Tweet
MEARS staff and its diversity to authenticate (Reprinted with Permission)
by Troy R. Kinunen, August 4 2006 at 5:34 PM
How is it that MEARS and Dave Bushing can authenticate items from 3 major fields, baseball, basketball, and football?
When contracted to authenticate for either auction house or private collectors, both Dave Bushing and myself work together to conduct the grading and evaluation. For the current Mastro Auctions, Dave Bushing, Troy R. Kinunen, John Conard, and Dave Miedema all participated in the evaluation of those items.
I was the lead authenticator of the Link Lyman Bears jersey, and my complete evaluation appears in the current news section.
Besides myself, John, Miedema, and Bushing, we have an additional support staff. Pat Landry, Tim Smith, Maurice Turner Jr., and Karl Iglesias are currently full time employees in our research department. They have been instrumental in the building of our photo database, with a current emphasis on football and basketball images. Our current photo database now surpasses the 75,000 image mark. Also, we have over 250 books in our library photo reference section which is available to MEARS members. This represents about 1/2 of our total library. Our research library is real, and I invite any interested party to view our resources in our Milwaukee headquarters.
Neither Dave Bushing nor anyone on our staff is expected to know everything. What they are expected to do is:
1. Have a complete working understanding of the application of the worksheet
2. Use the available and above referenced databases to render opinions.
3. Provide collectors with the source of our references used to provide our opinions. These references are always available to any interested party.
4. Continue their education in the field of sports memorabilia by continuing to research and publish articles on the MEARS website.
Both Dave Bushing and myself provide articles on a bi weekly basis.
5. Continue to add to the MEARS research database.
Also, for those that do not know, I have always been active in the evaluation and grading of the items that have been graded by SCDA/MEARS. When my signed name appears on the letter, I have also evaluated the item using the same standards outlined above.
I personally have conducted research projects on:
The History of Zinn Beck Bats
The History of Green Bay Packers Jerseys
1942 Joe DiMaggio World Series bat
1928 Lou Gehrig side written bat
1927 Lou Gehrig Side written bat
1962-62 Wilt Chamberlain Warriors jersey
History of the Boston Bees jerseys
1979 Terry Bradshaw Pittsburgh Steelers jersey
1936 Joe DiMaggio Yankees rookie jersey
and many more articles that can be found in the MEARS article library. All of this information is available to MEARS members. Interested parties will find these articles well researched and the available sources are referenced.
Projects that I am currently researching which will appear on MEARS include:
The history of Store model bats 1886-1920
Cassius Clay and his memorabilia 1954-1960
Bats from players of the deadball era
Los Angeles Lakers jerseys 1950-1970
Other completed projects that I was involved with that appear on MEARS are:
Duke Hott football jersey collection
MEARS basketball jersey collection museum which includes most of the NBA top 50 players with many defunct teams.
So, Dave Bushing nor myself is expected to know everything about all jerseys, but we are expected to know how to use the MEARS research library or leverage outside information to formulate the correct opinion.