Jersey Misidentified in Mears Auction. Comes with LOA!!

[whiteymet]

Hi All:

I am not a game worn collector. BUT I do know my Phillies history.

I saw the below item in a Mears auction and had to send them an email.

http://sports.mearsonlineauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?inventoryid=78423&searchby=0&searchvalue=None&page=0&sortby=0&displayby=2&lotsperpage=ALL&category=1&seo=1948-Billy-DeMars-Philadelphia-Phillies-Game-Worn-Home-Jersey-(MEARS-LOA)


Please read what I wrote and LMK if anyone agrees or disagrees with me.

I just don't understand how this could have an LOA when in my mind it is SO incorrect, and should be an "easy" read if you know history of the player and team uniforms. It is so easy to research if you do not know.

I wrote:

Troy:

I saw your latest auction and wanted to inform you about one of the items.

Lot 361 1948 Phillies De Mars jersey.

FYI, De Mars never played for the Phillies. His one year in Philadelphia was with the Athletics in 1948. This is clearly NOT an A's jersey.

Also, this is NOT a 1948 Phillies jersey. The team did not use this version of the uniform until 1950 and did not change until 1970.

De Mars WAS a coach for the Phillies from 1969 to 1981.

The team wore this jersey ONLY in 1969 during De Mars tenure as coach. He did indeed wear #46 see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Philadelphia_Phillies_season


Thus it can ONLY be a 1969 jersey NOT 1948.

Your take on the above?

[perezfan]

Seems pretty indisputable. Did Troy respond otherwise? I bet it's just a typo on the date listed, and Mears will fix it. I can't imaging any dispute or argument occurring over this one...

[whiteymet]

Just heard back from Mears with this:

Thank you for the note. We have made the edit. For your cooperation, if you win anything in this auction, we will pick up the shipping. Thanks, Staff of MEARS

[jerseygary]

Over the years I've found quite a few mistakes in auction listings. Instead of jumping on Net54 or another forum, I always contact the auction house via email or phone and lay out why I believe the description is mistaken. I probably do this a dozen times each year with many different auctions houses and every single time a representative has responded in a timely fashion and corrected the description. This was all accomplished without fanfare or outing any of the auction houses for mistakes that anyone can make. Maybe I would start a topic on Net54 if the any of the auction houses ignored me, or I felt they did it to deceive bidders, but it just never happened. I really don't see the point in these kind of posts especially when the auction house (in this case MEARS) corrected their mistake in a timely fashion.

I write descriptions for an auction house, and I've always found that MEARS LOA's are the most comprehensive and detailed in the business. I actually enjoy reading their work sheets when I get an item authenticated by them to write up. When ever I have had a question, they are quick to respond, as they seem to have done so in this case.

I just don't see the point in these posts when all the big auctions go out of their way to fix mistakes when they are made.

[whiteymet]

Over the years I've found quite a few mistakes in auction listings. Instead of jumping on Net54 or another forum, I always contact the auction house via email or phone and lay out why I believe the description is mistaken. I probably do this a dozen times each year with many different auctions houses and every single time a representative has responded in a timely fashion and corrected the description. This was all accomplished without fanfare or outing any of the auction houses for mistakes that anyone can make. Maybe I would start a topic on Net54 if the any of the auction houses ignored me, or I felt they did it to deceive bidders, but it just never happened. I really don't see the point in these kind of posts especially when the auction house (in this case MEARS) corrected their mistake in a timely fashion.

I write descriptions for an auction house, and I've always found that MEARS LOA's are the most comprehensive and detailed in the business. I actually enjoy reading their work sheets when I get an item authenticated by them to write up. When ever I have had a question, they are quick to respond, as they seem to have done so in this case.

I just don't see the point in these posts when all the big auctions go out of their way to fix mistakes when they are made.

Hi Gary:

I am the original poster of this thread, so it is obvious your reply was directed at me. I by no means meant to "call out" the auction house, but to check with others here to be sure my take was correct. But now that my assertion was correct it does bring up questions.

So I have a few questions since you write descriptions for an auction house.

As I said I am not a collector of game used material so I have no history in buying them or knowing how they are listed in various auctions.

I would ASSUME, and it only makes sense to me, that a jersey would be inspected, and a LOA done BEFORE listing it in an auction. Is that correct? If not and an expert authenticates an item AFTER it is listed and sold and he finds something wrong with the item what happens then? So, this is why I assume a LOA is done prior to listing. So how could a LOA have dated this jersey to 1948????

And you say MEARS LOA's are the most comprehensive and detailed in the business. If so how could so obvious of an error like this happen??

So, one question I am asking is, if I had not pointed this out would the buyer have received a LOA that dated this jersey to 1948?

And I would also assume that there are proof readers of the items listed by those in the company who are "experts" in the area of expertise for said items. A card expert would not proof read a listing about a jersey, and vica versa.

And if an auction is known for authenticating jerseys, would they not have all the records, photos etc. of different jerseys the teams wore what years to compare/match with the jersey at hand to look at and date correctly?

Shouldn't they check the players name to see if and when that player played for said jersey's team? In this case it seems to me someone looked up DeMars saw he only played for PHILADELPHIA in 1948 and said oh, I guess this jersey is from 1948. Not being knowledgeable enough to know that in 1948 PHILADELPHIA could also mean Athletics not just Phillies. And them not checking photos from 1948 to see if said jersey matches up with the jersey at hand?

Someone suggested this may have been a typo in the heading. I could see how someone could mistype the year with numbers next to one another on the keyboard, 1969 to 1948 would require quite mix up which I did not note on other listings. If the title had said another year other than 1948 I could buy it, but the fact that DeMars played in Philly only in 1948 leads me to think it was not a typo.

I agree with you that they fixed the mistake ASAP, and I am sure all auction house do when presented with evidence, my question again is how could this have happened when I, a non collector of jerseys, saw the obvious error and the experts with all the information at their disposal did not?

I would just expect closer scrutiny even though this is not a "high priced" item.

I look forward to your reply.

Regards,

Fred

[jerseygary]

Fred,

I have no idea what kind of LOA the buyer would receive, if it is a 1948 LOA, then of course MEARS is at a terrible fault, however, I'd guess (and this is MY guess) the typo was meant to say 1968 and it was in the auction listing. Is the LOA pictured on line anywhere? I'd be surprised if that is wrong, but I haven't seen it, nor am I connected in any way to MEARS.

How could it have happened? Everyone makes mistakes. I recall one auction house I wrote to had listed a WWII USMC uniform mis-identified as a WWII US Army uniform. To me, that was a totally obvious mistake. I wrote the house privately and they wrote back thanking me and changed the listing to the correct one.

You're right, there is quite a difference between a 1948 Phillies jersey as opposed to the style that followed it in 1950. To even a casual baseball person that should be evident, that's why I don't think it's that big of a deal that the mistake was made. Someone (like you) would have caught it and notified MEARS (like you did) if they didn't discover it themselves.

I'm also of the school where if you're going to lay out a large amount of cash on something, you better know what the heck you're buying. I don't collect much of anything except scorecards, but if I was to buy a 1948 Phillies jersey, I can tell you that I sure as heck would know every detail about that jersey, manufacturer and style before I pulled the trigger.

Please don't think I was calling you out or faulting you for anything, I'm not. I'm glad that there are people out there that take the time to write to the people who run these auctions to correct mistakes. It's just that it sometimes seems that some love to crow about how they caught a mistake then rush to a forum like this to make themselves feel good. I'm not saying you're doing that, it is just that this is the post that happened to be up today and it did seem like you rushed to post something before MEARS had a chance to fix it. If you were doing it simply to ask how these things happen, then that's a valid question that MEARS will have to give the answer for.