Posted By:
JoannI'm really shocked by this and wanted to give it more prominence. Jeff D had posted it in the Mastro/FBI thread and I think it may be overlooked there b/c that thread is so long.
Am I being naive or missing something here? Because MEARS is saying they will not do business in 2008 with ANY auction house that does not agree to the terms in the first link - including full disclosure of ownership of auction items, published policies against owner bidding, full disclosure of any alterations to items including cards, and disclosure of MEARS opinions even if negative or problematic - and all of these disclosures in their auction catalogs and online descriptions. And agreement to short-notice audits by MEARS to assure they are complying.
Wow. This is everything this board has been talking about. MEARS is telling the auction houses how they (meaning the houses) have to operate in order to do business with MEARS. From what I can tell it looks like they intend the policy to apply to all items in an auction, not just those advertised as MEARS authenticated? Not sure on that one.
And I guess I'll start the discussion by saying that now I wish I knew more about the memorabilia side of things. I hate to sound so dumb, but is MEARS the 800-lb gorilla in the mem auth industry that can make this work? Has the process of clean-up started from (at least in my opinion) an unlikely source? Who would think anyone would have the ability to sway the practices of the major houses? Has this been out forever and you all knew about it already?
All I know is that I will check anxiously on November 11 to see which auction houses have agreed to it. It's now a red-circle date on my calendar.
And thanks Jeff D for originally posting these links in the other thread. I'm not trying to steal it, just trying to call it to the attention to those that might miss it in the other thread.
http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=302
http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=303
Joann