1933-35 NY Giants signed ball...really?

[sylbry]

I have been watching this ball. Thought it would be a cheap way to get a Mel Ott signature. It comes with a JSA LOA. And that is comforting to me. I know third party authenticators miss items but I am no expert either. Just like collecting autographs... real ones that is.

This ball however makes me scratch my head. The signatures look like they have all been signed by the same person. The W's look similar except Bill Terry. The J in Jimmie and the Y in Terry look similar. And the Ott just doesn't seem right to my semi-trained eye.

Help...Thoughts...

http://www.mearsonlineauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=16450&searchby=0&searchvalue=None&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=100&category=52&seo=1933-35-Mel-Ott-New-York-Giants-%26-Others-Signed-ONL-(Frick)-Baseball-w%2f-Bill-Terry---JSA#

[gashouse34]

The Ott doesn't look good imo and the others almost look clubhouse...i'm sure others will chime in but I personally don't feel comfortable with auction loa's...

[perezfan]

I don't like it either. Whitey Whithead and Jimmie Wilson appear to be signed in the same hand. Actually, that entire panel looks suspect... Terry looks very shaky as well.

Even if Spence gives this ball his approval, there are far better examples to be had on a budget.

[GrayGhost]

That ball looks terrible. I concur w the others. the "W"s especially. I'd stay away from it.

[HRBAKER]

Maybe JSA had their Sal Bando specialist on this one.

[Duluth Eskimo]

Rip Collins maybe upon closer inspection, the rest look terrible

[MEARSAUCTIONS]

Greetings. One of my customers alerted me to this thread regarding the Giants baseball in our current auction. I have forward the request to have this ball re-inspected, and will post here if the opinion of JSA has changed. I thank the board for bringing this to my attention, and please contact me direct with any future concerns.

Sincerely,


Troy R. Kinunen/MEARS Auctions

Edited 9/28/10: Although listed in the MEARS Auction as having a JSA letter, the opinion on the ball was never issued by JSA. Our writers should not have included JSA in the title. The ball was a last minute submission and the staff of JSA had not yet had the chance to opine.

troy@mearsonline.com

[MEARSAUCTIONS]

Just received a reply back from JSA. We are pulling the ball from the auction due as the Ott appears to be a secretarial. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Regards, Troy R. Kinunen/MEARS

[sports-rings]

Troy,

Thanks for alerting the community and doing the right thing. Wish other auction houses would be as proactive! Great job,

[Leon]

Thanks for doing the right thing Troy. In my current auction we had to pull one of the top pieces before opening, due to questions of mistaken identification. And thanks to the board member who brought this to their attention. That has to be one of the best things about this board, which is the "double checking" of everything. It never hurts for their to be scrutiny in our hobby (especially when done in a polite and professional manner).

[sports-rings]

I had seen somewhere before on the internet that people have brought up the following troubling fact: a firm such as PSA or JSA can't possiby inspect all the pieces with the necessary quality needed when you divide the amount of time they spend authenticating an auction by the number of pieces. It worked out to way less than 1 minute per piece.

[keithsky]

If JSA NOW thinks that the Ott auto might be secretarial why wasn't that caught in the first place. Apparently they aren't looking to closely. The Ott autograph should be the one they inspect the longest to make sure it's legit. I think the guys that post on this board and website are smarter than the authenticators. Wake up JSA and PSA.

[MEARSAUCTIONS]

Guys,

I want to clarify again the situation with the Giants ball as per my own actions and that of the staff, I misspoke with my original post and cast the staff of JSA in a bad light, and for that I want to take full responsibility and apologize for the confusion.

My office just informed me that the Giants ball never received the final opinion from JSA and that it was under review. The ball was a last minute consignment and the images were sent to JSA's office before the auction went live. At that point, and when I first responded to this thread, I had never heard that that particular ball was under review, and I assumed that it had passed. I should have checked with JSA before assuming that they inspected the ball. They hadn't, so therefore they did not make the mistake.

Usually when we submit scans we hear back within 24 hours, so when I did not hear there was a problem, we left the ball in the auction. As always, if we would have heard there was a problem, we pull the ball immediately.

The process of rushing last minute consignments always creates stress on all involved, and since the ball was submitted by a very good consignor, we tried very hard to honor his request.

Although we typically process 1,200 items per month, even one mistake is not acceptable. I apologize to all of our bidders and to the staff of JSA for my poor characterization of events. Next time I will double check all of the facts before posting.

Regards,


Troy R. Kinunen/MEARS

[aaroncc]

Curious does JSA normally authenticate from just receiving a scan of the item?

[RichardSimon]

Curious does JSA normally authenticate from just receiving a scan of the item?

I have been told that PSA does it too, for at least one big internet auctioneer.
And this surprises you , why?
--

[aaroncc]

Richard, I see your point.

[sports-rings]

Troy,

would you mind sharing with the group how many pieces JSA authenticates in person and how many hours they need to accomplish this?

[MEARSAUCTIONS]

For our August Auction, Jimmy Spence himself personally conducted the authentication in our offices. He flew in during July. We had approximately 200-250 lots from that session appear in our August auction, with some additional lots being placed in September. A very high percentage of the lots were of the Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Lou Burdette type of nature signatures. For those that are wondering, Jimmy personally inspects each and every signature, and uses his references library quite extensively.

We have staffers available to assist Jimmy with the processing of the items, which aids in the efficiency.

We were billed for a full day, and although he had a couple of soda's, I don't recall him taking a lunch break, but we did stop at McDonalds for breakfast after I picked him up from his hotel.

I can speak first hand to the challenges of getting an autograph authentication session correct. But, with a proper system in place, the job can be completed 100% accurately. For this auction, we did not follow our own protocol, and a mistake was made. I am thankful when issues are brought to light so that we can correct any mistakes. And, as always, if a mistake was made and found out to be our error, one week, one month, one year later, MEARS will always do the right thing and issue a full refund.

Regards,


Troy R. Kinunen/MEARS

[Duluth Eskimo]

Although we have commented on the ball and I feel most are clubhouse, I feel Troy has been very up front and honest about the situation. He did not have to go in to this detail. All one can ask is that if there is situation that arises, the company issues a full refund. That is all you can ask for.

If a person plans on paying big money for an item, they themselves should feel comfortable with the item and never rely on some "third party" to convince them. Use it as a tool, nothing more. Too many people see PSA or JSA as the end all because they are too lazy to do their homework. I feel both PSA and JSA do a good job overall. With that said, "their opinion" is just an opinion. Not a guarantee.

[perezfan]

Troy is a class act to come on and explain the situation in such nice detail.

Nice job by Mears... I wish they all exhibited this type of integrity.

[RichardSimon]

I agree. I am glad to see that there is not another auction company that uses scans with third party authenticators.
While scans can certainly be useful, I cannot see how an authenticator would write out a COA based on their viewing of a scan.
--

[sports-rings]

Thanks Troy,

I apprecaite your insight!