Guess the auction house?

[DaveH]

I got this email from Legendary Auctions a couple of hours ago. Can you guess which auction house this guy most likely bought this stuff from?
I can.

dh

(the picture of the Xmas card didn't open on my orginal email either)



***Recently we at Legendary Auctions were offered a collection of amazing signed material:

1939 HOF Induction signed ball and First Day Cover
1927 Yankees Ball
Ruth Single Signed Ball
Ruth and Gehrig Signed Ball
Ruth Signed Bat
1934 World Tour Sheet
DiMaggio and Monroe Signed Christmas Card
Babe Ruth Christmas Card
Babe Ruth Signed Check (Bank of Manhattan Company-Jamaica Branch)
The list goes on!

The story was his father worked for the Columbus Dispatch. What seems too good to be true usually is, as was the case here. Once the material arrived we quickly came to the conclusion that the material would never be authenticated by reputable authenticators. When pressed for more information, the submitter admitted he had purchased all of the material from another auction company. He spent 10s of thousands of dollars and was left with a pile of material that in our minds was worth nothing.

Unfortunately, the craft of authentication is merely an opinion which makes it difficult to "call out" another company when it comes to selling questionable material. However, this collection had one item that is so definitively fake we will show you in great detail just how irresponsible other auction houses can be when offering material to the public.






Pictured is a Babe Ruth signed Christmas Card
This item is absolutely fake. Babe Ruth died in 1948. A simple web search demonstrated that this Hallmark Christmas card (from the "Slim Jim" line of cards) was not produced until the early 1950's. To add insult to injury on the facing blank page you can see the indentation of a fake "Roberto Clemente" signature. We can only surmise that the forger was cranking out fakes and didn't realize that underneath the item to which he was applying a "Clemente" signature was sitting the Ruth Christmas card shown here.

Fortunately there are a number of exceptional authenticators including PSA DNA, Kevin Keating and James Spence Authentication. In additiion there are also a number of reputable auction houses beyond Legendary Auctions that really try to do it right. This includes, but is not limited to, Goodwin, Heritage, Huggins and Scott, Hunt, Legacy, Lelands, Memory Lane, Mile High and SCP.

Our primary goal is to offer quality material to the public, but we also see it as our responsibility to keep our hobby safe. If you come across the caliber of items described above that have not been vetted by reputable authenticators or auction companies run the other way! In addition, even if it is not something you are ready to consign feel free to contact us if you want an independent opinion.

[Rob D.]

I received the same e-mail. I think it's humorous on so many levels.

[calvindog]

Only Doug Allen, a guy who is under federal criminal investigation for robbing hundreds, if not thousands, of collectors over the years...a guy who tried to pass of a Ranzino Smith shooting shirt as Michael Jordan's...a guy who couldn't even sell his own vintage Cubs jersey without lying in the item's description....could have the unmitigated gall to send out such an email. Does the guy have any shame at all?

[Orioles1954]

That's an interesting way to advertise.

[Jim VB]

I'm so glad that the charge to clean up this hobby is being led by Doug Allen and JP Cohen!

I'll sleep better at night now.

[RichardSimon]

Pot calling the kettle black??
I realize the kettle cannot be any blacker than this kettle, but the pot who does the calling here, should at least shine a little.
How much credibility does this have among us on Net54?
How much credibility does Mr Allen have if he or any of his current or former associates gets indicted?
Here is the fake Babe, hot off the hand of the writer.
--

[sago]

Originally Posted by Dave Haas

I got this email from Legendary Auctions a couple of hours ago. Can you guess which auction house this guy most likely bought this stuff from?
I can.

dh

(the picture of the Xmas card didn't open on my orginal email either)



***Recently we at Legendary Auctions were offered a collection of amazing signed material:

1939 HOF Induction signed ball and First Day Cover
1927 Yankees Ball
Ruth Single Signed Ball
Ruth and Gehrig Signed Ball
Ruth Signed Bat
1934 World Tour Sheet
DiMaggio and Monroe Signed Christmas Card
Babe Ruth Christmas Card
Babe Ruth Signed Check (Bank of Manhattan Company-Jamaica Branch)
The list goes on!

The story was his father worked for the Columbus Dispatch. What seems too good to be true usually is, as was the case here. Once the material arrived we quickly came to the conclusion that the material would never be authenticated by reputable authenticators. When pressed for more information, the submitter admitted he had purchased all of the material from another auction company. He spent 10s of thousands of dollars and was left with a pile of material that in our minds was worth nothing.

Unfortunately, the craft of authentication is merely an opinion which makes it difficult to "call out" another company when it comes to selling questionable material. However, this collection had one item that is so definitively fake we will show you in great detail just how irresponsible other auction houses can be when offering material to the public.






Pictured is a Babe Ruth signed Christmas Card
This item is absolutely fake. Babe Ruth died in 1948. A simple web search demonstrated that this Hallmark Christmas card (from the "Slim Jim" line of cards) was not produced until the early 1950's. To add insult to injury on the facing blank page you can see the indentation of a fake "Roberto Clemente" signature. We can only surmise that the forger was cranking out fakes and didn't realize that underneath the item to which he was applying a "Clemente" signature was sitting the Ruth Christmas card shown here.

Fortunately there are a number of exceptional authenticators including PSA DNA, Kevin Keating and James Spence Authentication. In additiion there are also a number of reputable auction houses beyond Legendary Auctions that really try to do it right. This includes, but is not limited to, Goodwin, Heritage, Huggins and Scott, Hunt, Legacy, Lelands, Memory Lane, Mile High and SCP.

Our primary goal is to offer quality material to the public, but we also see it as our responsibility to keep our hobby safe. If you come across the caliber of items described above that have not been vetted by reputable authenticators or auction companies run the other way! In addition, even if it is not something you are ready to consign feel free to contact us if you want an independent opinion.

There's so much fail in that letter I don't even know where to begin.

1)Overall, very self serving that totally misses the point that could have been made
2) Leaving REA out of any list of reputable auction houses is ridiculous.
3) Ignoring Grey Flannel, even though you authenticate everything in house now, also ridiculous.
4) Including any of the others he mentioned, except for Huggins and Scott, who to my knowledge have thus far escaped any real controversy, and Lelands, if for nothing else other than Josh Evans seems like a stand up guy; his share of haters notwithstanding.

Obvious pandering ahead of the big meeting. I wonder if they'll use the cone of silence?

5) "However, this collection had one item that is so definitively fake we will show you in great detail just how irresponsible other auction houses can be when offering material to the public."

The irresponsibility in this point is wrongly based. Coaches Corner could care less that they missed that fact in selling the item. What, you think they would have returned it to STAT for a better fake?

Why not make a stand against Coaches Corner Doug? How about putting that on the agenda?

There are two ways to clean up the hobby; the easy way and the hard way.

The easy way is to point out obvious fake material to limit future losses, and point out how great you are for doing it.

The hard way is to protect your bidders and consignors from the ground up. Take a stand against these swindlers who somehow get this material to you and all the other auction houses. You guys enjoy meetings and such, so how about taking up a collection, hiring a lawyer (there's at least 3 that I know of on this board alone) and somehow get CC out of business. It's not everything, but it's a start.