Alarming news about Mastro's UNC Jordan shirt

[Eric]

I received a response from Doug Allen regarding this matter. Here is the entire text of the email printed here with Doug's permission.


Eric,

In response to your inquiry I do not recall having a phone conversation with Troy regarding this shirt any time prior to the auction. I do recall Eric on my staff communicating the fact that MEARS was not comfortable authenticating the shirt but I don't remember a direct conversation with Troy.

Troy's post stated "This may have led to the decision to have Lou Lampson offer his opinion on the jersey." This is absolutely not the case. Most vintage basketball and football we auction also include an LOA from Lou Lampson as evidenced by the current auction. Lampson authenticated the shirt approximately one week prior to MEARS coming in to authenticate as they perform this work independently. That being 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. The primary issue for this shirt was the fact that the #2 on the jersey appears to have been altered. Unfortunately this alteration was not identified by Lampson or MEARS…I detected it after I returned from the National when I personally examined the numbers on a light table. I then informed MEARS of the fact that it was much more than a presumed name change, which could have been vintage. I then turned the jersey over to MEARS for further examination.

I have copied Troy on this as I have the utmost respect for the work they do and that is why I returned the shirt to them for further examination.

I trust this is responsive to your question.

Regards,
Doug

[earlywynnfan]

See everybody!! We've been piling on Doug, and here, he saved the day!!


Ken

[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
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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