For the past few years, various publications, online news outlets and Internet message boards have been talking about game-worn jersey and autograph authenticators and their roles within an auction house operation.

Much of this coverage has become very heated and sometimes even controversial.
It’s understandable. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars are at stake and anyone that has, or feels they have a potential of getting burnt when spending their hard-earned money will feel very strongly on this subject.

Now my take on all of this: There was a time when auction houses didn’t even use authenticators, in fact, many mom and pop auction houses that deal with family estates don’t use an authenticator and have an “All Sales are Final” policy. As a general rule, auctions are not like Wal-Mart… You usually are expected to pay for the item as an “as-is” type situation. At least that’s how it used to be.

Many of the people who own auction houses may have some knowledge in the area of sports memorabilia that they are selling, but very few can be classified as “experts.” That is why third-party authenticators are brought in to go through the auction items and offer their opinion on each lot.

I just had the opportunity to buy a nice vintage Packers jersey that may have been game-worn. It took me about a week of phone calls and my own research to determine that it was not a gamer.
A week!

Many auctions hire authenticators for only a couple days and they are expected to go through hundreds of pieces.

In my opinion, there is no way that this can be done in this amount of time without making any mistakes.
Also, keep in mind... authenticators DO reject many jerseys that were consigned for a particular auction. I remember Lou Lampson rejecting over 50 jerseys for one American Memorabilia sale, when I still worked there. There was never any intent to deceive a customer into buying a jersey that we didn't think was game-worn.

Now, I know some of you will say that the authenticators should be brought in for a longer period of time… That sounds like a good idea, in theory, but it isn’t that realistic. First of all, that costs much more money for the auction house and second of all, there are deadlines to get the catalogs prepared.

That said, this time constraint should not let the auction house off the hook if a mistake is made. “All sales final” policy or not, if a mistake is made on a jersey and it is called to the auction houses’ attention, in my opinion the business should stand behind its item.

That can also sometimes be tough though. Many times a consignor is already paid when a problem surfaces and as a result that money can not be gotten back easily. Maybe have a 10-day return policy or something.

Anyway, that’s my take… I asked Troy Kinunen of MEARS to chime in on this topic and here is what he provided me:

For his blog, Gavel Chat, Chris Nerat asked me to give my views on how
authenticators are treated on various message boards. With my
association with MEARS as a person who gives opinions, I know what it is
like to be on the receiving end of message board created criticism.

As an organization, MEARS always separated the sometimes-personal natures of the criticism and examined what the core of the issues was. In the early
years of the internet, topics such as undisclosed conflict of interest,
proper attribution of authenticator to work, creation of terms and
definitions, and responsibility of authenticator to their opinions were
often the topic of debate.

Therefore, the message boards served as a voice to our organization where
concerns were stated and for which current policies were shaped and
in-acted. To date, in response to hobby concerns, MEARS was the first
authentication company to voluntarily disclose which lots members of our
company owned when consigning to various auction houses. Both Dave Bushing
and myself volunteered to have our names listed in the auction house
descriptions and Rob Lifson of REA was the first to incorporate the
practice. When we were not listed in the actual lot description, the lots
were identified on the MEARS homepage, and were in an area that was open to
any interested parties. This change was the result of concerns voiced on
various internet forums.

We have expanded on the policy and with the launch of the MEARS For Sale
site, at the top of each description the owner of the item is identified.

The topic of responsibility of an authenticator to their opinions is the most often voiced concern for collectors. MEARS takes this responsibility
seriously. I am quite aware of the amount of work it takes to get an authentication of an item correct.
For the year 2007, MEARS was only contracted with Mastro Auctions and REA. The contract called for us to look at all game worn/used items submitted to those houses. With our long-standing policy, a grade is assigned to each and every bat and jersey we offer opinions on. This included both favorable opinions and items deemed unable to authenticate.
Over a 50-week calendar year, we schedule a minimum of 56 hours per week to authentication per those two auction contracts alone. It typically takes 6 weeks per Mastro Auction and about 46 weeks for REA. The rest of our staff handles photography, letter production, data entry, website maintenance, reference material archiving, and retail submissions.
We have mandated for our auction house contracts that all our grades, which sometimes are low and not favorable, are printed in the lot description of their catalogs.
Another policy invoked by MEARS to address the concerns of accountability to collectors is our practice of writing letters on 100% of the items that we inspect. This means even the bats and jerseys that we reject. Those are
titled as "unable to authenticate."
Those items are hologramed, photographed, a worksheet is completed, and the opinion is archived in both the LOO and trade index portion of our website, which is available for members. The member's section is part of our $40.00 subscription fee, but the fee charged is used to offset the labor fees of producing the LOO‚s and maintaining them on our website.

Chat rooms and forums will continue to facilitate discussions with respect
to the opinions offered by authenticators. This is a good thing, as each
group of authenticators will continue to be responsible for the opinions
offered. Criticism will still be given when collectors feel a wrong opinion
has been given. But, what I have noticed, is there is nowhere near as much
credit given when somebody does a good job. Take a moment to thank an auction house that does do things right. I can't speak for non-contract
holders, but when we are contracted to for a calendar year to offer
opinions, the cost is substantial to the auction house. By hiring MEARS,
profits have been lessened, as contract holders are willing to pay for the
services provided by our company.
Chat rooms are here to stay, so lets continue to use them in a manner that enlightens the collectors and creates continued excellence from the
authenticators whom understand their responsibilities.

Sincerely,


Troy R. Kinunen
MEARS

Hopefully my opinions and what Troy touched on will spark some discussion. You can post your comments to this blog or email me at chris.nerat@fwpubs.com