MEARS vs PSA LOA for Bats

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Are you serious ?

The last three times I did, yes, he did.

[memorabiliaunlimited]

What are the reasons though? As someone mentioned below, companies make mistakes all the time. When it's going to be your item you own, I don't know about anyone else here, but I could spend many hours (maybe days or a week for high end stuff) looking for photo or style matches for jerseys to make sure every detail matches up with photos, all bat traits match up, etc, whether it's $50 or $5000, depending on how familiar I am with the era or what exemplars I already own. Companies who see countless items just can't spend the same amount of time with YOUR item as you can. You have to trust yourself and photos, shipping records etc.

As another person mentioned there are team specialists here that are great resources as well that never hesitate to help out a fellow collector, ask them for an opinion as well but you have to be the one to live with the item. An LOA from a reputable company to me, is a good first step in my authentication process, but it's certainly not near the end of it.

the reason is because there will always be a need for items to be sold to less educated people. not everyone enters the hobby an expert. a lot of people may like a certain player or certain team and only buy a few items. someone like that would be clueless as to figuring out whether an item is authentic unless there is some sort of documentation accompanying the item. i think everyone is right that you should do as much research as you can on an item before you purchase it, but it is simply not possible for the amateur to have the ability to do so. an LOA from an expert is not the end-all-be-all, but as you said, it is a start (and a good one at that). i also think LOAs from experts are necessary for auction houses - it is a bit self-serving for an auction house to authenticate their own items. having a 3rd party come in should add some legitimacy to the process.

there are great resources around. asking for an opinion here or there, asking for a screenshot, small favors are not a big deal. i have provided screenshots to people looking to photo match items without them even asking. its when you become inundated with requests, which would inevitably happen with any advertised free service, that it becomes to be too much.

[BirdsOnBat]

i also think LOAs from experts are necessary for auction houses - it is a bit self-serving for an auction house to authenticate their own items. having a 3rd party come in should add some legitimacy to the process.

That's a very fair point.

[Nnunnari]

This sums it up here: "the reason is because there will always be a need for items to be sold to less educated people".
Until people stop paying a premium for authenticated/graded bats, auction houses will continue to try and maximize their returns and limit their responsibility of authenticating items by using authenticators.

One of the main problems I see happening is, a lot of collectors venture over to bat collecting from the card collecting world and put an extreme emphasis/value on "10"s. High end cards are becoming insanely expensive so guys are getting priced out of high end collecting or are looking to diversify their collection. These people need to know that a "10" in bat collecting does not hold anywhere near the value of a "10" in card collecting, or shouldn't at least. Non "bat guys" are too lazy to do their own research or have a lack of experience and will default to only collecting the highest quality items as stated by third party authenticators, it tilts the market on certain items or players.

[seanbaseball]

[QUOTE=Nnunnari;398164]This sums it up here: "the reason is because there will always be a need for items to be sold to less educated people".
Until people stop paying a premium for authenticated/graded bats, auction houses will continue to try and maximize their returns and limit their responsibility of authenticating items by using authenticators.

One of the main problems I see happening is, a lot of collectors venture over to bat collecting from the card collecting world and put an extreme emphasis/value on "10"s. High end cards are becoming insanely expensive so guys are getting priced out of high end collecting or are looking to diversify their collection. These people need to know that a "10" in bat collecting does not hold anywhere near the value of a "10" in card collecting, or shouldn't at least. Non "bat guys" are too lazy to do their own research or have a lack of experience and will default to only collecting the highest quality items as stated by third party authenticators, it tilts the market on certain items or players.[/QUOTE

Well said!

[esquiresports]

One of the main problems I see happening is, a lot of collectors venture over to bat collecting from the card collecting world and put an extreme emphasis/value on "10"s. Non "bat guys" ...[who]... have a lack of experience will default to only collecting the highest quality items as stated by third party authenticators, it tilts the market on certain items or players.

Nick, you sadly pretty much summed my inexperienced approach to bats! It's hard for me to break away from the "10" mentality.