Alarming news about Mastro's UNC Jordan shirt

[lund6771]

Rudy...

Great job spotting this...it makes me sick to my stomach seeing this...I saw this warm up at the National and thought it was awesome...I was gonna have a friend bid on it for me...thank goodness that I didn't

I think what Mastro did was extremely disgusting...Mears finds issues with it, so they send it to Lampson?...the same guy who would authenticate 20 Shrouds of Turin in the same month?

at least GFC pulled their Worthy UNC when issues were made, Mastro seems like they're being extremely deceptive...what a shame!!!

[Eric]

Hello everyone,

I received some emails from Doug Allen at Mastro. He says he did not receive my initial inquiry about the Jordan shirt. (On August 1st I had emailed him to ask if this was the same shirt that mears had deemed "unable to authenticate." and had not heard back)

Mr. Allen gave me his cell number in case I need to get in touch with him in the future, which I appreciate. He wanted to talk to me on the phone about the situation, but I am out of the country and it would be a pretty difficult and expensive venture.

He asked me to share the following information with the forum. The next part is the email from Doug Allen
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric,
I am sorry but I never got your e-mail on August 1st. In the future if something like this arises so close to the end of one of my auctions don't hesitate to call me on my cell which is listed below.

Just to catch you up below is an e-mail I sent to Troy Kinunen at MEARS. Feel free to share this with your constituency. They are currently in possession of the shirt and performing a more detailed examination of it. I will be happy to share their ultimate findings.

If you have any additional questions don't hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Doug
(cell number removed for privacy)
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Allen
To: Troy Kinunen (troy@mearsonline.com)
Subject: Jordan Shooting Shirt

Troy,

I just wanted to send you an e-mail to confirm what transpired as it relates to the Jordan shooting shirt in our live auction. The primary reason I am doing this is to ensure this never happens in the future!

Let me get to the punchline first. I have notified the winning bidder that he does not have to pay for the lot and we will be cancelling the sale due to authenticity concerns.

As you are aware this was one of the last items we took in for the live auction and were at the deadline when you confirmed you had to take it back with you to review it more carefully. I had gotten the message from my guys that you "were not comfortable signing off on it" so I told them to go ahead and run it with the Lou Lampson letter since he was comfortable issuing an LOA on the shirt. Unfortunately we never received your "letter" which explained the details of the name change and the reason you were not comfortable apining on the shirt. If I had known this I would have immediately pulled it from the auction. The first time I had been informed about potential issues with the shirt was on August 2nd when a reporter inquired about the letter you issued. At the time I was not aware a letter detailing findings had been issued and I notified him of that fact. When I got back to the office after the National I was finally able to review your letter and review the concerns expressed on the Game Used Forum.

I am really sorry we did not engage in any direct conversations about this item earlier and I will take the blame for what was effectively a lack of attention to this matter. I mistakingly thought your lack of comfort was due to the fact that you were not comfortable with writing letters on items that fall so far outside of the mainstream as opposed to substantive concerns about the actual item.

Now where we go from here (1) I have a person on my staff who will monitor various game used forums to make sure we are more attentive to issues that arise regarding items in our auction. (2) If I ever choose to sell a piece of game used equipment not authenticated by MEARS (excluding of course Football Helmets and Hockey which you do not cover) I will fully disclose your findings so the buyer understands all angles before bidding.

Finally, I have sent you the Jordan shooting shirt. I want you to go through it with a fine tooth comb. Take it apart if you have to….I will take care of the consignor. If in fact the number and tagging was changed it was a very professional job and we need to work together to make sure this can be identified in the future.

I look forward to your feedback.

Sincerely,
Doug Allen
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I then followed up with some questions which Mr. Allen was quick to answer. Here is the email exchange

From: ecky3@aol.com [mailto:ecky3@aol.com]
Sent: Tue 8/14/2007 5:50 PM
To: Doug Allen
Cc:
Subject: Re: Jordan Shooting Shirt

Doug
Thanks for the email. A couple of things- what does it make you think about lou lampson that he didn't pick up on something like a name change? Will it affect anything regarding your use of lou? Did lou have anything to say about this?
Also- the person you bought the "jordan" shirt from- what are you going to do about him if anything. How much of your auction listings come from him.
I look forward to your answers.
(section removed) Was (the person who bought the Jordan shirt) upset that he bought something which was signed off by your authenticator which had such a big problem?
And lastly, when mears deemed the shirt "unable to authenticate" how did they communicate that to you?
Thanks
Eric
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric,

Regarding the authenticators findings or lack thereof I am going to work closely with both MEARs and Lou Lampson over the next week or so to see what was done to the jersey and ascertain why it wasn't identified in the initial review. I will be totally transparent about these findings when they are available. Until then I don't want to comment.

The person who consigned the Jordan shirt gave us a few things in 2003 and nothing since then. It is my opinion that he purchased the shirt thinking it was good. That is all I am at liberty to say about him.

MEARS issued the unable to authenticate letter but unfortunately this message was verbally communicated and we never physically got the letter. I am not blaming them it was our responsibility to seek out the letter and the findings therein.

All the best,
Doug
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doug
(section removed)
Can you answer another question about lampson? Did he look at the jordan
shirt on a light table. Sounds like he did not or he would have seen the
name change. Given how he certified a shirt with a huge problem, I think
it makes him look pretty bad and unfortunately hurts buyers' confidence
in other auction items with his name. Any chance you can get him to
answer a few questions about his authentication technique? I have called
and emailed him many times and he has never gotten back to me.
Did you buy the jordan shirt directly from eric inselberg? Thanks Eric
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Eric,

(section removed)

I can't respond to how Lou authenticates. I will talk to him about
opening the lines of communication.

Finally, we did not "buy" the shirt from anyone it was consigned and not
by eric insulberg....he is not even on our database.

Regards,
Doug
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doug
(section removed)
If inselberg did not consign it- is it worth finding out from the consignor where he got it from- to determine where along the way it got changed from a ranzino smith shirt to a michael jordan shirt? Have you spoken to the consignor about the problem with his item? Best, Eric
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(From Doug Allen)
I have discussed with consignor and he is being very reasonable about
letting me do whatever I have to do.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's the update.
Thanks,
Eric

[otismalibu]

I had gotten the message from my guys that you "were not comfortable signing off on it" so I told them to go ahead and run it with the Lou Lampson letter since he was comfortable issuing an LOA on the shirt.

This is certainly the most believable part of the story.

If something is not 100% Authentic, there's only one man to call.

[rose14]

It's nice to see that Doug Allen is responding but don't bet for one minute that he is just doing it to be nice. He is trying to save face for Mastros since they got caught red handed still selling a shirt that was rejected by a leading authenticator that actually takes the time to research their items. It sure is convenient for Mastros to have Lou Lampson in their back pocket when things like this happen so he can just sign off on anything and Mastros doesn't have to think twice in selling something with his letter?

What I would like to see is Doug to come on here and explain why Mastros still decided to sell the "Darrell Griffith Louisville Cardinals game used jersey" that was in their October 2006 auction after I provided proof from Griffith himself and the University of Louisville to Brian Marren with Mastros and to Lou Lampson that U of L wore knit jerseys during Griffith's tenure and did not start wearing the mesh until approximately 3 years later. The color of the numbers and lettering were even wrong but Lou still signed off on it and Mastros still sold it even though they were given this information well before their auction closed.

I'm not looking to start a fight but I think the CEO of a reputable company should have concerns and explain their actions when they are selling fake items to their valued customers.

[Eric]

Rose14

Please contact me at ecky3@aol.com. I'd like to speak with you about a hobby issue
Thanks
Eric

[earlywynnfan]

Eric,

Since you have Doug Allen's phone number, when you get back into town, why not call him and ask him to explain that FB helmet issue you had in the spring? The one where they changed the facebar and didn't tell anyone?

Ken

[Eric]

Ken-

I already spoke to Doug via email many times about that issue with the winslow helmet.

Eric

[yankees159]

Fantastic work by GUU! My question is why would anyone still do business with Mastronet? I know I am boycotting them, that's the only way things are going to change.

TJ

[kingjammy24]

the jordan auction began on 07/23 and ended on 08/03.

troy: "The next day or so, which was approximately June 27th, I recall speaking with Doug Allen via phone. At that point I told him I was 100% convinced that there had been a name change and told him so. I also believe at that point Doug asked me if the jersey could have been good. I do not remember exactly how I replied, but I said something to the effect, that "there is definitely a name change, but I will continue researching it to see if it was a vintage name change."

doug: "The first time I had been informed about potential issues with the shirt was on August 2nd"

---- according to troy, through the entire month of july, doug allen was aware that the shirt had had a name change.

doug: "Unfortunately we never received your "letter" which explained the details of the name change and the reason you were not comfortable apining on the shirt. If I had known this I would have immediately pulled it from the auction.

---- again, doug knew about the name change for the entire month of july via to a phone call from troy.

doug: "I had gotten the message from my guys that you "were not comfortable signing off on it" so I told them to go ahead and run it with the Lou Lampson letter.."

---- how did mastro's guys know to tell doug that mears wasn't signing off on it if they "never received the letter"? did mears call mastro and tell them? if so, then upon learning that mears wouldn't be signing off, why did mastro not immediately ask why? when doug got the message that one of his items wouldn't be getting a mears letter, he never asked why? the lack of a mears signoff on the ted williams jersey was such a huge deal to doug that he was compelled to explain it in detail over several paragraphs. yet on the jordan shirt he doesn't receive a mears signoff and doesn't even bother to inquire as to the reasons?

doug: "I mistakingly thought your lack of comfort was due to the fact that you were not comfortable with writing letters on items that fall so far outside of the mainstream as opposed to substantive concerns about the actual item."

---- the specific reason for mears' lack of comfort was relayed to directly to doug from troy on approx june 27.

troy: "That is the last time I recall specifically speaking with Doug about the jersey. Some more time passed and I did not uncover any more additional information on the jersey and published the final Letter of Opinion which deemed the item as unable to authenticate. Approximately 10 days before the live auction all letters were produced including the unable to authenticate Jordan warm-up jacket LOO and provided to Mastro Auctions."

---- mastro received all of the other mears letters except for the jordan letter which mysteriously disappeared? was the jordan letter sent all by itself in a separate shipment? eric's email to doug was never received and neither was the mears letter. astonishing that these 2 things which would've prematurely ended an $11k auction somehow vanished.

when the auction began in july, i am curious why mears not did immediately notice that the jordan letter that they had sent to mastro was not posted with the shirt? if the letter was sent out prior to the start of the auction and 3 days into the auction it's still not posted, how did mears not immediately contact mastro and ask them why the letter isn't posted? after all, according to mears, it's a stipulation of their auction house contract that the auction house post any and all LOOs that they issue on an item. from day 1 mastro didn't do this on the jordan item and mears never noticed and picked up the phone to ask why the letter wasn't posted/why the contract has been breached?

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see more here: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47141...nal+procedures

doug's disregard on the griffith jersey issue combined with the illogical gaps in his story on the jordan shirt make me personally think that had the ny daily news and fbi not gotten involved, the jordan sale would've been executed to completion.

doug was pretty tightlipped with eric on the issue of who really owned the winslow helmet but when the jordan issue was picked up by the daily news and fbi, all of a sudden doug does the "i'm very concerned!" two-step and gives eric his cell number? where was this concern, diligence and chattiness on the griffith jersey and winslow helmet? apparently doug only likes to dance in the spotlight.

after reading "The Card" it's apparent to me why doug is such a great fit for mastro. bill must be beaming at his protege. both of them seem to have a real passion for "maximizing grades" and "preparing items". between the two of them though, i'm guessing doug's got better dance moves.

rudy.