Mastro's Hank Aaron helmet

[skipcarayislegend]

Back in November, several GUU members including myself received an email from someone looking to sell a "game used" Hank Aaron helmet. A few of the photos he sent are attached below. That exact helmet is now available in Mastro's current auction:

http://www.mastronet.com/index.cfm?a...t&CurrentRow=1

In the seller's original email to us, he stated "the dial puts the helmet to April of 1976." The interior photo below clearly shows that dial. The problem of course is that ABC didn't begin using numeral wheels until 1990, as far as I know. Doesn't matter much anyway because they definitely weren't using them in the mid-70s.

As I told the seller, the size and shape of the top padding, which is missing, also indicate a more current style, possibly one that wasn't used until Rawlings took over. The band padding isn't 70s-era either that I can tell. In my opinion, this helmet was made no earlier than the mid to late 90s.

A couple current ebay auctions for period padding comparison:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...Category=50117

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...Category=50117


Mastro's description has already been modified once. "'Aaron" is written on the inside brow, and a very faint number "44" appears on the back." is in red so I'm guessing that's the modification. And given the following statement, Mastro obviously wants us to believe that there's a chance Aaron wore this:

"The possibility exists that this helmet was sported by Aaron sometime during his short tenure with the Brewers late in his prolific career, but our research has not been able to find any definitive supporting evidence."

The "foremost experts in the hobby" under one roof and this convoluted statement is their final verdict? No very reassuring given bidder rules 12 and 13:

12. No retractions of bids are permitted. Once a bid has been placed, it may not be retracted.

13. All Sales Are Final. No Returns Are Accepted.

[harpt]

I was going to post about this one too. I felt really bothered when I saw this one in their catalog.

Obviously these guys know this is not an Aaron gamer right? I understand that people have to make tough decisions during bad economic times, but I really thought that Mastro was among the good guys. I really feel bad that I was clearly wrong about that one.

I am sure these are generally nice folks in their personal lives...I just don't know how they can justify doing this kind of thing to people. Too bad.

[ironmanfan]

Hopefully later tonite I'll get a chance to show scans of a 1974 Frank Robinson GU Angels helmet that I own to show what a helmet from that era should look like.....

[skipcarayislegend]

Scott,
Yeah, it's amazing and also pretty frightening to see what "reputable" houses are willing to put out there. We're just a bunch of idiots, I guess. There's no excuse for something this ridiculous. Even if they pull it, Mastro deserves zero credit as far as this lot is concerned. This helmet should've been sent back to the consigner 30 seconds after it was taken out of the box.

[camarokids]

It looks like a ten year old wrote Aaron. Apparently the auction house is not concerned by whatever was scratched out. It looks too new to be from 1976.

Pretty sad they would list this in their auction.....

[ndevlin]

I bet Ebay user name tim_455qkf consigned that helmet to them. Hes a work of art.

[hrvatwill]

That's interesting with the tim_455qkf comment, I thought the exact same thing when I saw it, especially the head-on picture showing the owners hand, as that's one of his classic shots.

[ironmanfan]

As promised, below are pictures of my 1974 Frank Robinson GU helmet..The sticker reflects the day after Robinson was traded to the Indians from the Halos (which was the day that the batboy took it):

[momen55]

when the seller emailed me about the helmet sometime ago, i told him that the helmet was from the 90's. he then contacted the person he bought it from and was told to basically buzz off, a deal is a deal. i just recently deleted all the emails too.
he traded 1,000's of dollars worth of stuff for this helmet and other items and got screwed. now mastro is trying to do the same thing. unfreakinbelievable!

[momen55]

11/21/08 i received the email about the helmet. the seller told me that he bought it from an orlando torres. anyone know who he is?
anyway, i found all the emails but are lengthy. he did explain to me how he traded alot of high end football jerseys and other items for this. pretty sad.