American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

[Eric]

My point is- you have the freedom to choose the company that you feel has the best safeguards.

If you choose- don't go with the auction houses that don't have people overlooking their work and let that decide who survives in the hobby.

If, as mentioned in your example you feel better about steiner (or mlb.com) products because they use deloitte and touche, then spend your money there, and not with others. If enough people do it, ultimately it could decide the direction of the hobby.

As a sidenote, honestly I'm surprised that MEARS' buyback policy hasn't forced other authenticators to do the same thing.

My two cents.
Eric

[kingjammy24]

Eric,
I thought your point was that kickbacks are highly unlikely because bad items/authenticators will be caught, reputations will suffer, and as a result such people will be put out of business?
If your point was that people are free to spend their money where they like, then I completely agree. People are indeed free to do so. Personally, I prefer saving my money for actual purchases and coming here for all the free and valuable expertise. There are more niche experts on this board than exist in many "pro" authentication firms. And it's all free!

Regarding your comment on MEARS' buyback policy, before I form an opinion either way about it, I'd like to see the fineprint. How easy is it to get your money back? What do you have to prove exactly and how must it be proven? I'm assuming it's a little more complex than simply saying "I think this jersey is fake" and presto you get a check in the mail. It's one thing to have a policy like that but it's another if it's almost impossible to actually abide by the terms. I don't know the details of it so I can't really comment. Are you aware of the details of exactly how it works? That is, what does one need to do to get their money back? If so, can you please share?

thanks,

Rudy.

[Eric]

Eric,
I thought your point was that kickbacks are highly unlikely because bad items/authenticators will be caught, reputations will suffer, and as a result such people will be put out of business?
If your point was that people are free to spend their money where they like, then I completely agree. People are indeed free to do so. Personally, I prefer saving my money for actual purchases and coming here for all the free and valuable expertise. There are more niche experts on this board than exist in many "pro" authentication firms. And it's all free!

Regarding your comment on MEARS' buyback policy, before I form an opinion either way about it, I'd like to see the fineprint. How easy is it to get your money back? What do you have to prove exactly and how must it be proven? I'm assuming it's a little more complex than simply saying "I think this jersey is fake" and presto you get a check in the mail. It's one thing to have a policy like that but it's another if it's almost impossible to actually abide by the terms. I don't know the details of it so I can't really comment. Are you aware of the details of exactly how it works? That is, what does one need to do to get their money back? If so, can you please share?

thanks,

Rudy.

My point was that it is highly unlikely that there are kickbacks AND my point is that if you feel that someone is doing shady business then choose to not spend your money with them.

Consumers have a enormous amount of power to decide the direction of the hobby.

Here's how MEARS describes their buyback policy in their FAQ

Q: Is the “buy back” policy just a promotional gimmick? If not how does it work?</SPAN>
A. This policy is as real as the money you paid for the item. If you own an item that we have written a letter on and that item is shown to be other than what we stated, we will arrange for a refund.

[kingjammy24]

"..item is shown to be other than what we stated"

The beautiful part of that is that MEARS often does not actually state anything subjective beyond an obvious description of the item.

Here's a gem from Bushing himself on the Carew incident in which he attempts to completely absolve MEARS of any responsibility which perfectly illustrates my point:

"MEARS worksheet simply states that the glove is a model A2800 and a correct hand model. We did not date the glove as we have no proof either way and simply refer to the statement by Carew. We offer no opinion on when Carew may have worn this glove as we deal in facts and sans any definite information, we simply give a physical description and list the provanance as is the case in this glove".

Beyond the obvious question of why could Esken roughly date the glove but MEARS couldn't, it illustrates the great unlikelihood of MEARS ever actually being required to buy an item back because all they typically do is describe an item. In order to buy the item back, the item would have to be "other than what they stated". Well what did they state about the Carew glove? Merely that the "MEARS worksheet simply states that the glove is a model A2800 and a correct hand model". Astounding authentication. Now I see why they're the pros. I'm genuinely shocked that they actually charged someone simply for telling them the model number. Literally, anyone over the age of 6 would be able to merely give a description of a glove. If a blind child had felt the glove, he probably would've been able to give a better description.

Eric, one reason why other firms may not offer the "buy back" feature is because other firms tend to render a genuine, subjective opinion as opposed to simply an obvious description. When you're rendering real opinions you take a genuine risk and therefore you might actually be wrong 15% of the time or so. When all you do is describe an item, you're never really going to be wrong so it's impossible for anyone to collect.

Rudy.

[CollectGU]

I would like to respond to the so called offer. A felloe collector had a bat mistakenly authenticated by MEARS as a rookie bat. They publicly offered the owner the option of taking the bat back and paying him the difference between a rookie bat and a 98' bat. When he asked for option 3- he went and found the price of an Arod rookie bat that had sold at auction at AMI for approx. $4,200 (only one he could find) and found the price of 98' Arod bats that had sold at auction - around $1,500. When asked for the difference between the two as offered, he was told "NO, they wouldn't do that only offer to buy it back as a 98' bat"....So much for your MEARS guarantees:

Here is a copy of their offer on their message board -remeber he chose option 3:

MVP ALEX RODRIGUEZ 93 ROOKIE GAME USED BAT SCD AUTH.

November 15 2005 at 10:45 AM Dave Bushing Dave Bushing (Login DaveBushing1)An SCDA letter was issued for an item currently on Ebay: MVP ALEX RODRIGUEZ 93 ROOKIE GAME USED BAT SCD AUTH., item number 255039

The Ebay item number is: ARODS FIRST LOUISVILLE SLUGGER-A PERFECT MATCH Item number: 8723825728

A MEARS subscriber asked me to review the letter and we found a label period was listed on the letter to be in error.

The actual letter states: 1993 Alex Rodriguez L/S bat A7

In reality, the bat was manufactured during the 1997/98

We have contacted the ebay seller and offered him the following:

1. If you want to keep the bat, please re submit it for a correct letter

2. Please return the bat with proof of purchase and MEARS will purchase the bat back.

3. You may keep the bat and we will pay the difference in value between a 1993 jersey versus a 1997/98

We have double checked A-Rods records and the bat was ordered during the 1997/98 label period.

The corrected information will be updated to the MEARS bat census