Steiner weighs in on Eli Manning controversy

[ivo610]

These previous issues with poster from Steiner, are they in any way related to authenticity of an item? If so I would like to hear more about this issue if he is part of their management and their spokesperson for this issue.

[BCowan]

IVO the previous issues as earlier referenced had nothing to do with authenticity of an item. The issues from 2006 that I was posting on the forum and not clearly representing myself as a Steiner employee at the time. This to my knowledge is a closed issue and something that occurred years ago. If my involvement in this thread is a concern to anyone I will gladly stop at this time. I don't want this thread going off topic because of me. I was simply engaging in this discussion as a forum member who I believe is in good standing and doing so because of a request from a fellow forum member. I am not an official spokesperson for Steiner Sports on this issue, the only official spokesperson for this matter is Brandon Steiner. Again I was just jumping in as a forum member and to clear up the major accusations that were circulating regarding Steiner Sports taking returns and reselling items and knowingly selling fraudulent items, neither of which is accurate.

[Phil316]

Brooks,

If a buyer returns an item questioning authenticity what happens to that item when returned to Steiner?

[pungent]

I am not an official spokesperson for Steiner Sports on this issue, the only official spokesperson for this matter is Brandon Steiner.

Brooks, will Brandon be coming here to address and interact with the community? As you mentioned, he is the official spokesperson for your brand and the members here would be very interested in hearing what he has to say in clarifying these issues.

[ChrisCavalier]

IVO the previous issues as earlier referenced had nothing to do with authenticity of an item. The issues from 2006 that I was posting on the forum and not clearly representing myself as a Steiner employee at the time. This to my knowledge is a closed issue and something that occurred years ago. If my involvement in this thread is a concern to anyone I will gladly stop at this time. I don't want this thread going off topic because of me. I was simply engaging in this discussion as a forum member who I believe is in good standing and doing so because of a request from a fellow forum member. I am not an official spokesperson for Steiner Sports on this issue, the only official spokesperson for this matter is Brandon Steiner. Again I was just jumping in as a forum member and to clear up the major accusations that were circulating regarding Steiner Sports taking returns and reselling items and knowingly selling fraudulent items, neither of which is accurate.

Brooks is correct. That matter has been resolved.

-Chris

[sportsnbikes]

There was a bunch of Steiner COA's signed by Jeter and Ortiz being sold stand alone on eBay. I know Steiner was made aware of it because I emailed them. They never responded and I do not think anything was done about it.

I e-mailed them also. No response here either.

[commando]

I am not a Steiner apologist, and I don't even own anything of much value from the company. But it makes no sense for a multi-million dollar organization to jeopardize their reputation by knowingly selling a few questionable $300 jerseys (or a $5,000 helmet, for that matter). They are heavily dependent on the information given to them by the teams and players when they purchase their inventory. In a perfect world, Steiner would employ people who sit around all day and photo match equipment... But is that realistic, especially when a shipment of two to three hundred jerseys arrives directly from the team?

Several here have pointed out some of the mistakes made by MLB authenticators, even though that program was designed to be error-proof as humanly possible (with "human" being the key word here). Mistakes do happen, and can you imagine Steiner getting a random email from someone claiming the jersey they bought isn't what the Yankees or Giants said it was? What the heck are they supposed to do? They can refund the money, which the seem to gladly do, but now what? The team says one thing, the collector says another, and Steiner is stuck in the middle somewhere.

Several great points have been brought up here, but my advice is to be careful before you accuse anyone of knowingly selling a bogus item. If you want to have more interaction with company owners/reps here in the forum, you've got to cut them some slack and give them time to figure out what the problems are, how they happened and how to fix them.

[swainer]

+1 Commando. I know it sucks for those with the items in question but this needs to play out first. Glad to see you back posting by the way!!!

Peace!

John

[carbonrosa]

I once heard that the players don't sign the letters at the same time they give them their game used items. Is that true?

This was true with the Mariano Rivera Charity Auction. I won the Robinson Cano 2013 Game used glove in mid December but didn't receive the Mariano Rivera signed COA stating he received the glove from Cano for his charity until the first week in February. Unfortunately the COA they sent had the wrong date with "Game Used 2012". I called Steiner this week and was told to mail the letter back which then they would mail me a new COA. Just not sure how long this would take since Rivera would have to resign a new one....Frustrating

[allstarsplus]

+1 Commando. I know it sucks for those with the items in question but this needs to play out first. Glad to see you back posting by the way!!!

Peace!

John

Well said. There's not enough there right now to point fingers at Steiner, and sometimes things aren't what they appear.

This could be nothing more than guilt by association and not sure if there is guilt until the legal proceedings play out and keep in mind that Steiner isn't even named in the lawsuit.

What I think has been exposed if even nothing comes of the civil lawsuit is that the authentication system in the stadium clubhouses are lacking as the reliance in this case is on the clubhouse manager, the athlete, and the trickle up to the team and the dealers that handle the product could be flawed.

I'm a big advocate of a better authentication system. To me, buying items that lack independent initial authentication can be tainted and that's what this whole lawsuit brings to the surface.