Alarming news about Mastro's UNC Jordan shirt

[both-teams-played-hard]

Eric
Thanks for posting the e-mail.
As I've posted before: Carolina players were allowed to keep their jerseys and warm ups at season's end. Recycling was not done. The UNC equipment manager said that Michael still has his shooting shirt. Why does the jersey need to be re-examined? This forum as already PROVEN the infamous Jordan to be a fake, phony, fabricated, forgery. All that needs to be debated is, "who will do the honor of destroying this jersey?" or better yet, "who will restore this jersey back to number '33' with 'S-M-I-T-H' on the back?"
I'm glad someone from Mastro responded. Its funny how people want to do so much research, AFTER the FBI comes knockin'.

[kingjammy24]

"..it is interesting to note that the high bidder on the item would actually have still purchased it with MEARS "unable to authenticate" letter as he indicated it would not be unusual for a college jersey to have a name change. This didn't bother the bidder."

i'm assuming the bidder indicated this without being told that UNC's equipment manager stated shirts weren't recycled and that jordan has his shooting shirt? when bidders lack crucial information, they're hardly able to make an informed decision. i'm unsure what doug is trying to point out here; that the bidder was ill-informed or that he almost managed to sell the shirt. had the bidder gone through with the purchase, this would all be a bigger mess and there'd be one unhappy bidder so why is doug painting a positive light around the fact that he almost sold it to an ill-informed bidder?

would it have bothered the bidder to see a comparison of the stains on the mastro shirt and on jim reed's shirt thereby showing them to be the same shirt? why not give them all of the evidence, not just half, and then see if they're still interested?

"The primary issue for this shirt was the fact that the #2 on the jersey appears to have been altered."

what about the fact that..you know..the shirt is a perfect match for jim reed's ranzino smith shirt? is that an issue? after all, the number change could theoretically be explained using the same logic as the name change: it wouldn't be unusual for a college jersey. on the other hand, how could you possibly explain the identical stains? alterations aren't always detectable. if the alterations on this job wouldn't have been detectable, the stains alone would've proven the case.

anyway, aside from missing the biggest piece to this puzzle, kudos to doug allen for his otherwise superb investigative work and for jumping into action once the daily news and fbi picked up the story. kudos also to lampson for not noticing any alterations on an $11,000 piece when apparently both his employer and his competitor did. as always, nice to see lou taking his job seriously.

time for me to sit back and enjoy the hilarity of watching doug and troy hit each other with giant foam mallets.

rudy.

[Eric]

I asked Doug Allen the following question

Doug-

You mentioned that the buyer was comfortable buying the Jordan shirt even after they were told (after the auction) that there was a name change. Is there any way I could send a few questions to the buyer?
Eric
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He sent me this answer, and I'm posting it here with his permission


Hey Eric,

Let me relay my conversation with the bidder.

Our bidder knows Ken Crowder, the equipment manager Cynthia Somers referred to in her e-mail correspondence. When the bidder heard about the name change he still wanted to show it to Ken as the bidder's recollection was that the JV team did have warm ups and in his own collection he has late 70's early 80's jerseys that were originally varsity shirts that were later changed to generic "Tarheels" for JV use. It was on this basis he thought a vintage name change was possible. Obvioulsy this did not go far once we confirmed other problems with the shirt.

Regards,
Doug

[Moustache Gang]

Rudi,

If you get a chance can you send me an email. I would like to talk to you on a couple of issues.

Thanks always for your commentary as it is always very insightful.

Mark
www.weimerskirch95@aol.com

[warheel]

Not to hijack the thread, but seeing the "SMITH 33" jersey brought back some memories. I went to Carolina and Ranzino Smith used to live above me his senior year. I worked with the football team and we hung out some, even took a class together.

The class was "Classics" and we were supposed to study Greek and Roman stuff. Z and I went to class every day, but didn't bother to do the reading. Test day comes and 90% of the test is from the reading. We both made single digits on the test, and ended up dropping the class.

Sorry for the diversion...

[Eric]

I emailed with Doug Allen today who said I can submit some questions to the buyer of the doctored Michael Jordan jersey.

I will be sending them to Doug tonight and will post the responses when I get them.

Eric

[Eric]

Here is the email I sent to Doug Allen. He has said he would pass some questions along to the buyer of the Michael Jordan shooting shirt. Thanks to Doug for his help here. I will post the responses when I get them.
Eric

Doug-

Thanks for agreeing to pass the following questions along to the buyer of the Jordan shooting shirt.


To the buyer-
Thank you for taking the time to address this situation. Your responses to these questions will help hobbyists learn from this situation. The questions are below. If you would like to contact me directly about any of this, you can email me at ecky3@aol.com
Thanks
Eric Stangel
administrator, game used forum

1) Before the Mastro auction, what was your experience with collecting Jordan items or North Carolina items? Do you have an extensive collection?

2) Had you seen the Jordan shirt in person at the National before bidding, or did you base your knowledge on seeing the photos in the catalog and reading the auction description?

3) Did you bid in person or on the phone?

4) What kind of research had you done before placing the winning bid on the shooting shirt?

5) At what point did you learn the shirt had issues (name change, mears failure to authenticate letter)

6) When you found out there were questions about the shooting shirt (stains that match a Ranzino shooting shirt and evidence of a name change) what was your response?

7) Did it concern you at all that the shirt went up for auction without a mears letter?

8) Knowing what you know now, what do you think about the fact that mears deemed it unable to authenticate and Lou Lampson wrote a letter on it without even noting a name change?

9) How do you feel about the whole process? What if anything would you change?

10) Doug Allen said you do not have to pay for the Jordan shirt and it has been sent to MEARS for more research. Once MEARS does the extensive work on it, will you have the option to buy the shirt back? If so, what do you plan to do with it?

11) Doug said "...it is interesting to note that the high bidder on the item would actually have still purchased it with MEARS "unable to authenticate" letter as he indicated it would not be unusual for a college jersey to have a name change. This didn't bother the bidder."
Can you elaborate on this?

Thanks for taking the time here. It's going to help a lot of people.