American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

[hblakewolf]

Forum Readers-

American Memorabila currently has in auction a "1999 Will Clark Orioles BP"
http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/A...rby=&tfm_order=

WHOOPS!!!!!

Note the MLB logo on the back of the neck of this "Will Clark" jersey. The teams began incorporating this in 2000, not 1999. Clark switched numbers in 2000, and was not wearing 12.

As such, how can this possibly be offered as a "Will clark 1999 jersey"??????

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[BaseballGM]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

Under that decription, when you click on the "Lou Lampson" box, you see the following:

As part of an agreement between SCD Authentic and 100% Authentic, a division of American Memorabilia, Lampson will analyze submissions of items in his fields of expertise as part of SCD Authentic's new equipment authentication service.


Should AMI update this information since SCDA no longer exists?

[trsent]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

eBay accepts SCDA as an approved authenticator, but they have no idea of who MEARS is when I spoke to them on the telephone the other day.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/auth-overview.html

[bigtime59]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

It's pretty obvious that the PANTS in this ensamble got re-issued at some point...could the jersey have been, as well? Would REALLY like to see the tagging and Majestic sleeve logo before I say anything else...

[suave1477]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

OK LISTEN EVERYONE!!!

I am starting to notice this is consistent of Lou Lampson to falsely describe item many time it has been brought up here item that have Lampson COA'S an that they were wrong and proven wrong. Does anyone think that he might actually be doing it on purpose? If so shouldnt there be something done about this? Shouldnt he be reported to someone? Passing off a false authentication is just as bad as making a forgery of a jersey!!!!!

[trsent]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

Jason, I am sorry, I am not a fan of Lou Lampson, but I must tell you, I don't believe Lou is intentionally writing letters for items that he doesn't believe to be genuine. From my associates who have met Lou and dealt with him over the years, I would venture to guess that your accusations are based on the items that have been brought to your attention on this forum as he must authenticate thousands of genuine items that you never pay attention to since they are not questioned.

Why would Lou authenticate an item as genuine knowing it wasn't? He doesn't make any more money for writing a letter that an item is good or if it is bad.

[suave1477]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

Well first of all it was a thought!!! thats all it just seems pretty strange even for thousands of Authentications that he does that so many do get by that are false. I can understand maybe once in a blue moon ( we as humans are all entitled to make mistakes ), but with him in that past couple of months in this forum there must have been 5 or 6 already that are false.

Your asking me why would he pass fake LOAS? you say he wont make any more money regardless if he does or doesnt.

How about he makes money period doing it!!!!!

That would mean I can take up a new career passing fake LOA'S WHY? Bcuz according to you if i do ten or a thousand its irrelevant i still will make the same salary.

I am gonna start looking into this new carrer endeavor of mine!!!!

[trsent]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

No you are not changing careers.

I just was stating, if Lou authenticates for as a few auction houses, he gets his full work and looks at quite a few items.

[CollectGU]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

OK LISTEN EVERYONE!!!

I am starting to notice this is consistent of Lou Lampson to falsely describe item many time it has been brought up here item that have Lampson COA'S an that they were wrong and proven wrong. Does anyone think that he might actually be doing it on purpose? If so shouldnt there be something done about this? Shouldnt he be reported to someone? Passing off a false authentication is just as bad as making a forgery of a jersey!!!!!

Suave,

He make no more or less mistakes than Grey Flannel, leland's, MEARS, etc. They all make mistakes..There are thousands of items offered by these auction houses and yet no one on this board ever talks much about the 95% that are good , onlt the 5% that are bad. Why? Because cotroversial authentcations give us all something to talk about. ...."Sex sells" my friend and in this forum sex= "a mistake by the authenticators"......What fun is it to come up here and announce that the authenticators got "jersey A in Auction house A" correct. So this forum, by its nature, is going to disproportionately weigh and discuss authenticators failures much more than their successes.

[trsent]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

He make no more or less mistakes than Grey Flannel, leland's, MEARS, etc. They all make mistakes..There are thousands of items offered by these auction houses and yet no one on this board ever talks much about the 95% that are good , onlt the 5% that are bad. Why? Because cotroversial authentcations give us all something to talk about. ...."Sex sells" my friend and in this forum sex= "a mistake by the authenticators"......What fun is it to come up here and announce that the authenticators got "jersey A in Auction house A" correct. So this forum, by its nature, is going to disproportionately weigh and discuss authenticators failures much more than their successes.

Great reply.

I stopped watching the evening news about ten years ago. I got tired of them glorifying people's problems. Same thing here, we glorify the bad and don't always bring up the good.

[bigtime59]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

I don't see the vast majority of the items that Lou! authenticates. I probably don't even see the majority of the Orioles items that Lou! authenticates. And, as I have proven in another thread about fake Ripken gamers, I have been wrong on Orioles items, which I pay closer attention to than anything else.
Having said that, however, I am hard pressed to come up with an Orioles item I've seen with Lou's! authentication that wasn't wrong.

[Eric]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

I mentioned the questions to Tony at AMI and he was looking into it.

It appears as if this lot was taken down. It is now listed as "Lot 0"
Eric

[kingjammy24]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

As always, I'm a little late to the party but let me throw in a general thought.

"Why would Lou authenticate an item as genuine knowing it wasn't? He doesn't make any more money for writing a letter that an item is good or if it is bad"

Without referring specifically to Lampson or any authenticator or company, let me throw an idea out. The revenue that authenticators make from private collectors/single items pales in comparison to their auction house deals. MEARS, for example, authenticated over 300 items for a recent Vintage Authentics auction. The money is not in attracting the private collectors with their 1 or 2 jerseys but in getting the big auction house contracts. Now, I think it's an obvious fact that the more items an auction house can sell, the more money it will make. So if Johnny Authenticator manages to positively authenticate 600 items, then that means more money for the auction house than if he could only positively authenticate 100 items. Everyone realizes this; the auction house, the authenticators. More authenticated items, more money. Ipso facto, the auction houses have a serious financial interest in getting a greater number of items positively authenticated. If I were a big name, professional authenticator then I don't exactly have a hard time believing that some auction houses are going to slip me some substantial money under the table in order to make some questionable items good. If an auction house receives 1000 items and only 500 are genuinely legit then that's only 500 they can sell. If they receive 1000 items and I, as a big name authenticator, put my seal of approval on all 1000, then that's substantially more profit for the auction house. Well what's going to make me authenticate these questionable items? $$. There is indeed money to be made in knowingly and intentionally authenticating bad items. Sure you get paid the same rate for each authentication but there are substantial kickbacks to be made by positively authenticating bad items so that the auction houses earn more profit.

Rudy.

[EndzoneSports]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

In general, I agree with Rudy's comments, however, in splitting hairs on a couple of points, I'm not so sure that any of the pro authenticators out there are really so willing to soil their reputation by intentionally autheticating bad items. They may, however, instead be willing/inclined to look a bit less critically at any one (or a number) of the 100s of items that might be submitted to them prior to a major auction. Doing so serves two purposes: (1) expediance of time; and (2) refusing to bite the hand that feeds them. As a result of rushing a large number of items through in a short time, it is likely that a larger number of questionable items sneak through the cracks during this process than might under other circumstances.

[kingjammy24]

Re: American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

Patrick, thanks for your comments.
In terms of pro authenticators willing to take the risk of sullying their reputation by intentionally authenticating bad items, it's my opinion that it may be far too difficult for some to resist the incredibly large sums of easy money in this hobby. When you consider that there's very little overhead and the cost and time of producing an LOA is trivial, you can see how authenticating can easily become like printing money. $100 bills can be generated as fast as your printer can spew out LOAs. Their perceived reputation, contacts and the lack of knowledge amongst the collecting masses have enabled some to turn their laser printers into bottomless ATM machines. I'm sure that some pro authenticators place a higher value on their reputation than on these large sums of easy money but I think it'd be naive to say that all of them do. To do so would be to greatly underestimate the power of money, especially towards authenticators who have run into money troubles such as divorce, medical bills, or other mounting debts. Money is one of the few things in life that make people do things they ordinarily wouldn't. It makes moral compasses go askew.
Plus, I'm sure that some don't see it as a "money vs. loss of reputation" issue because they don't believe they'll get caught so there won't be any loss of reputation. After all, when you strut around with major auction house contracts in your pocket and a mantra of "I've been authenticating for over 30 years!", you really don't think the hoi polloi are smart enough to catch your errors.
In addition, I genuinely question whether it's even possible to sully your reputation in this hobby given that a certain big-name authenticator who is known to have made an incredible amount of ludicrous errors is still as prolific as ever in his authenticating, including the work he regularly does for a major auction house. It seems there's a huge amount of leeway before one's name finally becomes completely worthless.
Having said all of that, I do agree with your alternate theory that many authenticators simply cannot devote the necessary time to each item given the sheer number of items they receive and the price they charge for each. As I pointed out earlier, it's economically unfeasible for an authenticator to spend an hour or more per item, even if the item necessitates it. I have little doubt that they rush through many items.
I also completely agree that they're not going to bite the hand that feeds them and I think that ties in to my idea that they're going to "help" the auction houses make more money by "looking the other way" on a few items. A contract from a major auction house must be extremely lucrative. It probably doesn't go over very well when you come back and tell them that 50% of the items received aren't legit. That's alot of money lost for the auction house. So maybe you'll be a little sloppy on a couple of items in order to help the people who regularly throw the big bucks your way.
Oddly enough, it really seems exactly like companies who throw their business to investment banks whose analysts who regularly issue favorable reports about the company. You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours. Issue lots of good LOAs, we'll make lots of money, and in return we'll keep feeding you the contracts. We make money, you make money, and most of the plebs don't know they're being taken.

The lesson of all this? Be your own authenticator. You're never going to cheat yourself or be sloppy. You'll learn a ton in the process, sleep better at night, and won't have to rely on someone else. It's really not overly difficult. These aren't NASA engineers we're talking about.

Rudy.