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Robert PlancichI recently saw where Troy Kinunen, Director of SCD's Authentication services posted a photo of Cobb with some kind of bat. Nick Martinez of American Memorabilia (AM)posted a comment saying something about "common sense" that I frankly didn't understand. However, I would like to say that my comments (not that they have any profound effect or carry any weight different from anyone elses) were not meant to disparage AM and/or the items that they auction. I know for a fact that Victor Moreano, president of AM, spends a lot of money to have the items in his auction authenticated by, according to industry standards, the top experts. In the case of the Ty Cobb decal bat the consignor submitted this item for auction and Messrs. Bushing/Kinunen/SCDA issued an LOA on this bat. IMHO AM did the right thing by having the bat authenticated and the blame, if any, should be placed on the authenticators, not the auction house.
This is not case with MastroNet. In 2000 when Robert Edwards, Ron Oser and others merged with Mastro Fine Sports to form MastroNet also under that "umbrella" was a division called MastroNet Authentication and Appraisal services division. Messrs. Dave Bushing and Dan Knoll headed up that division and were employees of MastroNet, not independent experts as many would have you believe. AM does the right thing by having their lots authenticated. Lelands which doesn't use authenticators and chooses to use in-house personnel to authenticate their lots also does the right thing because if an item comes back bad Lelands takes the heat and their name takes a hit. MastroNet on the other hand gives you the illusion that they are only a consignment house and have no financial interest in any of their lots. Also, they give you the impression that their lots are consigned by whoever and then their "independent" experts come in and evaluate/authenticate these items.
Case in point, when the DiMaggio streak bat was sold to Hillerich & Bradsby for $350K, the bat was owned by Messrs. Bushing and Knoll and placed in MastroNet's auction where they authenticated the bat that was initially sold twice to Dr. Richard Angrist (the person that recently purchased the Ruth bat for $1.2 mil) and twice returned to Bushing before being sold by MastroNet. The bat at the time it was offered to Dr. Angrist was described by Bushing & Knoll as a DiMaggio "rookie-era" bat with a price tag of $90,000.00. The word on this bat and its questionable authenticity and use by DiMaggio was further exposed at the Fort Washington, PA show on March 2004. It was after this show that this bat magically was transformed by Bushing from a "rookie-era" DiMaggio bat to a DiMaggio 56 game hitting streak bat.