Wow - Genuine Action in Cleaning Up the Hobby

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Posted By: Jeff D.

MEARS gets the business of most respected auction houses. Whether these requirements will prove too stringent for them remains to be seen. But there is little question that MEARS is at the top of a short list of legitimate memorabilia authenticators. REA, Sotheby's, the Hunt All-Star Fan Fest auctions, etc... have all sold MEARS authenticated items.

They very well may lose business in the short-term. But it appears that their credibility is more important to them than their current bottom line. It's quite clear that they are more interested in cleaning up the auction houses and the memorabilia market, and are willing to make potential short-term monetary sacrifices to do so.

MEARS has in fact consigned their own items to auction houses. They list these auctions in their "Our Items At Auction" tab on their home page. I can't believe that their doing so is somehow akin to Vick being a spokesman for animal treatment.

This is a bold move and I don't see why anyone would criticize their initiative.
It's funny how people call for drastic change in areas of our hobby, and then when someone in a position of some power has the guts to demand it, people still find a way to criticize. If there was a conflict of interest (which there clearly was) at the very least they CHANGED. There's a difference between covering up and reform. I think this new policy wrt auction houses is clearly the latter.

All I see this doing is boosting their credibility and respect in the game-used memorabilia market.

And I've been to their office in Milwaukee, and can say that I seriously doubt that this will be a "nail in their coffin."


Also of note in these articles is the following ominous sentence:

"All I can offer is that right now I know for a fact there are other “outside forces” looking into this industry in a very serious manner."

When the dust settles, hopefully MEARS (and this way of doing business) will end up coming out on top. It will strengthen the g/u market, which is better for all of us in this niche of the hobby, including MEARS. If it proves too much for the auction houses, at least we as collectors will know where they stand and can bid accordingly.


EDITED out a "to"