Braves want Heritage to pull Hank Aaron items from auction

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by SyrNy1960

Looking forward to see how this plays out.

If you look at some of the "so-called" photo-matches done today, they are not clear-cut matches. Enlarging images (especially older ones) can distort the actual image, making you having to look hard at it to see if it's an actual photo-match. Many people just accept it today. Hey, I got a letter saying it's a match, so I'm good to go. Not true in many cases. I've been burned a few times myself, and learned my lesson, so always proceed with caution.

Photo-matching can never ever ever ever be used to establish an item is authentic. Photo-matching is what is referred to as a negative test. It can prove what something is not; it cannot establish what something is. If an item does not match, then one can conclusively say it is not real. If an item matches, the most one can say is that it might be real.

In regard to multi-million dollar jerseys, I can assure you that as I write this there are people who are examining every known photograph of a player wearing a particular jersey at a particular time to be certain that their subsequent manufacture of a forgery MADE WITH GENUINE MATERIALS VINTAGE TO THE PERIOD OF ORIGINAL MANUFACTURE matches every discernible feature shown on the photographs. For my dollar, unless the item comes with persuasive provenance it would not satisfy my comfort level to purchase. And by persuasive provenance, I mean more than just a great story of how the item has been in the family for so many years or was obtained by some person who knew the player or worked for the team. For stories such as those, unless they are corroborated by a detective agency, they are worthless. And when have you ever heard of an AH hiring such a detective agency?

We're talking about 7 and 8 figure items here, and if that fact alone doesn't incentivize every known forger extant in the human race, then nothing will.