All-Star Dealers reality show

[aeneas01]

Assuming the Marino and Lott are legit, is that really how an auction house would get its first look? You just throw 2 HOF jerseys in a box and ship to GFC w/o any heads up or signature confirmation. Hey, lets go check and see if there are any $5000 items in these boxes that have been sitting outside our shop. Jackpot!

a prolific collector once shipped me a vintage football helmet valued at $5k-$10k - he wanted my opinion but gave me no firm date when he would be sending it. after about a month or so i finally discovered his package sitting in the corner of my office among other packages for my business that i typically don't open right away (printer cartridges, paper supplies, etc.) - further, i had not received any emails from the collector saying that it was on the way, or asking if i had received it. when i opened the box not only did i find the helmet poorly packed, but stuffed inside the sweat-stained and smelly thing was a vintage football jersey. when i unrolled the jersey i immediately recognized it - it was a high-profile nfl jersey that had recently sold at auction for tens of thousands of dollars - it wasn't folded, wasn't in a protective plastic bag, just stuffed in the helmet. not once did the collector ever mention anything about this shirt, that he won it, owned it, or would be sending it along with the helmet, nothing. anyway, the collector heard that i had a huge photo database of vintage nfl photos and was hoping that i could help him research his jersey as well. point being, collectors (even experienced collectors) handle their items with varying degrees of "respect"....

as far as all-star dealers is concerned, what's not to like? i mean does anyone here believe that television audiences are pining for the esoteric nuances of sports memorabilia collecting? heck, given this nation's apparent lust for rejection television (you're fired, simon, etc.), i'm surprised the producers of all-star dealers didn't ratchet that angle up some more! instead of "that helmet is crap!", the show should introduce mr. bobo's table where "crap" is publicly flogged a la sam malone's red sox jersey!

anyway i think the show works and, ultimately, is good for the hobby. i also liked seeing nick cappola do his thing - easily one of the most passionate and knowledgeable collectors out there, and a very nice gentleman to boot. and imo the grey flannel "offices" present very well, as a safe place to send valuable collectibles.

[TFig27]

Yea that looks like it.

Not so sure how it ended up here, id be interested to know what year it was put in the museum. I had this bat in my hands late in 05.

In case you think that I'm bs'ing you. Here's me in the '32 Ruth road uni, it fit perfect

Did this bat come up for sale?

[gingi79]

Those of you who know about JeffB who runs Third String Goalie (a very informative blog about awesome milestones in history with the jerseys that correspond to them) or belong to the hockey game worn site might have seen this but if not, I thought I'd share some of his insight:

"I've seen Grey Flannel auction off a trio of Twins jerseys from Mauer, Santana and Molitor that all lacked the correct team tagging as "game worn" when, to me, they were clearly team issued blanks customized with star players.

For example, a proper Molitor should have been tagged 4-97-1 (for his number, year and set) NOT "1997".

It just seems like they want it to be right so much, they invent reasons to call it good and ignore any evidence to the contrary, such as a jersey being tagged two years prior to when they want it to be from. I'd think if they were going to recycle a 1966 jersey, it would be by sending it down to the minors for them to use, not sitting on it for two years, but that's just me."

However, it was this gem that I really though should be implemented:

"It's too bad a show like that doesn't have a rebuttal option so collectors like those here could have a chance to reach the same audience with their concerns so the average Joe watching the show could hear both sides."

Now THAT would make for a show where we see awesome material and get real insight. (His blog BTW is you are interested is: http://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/ They are Hockey jerseys but the stories are interesting if you follow sports)

[aeneas01]

Those of you who know about JeffB who runs Third String Goalie (a very informative blog about awesome milestones in history with the jerseys that correspond to them) or belong to the hockey game worn site might have seen this but if not, I thought I'd share some of his insight:

"I've seen Grey Flannel auction off a trio of Twins jerseys from Mauer, Santana and Molitor that all lacked the correct team tagging as "game worn" when, to me, they were clearly team issued blanks customized with star players.

For example, a proper Molitor should have been tagged 4-97-1 (for his number, year and set) NOT "1997".

It just seems like they want it to be right so much, they invent reasons to call it good and ignore any evidence to the contrary, such as a jersey being tagged two years prior to when they want it to be from. I'd think if they were going to recycle a 1966 jersey, it would be by sending it down to the minors for them to use, not sitting on it for two years, but that's just me."

However, it was this gem that I really though should be implemented:

"It's too bad a show like that doesn't have a rebuttal option so collectors like those here could have a chance to reach the same audience with their concerns so the average Joe watching the show could hear both sides."

Now THAT would make for a show where we see awesome material and get real insight. (His blog BTW is you are interested is: http://thirdstringgoalie.blogspot.com/ They are Hockey jerseys but the stories are interesting if you follow sports)

i think hockey collectors are among the most knowledgeable and passionate group of collectors out there, with very active forums and great auction sites that fetch big dollars. although i'm not a hockey fan, i would love to own one of those cool big-ticket custom goalie masks...

as far as "getting it right" is concerned, i think we all know that every auction house gets things wrong, even when it comes to lots that strike some of us as no-brainers. the good news is more and more auction houses are pulling lots when presented with reasonable concerns, not all auction houses but many. at least that's my take.

i'm not giving auction houses a free pass, but the notion that they have the time (let alone sufficient expertise) to research and attempt to photomatch each lot is a pipe-dream, especially not when they accept lots a month before they expect to go live. fortunately for the guu community we often have each other's back, and other experienced collectors tend to know what to look for. as for the others, the less experienced collectors? welcome to the university of collecting where the tuition, the price of learning a lesson, can often be quite pricey.

as far as the show having a rebuttal fourm is concerned, nice idea but in what perfect world might that work? how would you squeeze that into 48 minutes of air time? how would you censor every huckleberry that fancied himself an expert, who called in only to give their erroneous take on an item? i think the show is hitting the entertainment mark they've set, and wouldn't be surprised to see the cast become even more emotive and animated as the show progresses.

although i'd like to see it, i'm not sure a cspan washington journal format would prove to be that compelling to a broad audience, a format where a representative from the auction house displayed a lot, and then fielded calls from the public for 30 minutes, to discuss and debate the merits of the item.

[both-teams-played-hard]

It just seems like they want it to be right so much, they invent reasons to call it good and ignore any evidence to the contrary, such as a jersey being tagged two years prior to when they want it to be from. I'd think if they were going to recycle a 1966 jersey, it would be by sending it down to the minors for them to use, not sitting on it for two years, but that's just me.

Gingi,
I realize this isn't a quote from you. The jersey in question is the Nolan Ryan flannel. LTC Dave Grob wrote a detailed, four page analysis of this jersey for Grey Flannel. After reading Grob's worksheet, any collector would agree that it is more than a "stretch or a "leap of faith" to tie the shirt to Ryan. I have Grob's finding in a PDF and am unable to post them.
Grey Flannel has indeed made mistakes in the past. Now, a lot of folks are watching their dealings.

[rose14]

It appears to me that Rich Russek is the Chumley character on All-Star Dealers!


[quote=jsage;283267]I agree.................. It is a fast paced enjoyable show that fits perfectly into our interest in sports items. Richard Russek likes to make deals and likes to make money - is that a bad thing? He is very humble and respectful when meeting people like Rodman, Worthy and Holleyfield. When he was in LA, you could see that he wanted the John Wooden Jacket very badly and was "into the hunt". Like all of us - he did not want to miss out.
The one thing for sure - at least this show does not feel the need to have a "Chumley Character" (Pawn Stars) to "entertain us".

[gameon]

I do like the fact that our hobby has some national attention and for an uniformed person watching the show and seeing a game used sports item being worth so much money has to be mind-boggling for them. Thats half the fun of watching all these shows as the likes of Pawn Stars and American Pickers. They do touch on the importance of authenticating, which is also very good. My only complaint is how Rich keeps talking about how much money HE is going to make or lose(if not real). It gets very irritating. I also have never seen him prior to this show, but am very turned off by his personality(scripted or not). That being said, I would think twice about consigning my items to him.

[mmonte4]

I just scanned through the TV guide so that I could dvr it, but didn't see it. Is it not coming on this week?

[hohlernr1]

I just scanned through the TV guide so that I could dvr it, but didn't see it. Is it not coming on this week?

It looks like for whatever reason it's not on this week, but will be on next week at it's normal time: 8:00 and 8:30 pm on tuesdays.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedule...9-20120219.050

[gorilla777]

The word on the street is that we may have seen the last episode of the All Star Dealers show, at least on Discovery Channel....I wondered because my DVR was showing no future episodes scheduled to record.


Ben