Mastro Winslow Helmet- Am I Nuts?

[kingjammy24]

i'm genuinely interested in whether or not the helmet belongs to a mastro employee. their own policy seems to prohibit consignments from their employees. of course, in the same breath they also state "all qualified bidders in good standing are eligible to bid on any lot in the auction, including employees and executives of Mastro Auctions, Inc.". to me, allowing doug allen and brian marren to compete against private collectors on mastro auctions seems to be a huge "unreconcilable conflict of interest".

ever wonder why the fine print in almost every contest states "employees of XX company and/or their relatives are prohibited from entering..". it's because you can't have the people running the contest also competing to win the prizes. it's a bewildering decision to let the people who have access to the bid records and auction software compete with people who don't. why do you think lottery employees are prohibited from playing the lottery? practically every lottery has fine print that reads "All employees and members of their immediate family, regardless of where they live, are prohibited-by-law from playing..". it's same thing in an auction.
you're supposed to running an impartial auction and yet you let your own employees (the same ones who administer the auction software, who can see everyone elses bids and their maximums, and who record all of the bids and results) compete against people who don't have access to that info. how completely fair! it's like watching a hurdle race between a 2-legged runner and 1-legged runner. plus, once you allow your employees to bid, then that opens the whole "shill bidding" can of worms.

anyway, eric, you stated that allen said the current photos and current loa/description were mistakenly used. if it was a mistake are they saying that they've got another lampson loa with a 3-bar description that was written prior to the auction starting?

i wonder how they're going to deal with the current bidders. retracting bids is not allowed on their auctions. should be interesting.

"What I don't get is, once it got bounced from the auction house back to Mastro, how could Lou write a letter on it if he knew the 2 bar facemask was bad?"

lou wrote the original letter on it when it was offered to you. you mentioned the facemask issue. it now has another, more recent lampson letter on it that fails to mention the facemask issue. either lampson forgot or he didn't care. consider the fact that this is the same man who, knowing that the 94 elway throwback was only used in 1 game, proceeded to write multiple loas on multiple versions of it. 2 of them within several weeks time of each other! how often do you see a 94 elway throwback? you'd think you'd remember if it was only weeks apart. sort of shatters the "he forgot" explanation and lends more weight to the "he didn't care" one.

rudy.

[reed1216]

Just for the record, I sold Mastronet an uncut 1948 Leaf Boxing set last year, which was sold in one of their more recent auctions (the most recent one if I'm not mistaken). I would be happy to provide the exact listing number, but I haven't figured out how to access their archives, if they have one.

I was strongly encouraged to consign the item, but I needed the funds to do some home repairs, prior to selling my last home and didn't want to wait until the slow season to put my home on the market after the auction concluded. That would have to be an obvious instance where the auction house sold one of their own pieces because it was theirs when I received payment from them.

With that said, they were more than professional with me during the transaction. They covered all the shipping fees for me to send it to them. Moreover, they paid a very fair price for it. If my memory serves me, I rec'd about $7,500 for it and it sold for just over $10K in their auction. They also were careful to inspect the piece, prior to purchasing it. It was framed and they informed me that they would have to remove it from the frame to inspect the condition of the sheet. If I'm not mistaken, it was listed and sold unframed, but all of that was done well before it was ever listed in their catalog or online.

To be honest, I wasn't at all aware that their was a problem with an auction house selling its own memorabilia. While that was the first time I sold an item that was later auctioned to Mastro, I have sold several things to Grey Flannel, which were subsequently auctioned off. I have consigned items to them as well, but initially I sold them. I got a lot wiser after watching a 1977 game worn Reggie Jackson helmet, with a LOA from Michael Grosbardt (team photographer) go for around $13K, after selling it to them for a small fraction of that.

[staindsox]

I had a terrible experience with Mastro. I sold a Thompson Honus Wagner print through them. They did a terrible job listing the item and ended up allowing bids to be retracted. I could have eBayed the item for more money. Their incompetence cost me a lot of money. I was furious, but what can I do? I will never deal with them again. After my experience, I thought they came off as dishonest and bumbling.

Chris

[jonincleve]

does this mean the auction house can give lou lampson a game issued bat and he can go out in the field and do some hitting? or take a game issued jersey and do a head first slide into some dirt? the possibilities are endless. what is the difference from changing the appearance of a helmet vs a bat or jersey? where is the line drawn?

[reed1216]

I can't wait to one day see a Lampson LOA that states, "The jersey displays solid authenticator wear from multiple inspections. Final grade GU- 9.5"

[lon lewis]

Eric
could you email me @ shadowsdad@worldnet.att.net I'd like to discuss chargers helmets with you.