consigned the helmet?

Now the statement: As for the published accounts, IMO it was "rock solid journalism".

Jim

[mvandor]

By this post I assume this has been sticking in your craw the last 9 days since the last post was made in the original thread.

Frankly, the corruption in this "hobby" (it's time we recognize it as a multi million dollar industry rather than a hobby) is so widespread it begs for major intervention by the authorities. The guilty cross all spectrums, from fraudulent individual sellers, to auction houses that knowingly use the rubber stamp of Mr. Lampson and intentionally refuse to make any honest effort to qualify items they auction, to authenticators like Mr. Lampson (I prefer to call them enablers) that churn out COA's like the feds churn out money. And of course, certain periodicals that survive on the ad revenue of the unscrupulous are a part of the circle as well.

Honestly, there is no need for "organized crime" in today's world. With legal "fences" like ebay and the auction houses, with the lack of enforcement by the authorities, I believe if Bugsy Siegel or Al Capone were alive today, they'd just go into the sports memorabilia biz as "honest" businessmen.

It's truly gotten that bad.

[RKGIBSON]

As a 14 year member of the game used community I ask, if we as members do not police our hobby who will? The unethical companies and individuals that are after our money certainly will not. Inept authenicators will not. Journalist who do not embrace the clear truth, when credible evidence is presented, will not.

With that being said, I am glad Heritage removed the helmet as described. It was the right thing. Other auction companies refuse to do that, just to prove they answer to no one. My reply is, not to do business with them, period.

Roger

[both-teams-played-hard]

Did a member of this forum submit this wiki entry?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Collectors_Digest

[thedegu]

Did a member of this forum submit this wiki entry?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Collectors_Digest

Hahaha, that's great; I wonder how long will it take for that one to get a revision...Techincally, I suppose wiki would consider it 'PoV', but it's still dang true.

[kingjammy24]

the more time people spend in this hobby, the more they realize what's really going on; it's a racket that's been going on for so long and involves so many that it's practically become an engrained part of the collecting culture. many people can't imagine operating any other way because over time these transgressions have become the defacto code of conduct and it's worked rather well for them. why upset the gravy train?
they seem to operate in a bizarre bubble completely independent of the norms and standards of the rest of the civilized world and express shock when they're expected to conform to those norms and standards. at a minimum, the rest of the civilized world outwardly acknowledges that conflicts of interest, kickbacks, gross negligence, wilful breach of duty, deceit are all unequivocally improper. in this hobby though, that's just the way things are done. you'd be hardpressed to get many to even understand what constitutes a conflict of interest much less admit that it's a bad thing. kickbacks? that's just repaying a favor! common courtesy dontcha'know. gross negligence? aww come on, everyone makes mistakes. i don't know whether to chalk it up to genuine stupidity or something more malicious. it's hardly relegated to a few bottom-of-the-barrel, mom-&-pop shops on ebay.

mastro is one of the largest auction houses in the biz. president and coo doug allen seemed to have violated his own corporate policy in consigning items he had a financial interest in without any disclosure whatsoever. (see: http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=7923 ) that is, the president set the policy and then decided it didn't apply to him. in late 2007, mastro issued their new "code of conduct" where a shocked doug allen admitted that disclosure of ownership and disclosure of restoration may be necessary. he gives himself a great pat on the back for realizing the obvious and feels that not engaging in fraud is being "proactive". of course had doug not been caught engaging in his ridiculous shenanigans, he never would've been forced to issue a new code of conduct. (see: http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=10807 )
so is doug a stupid man or was there something more malicious behind it all? was the president of mastro really completely unaware that disclosing restorations and personal ownership constitutes basic ethical behavior? doug's a CPA and former VP of finance so he's well-versed in conflicts of interest and disclosure. magically, his knowledge of those matters seems to have dissipated once he joined mastro. in announcing the new code of conduct, doug laughably stated that he thought that it was enough that "actions speak louder than words". i take it then that the contracts doug oversaw at platinum tech. were all verbal? if that's the behavior that mastro's COO established for one of the largest auction houses, one can only imagine what less "pro-active" and self-congratulatory folks were doing. the scary part is that mastro is one of the few auction houses to even come out and admit the obvious: that conflicts of interest and restoration and ownership should be disclosed. what's going on at the auction houses who have failed to even admit these basic truths? in the modern business landscape, their clueless practices make many of them seem like dinosaurs. one can only hope they're similarly destined for extinction.

much has been written about lampson. he was made for the auction houses he services. they reflect him as much he reflects them. he's the perfect cog in this system and the truth is, the system works very well for many of them. the gravy train has provided a great ride. shill bidding, doctored items, authenticators who look the other way, etc have all resulted in some handsome profits for individuals who, if not for this hobby, would've likely had far less gainful careers. they've stumbled onto something great. they're gaming the system with help from their buddies and they'll be damned if ethics are going to get in the way.

re: nerat
i think robert's post was spot-on. the thing is, that wasn't simply chris nerat's blog. that was an SCD piece. chris said he stood by his entire post and then admitted he was wrong in assuming lampson had uncovered things that robert hadn't. how then can he stand by it? he stands by being wrong?

i derive no profit from my involvement in this hobby. i make a gainful living employed in an entirely unrelated industry. the great part about that is that it allows me the luxury of burning every single bridge if i want (and i'm sure i've burnt many). i don't give a rat's ass what any industry person thinks of me and this leaves me free to be completely candid and open about anything. i suspect chris nerat doesn't have that luxury. i suspect chris is very concerned about not burning bridges and remaining in the good graces of the industry figureheads. so when mastro finds itself embroiled in an enthralling situation with a jordan shirt, chris nerat decides it'd be best to write about barry bonds commemorative coins and has the gall to call it a "light week in news". i can just picture chris reading the thread on the jordan shirt, as it was happening, and then looking up the air, whistling, and saying "nothing to see here. nope. everything's quiet". you're quite a voice of the hobby chris. i'm sure mastro and GFC and AMI and lampson are immensely grateful for your efforts. it's a gross disservice to the community because chris, as an SCD columnist, is in a position of influence. rather than live up to this responsibility, he wastes it. by deliberately turning a blind eye to what's really going on, SCD and folks like nerat are enabling a lot of the shenanigans. chris, it's hard to think this makes you or SCD any better than lampson himself. everyone's turning a blind eye as long as it puts some dough in their pockets.

i had a ton of respect for rob lifson when he came out and publically denounced lampson, in print and on the record no less. most other industry folks are too scared of damaging lucrative relationships to come out and call 'em like they seem 'em even when everyone else knows it's truth anyway. dave grob has also been vocal and direct about his feelings towards mastro and doug allen. dave bushing, on the other hand, implores that you please not ask him about what he thinks of anyone else. it's dave's perogative but personally i have a lot of respect for people who aren't bought and paid for and have the balls to come out and state unpleasant truths for the betterment of others, regardless of how much money it may take out of their pockets.

rudy.

[lon lewis]

aeneas01

would you send me your contact/ email info at you convienience.

shadowsdad@worldnet.att.net

thanks

[jonincleve]

To Robert first off I would like to say thank you. The ultimate sign of respect that I can give you is that if I had a question about a football helmet I would email you first. I trust your opinion and I know that you would respond back to an email. Please keep posting and do the things you have been doing on this forum.

To chris nerat at scd, your magazine reminds me of a flourishing typewriter business around 1985. 10-15 years later you are not relevant anymore. Scd has not changed with the times and that is why I do not subscribe to it anymore. I do not trust it and it is stale. I would rather read an article/forum post from kylehess on collecting game used shower shoes vs jock straps than read through 15 pages of coaches corner latest auction. I am willing to bet that kyle does not have an scd subscription and the question is why? He is roughly 20 years old and entering into our hobby. He is the future of this hobby. (I can see it now brokenbat.com ‘where some wood is better than no wood’ ). Scd marketing should be TOWARD people on this forum not AGAINST people on this forum. a bunch of us are all your FORMER customers. Back in the day scd was the only game in town, now there are many avenues to get information. I would not stock up on green bananas over there if I were you. Just give us unbiased opinions, that does not mean throwing people under the bus just both sides of a story. Get the information from heritage get the information from Robert, compare notes. Get the information from Lou Lampson get the information from Howard Wolf :) compare notes, etc…

To heritage auctions, you made a mistake, we all do. How are you going to get better in the future? Suggestion for chris ivy, you have just met someone very knowledgable about helmets. If you come across helmets in the future why no ask him about them/pay him. I bet Robert will come cheaper than lou, and it will free up lou’s time so he does not have to authenticate 1000 items in a 48 hour period. You are already taking photos of the helmets for the auction catalog. Email the photos to Robert and he can take a look to see if something is not right. I realize I am oversimplifying the matter but the point is there are other resources around that are just an email away and your own team dropped the ball. I do appreciate that you removed the namath helmet right away and did not let it runs it’s course under it’s present condition. You have not lost me as a customer.

To game used universe, devil’s advocate….how would you handle a situation like this if it developed? Going back to the we all make mistakes at some point theme. Something will happen down the road, it always does. I know there are some built in safeguards with item discussions and forum member knowledge. If there is one thing I have learned is there are no absolutes. I lived in the Manny Ramirez Cleveland Indians days, I think I saw him take a bat from a kid out of the stands, hit a home run and give it back he used everybody’s equipment..

with big ticket items or small ticket items we all need to get as much information as possible. We all need to find a level of risk we are comfortable with when buying our game used items and everybody's risk level is different.


Just my opinions.

Take care
John
jonincleve@sbcglobal.net

[G1X]

The reality is that this hobby is nearly impossible to regulate which makes it a magnet for fraud. The best thing we can do as a community is to continue to educate ourselves and each other, and expose questionable practices and outright wrongdoings at every opportunity.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

[mvandor]

The reality is that this hobby is nearly impossible to regulate which makes it a magnet for fraud. The best thing we can do as a community is to continue to educate ourselves and each other, and expose questionable practices and outright wrongdoings at every opportunity.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Any other industry filled with so much fraud (read criminal activity) would certainly be of interest to the FBI and resulted in arrests and prosecutions. The fact that this industry is viewed as a "hobby", ie something unimportant and non-critical, seems to cause the authorities to take it less seriously.

Or perhaps it's the lack of absolutes with so many opinions being cast about that would make prosecution difficult.

Either way, there are patterns that can be easily discerned from evaluating the work of certain firms and individuals that SHOULD be sufficient for prosecution.

[skipcareyisfat]

I owe a lot of my passion for the hobby to SCD. Use to be that I couldn’t wait to see the next issue since most of the time each contained at least a few things that interested me. So I have to admit that I feel a little bad to see SCD burying itself week in and week out.

The reality though is that I’m not sure whose side they’re on anymore. SCD has done a very poor job of adapting to the changes our hobby’s experienced over the past 10 or so years. They’re so out of touch with collectors now that if they’re gone within the next year or two, I really wouldn’t be surprised. Education and protecting yourself against garbage is a total must for today’s collectors. Seems like doing that is at least 50% of the collecting process now. There’s been shady folks pushing bad material for a long time, but it’s gotten worse. Luckily most of us have the courage to not just acknowledge it, but to try and do something about it.

Having either spoken with or emailed many of the SCD guys recently, including Nerat, I have no problem calling them good people. But none of this is about that. I’m just over the excuses. No question that SCD is irrelevant to the majority of collectors, and with every issue it gets worse. How about showing some balls and booting scumbag advertisers that have been stealing money from your customers for years? While you’re at it, hire a few guys who 1) understand that there’s a hobby outside of vintage Topps cards and 2008 signed inserts and 2) aren’t afraid to write a few things that may piss off some of the folks that pay your rent.

[aeneas01]

As for the published accounts, IMO it was "rock solid journalism".

Jim

:) ;) :)


By this post I assume this has been sticking in your craw the last 9 days since the last post was made in the original thread.

actually i decided to post these final thoughts after i poured myself a scotch, kicked back and then took another long look at heritage's and american memorabilia's auction archives - all the while marvelling at the number of botched helmet authentication jobs i came across. in retrospect i should have nixed the scotch given all of the typos i made in that post!

the reason i wanted to take another look at these archives is because i felt the need to try and square how one sports collecting publication (sc daily) could do such a good job covering heritage's gaff while another sports collecting publication (sc digest) could so easily and casually dismiss the error while at the same time make excuses for the sloppy work of authenticators, past and present.....

------------------------------------------------


for example, steve bloedow of sports collectors digest recently wrote:

"This auction was the first time I had the chance to meet and talk with authenticator Lou Lampson for any length of time. Most sports memorabilia message boards spend a lot of time ripping on this guy, but I'll be the first to advise you to give him a chance. I'm not sure if I've met anyone more passionate about what he does than Lampson. He's also just basically a collector with 100x more knowledge than most of us, who happens to wind up authenticating for auction houses because others have priced themselves out of the market. Does he make mistakes? Sure, but it's more related to trying to do too many items at one time than anything else. And the responsibility is still on us to do our research before buying an item to "double check" the authenticator's work. I'm sure Lampson has plenty of faults. We all do. But when he starts talking about athletes that he's met, knows and is very good friends with and going through his photo album of his collection and pictures of him with guys like JaMarcus Russell and Larry Fitzgerald, it's hard not to like him. If anyone else was a better option, I'm sure the auction houses would use them to authenticate, but don't think that this guy doesn't know his stuff."

http://bloedowsblock.sportscollectorsdigest.com/CommentView,guid,1f06b507-aeb6-43f8-a834-0ed86d8e6339.aspx


while chris nerat of sports collectors digest offered:

For the past few years, various publications, online news outlets and Internet message boards have been talking about game-worn jersey and autograph authenticators and their roles within an auction house operation. Much of this coverage has become very heated and sometimes even controversial. It’s understandable. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars are at stake and anyone that has, or feels they have a potential of getting burnt when spending their hard-earned money will feel very strongly on this subject.

Now my take on all of this: There was a time when auction houses didn’t even use authenticators, in fact, many mom and pop auction houses that deal with family estates don’t use an authenticator and have an “All Sales are Final” policy. As a general rule, auctions are not like Wal-Mart… You usually are expected to pay for the item as an “as-is” type situation. At least that’s how it used to be. Many of the people who own auction houses may have some knowledge in the area of sports memorabilia that they are selling, but very few can be classified as “experts.” That is why third-party authenticators are brought in to go through the auction items and offer their opinion on each lot.

I just had the opportunity to buy a nice vintage Packers jersey that may have been game-worn. It took me about a week of phone calls and my own research to determine that it was not a gamer. A week!

Many auctions hire authenticators for only a couple days and they are expected to go through hundreds of pieces. In my opinion, there is no way that this can be done in this amount of time without making any mistakes. Also, keep in mind... authenticators DO reject many jerseys that were consigned for a particular auction. I remember Lou Lampson rejecting over 50 jerseys for one American Memorabilia sale, when I still worked there. There was never any intent to deceive a customer into buying a jersey that we didn't think was game-worn.

Now, I know some of you will say that the authenticators should be brought in for a longer period of time… That sounds like a good idea, in theory, but it isn’t that realistic. First of all, that costs much more money for the auction house and second of all, there are deadlines to get the catalogs prepared. That said, this time constraint should not let the auction house off the hook if a mistake is made. “All sales final” policy or not, if a mistake is made on a jersey and it is called to the auction houses’ attention, in my opinion the business should stand behind its item. That can also sometimes be tough though. Many times a consignor is already paid when a problem surfaces and as a result that money can not be gotten back easily. Maybe have a 10-day return policy or something.

http://gavelchat.sportscollectorsdigest.com/SearchView.aspx?q=lampson


------------------------------------------------

according to bloedow and nerat auction houses basically bring in any available warm body with collecting experience, provided the person comes cheap, to authenticate hundreds of items in an impossibly short time period. and that auction houses are basically offering this service as an amenity to their bidders, a favor if you will, and therefore collectors shouldn't get their shorts in a bunch when the lovable lug drops the ball again and again. i mean how can you argue with:

"Does he make mistakes? Sure, but it's more related to trying to do too many items at one time than anything else. And the responsibility is still on us to do our research before buying an item, to "double check" the authenticator's work." bloedow"

Many auctions hire authenticators for only a couple days and they are expected to go through hundreds of pieces. In my opinion, there is no way that this can be done in this amount of time without making any mistakes." nerat

the picture that bloedow and nerat attempt to paint of lampson as some regular joe just tryin' to do his his best and get by in the world is patently absurd - what's even more patently absurd is bloedow's and nerat's irresponsible failure to report to their readers that auction houses bring in people like lampson, pay people like lampson, for one reason and one reason only - to increase the hammer prices of their items. sports collecting columnists shouldn't be making excuses for lampson, or any other authenticator for that matter - they should be holding their feet to the fire. and they should be holding the auction houses' feet to fire as well.

and, finally, it is nothing short of idiotic to try and defend an authenticator or make excuses for an authenticator that can be had the cheapest, that hasn't priced himself out of the market, and is willing to take on more work than he can be handle - especially when auction houses point to the following:

"Our authenticator, Lou Lampson, has more than 30 years of expertise in authentication. So if your unsure about the authenticity of your collectable let use give you our 100% guarantee that your collectible is 100% authentic."

http://www.100percentauthentic.com/

[mvandor]

Nobody is perfect, it's about their batting averages. What we're saying is too many of the auction houses and authenticators propping up their businesses with fast food LOA's should be sent back to the minors based on THEIR batting averages.

[jonincleve]

so let those guys put their money where their mouth is and spend $10,000 on an item authenticated by lou lampson sight un-seen. base the purchase on the authenticator and his time spent with the item without discussing the item with anybody else. according to their articles, the law of averages say they will get something game used.

it's a shame but a lot of people buy things this way in auctions. my wife wanted to buy me a grady sizemore game used jersey as a gift. thank god she told me what she was planning before she actually did it. her thought process was it was a big auction house and it comes with a coa letter. then i showed her the fine print with all sales final, etc...

if enough people get screwed, they eventually will lose interest and not collect anymore. without a growing collector base, magazines like scd can not grow and survive.

as for auction houses, everyone makes mistakes....it is whether they are 'honest mistakes' or 'i don't have enough time/ give a s**t' mistakes.

just my opinion
john

[both-teams-played-hard]

Aeneas01
These two blog entries you posted have been discussed on this forum in the past. The excuses by the Lampson apologists seem to make matters worse. Yes, authenticating ain't easy. Yes, it would be hard to examine 500 jerseys on a three-day weekend. Yes, Lampson met some football players. Yes, it takes a lot of nerve to call yourself an expert. Yes, it takes even more nerve to say you are an expert at EVERYTHING. Yes, he gets some things right. Yes, real game used jerseys authenticate themselves. I appreciate Nerat and Bloedow's passion for the hobby. But, you must take criticism to have a newsworthy blog that is considered valid.

Chris Nerat-"I just had the opportunity to buy a nice vintage Packers jersey that may have been game-worn. It took me about a week of phone calls and my own research to determine that it was not a gamer. A week!"

If you had've posted photos of your Packers jersey on this forum, you would have got the same information in 12 hours. 12 hours!