When i think of the major authenticators in this hobby, the most prolific ones seem to be MEARS, Lou Lampson, and GAI. Lelands uses their own internal crew which consists of Heffner, Vari, and I assume an internal support staff. MEARS has Grob, Troy, Bushing and an additional staff of 6 or 7 which act as research support, etc. GAI also has a staff consisting of several people. Grey Flannel advertises that it uses 3-4 people to authenticate their auction jerseys and MeiGray also has several authenticators on staff.
When it comes to volume, I'd say that MEARS, Lampson, and GAI are all in the same league. Lampson may actually have more auction house contracts - his name appears as the authenticator for Vintage, Mastro, AMI, Bricol, Heritage, Historic. The thing is, as far as I know, Lou is a one-man shop. Long story short, how does 1 man manage to produce the same volume as his competitors that have entire staffs? Does Lou have a staff? Does anyone know of anyone who's ever worked for Lou? Does Lou even have a single person working for him in any capacity? (I know he has no "customer service" department).
If I became an independant authenticator, there's no possible way that I could compete with a staff the size of MEARS. In one day, they can pump out a total of 216 man-hours. Working on my own, I technically couldn't do more than 24. Our production capacities aren't even remotely close. How does Lampson manage to handle an entire auction by himself when his competitors require at least 2-3 staffers? How is that humanly possible?
rudy.
When it comes to volume, I'd say that MEARS, Lampson, and GAI are all in the same league. Lampson may actually have more auction house contracts - his name appears as the authenticator for Vintage, Mastro, AMI, Bricol, Heritage, Historic. The thing is, as far as I know, Lou is a one-man shop. Long story short, how does 1 man manage to produce the same volume as his competitors that have entire staffs? Does Lou have a staff? Does anyone know of anyone who's ever worked for Lou? Does Lou even have a single person working for him in any capacity? (I know he has no "customer service" department).
If I became an independant authenticator, there's no possible way that I could compete with a staff the size of MEARS. In one day, they can pump out a total of 216 man-hours. Working on my own, I technically couldn't do more than 24. Our production capacities aren't even remotely close. How does Lampson manage to handle an entire auction by himself when his competitors require at least 2-3 staffers? How is that humanly possible?
rudy.
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