Namath's Game Worn Super Bowl Helmet? Nope.

[nick1980]

All I can say is amazing, I can't believe they didn't try to photo match it before they put their name on the line like that, AMAZING

[suave1477]

Here is what I don't understand esepcially for auction houses when obtaining an item doing the most simple homework by searching gettys or other sources of pictures just to even see if the item is a style match or possible photomatch.
I NEVER PURCHASE AN ITEM UNLESS I CAN SEE THE PLAYER HAS WORN OR USED ONE JUST LIKE IT.

AM IM NOT BUYING MONUMENTAL SIGNIFICANT ITEMS IM BUYING AVERAGE JOE TYPE OF STUFF.

WHY CANT AUCTION HOUSES DO THIS????? IT TAKES ME FIVE MINUTES WHY CANT THEY TAKE OUT 5 MINUTES????

[aeneas01]

it appears that heritage has removed the helmet from their site - as recently as this morning the helmet was prominently featured on their home page - now it is nowhere to be found. further, a search with the terms "helmet" or "namath" using their search engine turns up nothing.

however google seems to still have the listing cached - if you type "namath helmet $50,000" into google a link to heritage's listing still appears.

fwiw, i'm not getting a kick out out of this - i actually feel rather bad given that chris ivy at heritage is a very nice guy. as a matter of fact, everyone i have ever spoken to at heritage has always been nothing but extremely nice, courteous and very helpful. it's just an unfortunate incident that heritage, much to their credit, appears to have corrected promptly once it was brought to their attention.

[Eric]

It's still listed as "coming soon" if you search namath on their site. This page comes up
http://sports.ha.com/common/view_ite...hdnSearch=true

[aeneas01]

It's still listed as "coming soon" if you search namath on their site. This page comes up
http://sports.ha.com/common/view_ite...hdnSearch=true

that's interesting eric - how did you get to that page? check out the new lot description appearing a the top of the listing. the original listing read: 1969 joe namath super bowl lll game worn helmet. the new listing reads: namath helmet copy....

if and when heritage does relist the helmet i hope they do do in fact list it as a namath "copy" or a namath "reproduction" instead of a namath game worn helmet from the "mid '60s" or some other obscure description that tries to imply that namath once wore this helmet - because, again, imo he never did....


new ad:




original ad:

[camarokids]

[quote=aeneas01;76384 i actually feel rather bad given that chris ivy at heritage is a very nice guy. as a matter of fact, everyone i have ever spoken to at heritage has always been nothing but extremely nice, courteous and very helpful. it's just an unfortunate incident that heritage, much to their credit, appears to have corrected promptly once it was brought to their attention.[/quote]


Why should you feel bad for the auction house ??????

The only emotions you should feel is one of disbelief and relief .

Disbelief that these auction houses can be this stupid ....

Relief that you helped save someone over $50K....

Once again someone on this forum DID their homework for them !!!!!!

I cannot believe the auction house was irresponsible enough to promote such a supposedly great item , with out doing the necessary research .

So they deserve the embarrassment brought upon themselves due to their lack of attention to ALL the details......

Others have said the same thing , blinded by the might dollar !

[aeneas01]

Why should you feel bad for the auction house ??????

The only emotions you should feel is one of disbelief and relief .

Disbelief that these auction houses can be this stupid ....

Relief that you helped save someone over $50K....

Once again someone on this forum DID their homework for them !!!!!!

I cannot believe the auction house was irresponsible enough to promote such a supposedly great item , with out doing the necessary research .

So they deserve the embarrassment brought upon themselves due to their lack of attention to ALL the details......

Others have said the same thing , blinded by the might dollar !

i believe that honest mistakes can and do happen - in all walks of life. imho heritage did not simply and blindly list a rare helmet without so much as lifting a finger or taking a close look at it - they were furnished with what appeared to be sound written and verbal documentation, a sworn deposition and an autograph from namath that clearly implied that the helmet in question was his sb3 lid - they also reviewed scores of photos that showed namath wearing an almost identical helmet during the super bowl. given this, their mistake is more than understandable imho.

further, imho heritage is not alone in this thing. this helmet has been in the public domain for close to a month now and has received much attention from other auction related organizations - yet no one challenged it. quite to the contrary, everyone seemed to be quite dazzled by it. the helmet was even discussed here at the forum and taken at face value.

looking at the photos i posted it now seems more than obvious that the helmet wasn't namath's sb3 lid - now that we all know what to look for. but before these photos were posted, especially the additional photos heritage promptly furnished upon my request, was it so obvious? i would say apparently not given that at no time had anyone challenged the helmet's authenticity.

as i mentioned previously, i furnished chris ivy (director of sports collectibles - heritage auctions) with my findings late last night via email and reported to the forum that it would be interesting to see how he and heritage would respond. well now we know - chris immediately removed the item from heritage's website (although one can apparently locate evidence of the original listing) - it is no longer prominently featured on heritage's home page nor do searches link to it. no double-talk, no brush offs, no dragging feet - heritage was informed of a problem and acted immediately.

and, finally, heritage has a wonderful feature which is twofold - it allows heritage to quickly add items to their auction as they become available, for the mutual benefit of auction house and buyer, with the understanding that information can change and be updated. the feature also allows prospective buyers to voice concerns about an item, report errors and offer suggestions. in my case i utilized this feature by contacting heritage about problems with the helmet. heritage responded by promptly removing the item.



in a perfect world every auction house would have indisputable evidence that every item it they put up for auction was exactly as described - no excuses, no errors. but we don't live in a perfect world. fortunately for collectors there is at least one high profile memorabilia auction house, heritage, which tries to do the next best thing. i wish the same could be said for the other usual suspects.

[beantown]

Great Job Robert! I would love to see some of the helmets in your collection! Please post for all to enjoy!!!

[camarokids]

A job well done by YOU ! Apparently you have access to pictures or an internet that auction houses do not have access to .......

Honest mistakes are fine as long their mistakes don't cost someone big money or hurt someone !

Apparently no one at Heritage thought to double check what appeared to 100% provenance ......once again ... it is all about doing your homework....

[gingi79]

On the one hand, I think it is very good that Heritage took the evidence from aeneas and pulled this obvious mistake of a helmet from the auction. On the other, there is a Buyers Premium of 19.5% which is used to cover fees from authenticators..... I was told by Lelands once "The premium covers all fees associated with marketing, authenticating, storage etc." It should give me "piece of mind."

Therefore, since aeneas did the actual grunt work research and saved the Auction house tremendous bad press, a possible lawsuit and some collector a minimum of $50k, shouldn't he be offer the Buyers Premium......Just a suggestion for the guys at Heritage......