Who Would You Like To Hear From?

[Eric]

Hello everyone

Yesterday Howard Wolf mentioned an idea where forum members could directly ask questions to various people in the industry.

If there are specific people you would like to see featured in this segment, post those names here.

Eric

[hblakewolf]

Eric-
Let's start with Lou Lampson. Should I fire up the Bat Signal to try to contact him about our possible Q & A session?

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[TNTtoys]

Hmmm I figured that Lou would come up, but it realistic that we have him here given that nobody seems to know how to get in touch with him??

I suggest Jim Yackel. I have dealt with Jim on a number of occasions, and he is usually willing to give his two cents without any worry. He's well respected and trusted as a source of game used uniforms, and is never reserved in expressing his opinion.

[sportscentury]

Eric,

Lou Lampson from American Memorabilia would have to be #1 on the list, mostly because he seems to be nearly impossible to contact. I can't think of another dealer, authenticator, or auction house representative where this is the case. I am constantly emailing or calling people at MEARS, Lelands, Grey Flannel, Mastro, PSA/DNA (Taube/Malta), etc., etc., and it is really very easy to contact all of these people. Back when I was willing to deal with American Memorabilia, I would often ask to speak with Lou about items that he had authenticated. I was always told that they could only relay messages on my behalf; but I never got a single response to any of the messages that I left and, after many follow-up calls, I finally gave up in frustration and exhaustion. I imagine that this would be an extremely popular Q&A session.

Reid

[sportscentury]

[quote=TNTtoys;21365]Hmmm I figured that Lou would come up, but it realistic that we have him here given that nobody seems to know how to get in touch with him??[quote]

This seems like a reasonable point.

Folks who may be more likely to participate (and would also be great) include: John Taube, Vince Malta, Rob Steinmetz, Art Jaffe, Keith Vari, Richie Russek, Mike Heffner, Denny Esken, and Brian Marren - all of whom have been in the hobby a long time and have a lot of knowledge to share. The guys from MEARS (Dave Grob, Dave Bushing, Dave Miedema, Troy Kinunen, and Dan Knoll) would be great, as well, but I imagine that they would prefer any dialogue to be on their own website.

Reid

[earlywynnfan]

I've been thinking about this ever since Howard brought it up. I think we need to not only come up with WHO we want to talk to, but WHAT we want to talk about. If all we are going to do is say "So, Mr. Expert, how did you blow this jersey authentication in 2003? What about this glove in 1999?", then nobody in their right mind is going to do it. I think we need to temper our outrage at past mistakes and look to a future of either understanding or greater knowledge on BOTH sides of methods, ideas, criteria, whatever. I know Howard, like all of us, has some past pet peeves regarding authenticating errors, but are we looking to argue about those or ensure we work as a community -- ideally a UNIFIED community -- to make sure they don't happen again? I would love for us, the forum, to be an active part of the hobby, instead of just a questioning group or bitchfest. I would love Mr. A, the head of ProJunkStuff auctions, to feel comfortable coming here or contacting someone directly with a question. "Hey, Skyking, we got in a Dave Kingman bat with some strange notches; you have more of his bats than anyone, what do you make of this?" "Suave, we have our thoughts on this tagging, but we're looking for input on our conclusions." "Dear earlywynnfan, we just got a large lot of Negro Lg autographs, and can't identify these two. Any ideas?" That would make us PROactive, not REactive. Then again, I have many pipe dreams, and the sky is very colorful in my little world.

I think back to the series SCD did on the auto authenticators. I got very frustrated by the "softball" type questions asked; why weren't they asking Jimmy Spence about his many past errors? Why didn't anyone ask PSA about how they all seem to be in bed with each other? Why this, why that? But then I took from it what was probably intended: I got an overview of them all, and I was free to make my own conclusions. The authenticators got a chance to tell about their beliefs and methods and reasoning, and I got to see if I believed in anyone. (I did, and if i ever need an auto authenticator, I know who I'll use, whether it's the one Mastro chooses or not.)

Just my 2 cents, which nowadays costs 3 to produce.

Ken
earlywynnfan5@hotmail.com

[trsent]

Eric,

Lou Lampson from American Memorabilia would have to be #1 on the list, mostly because he seems to be nearly impossible to contact. I can't think of another dealer, authenticator, or auction house representative where this is the case. I am constantly emailing or calling people at MEARS, Lelands, Grey Flannel, Mastro, PSA/DNA (Taube/Malta), etc., etc., and it is really very easy to contact all of these people. Back when I was willing to deal with American Memorabilia, I would often ask to speak with Lou about items that he had authenticated. I was always told that they could only relay messages on my behalf; but I never got a single response to any of the messages that I left and, after many follow-up calls, I finally gave up in frustration and exhaustion. I imagine that this would be an extremely popular Q&A session.

Reid

Reid, I know Lou authenticates for American Memorabilia, but doesn't he have a separate company as I know he also authenticates for Vintage Authentics.

Just wondering since you said "Lou Lampson from American Memorabilia".

Lou would be great, and since the topic was discussed with pre-screened questions, I bet if someone contacts him maybe he'd do it with those terms.

[sportscentury]

Reid, I know Lou authenticates for American Memorabilia, but doesn't he have a separate company as I know he also authenticates for Vintage Authentics.

Just wondering since you said "Lou Lampson from American Memorabilia".

Lou would be great, and since the topic was discussed with pre-screened questions, I bet if someone contacts him maybe he'd do it with those terms.

Joel,

This was covered in another recent thread (you can use the search engine to find it). Lou Lampson/100% Authentic/American Memorabilia all have the same address and are all the same entity. If I am wrong, I am sure a certain person will post here soon and enlighten us all, but this this is my understanding (I am happy to be corrected if I am wrong). Hence the diction in my post that you referenced. I hope this question of yours is a genuine one and not an attempt to get the American Memorabilia/Lou Lampson madness rolling again (I'll trust that it is genuine), as I think we all need to try harder to abide by GUF rules and Eric's/Chris' requests.

As for Ken's and your thoughts on the questions, I think that is completely fair. I think the questions should be accepted by Eric, Chris, and the expert so that the expert feels comfortable coming on GUF and answering them. With that said, there is bound to be follow-up to the answers that are provided, so I'm not sure how Eric will be able to pre-screen/evaluate the follow-up/response questions (that may not even be anticipated at this time by GUF members) if this interactive Q&A session is being conducted in real time. Perhaps Eric has a plan for this.

I'd also like to suggest Brandon Steiner as a possibility. I think he would be perfect.

Reid

P.S. I'd like to add that I did not mention Mike Specht, Jim Caravello, or Barry Meisel in my earlier posts ONLY because they are all already so active with GUF (for which I am very grateful). My impression is that we have constant Q&A sessions with these experts all of the time.

[trsent]

My question was genuine. I am not living on pins and needles over a post asking how they associated other than AMI hiring Lou to do authentication. I was confused by you referencing him as a member of AMI.

I thought the previous thread showed a similar address, I didn't think they were the same address. My bad, but in the meantime, I have been to AMI and never seen Lou there when I visited them.

I believe they are two separate companies, Victor and Kita have never mentioned to me that they own 100% Authentic or whatever that company is called.

[sportscentury]

My question was genuine. I am not living on pins and needles over a post asking how they associated other than AMI hiring Lou to do authentication. I was confused by you referencing him as a member of AMI.

I thought the previous thread showed a similar address, I didn't think they were the same address. My bad, but in the meantime, I have been to AMI and never seen Lou there when I visited them.

I believe they are two separate companies, Victor and Kita have never mentioned to me that they own 100% Authentic or whatever that company is called.

Joel,

I raised this very question in the last thread on this topic. If you can find out the truth about this, there are several of us who would like to know. The address on Lou's website is, in fact, identical to that of American Memorabilia.

http://www.100percentauthentic.com/Authenticators.asp
(see bottom left corner)

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Contact.asp
(see right side under "Corporate Office")

Perhaps you are accustomed to visiting the folks at American Memorabilia at their showroom address, which appears to be different.

Reid

[stkmtimo]

Personally, I would hope the first Q&A is with Rob Steinmetz who I consider one of the finest in the business. Though I frequently email Rob, he'd be a great person to have our first Q&A with.

Tim

[34swtns]

Here we go off on another Lou Lampson thread again. I think he's put his credibility in question enough over the years so I personally couldn't care less what the self-appointed "guru of gamers" has to say. Not when there are unquestionably honest and forthright individuals like Jim Yackel walking the earth. I'd rather listen to Jim talk about the weather than hear Lou talk about jerseys. Seriously. But then, Jim's easy to get ahold of and is always willing to give you his highly informed opinion, should you ever need it, so my pick for the person(s) I'd most like to hear from would definitely have to be almost any NFL team's equipment manager. Oh, do I have questions for that guy! Such as:
How many jerseys do players receive for game use in a season? How many "others" are ordered by staff, management, etc. for promo use, gifts, contests? Who retains posession of players' jerseys at season's end and how are they accounted for? I've spoken to various teams' equipment staff members in the past about acquiring older jerseys and have been told "oh, no way, those can't be bought, there's no way to get them"........ well then, how come I have several of them already?! Don't tell me they're not getting out because we collectors know damn well that they are. Any idea how that's happening, Mr. equipment manager? And more importantly........how do I get more?! :)

[indyred]

I agree with 34swtns.....Would love to hear the inner working from a equipment guy who works for some teams. I'd like to hear from Clayton Wilson, he is the main guy for the Timberwolves jerseys/equipment. I see he signs all COA with there game used items and he also was the Minnesota Twins in pretty much the same role. Not sure if he still works with them or not, he was there for both Word Series runs. He was really tight with Kirby. He would probally have good info for both teams. Maybe he can give us the full story on the short lived Twins Red alternates and there Turn Ahead the Clock gems.....

[suave1477]

Well I thought long and hard about this question and the names that have been mentioned here are all great BUT there is one voice you never hear from regarding this Hobby - and then it hit me!!

THE ATHLETES!!!!

Thats who I would like to hear from about this hobby, such as there feelings towards the hobby, or what specifically do they do to there items that would let us know its there item or do they trade with other players for collecting or to use.
"Such as what made you use Tejadas bat yesterday and Pujols bat today?"

I spoke a few months back with Scott Proctor about the Game Used hobby he told me as far as for himself he has no real interest in it but he does trade and collect with other players to build a collection for his son.

[Eric]

Jesse Barfield buys game used on ebay, maybe we could get him to answer a few questions about his take on the hobby...
Eric