Lampson Letter

[Eric]

I recently purchased a Jason Giambi yankees jersey from the last Bricol auction.

I wanted to share with all of you the painstaking effort that Lou Lampson puts in to his Letter of Authenticity.

(Please notice that part of the letter of authenticity is that it includes a Lou Lampson LOA)

It also came crumpled which doesn't help.



Eric

[Swoboda4]

I think Michael Kay describes uniforms better on the radio.

[Swoboda4]

I think Michael Kay describes uniforms better on the radio. By the way, why is it that LOA's seldom refer to providence or is it that were all in possession of stolen property(if were lucky to own the real thing).

[metsbats86]

Eric,

I think you should contact Lou so he can share with us the process he uses to generate the Lampson LOA.

No joking. MEARS has a whole worksheet they go thru and are very public about it.

David

[weimerskirch]

Team,

I have been collecting jerseys for 12 years and from what I have seen in person and read on this site, Lampson LOA's are absolutely worthless. Another poster was correct in that MEARS does go through some 40 step process to make their decisions, but they still make mistakes. Take the last Heritage Auction and Mastronet Auction. They both had 1974 Reggie Jackson's up for auction with MEARS COAs. After I called Troy at MEARS and showed him the clear evidence that both were altered, he reduced his COA on the Mastronet jersey and Heritage advised me they were changing their jersey to a No Reserve Auction.

Please be very careful when believing a jersey is 100% original even when it has an LOA/COA from Lampson, GF, MEARS and others. One of your best bets is to ask people on this forum for their opinion. Next ask the seller if you can have a 30-day money back guarantee.

If anyone has any questions about Oakland A's jerseys please feel free to email me. All I collect is A's jerseys and that is where my knowledge lies.

Sincerely

Mark

[CollectGU]

Eric,

Did you ask Bricol's why they don't have Lou's normal LOA which is very detailed before you decided to post this? I'm guessing no? I know that you are aware that Lou normally writes detailed LOA's. I find it an absolute joke that as the administartor of this site you don't even adhere to your own recommendations. Futher you have "fanned" the flames against Lou by insinuating that this is his normal LOA and that he doesn't write detailed LOA's. Did you preface this post by letting forum readers know thta this is not a normal LOA from Lou. Did you bother to find out why these are different? No. That's why this forum is often not taken seriously. When someone points out that one of your own experts Bernie Gerney, clearly had problems with his items you jump in and immediately defend, and then you go dump on Lou without investigating first. And clearly your comments are incindiary" in nature. This isn't an objective forum, there are prejudices for and against certain individuals that is obvious. Perception is reality in this world and if you add to the perception that Lou is worse than MEARS with these kinds of posts then it becomes reality, when in fact, I think that just the opposite is true as do many saavy collectors. Also, Do you really give a **** what the letter looks like if the jersey is authentic. I'll tell you what, I'll pay to have it sent to MEARS so it can get it's A5 and then you'll feel better with their shiny letter with all the pretty graphics. Let me know, and I'll send the money.....

[Eric]

Eric,

Did you ask Bricol's why they don't have Lou's normal LOA which is very detailed before you decided to post this? I'm guessing no? I know that you are aware that Lou normally writes detailed LOA's. I find it an absolute joke that as the administartor of this site you don't even adhere to your own recommendations. Futher you have "fanned" the flames against Lou by insinuating that this is his normal LOA and that he doesn't write detailed LOA's. Did you preface this post by letting forum readers know thta this is not a normal LOA from Lou. Did you bother to find out why these are different? No. That's why this forum is often not taken seriously. When someone points out that one of your own experts Bernie Gerney, clearly had problems with his items you jump in and immediately defend, and then you go dump on Lou without investigating first. And clearly your comments are incindiary" in nature. This isn't an objective forum, there are prejudices for and against certain individuals that is obvious. Perception is reality in this world and if you add to the perception that Lou is worse than MEARS with these kinds of posts then it becomes reality, when in fact, I think that just the opposite is true as do many saavy collectors. Also, Do you really give a **** what the letter looks like if the jersey is authentic. I'll tell you what, I'll pay to have it sent to MEARS so it can get it's A5 and then you'll feel better with their shiny letter with all the pretty graphics. Let me know, and I'll send the money.....

Collect GU

First of all, you are free to express whatever point you like, but please do not use profanity on this site.

Secondly there is a huge difference between the two situations you mentioned. I was merely showing readers of the forum what Lou Lampson feels in an acceptable letter of authenticity.
I didn't buy the jersey because of the letter- i bought it because I was comfortable with the specs on the shirt. I felt that others who would consider buying from auction houses that use his services should see what they are getting.

It not like I said Lou didn't look at the shirt or there's a fake signature on the LOA- all i did was present the item that was included in my auction purchase.

If you read carefully, you would see that recommendations for contacting the seller were to stop people coming on here and crying "cheat!" when they're just operating basically on educated guesses, which sometimes turn out to be wrong.

Posting the Lou Lampson's LOA has nothing to do with that. He clearly was fine with it because he signed his name to it, so he should have no problem with it being posted.

This forum is does not have prejudices for or against anyone. If opinions are offered by people on the site weighing more toward one person than another it's only because people have formed those opinions because of their experience in the hobby. By definition that's not going to be balanced.

Interested in hearing your thoughts on this matter.
Eric
moderator

[CollectGU]

Eric,

For you to imply that your post was not incindiary and prejudice against Lou's work is disengenuous..It's obvious that was its intent. Again, I ask did you contact Bricol to ask why these LOA's were used which is not the normal Lou LOA..Second, you are asuming that this is Lou's doing and this is how he wants it. Maybe this is how Bricol wants them done. Maybe its ceaper for Bricol to do these types of LOA'S. WE DON"T KNOW BECAUSE YOU DIDN"T ASK. Last, what was your intent by putting up the letter and post? It was to try and show Lou in a bad light and insinuate he does sloppy work...That's obvious, and if you come back and try and say that isn't true you will simply look like your full of shi...Wait, you you asked me not to curse so I'll oblige...

[RobSteinmetz]

Fact: Eric purchased the Giambi jersey from Bricol.
Fact: Eric received only this LOA from Bricol with the Giambi.
Fact: The letter is HAND-SIGNED by Lou Lampson.
Fact: As an autenticator, when you sign a letter you endorse it's content.
Fact: The content of this letter leaves a lot to be desired.

If this isn't Lou Lampson's "normal" letter, why did he sign it?

If this isn't the type of letter Lou normally issues and signs, why didn't he question how the letter was going to be used by Bricol?

As someone who does some authentication work from time to time, I cannot imagine signing my name to a letter like this. When I sign a letter, I want to know EXACTLY how it's going to be utilized. I don't view Eric's initial post as an "attack" on Lou Lampson. More than anything, I see it as a cry for Lou Lampson and Bricol to exercise some common sense.

[weimerskirch]

Guys,

No need to get all fired up as we should all act like mature, professional adults. Let's not give the auction houses and so called "experts" ammunition to show others that posters on this site are not credible. I recently purchased a 1988 white Jose Canseco world series jersey from Bricol. It came with an LOA from Lou Lampson and it looks exactly like the one posted in this thread. It is the first LOA/COA I have ever seen where the authenticator's signature is a copy/facsimile and is not the original signature. A simple call to Brian at Bricol may be able to answer to why these Lou's do not look like the others.

My strong belief as to why the expert authenticators make so many mistakes is because there are just so many types of jerseys in the market. I would like to see authenticators just focus on one sport. If this process was implemented you would see a lot less mistakes. The problem is that this would never occur as many authenticators are in it for the money and they are not going to pass up an assessment of any sport jersey when the cash is put in front of them.

Mark