American Memorabilia-whoops!!!!

[hblakewolf]

Forum Readers-

American Memorabila currently has in auction a "1999 Will Clark Orioles BP"
http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/A...rby=&tfm_order=

WHOOPS!!!!!

Note the MLB logo on the back of the neck of this "Will Clark" jersey. The teams began incorporating this in 2000, not 1999. Clark switched numbers in 2000, and was not wearing 12.

As such, how can this possibly be offered as a "Will clark 1999 jersey"??????

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[BaseballGM]

Under that decription, when you click on the "Lou Lampson" box, you see the following:

As part of an agreement between SCD Authentic and 100% Authentic, a division of American Memorabilia, Lampson will analyze submissions of items in his fields of expertise as part of SCD Authentic's new equipment authentication service.


Should AMI update this information since SCDA no longer exists?

[trsent]

eBay accepts SCDA as an approved authenticator, but they have no idea of who MEARS is when I spoke to them on the telephone the other day.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/auth-overview.html

[bigtime59]

It's pretty obvious that the PANTS in this ensamble got re-issued at some point...could the jersey have been, as well? Would REALLY like to see the tagging and Majestic sleeve logo before I say anything else...

[suave1477]

OK LISTEN EVERYONE!!!

I am starting to notice this is consistent of Lou Lampson to falsely describe item many time it has been brought up here item that have Lampson COA'S an that they were wrong and proven wrong. Does anyone think that he might actually be doing it on purpose? If so shouldnt there be something done about this? Shouldnt he be reported to someone? Passing off a false authentication is just as bad as making a forgery of a jersey!!!!!

[trsent]

Jason, I am sorry, I am not a fan of Lou Lampson, but I must tell you, I don't believe Lou is intentionally writing letters for items that he doesn't believe to be genuine. From my associates who have met Lou and dealt with him over the years, I would venture to guess that your accusations are based on the items that have been brought to your attention on this forum as he must authenticate thousands of genuine items that you never pay attention to since they are not questioned.

Why would Lou authenticate an item as genuine knowing it wasn't? He doesn't make any more money for writing a letter that an item is good or if it is bad.

[CollectGU]

OK LISTEN EVERYONE!!!

I am starting to notice this is consistent of Lou Lampson to falsely describe item many time it has been brought up here item that have Lampson COA'S an that they were wrong and proven wrong. Does anyone think that he might actually be doing it on purpose? If so shouldnt there be something done about this? Shouldnt he be reported to someone? Passing off a false authentication is just as bad as making a forgery of a jersey!!!!!

Suave,

He make no more or less mistakes than Grey Flannel, leland's, MEARS, etc. They all make mistakes..There are thousands of items offered by these auction houses and yet no one on this board ever talks much about the 95% that are good , onlt the 5% that are bad. Why? Because cotroversial authentcations give us all something to talk about. ...."Sex sells" my friend and in this forum sex= "a mistake by the authenticators"......What fun is it to come up here and announce that the authenticators got "jersey A in Auction house A" correct. So this forum, by its nature, is going to disproportionately weigh and discuss authenticators failures much more than their successes.

[kingjammy24]

Patrick, thanks for your comments.
In terms of pro authenticators willing to take the risk of sullying their reputation by intentionally authenticating bad items, it's my opinion that it may be far too difficult for some to resist the incredibly large sums of easy money in this hobby. When you consider that there's very little overhead and the cost and time of producing an LOA is trivial, you can see how authenticating can easily become like printing money. $100 bills can be generated as fast as your printer can spew out LOAs. Their perceived reputation, contacts and the lack of knowledge amongst the collecting masses have enabled some to turn their laser printers into bottomless ATM machines. I'm sure that some pro authenticators place a higher value on their reputation than on these large sums of easy money but I think it'd be naive to say that all of them do. To do so would be to greatly underestimate the power of money, especially towards authenticators who have run into money troubles such as divorce, medical bills, or other mounting debts. Money is one of the few things in life that make people do things they ordinarily wouldn't. It makes moral compasses go askew.
Plus, I'm sure that some don't see it as a "money vs. loss of reputation" issue because they don't believe they'll get caught so there won't be any loss of reputation. After all, when you strut around with major auction house contracts in your pocket and a mantra of "I've been authenticating for over 30 years!", you really don't think the hoi polloi are smart enough to catch your errors.
In addition, I genuinely question whether it's even possible to sully your reputation in this hobby given that a certain big-name authenticator who is known to have made an incredible amount of ludicrous errors is still as prolific as ever in his authenticating, including the work he regularly does for a major auction house. It seems there's a huge amount of leeway before one's name finally becomes completely worthless.
Having said all of that, I do agree with your alternate theory that many authenticators simply cannot devote the necessary time to each item given the sheer number of items they receive and the price they charge for each. As I pointed out earlier, it's economically unfeasible for an authenticator to spend an hour or more per item, even if the item necessitates it. I have little doubt that they rush through many items.
I also completely agree that they're not going to bite the hand that feeds them and I think that ties in to my idea that they're going to "help" the auction houses make more money by "looking the other way" on a few items. A contract from a major auction house must be extremely lucrative. It probably doesn't go over very well when you come back and tell them that 50% of the items received aren't legit. That's alot of money lost for the auction house. So maybe you'll be a little sloppy on a couple of items in order to help the people who regularly throw the big bucks your way.
Oddly enough, it really seems exactly like companies who throw their business to investment banks whose analysts who regularly issue favorable reports about the company. You scratch our back, we'll scratch yours. Issue lots of good LOAs, we'll make lots of money, and in return we'll keep feeding you the contracts. We make money, you make money, and most of the plebs don't know they're being taken.

The lesson of all this? Be your own authenticator. You're never going to cheat yourself or be sloppy. You'll learn a ton in the process, sleep better at night, and won't have to rely on someone else. It's really not overly difficult. These aren't NASA engineers we're talking about.

Rudy.

[Eric]

I think the idea of kick backs seems a bit far fetched. There is nothing to gain for the auction house or the authenticator.

If an authenticator "looked the other way" on a bad item, then his name loses value, and the more bad items an auction house carries, the worse their reputation is.

There are many more auction houses than ever before and so the competition for the consumer's dollar is cutthroat. If an auction house knowingly offered bad items, they risk losing customers to the auction houses who don't have issues.

Think about it, the auction houses known to have questionable items get lower prices.

Without naming names, think of what you consider to be the "lower end" auction house- Now think of why they are the "lower end." Poor customer service? Questionable items? Difficult for a comsumer to get questions answered? A documented shady history? Misleading auction descriptions?

Now think about the "higher end" ones. What makes them different? The ability to get questions answered on products? More thorough analysis of the items offered? Better photos? Catalog descriptions that match the authenticator's findings?

My point here is- there is nothing to gain from this kickback scenario. If an auction house is foolish enough to ask an authenticator to "look the other way" they will find themselves out of the auction game soon enough. The best way to make money as an auction house in this industry is to provide quality items and good customer service.

What I think is a more likely explanation of mistakes made is- because of the higher number of auction houses, there needs to be more and more product out there. It can also mean auction houses want to offer more auctions to keep their name out there. Which means tighter deadlines. Which means authenticators sometimes have only a few days to examine hundreds of items. Mistakes then have to happen. It's not an excuse- it's the realiy of the hobby today.

As a consumer, I would rather have an auction house that does only 2 auctions a year, and takes the time (I know it would cost more more for the auction house to pay the authenticator) to examine the details of each item thoroughly and write a more detailed report- even providing photos of the style of the item being used. I think a house like that would command higher prices per item because of the research that goes into it.

There are my thoughts. Take them for what they're worth.
Eric
moderator

[suave1477]

Eric before i make my statement i want you to truly know i agree with what your saying BUT!!!! AND THERE IS A BIG BUT!!! with that being said this is america and our country is founded on one companie or another trying to rip off the american public to make a quick buck. Again I am not saying your wrong but i cant believe that an authenticator passing off fake items is where ripping off the puclic draws its line in any form of business where you can make money there will be someone out there trying to make it quicker, in any industry cars, radios, video games, sneakers, jeans, your local retail stores and YES authenticators!!!

I am not saying thats whats happening here but you can never rule it out because authenticating is a business just like any other!!!