Issues with a Heritage National Auction Item.

[sports-rings]

Sadly for us ring collectors, there are so few ring experts in the market place. I spoke to the one person in the ring community who knows more than anyone I have ever met and he mentioned he was not contacted by your organization. Jonathan, would you mind sharing with me who you contacted?

Do you need a name of the person to contact at Jostens? I can provide that too.

In all the years I have collected rings and done hundreds of hours of research, I have never encounted a championship team where some players received 10K rings and some 14K rings at the time they were originally awarded.

[slidekellyslide]

Mark's (Bmarlowe1) avatar he uses here is the Joe Jackson lookalike that appeared in a photo that Heritage refused to pull even though it was obviously not Joe Jackson in the photo....I think he's had trouble getting Heritage to cooperate on other dubious photos they've auctioned in the past as well.

[packs]

I have a question about auction house responsibilities. Especially on the heels of the Halper fakes stories. If a consignor presents an item to the auction house, doesn't the auction house have a responsibility to investigate the item's authenticity regardless of who the consignor is? And prior to the actual auction? It doesn't seem fair to the bidders if an auction house lists an item based on a consignor's reputation.

[ruth-gehrig]

I totally agree however it doesn't seem it always works that way

[Leon]

Originally Posted by packs

I have a question about auction house responsibilities. Especially on the heels of the Halper fakes stories. If a consignor presents an item to the auction house, doesn't the auction house have a responsibility to investigate the item's authenticity regardless of who the consignor is? And prior to the actual auction? It doesn't seem fair to the bidders if an auction house lists an item based on a consignor's reputation.

I can only speak for myself but I would not take a reputation into account on an item. I take the item on it's own. IF Scott and I don't feel comfortable with it then we aren't going to auction it. It's very easy.

As far as prior to the auction? Of course, but new information does come out after auctions start and that information is as important as any and can play a role in the continuance, or not, of that lot. Every auction house faces those same obstacles.

[packs]

Very true. These kinds of auctions attract collectors whose insight goes beyond even the most advanced hobbyists. Its great to see houses handle these situations professionally.

[sports-rings]

As of Sunday morning, Heritage still has not updated their auction description for this ring.

As we get closer to the auction, it looks more likely that there is a possibility they will not even acknowledge that it's not the original ring.

With the winning bidder paying over $40,000 with the buyer's premium, I hope the winning bidder learns that the ring is not original and demands that Heritage take the ring back.

Although I offered to provide contact information for the "real experts" at Jostens (the company that made the original ring), I have not heard from Jonathan or anyone else at Heritage.

Jonathan wrote on this thread that they are investigating this issue. This is some investigation on their part. How long should it take? I am the only person I know of who has won an original superbowl II ring at auction and they have not asked me anything about the ring.

Legendary last year auctioned off a Superbowl II Packer ring that was made some years later, and much to their credit, quickly acknowledged this by changing their original auction description.

I was never a fan of Heritage, now I think even less of them.

[bobbyw8469]

This is really crappy.....