Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

[hoopstripes]

Hi there, I'm a newbie (my first post) so apologies in advance if I ask stupid questions...

I was wondering what the general opinion of Lou Lampson is with folks on this board and what his reputation as an authenticator is... I have seen a few items with COAs from him that I've been interested in. A few of the items I have been unsure about from just taking a look myself, so I'm wondering how reliable people consider his COAs.

I was also wondering what the connection is between his 100% Authentic company and American Memorabilia? Are they the same company? If I'm not mistaken, their mailing addresses are the same?

Thanks in advance for any responses. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from the folks on this board.

[Bernie J. Gernay]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Lou is a football historian in both senses. As a historian of the game, and of game used uniforms. He has without a doubt the most knowledge in both of these fields far more than anyone you will ever meet. Unfortunately, in the past year he has made a few errors while authenticating baseball equipment that he has taken much heat for.

AMI owns 100% Authentic and Lou authenticates under that name for them. (www.100percentauthentic.com)

Regards, Bernie

Bernie J. Gernay
877-580-6673
Football Authenticator - Global Authenticated Inc.

"Whoever denies Me before men, I will deny him before my Father in Heaven" -Matthew 10:33

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Lou Lampson is a joke. Authenticate it yourself, before paying for his "opinion". He doesn't have to write a letter for everything placed in front of him. He is a menace to novice collectors throughout the world.

[Nathan]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

I agree with B-T-P-H. Lou Lampson, whose actual whereabouts remain unknown (no collector has seen him within the last 5 years or so), is at best a menace to collectors. The original gameusedforum.com is littered with threads about American Memorabilia and the absolute junk that this Lampson character "authenticates".

The standard defense is usually something like "Lampson authenticates up to 1500 items a day, and some are bound to slip through the cracks". Boy, that's great comfort to any collector who may be putting an enormous amount of cash into something that's "slipped through the cracks". There are plenty of individual collectors who possess much more knowledge about a particular team, league, or manufacturer than Lampson does, and I'd put more stock in what they say than someone whose defenders flippantly blow off outright boneheaded inaccuracy by saying that some will slip through the cracks.

[ahuff]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Personally, I am not a huge fan of Authenticators, and only like the COA's if I'm going to sell. It seems to affect the sales prices you can get. As far as Lou, I've only purchased one item that was authenticated by him. It was:

http://www.100percentauthentic.com/CertList.asp?SearchStr=greenwell

I no longer have it in my collection, but could not prove or disprove its authenticity. To me, the t-shirt looked to be store bought and able to fit about a 14 year old.

The only other experience I've had with Lou's work was a tennis racket I was trying to sell at auction. It came with a letter from Vera Zvonerava's manager (on company letterhead) stating whose racket it was and when it was used (and broken). There were tons of photos in Getty, due to the fact it was used in the 2003 French Open. He declined to authenticate the racket, because he could not prove it's authenticity. I was confused, I figured if you could authenticate a Greenwell t-shirt than a photo matched, document supported item would be a slam dunk. Oh well.

[gamehawk]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Hoopstripes,

Lou Lampson has caught alot of heat, not just for a "few errors" but many errors. It is thought by some that he does not even exist, and he is someone made up by AMI. If you can, go back to a post from a few months ago about Lampson/AMI and an Iverson Game Worn Jersey. Long story short, it was a fake they tried to pass through the AMI auctions. Until it was caught, and they pulled it from the auction, never to be seen or heard from again. AMI can say that "Mr. Lampson simply made a mistake." How can you have a company named 100% authentic, and be right only about 40% of the time. He is bad news hoopstripes, and those opinion letters are very shady. Someone like Lampson is the problem with the authenticating hobby today. He puts his name on thousands of items, and MANY not few, turn out to be bogus. Well, ol' Lampson just falls back on his opinion letter. Just like Grey Flannel did when they were taken to court and found guilty with the Cal Ripken jersey....These guys will never learn, and American Memorabilia and Lou Lampson continue there "Authentications." Only opinion, but Lou Lampson belongs in Jail and American Memorabilia should be shut down.....

[apujols04]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

hoopstripes, Lou can be counted on when it comes to the football items. i am going to send him my jerseys from the 1960's-70s steelers, colts, and cowboys. I send baseball and football to mears. Lou is very good at what he does. Everyone makes mistakes.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Pujols
Is there any way possible you can post photos of your 60s and 70s Football jerseys, before sending them to Mr. Lampson? I believe it would be great practice for this forum. By the way, in the business world, if you make a few "honest" mistakes, then you get fired. Honestly.

[apujols04]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

I will post all pics during my lunch hour.

[gamehawk]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

First off, b-t-p-h.... I agree. In the business world, it is dog eat dog. I am in real estate and if you mess around, you will get fired.

Secondly, Pujols, I cannot see where you are coming from at all with Lampson. For example: If I had not called AMI and told them about the Iverson jersey, and someone paid say $1500, and did not know that is was a fake, they would be up the creek without a paddle, always assuming Iverson wore a jersey that was not even up to Game Issued spec's. All because of one mans opinion.

The kicker, is that after all was said and done (upon me getting the 76ers Team Office involved), AMI thought about putting the jersey back up for auction? They emailed me my thoughts and I said "No way" but do it at your own risk. Luckily for them, they did not put it back up and sent it back to Lampson's "dirty Laundry" pile. When someone is wrong so many times, how can people keep going back to him and pay good money for his "opinion" and saying he only makes "very few errors" How can you call that an honest mistake? I, and many others, now see a Lampson LOA and do not even hesitate to stay away from the item.

I have never seen Meigray make a mistake and market something fake. That is because they do not do opinion letters. They do not issue anything unless it is concrete. With that said, How can you send in items to Lampson, pay his fee, and assume he does not miss something on your items. If you go to sell them, Lampson could care less. He already has your money and no one is going to come after him because it was only his opinion... People may dispute Meigray as the big bad monopoly. But at least you get what you pay for. Besides NHL, they do MLB, NFL and NBA. Every item on my wall is 100% and that is not based on one man's shady opinion.

There is no room for even 1 mistake when someone is putting trust and money into you. AMI told me that they are content with Lampson's authenticating methods. Now what does that say about American Memorabilia? AMI + Lampson = $$$$$

[kingjammy24]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

it seems much of this talk about lampson & ami centers around 'mistakes'. lampson fans say 'he just made a mistake. he's human. it's just a mistake, we all make them'.

however, i don't think these can be called 'mistakes'. it would be an understatement to call them egregious examples of mind-numbing stupidity. a mistake is what MEARS made with the recent VintageAuthentics Pujols jersey. the "5" font on the front was slightly larger and very slightly different than it should've been. not too difficult to catch, but easily missed.

saying the Orioles wore St.Patricks Day green jerseys and further
explaining that a particular St.Pats jersey "compared to other St.Pats jerseys worn by the Orioles" when in fact they did not wear St.Pats jerseys and Orioles St.Pats green jerseys do not even exist is not a 'mistake'. at best, it's a completely uninformed, uneducated, ignorant pile of braindead rubbish. at worst, it's a lie.

these aren't 'mistakes', especially for someone of Lampsons supposed calibre. i don't think anyone has an issue with someone committing an honest 'mistake' but what Lampson does goes far beyond mistakes.


Rudy.

am i the only one who thinks it's odd that 100% Authentic has 2 authenticators with the exact same initials? lou lampson, lon lewis.
who's next? larry lovely? lem llewelyn? what are the odds?

[apujols04]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Pujols
Is there any way possible you can post photos of your 60s and 70s Football jerseys, before sending them to Mr. Lampson? I believe it would be great practice for this forum. By the way, in the business world, if you make a few "honest" mistakes, then you get fired. Honestly.

The pics have been listed under the title which includes staubach and bradshaw. Thanks!

[CollectGU]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Rudy,

Do you think the msitake that MEARS made on the Griffey Jr. rookie jersey in the Vinatge auction not as bad as Lou's mistake. Griffey never wore "jr" on the back of his jerseys. What about Dave's recent mistake on the AROD rokie bat. The difference between the true year 97' and a rookie bat is only about $3,000 - no big deal right? My point is MEARS makes as many mistakes as Lou, maybe more now that Dan Knoll is not there for baseball........

Regards,

Dave

[kingjammy24]

Re: Lou Lampson, 100% Authentic, and American Memorabilia

Dave,

No I suppose it wasn't a 'mistake'. I brought up the MEARS mistake with the recent Pujols jersey solely to illustrate an example of a 'mistake, not to hold MEARS up as some kind of great company.
The intent of my main post was to differentiate between genuine mistakes and monumental lapses in logic and to prevent those lapses being referred to as mistakes. You can't lump them all in.
It seemed that any time someone make a huge blunder, many would say "oh its just a mistake" and my point was that it's not a mistake. Not for guys of this supposed calibre. Professionals don't make the sorts of serious and blindingly obvious mistakes that Lampson makes. If Lampson was a chef, he'd take a spoon and conclude it was meant for toasting bread. That's the level of errors that he makes. It just doesn't happen in the real world. Professional chefs never wonder what a spoon is and professional authenticators don't "stand behind" jerseys that never existed. Though they all make mistakes, they just don't make those kinds of mistakes.
I think the "Griffey Jr" debacle is not a mistake. I think it's a Lampson-sized error. Any professional authenticator would've caught it in a few minutes. How could they not? Personally I'd love to hear from MEARS as to how an error that would've been spotted by a complete amateur managed to elude them. I won't hold my breath though.


Rudy.

[Eric]

MEARS did not evaluate Griffey Jr

Rudy,

Do you think the msitake that MEARS made on the Griffey Jr. rookie jersey in the Vinatge auction not as bad as Lou's mistake. Griffey never wore "jr" on the back of his jerseys. What about Dave's recent mistake on the AROD rokie bat. The difference between the true year 97' and a rookie bat is only about $3,000 - no big deal right? My point is MEARS makes as many mistakes as Lou, maybe more now that Dan Knoll is not there for baseball........

Regards,

Dave

Everyone-
I had an email conversation with Troy at MEARS. The Griffey Jr. jersey was listed in Vintage Authentics as having a MEARS letter, when in fact there was no such letter. MEARS never wrote a worksheet on that piece. Notice there's no worksheet posted on the Vintage Authentics site

http://vintageauthentics.at.truition.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=64178695&prmenbr=57735959&aunbr=64525405

Eric