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...-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_f...ead.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_f...ad.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