Why GUU Beats the Pros

[kingjammy24]

"aeneas" recently made a comment in another thread that i thought was an interesting one to discuss. he noted that professional authenticators "have probably forgotten more about game-used equipment than many of us will ever know - i really believe this."

i don't really believe it. in fact, i believe the opposite. i believe a niche expert will always know more about their respective niche than a jack-of-all-trades "pro". it's highly unlikely for someone to spend, for example, 10 yrs studying 2 eras of 1 team and not know substantially more than someone who's spent the same 10 yrs studying 5 eras of 30 teams. the jacks-of-all-trades (ie: "pros") are ideal, from an business standpoint, when you've got a large auction with a wide of variety of items. the auction houses feel it's not financially feasible to go out and hire 30 different niche experts per auction. saying something is ideal from an economic standpoint isn't the same thing as saying it's ideal from an authentication standpoint though. while i can see the value of a jack-of-all-trades to an auction house, i really fail to see the value of such a pro to collectors.

most collectors have a niche and they seek very specific items that fill that niche. in seeking advice about their items then, it seems their best bet for the most accurate, insightful information would be someone who specializes in their niche. that is, someone who's done nothing but study that single niche.

that said, i believe this Forum is quite possibly the largest single gathering of niche experts offering free advice to anyone in this hobby.if you're looking at a 70s or 80s era phillies knit, for example, would you rather go to howard wolf or bushing/lampson? in that case, i believe howard's forgotten more about those particular eras of phillie knits than bushing/lampson will ever know. jeff scott for cards jerseys and bats (do any of the "pros" have every single cards game on tape like jeff does?), mark sutton for O's jerseys, lon lewis for 49'ers and giants jerseys, scoggin for broncos jerseys, iglesias, albonetti and ricks for canseco items, derlith and herman on ripken items, weimerskirch on vintage A's items, bobby on ramirez bats, ad nauseum. i'm sure there are many i've missed. collectively, they've truly forgotten more about their respective niches than most of the pros will ever know.

every time i've had a question about an item, i've spent my time searching out a niche expert rather than a "pro" because i know that while the pro may likely have some general knowledge about the item, they simply won't have the in-depth knowledge that a niche expert will. the ultimate bonus is that i've never had any of the niche experts charge me a cent.

rudy.

[DRILLINDK]

I've consulted Mr Scott on several occassions. His knowledge of Cards items is amazing.

[Birdbats]

do any of the "pros" have every single cards game on tape like jeff does?

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I appreciate it. BUT... I don't have every game on tape. I do record every game on my DVR, watch them, take notes... but then delete them. Couldn't possibly save them all (as much as I'd like to).

The timing of this comment is interesting because the Cardinals/Giants game on Saturday will be the first game in recent memory that isn't televised in St. Louis (we're getting NY/BOS). If any of our Bay Area members are at the game, please try to pay attention to which bat Pujols is using and let me know (birdbats@charter.net). He's been using a Gwynn-finished Marucci almost exclusively this season. Maybe I'll get lucky and Tony will rest him on Saturday.

[aeneas01]

"aeneas" recently made a comment in another thread that i thought was an interesting one to discuss. he noted that professional authenticators "have probably forgotten more about game-used equipment than many of us will ever know - i really believe this."

i don't really believe it. in fact, i believe the opposite. i believe a niche expert will always know more about their respective niche than a jack-of-all-trades "pro". it's highly unlikely for someone to spend, for example, 10 yrs studying 2 eras of 1 team and not know substantially more than someone who's spent the same 10 yrs studying 5 eras of 30 teams. the jacks-of-all-trades (ie: "pros") are ideal, from an business standpoint, when you've got a large auction with a wide of variety of items. the auction houses feel it's not financially feasible to go out and hire 30 different niche experts per auction. saying something is ideal from an economic standpoint isn't the same thing as saying it's ideal from an authentication standpoint though. while i can see the value of a jack-of-all-trades to an auction house, i really fail to see the value of such a pro to collectors....

i think most realize that a specialist is better qualified to render an opinion than a general practitioner - and i don't know why my post apparently led you to believe this escaped me.

as i mentioned in the other thread, my beef with the lampson's of the world isn't that i believe them to be charlatans, amateurs, flunkies, impostors - folks that know nothing about the subject of game-used equipment yet have been able to con their way into the good graces of auction houses. my beef with these guys is that they seem more than willing to submit to percursory examinations knowing full well that a) their hasty work will more than likely result in missed calls and b) auction houses will look the other way. it's a two-way sham.

yet the broken model doesn't diminish their expertise imo - if they were allowed to spend the necessary time, the amount of time i have the luxury of spending on items for example, i'm sure we would all be pretty impressed with their results. imo lampson cleary knows vintage football helmets - and i'm sure he's made more personal connections with football equipment managers (past & present), personally knows more football players (past & present), has personally seen and handled more authentic vintage lids, knows more big buck football collectors, has seen more big buck football collections and owns or has owned more vintage game-used lids than i ever will. additionally, i'm sure lampson has also booked quite a few more hours than i when it comes to conversations with those closest to vintage football helmets. in short, imo lampson has forgotten more about vintage lids than i will ever know.

can any of the "pros" out there hold a candle to some of the amazingly knowledgeable members here at guu? to some of the truly informed niche specialists we have at the forum? tall order to be sure - but i know that i can't say "definitely not" given the climate in which the "pros" operate. what i can and will say is that i find it highly doubtful lampson would spend as much time on a helmet as i'm prepared to spend in order to get it right - or that he cares about vintage lids as much as i do. does that make me more of an expert, more knowledgeable than lampson? not in my opinion. i just happen to give a ratz a#@$...

[kingjammy24]

it's not solely an issue of time and looking the other way. there is a genuine lack of expertise from the "pros" when they venture outside of the confines of their narrow niches, which seems to be frequently. when they authenticate items outside their areas of expertise, then these "pros" do indeed turn into charlatans, amateurs, flunkies and imposters who know far too little about the items they're authenticating. you concede that lampson knows a great deal about vintage football, yet he dips his paws into far more than that; seemingly into anything that'll pay. you could give lampson all the time in the world on baseball gamers and the results would be far from impressive.

most of his baseball loas are borderline absurd and reveal a frightening lack of knowledge. reading them is like listening to me talk about football helmets; "well there's this mask thing and it's secured pretty tightly with some shiny bolts. seems like something a real NFL gamer would have." i could stare at a football helmet for 8 hrs and have no clue what i'm looking at which is how lou must feel when looking at baseball shirts. one of my personal favs was when he authenticated a '93 jays jersey and wrote that he was perplexed by the "odd" placement of the wilson tag in the collar, rather than the body. wilson tagged jays jerseys in the collar for every year (except 1990) that they supplied the team since 1977! clearly, it wasn't a time issue. lou had absolutely no clue what he was looking at.

the broken model doesn't only concern the time they spend, but also the areas of expertise that they're regularly required to pretend they have. if lampson, and the other pros, stuck solely to the narrow confines of their respective niches, then i agree that niche vs niche it'd be a tight battle between the "pros" and the "joes" with the pros probably winning. in his capacity, dave bushing has had the good fortune to be privy to far more bat research material than the average bat enthusiast could likely even afford to obtain. however, other than taube who's wisely stuck to bats only, most of the pros regularly venture out of their narrow niches. if lou stuck to vintage football, he'd likely eliminate 90% of the scorn.

the thing is, they don't admit to any of it. i've yet to see an auction item ever post a disclaimer along the lines of "admittedly, this item isn't the authenticator's speciality". everyone's the foremost this and finest that.

as for finding employment with the auction houses, i personally believe it's not so much skill that gets them in as it is their willingness to be slick and willing participants in the two-way sham. with the right marketing, an enterprise could take any schmoe off the street and proclaim them to be "the foremost memorabilia expert..". there are a few companies out there who pose ethical questions during job interviews. it's not so they can see who's beyond reproach but rather who'd look the other way because the latter are the sort of folks the company's really looking for. someone once suggested that the auction houses should hire you and warren humphrey wisely said that you're exactly who they don't want. i have to agree. they want a willing participant, not some guy who's throwing out profitable pieces left, right and center. as i've said before, lampson is an auction house's dream. he's learned to play the game very well. lowest rates, fastest turnaround, no contact info, no guarantees, 2 line loas with no explanations about anything. it's like a back-alley food vendor. cheap and easy, it seems handy at 1am but come morning, you'll be sick. only in this case, it's the collecting community getting sick from lampson's spoiled wares, all under the guise of being the hobby's "foremost expert" on everything.

anyway robert, you're a sharp guy and although we don't share the same collecting interests, i enjoy reading your posts.

rudy.

[kingjammy24]

jeff scott: my apologies for my error. i meant to say that you had recorded bat usage from every game, not so much that you had saved every game onto dvd.

btw, the space concerns may not be as crazy as you think. i've got a dvr and also a dvd burner & player hooked up to the tv. i think you could burn about a 2 hr game onto one 4.7GB disc. hard drives are relatively cheap these days. you could then copy the game from the disc onto a computer hard drive. a 2 terabyte/2000GB western digital external drive is only $450 (i saw it on bestbuy.com).

rudy.