MEARS Authentication....

[David]

Relating to the John Nash / Zsa Zsa Gabor intellectual comparison, I had to add the following lines from M*A*S*H*

Hot Lips Houlihan: "Did you know Albert Einstein flunked high school math?"
Frank Burns: "Really? I got a C."

[aeneas01]

One of the common ways to compare two authentication companies is to compare the percentage of mistakes verus the percentage of mistakes (comparing the degree of error is also often used). Say one company has made 1,000 errors and the other 50. If someone in the name of comparing the companies goes into the archives and picks out three errors from the one company and three errors from the other company to compare side by side, they can give the false impression that the two companies are as bad (or as good, depending how you look at it), when this clearly is not the case.

alas, only if auditors could be sold on this approach - unfortunately they're not too interested in what you might have gotten right, they're interested in the samples they pulled...

as far as mears is concerned, here's an udpate:

troy (mears) was true to his word and immediately contacted mastro to ask that mastro try and track down the buyers of the four helmets in order to see if the helmets did in fact come with an loa from mears, to see if a wrong needed to be righted. one of the buyers was reached, the gentleman who purchased the eagles helmet, and confirmed that his helmet arrived from mastro without an loa from mears despite the item description stating that it would. the buyer contacted me to tell me, among other things, that he wants to return the helmet for a full refund - he also shared his mastro emails with me and said that i could post them here....

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From: "Doug Allen" <dallen@mastronet.com>

You purchased a game used football helmet from our 10/05 auction. Please let me know if you received a MEARS letter for this lot.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Doug
Doug Allen
President & COO
Mastro Auctions Inc.
7900 S. Madison Street
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
p: 630-472-1200
m: 630-336-6650

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From: xxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1:39 PM
To: Doug Allen
Subject: Re: MEARS letter

No, I don't have one. Was that the Sizemore Eagles helmet?

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From: "Doug Allen" <dallen@mastronet.com>

Yes it was....we were just following up as the auction lot indicated the helmets came with MEARS letters but apparently they did not.

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From: xxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 2:15 PM
To: Doug Allen
Subject: RE: MEARS letter

OK, so where does that leave us? Do we need to contact MEARS? Did they break their contract?

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From: "Doug Allen" <dallen@mastronet.com>

No it was probably an administrative mistake. MEARS asked me to contact various individuals who purchased football helmets to find out if they in fact recieved a letter. I would offer to buy back the helmet if the lack of the MEARS helmet bothers you.

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the buyer of the helmet recently emailed me to say that he has told doug that he wanted to take him up on his offer to buy the helmet back given no mears loa as promised; however he has not heard back from doug. hopefully doug follows through on his offer and hopefully the other buyers will be contacted by mastro and offered the same deal if their helmets were received without a mears letter. if the buyer of the eagles helmet is any indication, it appears that mears was completely innocent in the matter of these four helmets and that mastro somehow ran auctions with lots said to have been authenticated by mears when this was clearly not the case. i can't help but wonder how many auction winners fail to confirm that their items safely arrive with all of the promised paper work...



...

[otismalibu]

Let me be the first to pledge $20 to the Aeneas01 Kevlar Vest Fund.

[metsbats]

I'd like Mears to comment on a Rick Aguilera 1986 NLCS orange ring Rawlings Adirondack bat which they categorized as a 85-86 regular season bat. I recently picked this bat up in the last REA auction along with a 1988 Gary Carter game used NLCS bat. The 1988 NLCS bats are stamped as such on the barrel however the 1986 orange ring NLCS bats were not. The distinguishing marks on the 1986 NLCS bats were the absence of the lot and year (ex 123 6) on the knob which was replaced by the players initials. Also a distingishing trademark of the 1986 NLCS Rawlings adirondack bats are the orange rings which were also used for the 1986 WS and 1988 NLCS issued bats

My Mears Letter of Opinion states the Orange ring Rick Aguilera which is stamped with model number 113B and RA is from the 85-86 regular season and that the Model Number Location appears on the knob with the year Code though this bat clearly has no year code.

Attached are photos of Darrly Strawberry, Mookie Wilson, Gary Carter using orange ring bats during the 86 NLCS and World Series. Also included is a photo of the Rick Aguilera (auto by Gary Carter) bat authenticated by Mears along with another same exact NLCS orange ring Aguilera bat.

Also in the photo are orange ring Dykstra, Strawberry 1986 WS bats, an Ed Hearn 86 NLCS orange bat, and a 1988 Mazilli and Carter NLCS orange ring bats.

Thanks
David Louie
metsbats86@aol.com

I received an email from Troy today indicating Mears will make the changes to the certificate for my Rick Aguilera orange ring post season 1986 bat to reflect the bat being such.

Thanks in advance to Troy and Andrew at MEARS for resolving this.

-David

[Eric]

anyway, the first four game-used helmets i came across that were authenticated by mears ("dave bushing & troy kinunen / mears") are listed below - unfortunately they appear to be as problematic as some of the game-used helmets i've come across with a lampson loa...

3. 1980s jerry sisemore philadelphia eagles game used helet - loa from dave bushing & troy kinunen / mears.





problems: 1) eagles never wore white facemasks, 2) like many philadelphia eagles of this era, jerry sisemore sported a classic maxpro clearshell during the late 70s, early 80s (1978-1982), not a riddell as pictured in the auction. he wore a riddell from 1973-1977 and, most likely due to maxpro going out of business in the early 80s, his final two seasons (1983-1984), 3) the riddell helmet pictured in the auction is molded of white plastic and painted green which would suggest that it is from the very early 70s, not 80s as stated in the item description, 4) in all of the photos and film clips i have seen of sisemore wearing a riddell helmet, pre and post maxpro, he is wearing an impregnated green shell not a white one painted green, 5) photos below show sisemore sporting his classic maxpro clearshell during 1978-1982 era.







...

Regarding the Jerry Sisemore helmet in this thread? The moderators got an email from Mr. Sisemore who came across this posting and here's what he had to say...

"Bad News - I have my helmet right here. The one you advertise is NOT mine. It
is tradition that when you leave the lockerroom for the last time, you are
honored with your helmet.

Blessings.....
Jerry Sisemore"

[princip]

Awesome! Thanks for the follow up Eric.

[princip]

Just to add, does this confirm that an LOA from Dave Bushing and Troy Kinunen, of MEARS, isn't worth jack squat?

[suicide_squeeze]

the guu forum is often criticized by many in the industry as a place where malcontents, buyer remorse sufferers and ax grinders gather to complain and take unfair shots at auction houses and authenticators - a place where those with nothing positive to say about the hobby lay in wait, "like spiders", for the next shaky lot to appear at auction in order to pounce on it, anonymously air it out in public, scream foul and embarrass those responsible.

if nothing else this thread proves that the aforementioned notion is patently absurd and that serious game-used sports memorabilia collectors, i.e. guu forum members, want nothing more than a fair shake from auction houses and those that evaluate game-used items - they want those in the industry to be accountable for their work and responsive to their concerns.

after 400+ views not one guu member has posted a negative remark to this thread criticizing mears for missing the boat on these helmets. why? if the authenticator being discussed in this thread was lampson instead of mears, if it were lampson that had missed the boat on these lids instead of mears, i can pretty much guarantee that this thread would have taken an entirely different direction. again, why? pretty simple imo. collectors respond positively to dialog. and they are willing to extend the benefit of the doubt when dialog and accessibility is tabled as demonstrated by the obvious respect collectors at guu have for mears and the forum response to kinunen's email.

Well stated Robert.

I feel it's important to emphasize the fact that over the years in the conversations I have had with Dave Bushing, and more recently with Troy.....they have shown me nothing but the highest integrity and class-act professionalism anyone could ever hope to find in our hobby.

Great post, and an unbelievable pat-on-the-back to MEARS for Troy's response. It speaks volumes about their organization. My GOD......what a breath of fresh air!!! Someone actually taking RESPONSIBILITY for something in this world?? Cudo's to MEARS.

Regards,

Steve Mears (no relation to the company......unfortunately)

[nickacs]

Hi everyone,
Sorry to bump a little old thread, but quick question about the MEARS grading/"expectations". Would you say that getting a jersey with a grade of A10 is one of the "best" in the biz?
I'm mainly an NBA game worn jersey collector and notice a couple nice looking jerseys coming up for auction and both jersey's I'm interested in have A10 gradings by MEARS. I know with Chicago Bulls jerseys, having a CharitaBulls letter is about the best you can get with those jerseys. And then team LOA's, etc would maybe be your "2nd tier".

The jerseys are a lot of money and don't want to blow the wad on crap that A10's don't really mean jack.

Thanks!
Nick

[suicide_squeeze]

Hi everyone,
Sorry to bump a little old thread, but quick question about the MEARS grading/"expectations". Would you say that getting a jersey with a grade of A10 is one of the "best" in the biz?
I'm mainly an NBA game worn jersey collector and notice a couple nice looking jerseys coming up for auction and both jersey's I'm interested in have A10 gradings by MEARS. I know with Chicago Bulls jerseys, having a CharitaBulls letter is about the best you can get with those jerseys. And then team LOA's, etc would maybe be your "2nd tier".

The jerseys are a lot of money and don't want to blow the wad on crap that A10's don't really mean jack.

Thanks!
Nick

Let me just sum it up this way....

A10 is the highest possible rating.

It usually means there is direct positive identification of use by the player, sometimed from the player himself, and all of the "characteristics" are a perfect match. I don't think I've ever seen an A10 questioned and proven as a bad item......I'm sure someone will jump in if they know of one.

But you're about as safe as possible with an A10 rating.