not only is your collectible 100% authentic, but american memorabilia gives you their "100% guarantee" that it is authentic. or as they put it it, while misspelling "collectible" and "us" along the way on the first page of their "100% authentic" website...

"Our authenticator, Lou Lampson, has more than 30 years of expertise in authentication. So if your unsure about the authenticity of your collectable let use give you our 100% guarantee that your collectible is 100% authentic."

from the get-go it's obvious that this outfit specializes in attention to detail, no? anyway, i'm wondering how american memorabilia can continue to make such lofty guarantees - especially considering that they seem to even struggle with items said to have been worn by some of the most famous, most photographed and most filmed athletes in the game. take this "1995 emmitt smith dallas cowboys record-breaking gamed used helmet" for example - a helmet that fetched $3,500++ at one of their 2004 auctions.







the ad states (underlined) that the dymo tape with e.s.'s name is present, that the back bumper is "appropriately" blank and that the interior is fitted with a vsr4 padding system "which were made for wd helmets.

the problem is a) there is nothing "appropriate" about the back bumper being blank - in 1995 the cowboys applied a "cowboys" decal to the rear bumper making it, well, far from blank b) emmitt smith wore an af2 helmet for many years, including the 1995 season - so either the helmet that sold was an af2 correctly fitted with an af2 padding system which american memorabilia's crack team mistook for vsr4 padding or the helmet that sold was a custom job that smith never wore and c) while it's true that the 'boys are well known for using blue dymo tape, the size of this tape can often vary from season to season as it is replaced - in 1995 emmitt smith's lid was dressed with a much longer tape than what is shown in the auction. further, where's the front bumper decal? in short, good grief....



here's a look at the front and back of e.s.'s 1995 lid - note the bumper decals and dymo tape...





and here's a look at the inside of e.s.'s lid over the years - clearly an af2 with af2 padding...




let me end by apologizing to the forum in advance for this post - i realize that this sort of thing is bad for the hobby and i will try to toe the line the next time around. as a matter of fact, i now see that i could have framed this post differently, more positively, which ultimately would have been much better for the hobby - for example, rather than criticize and "out" american memorabilia and their authenticators in the manner that i did, i could have simply used the above information to illustrate the enormous amount of pressure auction houses and their authenticators are under, the enormous amount of pressure they face each and every auction period, which invariably leads to oversights. yeah, that would have been much better....