Feelings on auction item LOA's from equipment mngrs?

[nickacs]

Hi everyone..
I was curious what people's opinions are on auction items coming with equipment/ballboy/etc LOA's? Are they "worth" anything to the item's authentication and/or give anymore "pristine" provenace to the item?

There's a couple items in the current GF auction that I am interested in, and they come with additional LOA's from the team's equipment manager. I've asked to see copies of them, and all they basically say are just like "I, Joe Blow, hereby state this jersey is a xxx player game worn jersey from the xxx season. Signed Joe Blow" All of them are on some sort of stationary/notepad with their name and/or address on it, but is that good enough?

I've seen these kinds of "impeccable" provenances in other auction house items and past ones, but don't know if say I spend several thousand on these jerseys and IF someday I sell them, do these kinds of LOA's mean anything to the real collector out there?

Just curious what you guys thought? I know for me, getting a team letter (aka Bulls CharitaBulls or NFL team) is the best, but I'm just feeling a little uneasy about these other team "source" letters.
I know there was a Larry Bird jersey from a past auction (can't remember which), where the "impeccable" provenance was the Celtic's team dentist?! I mean, seriously, does this really prove anything?!? LOL...

Thanks!

[sox83cubs84]

The Cubs use LOAs signed off on by their clubhouse guy (Tom "Otis" Hellman) for auction items at the Cubs Convention. I trust "Otis" implicitly, but the LOA's are so plain in nature (one fill-in line for a brief description, such as "2008 Derrick Lee road jersey") that the prospects of switching a good LOA to a bad item aren't terribly far-fetched.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[David]

If you don't want to consider it a stand alone LOA, you can consider it a letter of provenance. Assuming the signer is on the up and up and letter isn't a forgery, it's documentation that the item came from a current or former employee of the team. At the least, that's relevant info to have.

In deal in other collectibles and provenance isn't consider proof of authenticity, but it's relevant information in the authentication process. If everything else adds up plus it came from a relevant source (player, team employee, relative) that's a good deal.

[David]

In short, I think legitimate letters or other documentation of provenance are great to have, but agree with others that proper authentication goes beyond provenance. At the very least, the auction house and collector has to double check the item to make sure it adds up to what the letter says. Even an honest player can misidentify or misdate something that has been in his trunk for years.

[David]

Here's a perfect example:

I once bought a wonderful piece of baseball memorabilia from the family of a Pre-War Hall of Famer. The provenance was great-- came directly from the player's descendants, had the date and the name of the player's wife professionally etched in the back, the relative testified that it came from the player's estate and was in the family all this time. But I still had to tell the family what was the item and explain what it was used for-- a 1920s solid silver team VIP season's pass that allowed the player's wife to watch her husband play.

[nickacs]

Thanks Dave & David!
Yea, I'm interested in a couple jerseys in GF auction and one of them comes with the team equipment manager, and it just says on his own notepad with his name/phone#, 'Let this note certify the jersey is game worn'.
I mean how can you even say that particular note even applies to the auctioned jersey? Let alone that this equipment manager no longer is with the team since around 2001-02?!
I wished could contact him somehow to see if the letter pertains to the auction jersey and if he can tell me when/what game is was from since it's a rarer jersey.

Oh wells.. I dunno, just seems fishy to me in general about these types of letters, especially when the person doesn't work for the team anymore and years down the road someone will say "who was that?! the letter means nothing to me now".

[kingjammy24]

i think any letter of provenance from an individual, be they an athlete, equipment manager, coach, whatever, is only as good as the person's character and memory. i think a handwritten LOA directly from cal ripken, for example, would be very valuable as ripken strikes most as a honest and trustworthy guy. conversely, i think an LOA from arod is almost meaningless as most know he'll write an LOA for anything. yet they both fall under the same category of "athletes". some equipment managers may be honest guys with great memories. others could be pathological liars suffering from severe amnesia. there's nothing about simply being an equipment manager that automatically makes the provenance bulletproof. you have to consider the specific person writing the letter in each case. i'd say a letter from an equipment mgr could be fantastic or worthless. depends on who it was.

rudy.