Cleaning up the "Hobby"

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Posted By: Robert Plancich

Dear Members:

My name is Robert Plancich and I am the founder of the Collectors Alliance for Reform and Disciplinary Sanctions (CARDS). My organization is dedicated to ensuring, safeguarding and preserving the treasured history and heritage of our National pastime - a game that we simply call baseball. The following links are to stories that have recently been published in the New York Daily News. I hope that you take the time to read them and reply back with any comments and/or suggestions.

I recently appeared on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" show regarding a game-used early career Joe DiMaggio glove. The glove was accompanied by a hand-written, hand-signed letter from DiMaggio attesting to the glove's authenticity. Additionally, the glove was authenticated by Messrs. Bushing & Knoll who currently authenticate for SCD. The glove was subsequently sold in a Robert Edwards March 2001 auction and a MastroNet August 2002 auction. Both times the glove came with LOA's from Bushing & Knoll. Based solely on the auction sales that I am aware of this glove generated sales and auction house income in excess of $100,000.00 and $30,000.00, respectively. There was just one problem and that was the glove was described as an early career (1930's) glove but was actually made three to four years after DiMaggio retired, which was after the conclusion of the 1951 season. The glove's actual fair market value is about $200.00.I contacted Mr. Bushing over two years ago about the problems with this glove and he said that he didn't authenticate the glove for the Halper auction. I contacted Robert Lifson (who hired the authenticators for this auction) and Sotheby's and they both confirmed that Messrs. Bushing & Knoll did, in fact, authenticate the gloves. Additionally, Mr. Bushing purchased the glove out of the Halper auction on behalf of the Upper Deck Company. I again contacted Mr. Bushing about the Edwards and MastroNet auction and the related LOA's and he told me that MastroNet, not him, issued the LOA on the glove. I then contacted Doug Allen, president of MastroNet and he instructed Mr. Bushing not to answer my emails. Mr. Allen emailed me and stated that they would research this matter and get back to me. A year and a half later I contacted Allen and he informed me that they had done no further research. Mr. Allen had stated that they had sent the glove to another expert (Joe Phillips) who was going to confirm that they were right. I contacted Mr. Phillps and he told me that they never sent the glove. Bushing and Allen declined (three times) to be interviewed by ESPN about the glove and related sales and instead sent a letter to ESPN stating that they had done the "right thing" and repurchsed the glove back from it's current owner. They went on to say that this was an isolated instance and that this type of thing never happens.

Recently, Mr. Bushing purchased a DiMaggio bat from the Henrich family and initially tried to sell it to a prominent collector as a DiMaggio rookie era bat. The bat was purchased for $30,000.00 and sold to this collector for $90,000.00. The bat was sold to this collector twice and twice returned back to Mr. Bushing. The bat was taken to the Fort Washington, PA memorabilia show where it was passed around and everyone that saw the bat passed on it. At no time prior to the bat being consigned to mastroNet was this bat ever characterized and/or described as a DiMaggio 56 game hit streak bat. When the major bat collectors all passed on this bat it was then and only then that this at "magically" went from being a DiMaggio rookie era bat to a DiMaggio "streak" bat. It was then rushed into MastroNet's April 26, 2004 catalog (the bat appears on the last page of their catalog) and eventually sold for $345,598.00. This was the second most expensive bat sold and the auction itself set an all-time record of $11..5 mil. SCD covered the auction in its entirety but not one word was written about this bat - not one word. I have since contacted Rocky Landsverk (SCD editor) and T.S. O'Connell who writes the "Auction Circuit" column and have never received any response to any of my emails on this subject. Of course you know that the bat was graded an A10 and was not only owned by Messrs. Bushing and Knoll but also authenticated by them and SCD Authentic. Now in order for this bat to be authentic you have to buy into two things. The first is that this bat supposedly came from a 07.01.41 shipment of bats to DiMaggio that Henrich can remember the exact shipment and date. The bat was received after the All-Star break and the All-Star game in that year was played on July 8th, therefore the next regular season game was played on 07.10.41. DiMaggio's streak ended on 07.17.41; therefore this bat could have only been used one week and one week only. The second thing that you have to buy into is that DiMaggio hit with the label down because the ball marks are on the wrong side of the label for a right-handed batter that hit with the label up. However, the ball marks are on the correct side of the label for a left-handed batter that hits with the label up, such as Henrich. I contacted Dom DiMaggio and he confirmed to me that Joe always hit with the label up and was very superstitious. Mr. bushing told me that he had photographic evidence of DiMaggio hitting with the label down but refused to provide such photos to me. I then contacted Allen and he told me that MastroNet is the premier auction house for sports memorabilia but would not confirm to me that Bushing & Knoll owned the bat. When I contacted Mr. Bushing he would only say that he had a "financial interest" in the bat. Anyway, I then contacted Allen and he told me that when they have items consigned in their auction that are both owned and authenticated by the same individual(s) that these items are held to a higher standard and that they obtain a second LOA from an independent third party authenticator, such as PSA/DNA. well, the long and the short of it is that they never were able to obtain that second LOA. I then contacted Hillerich & Bradsby president, John Hillerich IV and told him the story about the bat. It's interesting to note that H&B didn't know that Bushing & Knoll owned the bat. Hillerich had two of his people contact me regarding the bat and H&B promised that they were going to do their own "due dilligence" research. I spoke to two of thier top people on a conference call for over an hour on this bat. After giving them all of the information I later contacted them about the results of their research and they told me that they didn't want to share the results of their "due diligence" with me and basically told me they were satisfied with the bat. Why? Because if you go to their website Bushing is listed there as their expert and also consults for them on their museum. How would it look if the manufacturer of the bat bought a bat that wasn't real! How would that reflect upon them and their museum. I now get emails from H&B's corporate legal counsel threatening to sue me because I told them that they shouldn't display that bat in their museum for the public to see because it's a fraud. I could go on and on but I think that's enough for now.

As I stated previously the following links are to articles that I hope members will find educational and informative, if not at least interesting. The first one is about the Mickey Mantle glove that Billy Crystal purchased, the second link is about the DiMaggio "streak" bat and the third link is about Bushing and the current Sotheby's auction (the article was just published today) and the fourth link is a story that I had nothing to do with but is about a fake Ichiro bat. This story demonstrates the lengths that authenticators and/or the auction house will go to in fabricating a story in order to make an item authentic.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/143355p-126924c.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/200142p-172802c.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/258127p-221097c.html

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?sp20020104jg.htm

Finally, it is my opinion that the major abuses are in the card grading and autograph authentication area's of this industry and make no mistake this is an industry, not a hobby. I am interested in talking with anyone about anything and hope to hear your comments pro and con alike.

It should be noted that I personally have nothing against Messrs. Bushing & Knoll, SCD, MastroNet, PSA/DNA, ect. I have always contacted them first and their answers are always the same - nothing. I had some autographed balls once authenticated by James Spence and Steve Grad. According to PSA/DNA one was good and two were bad. That was fine as I wrote to them asking for their reason on why they were good and bad. The long and the short of it was that neither Spence nor Grad would answer any questions and directed me to their corporate legal counsel. After contacting their corporate legal counsel who wouldn't answer any direct questions I was referred to PSA/DNA ppresident, Joe Orlando. He refused to answer any questions and threatened to sue me if I kept emailing him. I have had enough with these so-called experts that refuse to substantiate the itrems that they authenticate and/or reject. The time has come to bring about change in this industry and I am asking for you help to bring about said change.

In advance, I would like to thank you all for time, anticipated cooperation and consideration of these matters.