Posted By:
jay behrensTroy, thanks for the response. I'm glad to see some changes are being made. Until such time that you require Mr Bushing and other authenticators to stop buying and selling items, their opinions on these items becomes meaningless because they have a vested interest in the item sold. This is a very serious conflict of interest. I want my authenticators to be impartial with no financial interest in the item.
Until such time that Mr Bushing stops having a finiancial interest in the items he authenticates AND discloses how he authenticated The Streak bat, his reputation as a authenticator is going to remain seriously tarnished.
There is no reason for any authenticator to hide what information he used to authenticate an item. Taking his word for it is not good enough. And to make a claim that a bat was use in The Streak, you better be preapred to provide all the proof you have that this item really is what you claim it to be. To my knowledge, Mr Bushing has never provided this information and makes me seriousy question the veracity of his claims. At the very least, he should be providing this material to you so that you can provide this information. I would think this something that you want to know if you are backing up Mr Bushing's claims.
This scandle about authenticators owning items they authenticate and not disclosing that fact should have been a non-issue. Common sense says that this should be openly disclosed, not something divulged only if you ask the right question. Your at least taken the first step to try to make things more kosher in this situation, now go the next step and start making your authenticators accountible for claims and no longer allow them to own and authenticate their own items so that their is no appearance of impropriety.
Jay
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming --- WOW, What a ride!