Just got back from a very short and much needed 2 day break. Our recent auction ended on Saturday, and I was made aware of the issue with the Sandy Koufax baseball. I did not receive an email regarding this baseball during the course of the auction. Our admin email is
info@mearsonlineauctions.com , and I will double check to see why the email did not arrive.
The baseball was submitted earlier this year, I believe January or March. It was labeled for the auction, which includes consignor number, item number (used for photography), and the date of the auction.
Our staff often times builds the auction lot which includes photography and description before the items are reviewed by JSA. For all autographed lots, we have JSA review the signatures, unless it has a PSA letter. In very rare instances (which does not apply regarding the Sandy Koufax baseball), we issue a MEARS LOA. The MEARS LOA is reserved for items I obtained myself, which I will support, the future opinion of either PSA or JSA, or if an item was of an obscure celebrity that JSA offers no opinion of. Typically this may be an obscure opera singer or rodeo star, whereas the authenticators do not have an exemplar.
While under review, JSA rejected the Sandy Koufax baseball. It was immediately removed from the auction. For whatever reason, it was not returned to the consignor.
As part of an effort to “Fall Clean” the MEARS offices, we “flipped” several lots of old, unclaimed merchandise into the August auction. The majority of those lots were started with opening bids at $5 - $10, and it was our attempt to clean house.
The process of flipping is quite easy from an administrative view point. Since the lot was written and photographed, our office administrator in charge of cleaning up moved this and the rest of the unsold lots into the current auction. It is a simple point and click, and items that have already been processed can be moved into a current auction.
Since it wasn’t returned at the time of the original sale, it was included with the other odds and ends in the August sale. This explains why a JSA letter was not noted in the description. We add those after approval, and since it wasn’t included in the original listing, it wasn’t noted in the recently completed auction. The photo and original write-up was moved over, as is in its original state.
This was a mistake that should not have happened, and I take full responsibility. Once I was made aware that the ball was included in the sale, I immediately amended the winning bidders invoice and removed the baseball from the sale. It was never the intention of MEARS Auctions to offer this baseball.
As our auction policy, we use JSA to look at all of our lots and issue their auction LOA with all items that have passed their inspection. I want to thank the net 54 board for bringing this to my attention and allowing me to fix this mistake. Again, I apologize on behalf of MEARS Auctions for letting this item get through. If somebody would have submitted this 10 years from now to PSA or JSA and it would have been rejected and brought to my attention, I would have immediately issued a refund.
Thanks for the heads up,
Troy R. Kinunen (MEARS Auctions)