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Over the last 5 years I haev increasingly been annoyed by sports auction houses. While yes, I have bought a large number of 100% genuine game used items from various auctions houses I have an issue with a number of things regarding the auction house industry.
First, recently I purchased from A MAJOR sports auction house $1400 in 2 jerseys. The jerseys ended up being Game ISSUED and not game worn, I called the auction house, the said and I QUOTE exactly, "I am truly sorry for the the mistake, and I will grant youa full refund." I got my $1400 back in a week after I returned the 2 jerseys. Well what do ya know, a month later BOTh jerseys are BACK in auction as GAME worn (written in the description), they sold for a total of $1250. Disgusting.
I don't really get auction houses. Most of them claim to have 2-4 "EXPERTS" examine a particular piece. That in itself is ridiculous. I am a MAJOR collector of Tampa Bay Buccaneers game worn jerseys and a mild collector of DeviL rays game worn jerseys. I have spent COUNTLESS hours over the last few year doing as MUCH research as possible to determine whether a specific Tampa bay jersey is game worn. Sometimes it has even taken me a month to determine. Now would I consider myself an "Expert" when it comes to Buccaneers game worn jerseys? Probably, however do you think ANY AUCTION house put a month of effort in determining any game worn jersey? Also, how can a panel of 2-4 people claim to be an expert on every single style and year of Dodgers, Rams, Bengals, Lakers, Pistons, Oilers, Titans, Texans, Browns, and more jerseys? 30+ teams in every sport NHL,MLB,NFL, NBA. Oh yeah, they are experts on prominant MINOR LEAGUE players jerseys too. Give me a break. -- The cop-out answer fromt he auction houses would be "Each buyer should also do their owne research." YEs, but have you ever gone into Best Buyer and bought a faulty dvd player, then when attpempting to return it, the clerk says "You should ahve known this was crap!"
Furthermore, don't you think there is a CONFLICT of INTEREST when someone sends in a game worn jersey into authentication for an auction? Keep in mind, people like Jim YACKEL are NOT working for these auction houses. More often than not, a jersey WILL get benifit of the doubt, why becuase they want their 10-17.5% commision for the jersey.
Also, most auction houses list 300-2000 game used items at a time. Just by playing the odds, do you HONESTLY feel that EVERY SINGLE item in every auction house is genuine? Are you saying that even Grey Flannel goes 1500 for 1500 on nailing everythign correctly? You can fill in the blank on that one.
Also, that 10-17.5% buyer's premium that they charge. What is that exactly for? Is it all that mass marketing the auction houses do? I worked for the Printing company that prints American Memorabilia, they spend about $20,000 - $27,000 a pop on those catologs you get in the mail, which is fine. However, what OTHER mass marketing do these auction houses do? You don't see McDonald's, Pepsi, or Best Buy advertising a specific cheeseburger,soda or DVD player in their consistant marketing, yeah sure they do once in a while. But the VAST majority of their advertising is IMAGE ENHANCEMENT. What do these auction houses do to MAKE THE INDUSTRY BETTER and enhance the somewhat damaged image of the marketplace, other than cashing in on their passive aggressive marketing?
Last point I'll touch on is separation. When you get those high gloss magazines in the mail. Do you usually see more than one item in it? Of coarse not. Not only are the "authenticator's" only giving a brief paragraph on your game used item, but it is about 1/2 an inch away from legitimate competition for you. 45-115 pages of a large mass of game used items and garbage from movies and television. If these companies actually cared about you as a consumer and a BUYER, they would do a poll asking what game used items would interest you the most. Then PROFILE the consumer then notify them by email, print, or phone. If telemarketers and CASINO's can do it I would assume a small bit of effort would not be out of the question. I acutally got a call from a game used dealer last week inquiring if I'd be interested in XY and Z Buccaneers items. I greatly appreciated that they remembered me and thought of calling. Pretty darn rare.
I wish there was more accountability in this industry. More of a police. And flat out more people that didn't look at the bottm line as the most important aspect of this hobby.
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Jake J
First, recently I purchased from A MAJOR sports auction house $1400 in 2 jerseys. The jerseys ended up being Game ISSUED and not game worn, I called the auction house, the said and I QUOTE exactly, "I am truly sorry for the the mistake, and I will grant youa full refund." I got my $1400 back in a week after I returned the 2 jerseys. Well what do ya know, a month later BOTh jerseys are BACK in auction as GAME worn (written in the description), they sold for a total of $1250. Disgusting.
I don't really get auction houses. Most of them claim to have 2-4 "EXPERTS" examine a particular piece. That in itself is ridiculous. I am a MAJOR collector of Tampa Bay Buccaneers game worn jerseys and a mild collector of DeviL rays game worn jerseys. I have spent COUNTLESS hours over the last few year doing as MUCH research as possible to determine whether a specific Tampa bay jersey is game worn. Sometimes it has even taken me a month to determine. Now would I consider myself an "Expert" when it comes to Buccaneers game worn jerseys? Probably, however do you think ANY AUCTION house put a month of effort in determining any game worn jersey? Also, how can a panel of 2-4 people claim to be an expert on every single style and year of Dodgers, Rams, Bengals, Lakers, Pistons, Oilers, Titans, Texans, Browns, and more jerseys? 30+ teams in every sport NHL,MLB,NFL, NBA. Oh yeah, they are experts on prominant MINOR LEAGUE players jerseys too. Give me a break. -- The cop-out answer fromt he auction houses would be "Each buyer should also do their owne research." YEs, but have you ever gone into Best Buyer and bought a faulty dvd player, then when attpempting to return it, the clerk says "You should ahve known this was crap!"
Furthermore, don't you think there is a CONFLICT of INTEREST when someone sends in a game worn jersey into authentication for an auction? Keep in mind, people like Jim YACKEL are NOT working for these auction houses. More often than not, a jersey WILL get benifit of the doubt, why becuase they want their 10-17.5% commision for the jersey.
Also, most auction houses list 300-2000 game used items at a time. Just by playing the odds, do you HONESTLY feel that EVERY SINGLE item in every auction house is genuine? Are you saying that even Grey Flannel goes 1500 for 1500 on nailing everythign correctly? You can fill in the blank on that one.
Also, that 10-17.5% buyer's premium that they charge. What is that exactly for? Is it all that mass marketing the auction houses do? I worked for the Printing company that prints American Memorabilia, they spend about $20,000 - $27,000 a pop on those catologs you get in the mail, which is fine. However, what OTHER mass marketing do these auction houses do? You don't see McDonald's, Pepsi, or Best Buy advertising a specific cheeseburger,soda or DVD player in their consistant marketing, yeah sure they do once in a while. But the VAST majority of their advertising is IMAGE ENHANCEMENT. What do these auction houses do to MAKE THE INDUSTRY BETTER and enhance the somewhat damaged image of the marketplace, other than cashing in on their passive aggressive marketing?
Last point I'll touch on is separation. When you get those high gloss magazines in the mail. Do you usually see more than one item in it? Of coarse not. Not only are the "authenticator's" only giving a brief paragraph on your game used item, but it is about 1/2 an inch away from legitimate competition for you. 45-115 pages of a large mass of game used items and garbage from movies and television. If these companies actually cared about you as a consumer and a BUYER, they would do a poll asking what game used items would interest you the most. Then PROFILE the consumer then notify them by email, print, or phone. If telemarketers and CASINO's can do it I would assume a small bit of effort would not be out of the question. I acutally got a call from a game used dealer last week inquiring if I'd be interested in XY and Z Buccaneers items. I greatly appreciated that they remembered me and thought of calling. Pretty darn rare.
I wish there was more accountability in this industry. More of a police. And flat out more people that didn't look at the bottm line as the most important aspect of this hobby.
-
Jake J
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