The ebay Ripken helmet

[skipcareyisfat]

I just searched the GUU archives and came across several discussions about g/u Ripken helmets. The one started on 1/31/07 (http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ripken+helmet) links to an ebay auction which has since expired and I can't recall if it's the same one that was recently up for sale on ebay. I'm guessing not and that it was a more recent one.

I figured most people passed on it because of the size (7 1/4 instead of 7 3/8). But Troy at Mears just posted these comments on the MEARS board that I thought were interesting:

Ebay Cal Ripken Jr. Helmet #200166756445
November 4 2007 at 12:58 PM Troy R. Kinunen (Login Troyrkinunen)
I was recently asked a question regarding item #200166756445 which was recently posted but did not sell on Ebay. It was posted by ebay user name ripken08forever.

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cal-Ripken-Jr-Mi...QQcmdZViewItem

The item was submitted to MEARS for an evaluation. After several weeks of research, we COULD NOT attribute the helmet to Cal Ripken Jr. and felt it was mostly likely worn by Benny Ayala and/or Lee Lacy. Our comment section read:


"Headband shows moderate wear. The foam in back is severely damaged and is falling out. Side and top also show signs of wear., but are still attached. Helmet can be dated to the 1982-85 period due to the ABC pinwheel on the back of the helmet. Helmet has #8 sticker on it, however, this sticker was applied later. The number originally applied to the helmet was 27, which can be seen under close examination of the bill. The bill has residue and markings from the numbers that are visible. The number 27 was worn by two different players during the years this helmet dates to. The first being Benny Awala who wore number 27 for the Orioles from the 1979-84. The second was Lee Lacy who wore number 27 for the Orioles from 1985-87. Both Benny Ayala and Lee Lacy were right handed batters and wore helmets with the left ear flap so neither of them can be eliminated using that factor. The helmet was autographed on back by Cal Ripken, Jr. with "shortstop written" under it. This helmet comes with a Letter of Authenticity from photographer Alan Sessarego on Through the Lens letterhead."

The complete letter of opinion can be viewed by MEARS members at http://www.mearsonline.com/loa/equip....asp?id=307438

My review of the photographs indicate the ebay Cal Ripken Jr. listing was identical to the helmet submitted to MEARS for evaluation. There was no mention of the MEARS opinion referenced in the Ebay listing.

As has been discussed in the past, MEARS does not require anyone to exclusively use our opinions, but in instances where materials changes were discovered, (another players uniform number under existing number) MEARS expects responsbile sellers to provide that information to interested parties.

Sincerely,


Troy R. Kinunen
MEARS

[ironmanfan]

I was offered said helmet many years ago by Mr. Sessarego and I passed on it when my physical inspection revealed the same thing.

[mr.miracle]

This helmet came to me third party through another forum member who purchased it directly from Alan the original owner/seller of it. I have not responded directly to Troy's post yet on MEARS site as I was not aware that it was there until late last night courtesy of another forum member. I also will not respond to it until I have spoken directly with Alan Sessarego the original owner of the helmet. I have a call and email in to him as we speak. Having purchased one game used Ripken item from him that was graded A10 by MEARS and it is as concrete as concrete can be as well as having first hand knowledge of another game used item that is currently in the hands of another forum member that has been graded as completely authentic I still feel very solid about this item in terms of its authenticity. It was simply a formality to me to have it authenticated prior to selling it to pay off some unexpected debt that just arose and I was shocked when I saw the MEARS letter on it. I would however like to make it known on here that I did receive several very valid inquiries regarding this helmet and in each instance I have provided full disclosure to that individual the results of the MEARS evaluation. I have not been asked as of yet by the potential buyers to provide the MEARS LOA for the helmet for inspection but will gladly do so as requested. Any bidder will also be given full access to the MEARS letter as well either prior to or at the time they place their bid. I have nothing to hide on this and want to fully disclose all facts regarding this helmet. I want to speak to Troy about this further as the helmet in their opinion is attributed to former Orioles Benny Ayala or Lee Lacy. One of my primary questions is does anyone short of those two individuals themselves have any idea what hat or helmet size either of those players wore? Nobody that I have ever seen or run into collects anything by those two players and I have never seen a single hat or helmet of those two on the market. I do know however that the helmet in question is a right handed hitters helmet and it is the correct size match for Cal Ripken Jr. Based upon the provenance and supporting documentation of the seller a former Orioles team photographer I felt and still feel very, very solid about this being an authentic Ripken item. I will respond further to the MEARS post after I have spoken with Alan in further detail. I have known Alan for a couple of years and know that he has provided over ten game used Ripken bats, jersey's etc. for sale on the market. His items were either obtained directly from Cal or from a clubhouse source that up until this point was completely impecabble as every item that he previously sold held up to the equipment grading standards and came out with flying colors from places like MEARS, John Taube, James Spence etc. Please let me know if you have further questions.




Thanks

[mr.miracle]

Please see MEARS own website and their cert #305683 which is a 1994 game worn Ripken batting helmet. MEARS graded it as authentic and it is a size 7 1/4. MEARS notes on the cert that even though exemplars have been 7 3/8 for Ripken the 1/8th size difference is exceptable. I personally have seen both sizes for Ripken in my 20 plus years of collecting so I don't believe that this issue is one of any relevance here. Even though Ripken batting helmets have been extremely rare over the years they do exist in both the 7 1/4 and 7 3/8 variety. Hopefully that at least answers this specific question.

Thanks

[grandpahoo]

Sadly, I'd still be interested in the helmet even if it was worn by Benny Ayala.

[beantown]

This helmet came to me third party through another forum member who purchased it directly from Alan the original owner/seller of it. I have not responded directly to Troy's post yet on MEARS site as I was not aware that it was there until late last night courtesy of another forum member. I also will not respond to it until I have spoken directly with Alan Sessarego the original owner of the helmet. I have a call and email in to him as we speak. Having purchased one game used Ripken item from him that was graded A10 by MEARS and it is as concrete as concrete can be as well as having first hand knowledge of another game used item that is currently in the hands of another forum member that has been graded as completely authentic I still feel very solid about this item in terms of its authenticity. It was simply a formality to me to have it authenticated prior to selling it to pay off some unexpected debt that just arose and I was shocked when I saw the MEARS letter on it. I would however like to make it known on here that I did receive several very valid inquiries regarding this helmet and in each instance I have provided full disclosure to that individual the results of the MEARS evaluation. I have not been asked as of yet by the potential buyers to provide the MEARS LOA for the helmet for inspection but will gladly do so as requested. Any bidder will also be given full access to the MEARS letter as well either prior to or at the time they place their bid. I have nothing to hide on this and want to fully disclose all facts regarding this helmet. I want to speak to Troy about this further as the helmet in their opinion is attributed to former Orioles Benny Ayala or Lee Lacy. One of my primary questions is does anyone short of those two individuals themselves have any idea what hat or helmet size either of those players wore? Nobody that I have ever seen or run into collects anything by those two players and I have never seen a single hat or helmet of those two on the market. I do know however that the helmet in question is a right handed hitters helmet and it is the correct size match for Cal Ripken Jr. Based upon the provenance and supporting documentation of the seller a former Orioles team photographer I felt and still feel very, very solid about this being an authentic Ripken item. I will respond further to the MEARS post after I have spoken with Alan in further detail. I have known Alan for a couple of years and know that he has provided over ten game used Ripken bats, jersey's etc. for sale on the market. His items were either obtained directly from Cal or from a clubhouse source that up until this point was completely impecabble as every item that he previously sold held up to the equipment grading standards and came out with flying colors from places like MEARS, John Taube, James Spence etc. Please let me know if you have further questions.
Thanks

I have purchased several Fred Lynn items from Mr. Alan Sessarego with him writing his own COA. I have found him to be a generous and courteuous individual...and if I submitted my items for authentication to MEARS, there is no doubt all items would receive an A10. Just my thoughts....

[mr.miracle]

I just searched the GUU archives and came across several discussions about g/u Ripken helmets. The one started on 1/31/07 (http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ripken+helmet) links to an ebay auction which has since expired and I can't recall if it's the same one that was recently up for sale on ebay. I'm guessing not and that it was a more recent one.

I figured most people passed on it because of the size (7 1/4 instead of 7 3/8). But Troy at Mears just posted these comments on the MEARS board that I thought were interesting:

Ebay Cal Ripken Jr. Helmet #200166756445
November 4 2007 at 12:58 PM Troy R. Kinunen (Login Troyrkinunen)
I was recently asked a question regarding item #200166756445 which was recently posted but did not sell on Ebay. It was posted by ebay user name ripken08forever.

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cal-Ripken-Jr-Mi...QQcmdZViewItem

The item was submitted to MEARS for an evaluation. After several weeks of research, we COULD NOT attribute the helmet to Cal Ripken Jr. and felt it was mostly likely worn by Benny Ayala and/or Lee Lacy. Our comment section read:


"Headband shows moderate wear. The foam in back is severely damaged and is falling out. Side and top also show signs of wear., but are still attached. Helmet can be dated to the 1982-85 period due to the ABC pinwheel on the back of the helmet. Helmet has #8 sticker on it, however, this sticker was applied later. The number originally applied to the helmet was 27, which can be seen under close examination of the bill. The bill has residue and markings from the numbers that are visible. The number 27 was worn by two different players during the years this helmet dates to. The first being Benny Awala who wore number 27 for the Orioles from the 1979-84. The second was Lee Lacy who wore number 27 for the Orioles from 1985-87. Both Benny Ayala and Lee Lacy were right handed batters and wore helmets with the left ear flap so neither of them can be eliminated using that factor. The helmet was autographed on back by Cal Ripken, Jr. with "shortstop written" under it. This helmet comes with a Letter of Authenticity from photographer Alan Sessarego on Through the Lens letterhead."

The complete letter of opinion can be viewed by MEARS members at http://www.mearsonline.com/loa/equip....asp?id=307438

My review of the photographs indicate the ebay Cal Ripken Jr. listing was identical to the helmet submitted to MEARS for evaluation. There was no mention of the MEARS opinion referenced in the Ebay listing.

As has been discussed in the past, MEARS does not require anyone to exclusively use our opinions, but in instances where materials changes were discovered, (another players uniform number under existing number) MEARS expects responsbile sellers to provide that information to interested parties.

Sincerely,


Troy R. Kinunen
MEARS

Just to update forum members, I spoke with the original owner of the helmet Mr. Alan Sessarego who provided the LOA as well as photos of the helmet etc. He was not happy to say the least about this situation. A couple of things jump out at me about this. Troy posted on MEARS site that they could not attribute the helmet to Cal Ripken jr. I am very, very confused as to why that might be considering the helmet had Ripken's number on the brim, it is a size that has been in the past attributed to Ripken as I have previously pointed out in a recent post that MEARS themselves have authenticated another Ripken game worn helmet in the exact same size as being authentic and lastly and perhaps most important, Cal signed this helmet with a special inscription requested by Mr. Sessarego only as Cal Ripken Jr. Shortstop which I have ONLY ever seen on items that came directly from Alan. It is interesting to note on the LOA for this helmet that under provenance that it listed none. However a similar item authenticated by MEARS in which I provided a similar LOA from Mr. Sessarego complete with pictures and his credentials listed provenance as Orioles team photographer. I have not yet addressed this with Troy at MEARS but you cannot get much better Provenance than an item coming from a former on field team photographer that has provided pictures of himself with Cal, pictures of himself on the field at Memorial Stadium and a picture of his team credentials from the 80's. Another interesting point that perhaps Ironmanfan can address that Mr. Sessarego brought up to me is that he obtained many of these items directly from Cal himself. He told me he could not honestly remember something from 20 plus years ago if this particular item was obtained directly from Cal but he mentioned that when he had Cal sign or autograph these items, Cal did so only after inspecting each item at great length. He said that Cal has refused to ever sign anything that was game used if he was not sure that it was his item. Since Alan was having these items signed during private sessions or times with Cal and not a huge autograph shows or during his public signing sessions before or after Orioles games, I have no reason to doubt that Cal would have taken his time to fully inspect the item before putting his signature on it. Perhaps Ironmanfan can address this specific aspect of his own experience of Cal being asked to sign a game used item when there is a significant question to whether or not it was in fact his own item. I will readdress this issue over at MEARS and prospective buyers can draw their own conclusions however I believe this helmet is what Alan says it is. If MEARS can provide some type of definitive proof such as helmet sizes for Lee Lacy or Benny Ayala if anyone could even locate either one of these gentlemen then we can reevaluate that with new information but issuing an LOA without any definitve proof that either one of those players ever used this helmet simply because there appears to have been a 27 under the current number on the helmet does not really sit too well with me. If there are any additional updates I will address those as they are available.

I appreciate other forum members who have added their own dealings with Alan which as I said, he has been nothing but the very best to deal with and I trust him fully in a time when you can trust almost nobody. This continued nonsense is quite honestly going to drive me out of this industry as I am just sick and tired of everybody questioning everything on a regular basis. Out of all the items in my collection of game used items and items I have handled over the years this would have been one of the top two or three that I would never have given a second thought to as being anything other than what I thought it was. If and when time permits, I am going to see if I can photomatch it to Cal. Hopefully, this answers all questions related to this issue.

Thanks

[bigtruck260]

Good points on all fronts, but I personally am very happy that a forum like this one exists where both sides of an argument can be heard...and that EXPERTS (not just MEARS, etc., but exclusive collectors such as Ironmanfan) can chime in on certain attributes, etc.

Any dealer or collector should be happy that high-end pieces like this one are put under a giant microscope. Maybe someone is wrong on either side...and it will be discovered here.

Why is it so wrong to question an item that has had a major obvious alteration at some point (#27 to 8)? I see that as something that needs to be examined further. Just my opinion.

It just goes to show that the average collector is becoming more educated...

Regards,
Dave

[ironmanfan]

As I stated earlier, at the time I first saw this helmet, it had more questions than I personally felt comfortable with, but I do think there is a point that should be brought to the table. I have read the term "Orioles Team Photographer" used somewhat loosely on more than one occasion and I think my recollection was that Mr. Sessarego was never employed by the club, but was one of many professional free lance photographers who obtained credentials & established relationships with the players (although I can't recall ever seeing any of his baseball photography credited commercially). I know there was a personal relationship with Mr. Sessarego & Ray Knight the one year he played in Baltimore ('87), but I don't think it's fair to characterize him as the "Orioles team photographer."

[mvandor]

It seems to me you're glossing over the central evidence Mears pointed out, the residual marks of a prior number on the bill. It also seems the listing fails to mention the Mears opinion.

Or am I missing something here?