Posted By:
jay behrensI wish I had a tape. When the meeting got moved to the Mastro offices, they nixed my use of the video camera for security reasons. I didn't think of it until heading back home that I should have left the lense cap on and used it as just an audio recorder. This isn't so bad either since SCDA has said that this gladly make this presentaiton to anyone, at any show they set up at. So you can see it yourself at the National or other shows they are at. Just call them ahead of time to let them know you want to see it. I'm starting to think they should just pack this material with them at every show.
Let's get one thing straight about this bat and it's authenticity, Henrich's testimony IS NOT the lynchpin to this whole thing. Everything would stand on it's own without it. The bat could only come from one of 3 possible orders. Henrich got married buring the All-Star break and then left various items at his mother's house, including the bats, in August. This eliminated 2 orders from the possible candidates and cut it down to 6 bats that were shipped on July 1st. There is even more to this, but it's late and I want to get this posted. As we've said, we aren't comfortable with an A10 grade, but everything indicates that this is a Streak bat. I am comfortable with that.
Our main reason for going ont his trip was see the proof that this was a Streak bat, and this was proven within reason. We also talked about conflict of interest, etc. You can say we spewing the SCDA party on this, but in almost every field of collectibles, authenticators also sell the items they authenticate. This goes for art, furniture, toys, movie memoriablia, you name it. This is not something that Bushing and the auction houses made up to try and hide things. This is how the auction industry has operated for decades. Do you honestly think that all those experts on the Antiques Roadshow just authenticate items and don't sell things they find and authenticate?
Aaron, glad to see that you truly have clue as to what SCDA's new policy is, or most of the rest of this topic. Just lots of preconceived notions and prejudices. First off, if the authenticator is the seller, it is disclosed on the LOA. They have no control over what the auction house will put in the description, but you will be told about it if you are serious about bidding on the it, at least by MastroNet. There is no "30 day" limit to prove anything. It's a lifetime gaurentee. And if you can prove they are wrong, they will not only refund your money, they will also refund you the cost of the other expert. That's called standing behind your product/opinion on an item.
And too the person that expected a professional, jouranlistic report, too bad. None of us are professional journalists and we didn't know we were required to go on this trip and report back to the board in this fashion. If this is what you expected, you should have gone yourself, or gotten someone to go taht could have done this for you.
We went there to form an opinion, one way or the other. Not to come back and provide an unbiased report. I'm sorry if our conclusions didn't meet with your expectations. At this point, no one really has a right to whine or cry about what happened and the conclusions we came to too. You had the oppourtunity to take this trip. You also had the chance to provide with any questions you would like asked. Very few of you did, and Aaron, you didn't provide any. Why you are now making all this noise is beyond me. You had your chance and blew it. But hey, you get to sit home and say to yourself, yep, those guys were bought off, but if we had come back saying they were blowing smoke up up our arses, you still be sitting at home going yep, we were all right. It's great to sit at home, ignorant of the situation, believing only what you want to believe, and realize that you are right no matter what happens.
Jay
Jay
I've just reached Upper Lower Class. I am now officially a babe magnet for poor chicks.