American Memorabilia & Lou Lampson - A Positive Thread

[BaseballGM]

A few months back, I posted a thread regarding AMI and the Lou Lampson COA that accompanied my Alomar cleats. It was discussed and debated. I ended up contacting American Memorabilia and asked them, with Rudy's Getty images help, to review the original COA. Tony Giese from AMI was very responsive to my questions and acted in a professional manner. He said he would have Lou Lampson provide a more accurate COA than my original the next time he came in to do one of their auctions. Well, the new COA arrived this week.
I thought this should be posted as an example of a company "making things right." Granted, many will say it should have been done right from the start but mistakes happen. At least Tony Giese and AMI/Lou Lampson did the right thing.

[hblakewolf]

Baseball GM-
That's great news!

Please reference my two posts from last week about American Memorabilia's current auction. They are offering two items with Lampsons LOA's that raise red flags.

They have a "1999 Will Clark O's warm-up". Note that the warm-up has the MLB logo on the back of the neck, a practice started in 2000, not 1999. Will Clark only wore 12 in 1999, not 2000. As such, how can it be Clark's? Likewise, they have a pair of "1983 Dr. J warm-ups from the 1983 championship season". The tagging reads 83. The year tag in basketball equipment represents the first half of the season. In this case, 83 indicates these were worn in 1983/84, not 1982/83, the championship season.

I contacted Vic at American Memorabila via Email about these issues, however, never received a response back and as of this posting, both items have not been corrected, edited or removed rom their auction listing.

Before the folks at American Memorabila begin to feel good about the praise from you, maybe they should take a good hard look at these two items in question and take appropriate action.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[Nathan]

BaseballGM,

Good to see that this was corrected properly. Hopefully you'll continue to have more positive experiences.

With most of us on here, it's not like we sit around and actually want to hammer AMI or Lou Lampson on auctions, COAs, LOAs, LOOs, or alphabet soup. I don't know anyone on here who thinks to themself "Oh boy, a new auction. Time to see what I can pick apart to make these two look bad!" The problem is that the unusually high number of marginal, laughable, or downright pitiful items that Lampson writes letters for that AMI takes as gospel (while flippantly dismissing anyone with more expertise who can conclusively disprove a Lampson LOA) casts his whole name and signature into grave doubt.

Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to look at a premium item, discuss it with others who are more knowledgeable than I, and come on here to play a bugle and proclaim an item to be ironclad authentic. But the number of bad items, particularly over the last few months and few years and the manner in which legitimate concerns are dealt with, has contributed much more to a game of "spot the bad item in a new auction" than any vindictive collector ever could hope.

[metsbats]

I have contacted AMI regarding questionable items and posted them in the forum and like Howard indicates they never did nor never will respond.The obvious difference between Baseball GM's experience with AM and ours is evident: the Alomar cleats were brought and paid for while the other items questioned were still on the auction block.

David

[Eric]

Is there a direct email for Tony? I had emailed them questions about two items in their current auction and have not gotten a response.

Thanks
Eric

[hblakewolf]

Eric-
The lack of response to you, me and fellow Forum readers is simply unacceptable.

You may expect this type of behavior from an individual on Ebay, however, not a well known auction house.

In the last few months, I have had questions about items in Vintage Authentics, Mastro, Hunt and Bricol's auctions. I sent all of them emails to the address posted on their websites, and all responded within 24 hours.

Here's the email addesses I have for American Memorabilia:
Auctions@AmericanMemorabilia.com
http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Contact.asp

Eric, please keep us informed if you hear back

Thanks.
Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[trsent]

Howard, did you notice when Jason contacted American and they determined he was not even a customer that they ended their conversation with him?

I would guess they know that you are not a customer of theirs, so they are not going to respond to your emails.

[hblakewolf]

Joel-
Regardless of WHO sends the email to American Memorabila, the Forum readers deserve an answer to both the 1999 Will clark O's jersey (tagged from 2000) and the Dr. J warmups that they claim are from the championship season of 1983, however, are tagged from 1983/84.

I'm aware that you are a current customer, and likewise, speak with Vic at AMI.

As a regular contributor to the Forum, can you seek information on the above referenced items?

Thanks.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[otismalibu]

Does it state somewhere on the site that only emails from registered customers will be replied to?

I sent them an email a couple auctions back simply asking the size of a pair of signed shoes they were offering. It wasn't stated in the description. A week or two later I asked again. Never a reply.

I also asked about the Doc warmups a few weeks, referring to the 83 tag. No response on that one either. I honestly wasn't sure if all NBA items were year tagged from the start of the season calendar year or if some were acquired later in the season and had the following year's tag. I'd always been stumped by a couple of red Liberty Bell Sixers warmups that were tagged 77. From what I've been told, that would be from 77-78 and I thought the Sixers only wore them in 75-76 and 76-77. But I recently found a photo of Darryl Dawkins wearing a 77-78 jersey and what looks to be a Liberty Bell warmup...so that would indicate that the 77 tag could indeed be from the 77-78 season.

Greg

[jdr3]

The simple fact is that AMI has a terrible attitude when it comes to dealing with the public. Whether hanging up on the deaf collector, not returning emails about legitimate concerns, taking 3-4 months to pay consignors, having Rocco come here and be their fool, or posting as a military veteran, they have proven themselves to be a first-class second-class organization.