I had a sinking feeling after my last post that my response was likely to (re)open any number of cans of worm. My apologies to all if for inadvertently initiated a hijacking of this thread’s original purpose. Now that the damage is done, I might as well clarify/expound on a few thoughts.

The “we” to which I referred is the hobby in total, not just at the collector end of the food chain. This “we” includes the hobbyist collectors, dealers/auction houses, and the 3rd-party service providers that we’ve (intentionally or otherwise) invited into our little fracas. As Mark H. pointed out the hobby is fraught with ills from all levels… From the uneducated and/or ill-informed collectors who would foolishly plunk down four digits worth of grocery funds on a LaBron jersey, blindly accepting the opinion of an authenticator, to the “professional” authenticator who is more interested in the quantity rather than the quality of the work to which he signs his name, to the seller who, motivated by profit (which all businesses must be), acts with near complete disregard as to the integrity of the items which they are peddling. Lund6771 is absolutely correct in his “scumbags-following-dollar-signs theory”, but guess what? Those “scumbags” are prevalent in all levels of the hobby. To arrogantly point the finger at any one single element as the embodiment of the anti-Christ lies somewhere between oversimplification and ignorance of reality.

Can we sweep out all of the crooks and shut down the authenticators? Absolutely; the solution is simple. Stop buying! As stated previously, whether it be an auction house or paid authenticator, these business have arisen in order to meet the demand for a need. That demand being the result of a huge surge of interest in sports memorabilia. If we as collectors no longer have a need for a particular service, it will cease to exist as the demand for that service diminishes. As crass as it may sound, all entities are in business to make money. When the cash flow dries up, and these businesses can no longer make payroll and pay the leasehold, they will go the way of the dodo. So what are we waiting for?!? The reality is that, this is not going to happen, at least not in the short term. But rest assured, this, like all things will pass. At some time in the future, our somewhat juvenile diversion of hoarding other people’s sweaty laundry will turn en mass to other endeavors. With this change in interests, the support structure will fold up tent behind it. But again, that is somewhere over the horizon.

In the reality of the present, there will continue to be some within the hobby who will exhibit less than exemplary behavior, just as there will be many in the hobby readily standing by to vehemently vilify such behaviors. As Mark pointed out, these same elements were in existence in the days long before the boom, and they will continue to be present long after the surge has subsided. Such is our nature.

As much as we want to disparage the auction houses for their offering of questionable items, they do indeed serve a useful purpose in the hobby—that of acting as a marketplace; bringing together memorabilia from a multitude of sellers across a wide geographic range and making them available to interested buyers. For all of the items questioned (some of them unfairly so), by and by, the vast majority of the items offered are legitimate, unquestioned and sell to satisfied buyers.

The same goes for the authenticators. With few exceptions (no names to be mentioned), I seriously doubt that anyone who puts up a shingle as a paid authenticator would intentionally go out with the intent of committing fraud. While several examples of authentication provided by (insert name of any authenticator) can be shown to have been careless, sloppy, or just plain worthless, I seriously doubt that the intent was there to have these acts considered as fraudulent. For all of their well-publicized gaffes, these folks utilize what can generally be considered a vast wealth of experience and knowledge to do a thankless job for relatively little compensation. And while we can continue to bash them all we want, this is another case of we got what we asked for. At the onset of the hobby’s explosion, buyers collectively lambasted the auction houses/dealers for providing their own LOAs—an egregious conflict of interest we said (never mind the fact that many of the old timers had been doing this for years/decades prior to said swell in interest). From our outcry for unbiased opinions came the professional authenticator—paid by the auction houses, albeit via revenues derived from seller/buyer commissions (and we dare be to be insulted by the rise in these fees). We cry foul when any of these authentications don’t meet our standards, and scream at the top of our lungs about their not providing contact information or being accountable for their misdeeds, but keep in mind the nature or their relationship. Having been hired by the seller/auction house, these authenticators act in an agency relationship for the sellers. As such, they are really accountable only to these sellers and owe us—the lowly collector—very little if anything at all. While an ugly prospect, such is an undeniable truth. Want to correct this? Stop buying or bidding on anything with a 3rd-party authentication. When we collectively send a strong enough message that we do not want nor are willing to pay for this service, the sellers will cease to offer it and the authenticators will move on to pursue other opportunities.

As to collectors, we must collectively look into the mirror and ‘fes up to our own faults as well. Any “novice” collector who goes out and plunks down $1,200 for a jersey without knowing his ash from his elbow pad, probably deserves to get burned… It’s called natural selection, and in the long-run it’s probably better for the hobby in general. The same goes for the dupe who finds that bargain of a deal on that Mecca of high-quality memorabilia called eBay and throws all caution to the wind to land that too-good-to-be-true deal. Chances are, (if he’s lucky) he got exactly what he paid for, and deserved it.

Folks lets face it, this is a HOBBY. The federal government is not going to step in and provide oversight and regulation of our little corner of chaos. Unless there is a collective movement to transform the infrastructure of our marketplace, little is likely to change in short order. As Mark H. stated, what were going through now is not much different than what was transpiring 30+ years ago; only (some) the names and faces have changed.

(P.S. Apologies up front for any and all unchecked cynicism)

Best regards,