Brandon - Thank you for writing and compiling the Baseball Guides!

[Kawika]

Brandon: It was a real pleasure to meet you in Chicago and to talk story. Although I am not a ball collector I am happy to add your volumes to my baseball library and I commend you for doing an excellent job. I also tip my hat to you for taking the high road when the Little Women of CSI:Net 54 defamed your credibility recently. Any one of you who had the opportunity to meet with Brandon for even a minute would learn that he is a four-square guy. Best to you and your gal.

Aloha-
David McDonald

[bobfreedman]

Brandon, awesome job, please meail me when you get a chance. Thanks

[slidekellyslide]

NM...best left as is.

[Mr. Mitt]

Originally Posted by Kawika

Brandon: It was a real pleasure to meet you in Chicago and to talk story. Although I am not a ball collector I am happy to add your volumes to my baseball library and I commend you for doing an excellent job. I also tip my hat to you for taking the high road when the Little Women of CSI:Net 54 defamed your credibility recently. Any one of you who had the opportunity to meet with Brandon for even a minute would learn that he is a four-square guy. Best to you and your gal.

Aloha-
David McDonald

That’s great snooping, David! The name you provided (and later deleted) matches up perfectly with a prior username for this eBay seller of replica autographed balls. You supplied another piece to the puzzle, thank you!

On behalf of the Little Women, I’d like to officially welcome you into the CSI:Net 54 family. Your badge is in the mail.


Jerry F!cch!

[Kawika]

Real cute, Jerry.
I stand by what I wrote. Brandon got himself a good old fashioned Net54 blanket party. I have been on this Board since 2004 and have witnessed so many people get mobbed, treated unkindly whether deserved or not. Adam Moraine, Peter Chao, the little kid Sean, later Bill Hedin and Adrian to name a few. And let's not forget the late, great Bruce Dorskind whom people used to tell that no one would go to his funeral when he passed away, except he died and now you're all falling over yourselves eulogizing him. Give me a f***g break. I am not interested in your "detective" work, and I am not going to revisit the "case" against Brandon. I met him in Chicago, I had a cordial conversation with him and I took his measure. I don't think he is the devious perp "with zero credibility" that he was made out to be. These flames-out-the-ass threads have gotten real old and is why I don't post much at Net54 anymore. Some of you folks are real jerks.

[BrandonG]

First off, to those of you I met while at the National: I had a great time meeting you, our conversations were sincere, and I was not lying about any of the current circumstances. I hope you now understand why I had to keep things more private, and why this whole situation was so difficult and frustrating for me, because it was extremely personal as I was very concerned about my fiancé and her name being brought up to a public forum of strangers. I hope that you guys whom I now consider friends, understand that would do anything to protect her, including having to leave some details out. In this situation, a figured it would be better for me to take the heat, as in the long run, it’s my involvement in the hobby that brought her in to the whole situation.

I fought really adamantly on here to not reveal every single circumstance or detail because I wanted to protect my fiancé’s name and was worried about this very moment, when her name might be brought up. I was also painfully aware at how certain people on this forum are more concerned with tearing others down, and when the first thread popped up, I was concerned that any connection of me to reproductions could affect how my genuine research was received. And after pouring myself into this research and work, I was fearful. But now that we are at this point, it’s time to explain a few things and move on.

First off, I am 30 years old, I’ve got $700.00 in my account, and this hobby is not my life. I’m a recently laid off pilot due to the economy, just trying to get by. 4-5 years ago when I was a broke 25 year old, I was a small time baseball collector, the guy everyone on here laughs at when we over pay for generic crap. I collected Angels stuff, and had no idea who PSA, JSA, or Net54 was, and didn’t really care. I always wanted a Babe Ruth signed baseball, but couldn’t afford even the lowest grade of ball. So like a typical dumb newbie collector, I purchased a replica on eBay and put it on my shelf. A good friend of mine saw it and had some ideas of how we could make a better one and I thought why not, it will just be on my shelf anyway. The ball we made came out very nice (we thought at the time, but knowing what I know today, it was obviously junk) so we decided to put a couple up on eBay. Some of you remember they sold very well. To me, they were like art, a neat fantasy piece. After selling maybe 5-10 over 2 months or so someone contacted us with a very negative attitude towards these replicas, and how they could potentially affect the hobby. I understood where this person was coming from, but respectfully disagreed that these could ever be passed as genuine. To this day, I have never seen one of the replicas I was connected with sold as genuine, and that includes never seeing one sold on Coaches Corner. The balls were always made on brand new Rawlings baseballs, the stamping was always slightly altered, the size was much smaller, and it wasn’t a pen signature, it was ink jet printing, one look with a close eye and you can see they were a spray pattern of 4 color ink. These baseballs would never pass any type of TPA. For all of those reasons I was never concerned with the sales. However, the listings always disclosed that they were replicas, and in most of the sales we even included a disclaimer saying if I ever saw one of ours up sold as genuine, I would take proper action against them. Over time other sellers began creating their own replicas, and if I ever saw wrong doing with those, I would report them directly to eBay as well.

When I became a member of the forum, I then began my research into vintage baseballs to create my own chronological collection. The info wasn’t available, so through my desire to learn, I began my History of the Baseball project. I never intended to publish any work, I never wanted to be the guy to go to for the info, but it just fell into my lap because I apparently was the only one willing to piece all this info together in a complete way. I began to distance myself from the reproductions, and simply sold a few here and there to pay my phone bill, and put gas in the car. My girlfriend at the time, who is now my fiancé, listed the majority on her account for me and my friend. I honestly never thought that replicas were a bad thing. These weren’t forgeries, they weren’t on vintage baseballs, and they didn’t sell for thousands in auction houses. To me, it was the same thing as a reprint T3, or simply an artistic fantasy piece for the regular guy. I even had older gentlemen from Australia email me thanking me as if I’d just saved his life. All he ever wanted was a Ruth ball on his shelf next to some other Ruth photos and memorabilia, he even sent me a photo. After seeing the hundreds of other replicas go up on eBay, still to this day (and in fact, our sales are dwarfed in comparison to other eBay sellers who are still listing replicas), and forum members not seeming to care anymore, the one or two that got listed from us didn’t seem like that big of a deal. In actuality, I stopped helping produce them, and my fiancé would just list the few our friend made to get rid of the ones we had left. In the last year, I even told our ex partner that we were done with them, and it was time for us to start a new chapter trying to write the book. Myself and our ex partner shared the original eBay account, everything I said about that was true, I screwed my credit with PayPal, and sharing didn’t seem like a big deal. Perhaps some of this sharing eBay and PayPal accounts seems strange, but it was simply out of convienence at the time. There was no way I could know at the time that in a couple years I would be in a place to put out a guide. As stated in the original thread, this was perhaps a mistake, a lapse in judgment on my part, and here I am paying for it 100 times more than I feel I deserve.

The ball that started the original thread was meant to match a Harridge all-star ball that I photographed at the HOF. It was a fill in for a ball I had never seen, and couldn’t obtain images of, for a game used section of the book that was more story-telling than identifying a ball. The pictures were never used in the end, and the ball isn’t in the guides. We have gone over that, and everything I said was true. I didn’t want to reveal any names because of personal reasons with my fiancé, and undeserved harassment on her end, and I didn’t want to give his name because of business reasons. I don’t need to be sued or threatened, or lose money over something like this. When all is said and done, that ball never sold; I made sure of that, as explained. I got it back and was waiting to destroy it because I knew forum members would want some video evidence or some crap like that.

So there’s my life story in the memorabilia world, it spans about 5 years, and yeah, maybe some decisions were poor, but I never broke the law, and I made damn sure others didn’t either. And whether you like replicas or not, without my participation with them, I would never have the knowledge I have now. There are so many asshole criminals in this industry, ripping people off for millions of dollars, and I will NOT be associated with them. And it’s asinine that some of you are trying to do this. You may like me, you may not, but I won’t let libel and slanderous accusations continue against me, nor my fiancé. I was at the National and met some extremely genuine, polite, and great guys, who had the balls to speak with me, even if they didn’t agree with everything. The few of you that hide behind the keyboard are not men, are not tough, and take pleasure in playing games with other people’s feelings and emotions. I’m tired of this forum, I’m genuinely tired of having to worry about what nonsense people say about me and the people who defend me on this forum. When it comes down to it, this is not my life, I haven’t made a profit selling baseballs, vintage or reproduction. I did all this research and put these guides out because I love baseball, I love history, and I wanted to help people with the knowledge I’ve obtained. In releasing these guides, I just gave every person the ability to gain my knowledge, everything that made me unique. I don’t have to date stuff anymore, everyone can be the expert now. These guides cost thousands to print, and it will take me years to get back the money I just dropped on them.

My friends on here: don’t waste your time and emotion replying to the nonsense. Let’s be bigger men. I’m done here, and I’d rather people who visit this forum read threads that actual mean things and help the hobby. Email me, call me, I will talk for hours with you about baseball, as you probably noticed at the National. But not here, not any longer. And for those of you who I know will respond with petty, sarcastic, snide, and unfounded remarks to further hurt my feelings and reputation (as I can only assume that is your goal), you can’t imaging how hard it was for me to hold my tongue against you, but out of my respect for Leon after meeting him in Chicago, and my sincere respect for the guys I hung out with who come one here for civil discourse and information (you know who you are) I have written this as politely as I could handle. If you have something to say, say it to me directly, not these other guys. My email and phone number are publicly available. There’s no conspiracy here to uncover: just a 20-something year old interested in baseballs, who tried to make a few bucks on the side (legally, mind you), and became an expert on vintage baseballs almost on accident.

[Mr. Mitt]

Originally Posted by Kawika

Real cute, Jerry.

Thanks, being a Little Woman, it's just assumed I'm cute.

[thecatspajamas]

Let me echo David's sentiment and say that I think it is in very poor taste to jump into a congratulatory thread on Brandon's job well done (very well done, for those of you who have not seen the guides) with this other crap that has nothing to do with the guides.

The more I think about the grief that a handful of overzealous posters here have caused for Brandon over the last couple of months, the madder I get. And for what? Because you don't like "replica" baseballs? Or because you are afraid he or his friend might be able to produce a "replica" that you can't tell from the real thing? Have any of you even seen one of the balls up close? Accidentally bought one thinking that it was real? Know anyone else who has? Have you ever seen one of these balls offered for sale as real? Have you ever seen a single instance where Brandon has fooled or taken advantage of anyone? If you have, then THAT is what you should be shouting about on the boards.

And now that you've gotten the big "reveal" you were yearning for, now what? What has changed? Is the ball dating information Brandon has freely handed out to countless collectors now invalidated? Should his posts on Net54 be expunged? Should the ball guides he produced be thrown out? The short answer is: no, nothing has changed. The accuracy of the information hasn't changed. It's all there in print. You can do your own research, spend hours and hours looking for some fault, some bit of misinformation, something wrong with them, but outside of a handful of typos, you'll be wasting your time. Just like you've wasted your time trying with all your might to dig up dirt on one of the few guys I've seen posting here on Net54 who has consistently gone out of his way to HELP other collectors rather than just tearing them down.

Is it any wonder there are so many knowledgable dealers and collectors who never post on Net54, or who have stopped posting due to "all the drama." This business of besmirching someone's reputation because you have a differing opinion is petty and juvenile, and something that I used to think the Net54 community was capable of rising above. (And "I don't like replicas" IS an opinion, no matter how deep-seated it may be for you, or how much I may agree with that opinion). Net54, like any forum, can be a great place to learn, share information, relate ideas and experiences, and generally enhance our knowledge and enjoyment of this hobby/industry. The depth of the pool of knowledge here is a result of the cumulative contributions of its many learned members, and every time one is driven off, that pool becomes a little shallower. How long will it be before the only ones remaining are children splashing each other in the kiddie pool?

Brandon, I hope that this is not your last post here on Net54, and that the overly-vocal minority don't deprive the rest of us of your expertise and insight into the ball around which this game we love is based. With the exception of the past couple of months, I have always gotten a sense that you enjoyed sharing your knowledge here, and in turn learning about other areas/aspects of this hobby/industry we get so wrapped up in. Please know that the vocal minority who have hounded you for the last couple of months do not speak for all of us. I hope that you will be around the hobby/industry for many years to come, and that you will continue to contribute your knowledge and findings from your coninued research here, to the benefit of the many Net54 members who appreciate such things.

[Mr. Mitt]

Lance, following the "reveal", perhaps we can revist this old thread (link below). You were bothered and irked in your August 2012 post and asked a pertinent question. Now you have the opportunity to ask the person selling the Ruth balls.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ebay+ruth+ball

[thecatspajamas]

Jerry,
Before discussing my personal opinions regarding replicas, and how they may or may not have changed since posting that comment a year ago, could you please revisit your own more recent comment and explain why your sentiment has apparently changed:

Originally Posted by Mr. Mitt

Look, obviously he is very knowledgable about the history of baseballs and should continue to share it. However, why hide personal history, even if it entailed producing replica baseballs that looked damned near original? Tell us the whole story and let's all move forward.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Kawika

Real cute, Jerry.
I stand by what I wrote. Brandon got himself a good old fashioned Net54 blanket party. I have been on this Board since 2004 and have witnessed so many people get mobbed, treated unkindly whether deserved or not. Adam Moraine, Peter Chao, the little kid Sean, later Bill Hedin and Adrian to name a few. And let's not forget the late, great Bruce Dorskind whom people used to tell that no one would go to his funeral when he passed away, except he died and now you're all falling over yourselves eulogizing him. Give me a f***g break. I am not interested in your "detective" work, and I am not going to revisit the "case" against Brandon. I met him in Chicago, I had a cordial conversation with him and I took his measure. I don't think he is the devious perp "with zero credibility" that he was made out to be. These flames-out-the-ass threads have gotten real old and is why I don't post much at Net54 anymore. Some of you folks are real jerks.

This board isn't for thin skinned collectors. There are some jerks on the board but most are good guys. Happy collecting.

[springpin]

Leon,

In creating Net54, did you ever give any thought to having members provide input/information/opinion on hobby matters devoid of revealing personal identity? What matters to me is what I learn from reading other people's ideas, not who wrote it. To the best of my knowledge I have never met a single person who contributes to the board, but I have learned from many of them, and can relate to the passion they hold for their area of collecting. I believe personal attacks originate from having a sense of person. If there were no personal identities to be revealed, we could focus solely on the value of the information we learn here. I share the concern of Lance (who I do not know) about Brandon (who I also do not know). When we alienate knowledgeable people, we weaken the board's greatest strength: expertise. Brandon, we need you. Please reconsider your (justified) reaction.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by springpin

Leon,

In creating Net54, did you ever give any thought to having members provide input/information/opinion on hobby matters devoid of revealing personal identity? What matters to me is what I learn from reading other people's ideas, not who wrote it. To the best of my knowledge I have never met a single person who contributes to the board, but I have learned from many of them, and can relate to the passion they hold for their area of collecting. I believe personal attacks originate from having a sense of person. If there were no personal identities to be revealed, we could focus solely on the value of the information we learn here. I share the concern of Lance (who I do not know) about Brandon (who I also do not know). When we alienate knowledgeable people, we weaken the board's greatest strength: expertise. Brandon, we need you. Please reconsider your (justified) reaction.

Making the forum less personal would definitely increase the personal attacks. This is not even debatable. Anonymity emboldens trolls and misanthropes. You are a college professor so I'm sure you probably remember usenet...you can still see the smoking remains of usenet in Google Groups...it's a wretched hive of scum and villainy ($1 to Obi Wan Kenobi).

[murphusa]

If Brett had never seen the auction on eBay and the ball sold to someone and maybe a week latter that person came here and asked what is this ball that he won. He can't find any records of an orange stitched ball, everyone would have been waiting for Brandon to comment.

And what would have have said?


That's the problem

[Leon]

Originally Posted by springpin

Leon,

In creating Net54, did you ever give any thought to having members provide input/information/opinion on hobby matters devoid of revealing personal identity? What matters to me is what I learn from reading other people's ideas, not who wrote it. To the best of my knowledge I have never met a single person who contributes to the board, but I have learned from many of them, and can relate to the passion they hold for their area of collecting. I believe personal attacks originate from having a sense of person. If there were no personal identities to be revealed, we could focus solely on the value of the information we learn here. I share the concern of Lance (who I do not know) about Brandon (who I also do not know). When we alienate knowledgeable people, we weaken the board's greatest strength: expertise. Brandon, we need you. Please reconsider your (justified) reaction.

I dare to say I have given more thought to how the board is run and managed than most. I will never manage a board where people don't have to take responsibility for what they say by not having their names by their posts. For the few people it runs off, it lets others know they won't get lambasted anonymously. No one went after Brandon whose name wasn't known. I feel strongly about the way it is today......and feel, though it's not perfect, it's the best it can be. Some of my best hobby friends won't post because of the things that go on....but that's just the way it is. I have been on other boards that allow anonymity. It's not that fun.....If someone wants to say I am an arse, fine, put your name by it. I am always open to debate and thoughts on things to make the board better. I like Brandon (hey Brandon) and hope he sticks around, if he doesn't, we'll leave the lights on for him if he ever wants to come back. It's an open forum....