I’m the first person to say that I love when Gavel Chat readers comment on a topic, or email me about anything they feel is important in the hobby.

I don’t want to single out Rick Asten, who posted this comment on yesterday’s blog:

3/18/2008 11:41:55 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Chris, from what we're hearing now that helmet was likely never used by Namath during ANY game, let alone the Super Bowl. Shame on Heritage for not checking facts before going public with this. Remind me again, what exactly is that 20% buyer's penalty for?
R.A.

But it triggered something inside of me, as to how silly some people have reacted to Heritage’s Joe Namath “Super Bowl III” helmet.

Rick commented with the following sentence: Shame on Heritage for not checking facts before going public with this.

Click here to read a thread about this topic from gameusedforum.com

I want to start by saying, I am a huge fan of gameusedforum.com and have been a board member pretty much since it started years ago, but some of you guys are way out of line, and some are simply cowards. Most of you are great, but some of you are instigators and are bad for the hobby.

The Namath Helmet

I called Heritage today to get the lowdown on what actually took place with this piece and how they made the mistake of offering it to the public without even authenticating it.

Here is what happened. Also, keep in mind I worked at a major auction house for two years and everything the Heritage official told me is absolutely the same way my former job processes were ran.

Before every auction is “live” on Heritage’s site, from the moment a consignor’s package is received and entered into their inventory, the entire cataloging process is traceable on its site.

Keep in mind, descriptions and images can change and nothing is set in stone until the auction’s start. See the screen grab below:


In the case of the Namath helmet, it came with great written provenance. It came with a letter from Namath, which claimed the helmet was from SB III, the helmet had a very significant inscription (which had been authenticated by PSA/DNA and JSA) and it also came with a signed football, which added to the claim that this helmet was indeed Broadway Joe’s SB III gamer.

So, taking all that into consideration, the folks at Heritage decided to run some ads highlighting this “great” lot. Keep in mind, Lou Lampson, its game-used equipment authenticator wasn’t scheduled to come in to their Dallas offices until this week, when he will look at all lots for the May Signature sale.

So, Heritage jumped the gun and ran the ads. Remember, this is a business and they wanted to get the word out ASAP that this huge piece was in its upcoming sale. Was it bad judgment to run with the ads before Lou looked at the helmet? Maybe so, but they did and that was a business decision, but given the strong provenance, I believe it was a calculated risk and the majority of other auction houses probably would have done the same thing.

Then a board member at gameusedforum.com did a photomatching to SB III and Namath and found out that it wasn’t the same helmet.

Many board members crucified Heritage for promoting the piece as something it was not, but what they didn’t realize is that Lou never authenticated it and caught all the things wrong with it and many more things that the message board member didn’t even comment on in his original thread.

I know some of you will say, “Yeah sure, Lou probably looked at it and couldn’t tell it wasn’t real.” Trust me. Lou was in this week and he didn’t see the helmet until now. Not many people know this, but Lou owns the Namath jersey from Super Bowl III and he is very, very familiar with this game. The knowledge that this guy has in his head, some of you would never be able to comprehend.

Has Lou made mistakes in the past? Yes. But, by going nuts on an auction house for a mistake like this is not only bad for Heritage, but it is also bad for the hobby in general and board members who like to sit behind their computer and rant and rave about something like this are nothing but instigators who need to calm down.

Also, I don’t know how many times I have read on the board that people want to confront a certain authenticator about a mistake that was made on a jersey or a bat and they always seem to want to try to email the person.

Well, when people found out that Lou was at the National last year, not one single person came up to him and challenged him with any concerns that were mentioned on the board.
Also, Lou will be on a panel at the PCCE with other authenticators to help educate collectors. And when that was called to the attention of the members of gameusedforum.com, nobody seemed to want to go to the show in Chicago to talk with Lou.

I have no problem with someone who wants to call out someone on a public forum, but I do have a problem when people are just starting to cause trouble when they really don’t know the facts.

I am assuming I will take some bashing for this blog, but hopefully you won’t take offense to what I wrote and you will actually agree with some points.


Today Lou determined that it is not a game-worn Namath helmet, but is a Jets gamer from an unknown player.

The person who made the above comment is exactly starting the kind of trouble that this blog was about. Stating something as irresponsible as that is as bad as an authenticator who has no facts to base his claims when he states a jersey is authentic.