Mastro Game Used Jersey Authentications

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Posted By: Steve Murray

Email I received today in case any of you missed it. I concur with Mastro's position in this matter.


"MEARS Authentication took what in the auction industry is an unprecedented stand. In order to do business directly with auction companies they are requiring access to private consignor and confidential bidding records. We are uncomfortable providing this type of access to any organization let alone one that as part of their business model conducts private purchases and sales. It is on this basis we made the decision not to renew our contract with MEARS. What has transpired since this decision is a process that we believe will make us a better firm and enable us to offer game used jerseys that have gone through an unprecedented third party review process.

Effective in 2008 Mastro Auctions will stand behind all of our game used jerseys by issuing our own LOAs. Behind these LOAs will be the most targeted and comprehensive authentication process in the business. For each auction we will assemble a team of experts that will work together to examine all of our game used jerseys. No individual names will be associated with this work based on the fact that we will only offer items where the team unanimously deems the item to be authentic. We have engaged John Taube of PSA/DNA to oversee this process to ensure the necessary steps are being taken to ensure this authentication is being conducted in the most professional and comprehensive manner possible.

With the proliferation of fraud and alterations in our industry it is critical to have access to exemplar files to aid in the authentication process. We will arm our authentication team with the best exemplar database in the industry. First, we have gone through our historical database over the last 10 years of items sold and populated our new exemplar archive with images of tagging, styles, lettering, patches, etc. In order to augment this we have embarked upon an extensive retrieval process to collect detailed images from our customers who have the best private collections in the world. Although this process will be time consuming and expensive what will result will be the best authentication tool to ever be made available to the industry

I want to assure you that consistent with all the moves we make, a tremendous amount of thought and planning has gone into this change. We are confident that what will result is a better product for the industry and our valued customers.

Doug Allen
President & COO
Mastro Auctions Inc.
7900 S. Madison Street
Burr Ridge, IL 60527
p: 630-472-1200
m: 630-336-6650"

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Posted By: barrysloate

Interesting how the two major auction houses hold such divergent opinions regarding Mears.

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Posted By: Matt

What does this mean: "Effective in 2008 Mastro Auctions will stand behind all of our game used jerseys by issuing our own LOAs."

Usually when you agree to "stand behind" something it means that if it ends up bieng bad, you will honor a refund - is that what they are agreeing to? Assume there was an item that was definitively determined to be bad (say they found the guy who forged it and he has a video of doing it).

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I thought Mastro lost all of those confidentail bidding records and consignor info?

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Posted By: martindl

I find this quite laughable. Mastro might be an authority on cards but they're any but when it comes to game worn items. Having John Taube oversee a team is good and will work out fine if the items are all game used bats, but when it comes to jersey's and the like then they'll come up short.

Lou Lampson has been a part of the Mastro authentication process for a while and he's built quite a reputation for extremely poor work. Now Mastro is going to use their database of items sold and authenticated by Lou over the years as the basis for future identification. If you're database is full of questionable items, then what's the point of using it for exemplars?

This does get around putting 'LOA by Lou Lampson' in the catalog which for many is an indicator not to bid.

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Posted By: Andrew S.

Why did MEARS require access to private bidder and consignor information? Does MEARS actively sell and purchase game used items? Wouldn't access to such information have allowed MEARS to greatly increase their own market exposure, mailing list and pool of potential game-used buyers/sellers/authentication customers?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The mentioned John Taube is a well respected guy.