Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

"Well, After authenticating as well as buying and selling game used memorabilia full time since 1991 with quite a few books, chapters to books, articles , etc I've finally had enough with regards to the authentication aspects of this hobby. As those who acutally know me and have a real name and face to go with their alias, I have always been more than willing to help free of charge anyone who stopped to ask and have written more articles on collecting game used items than probably anyone in the history of this hobby as well as having co-invented/written the very worksheets now used by us and others, the first company to ever do so. In additiion, we published all of the unable to authenticate items for all to see so they would not make it back into the hobby, ever. And it is of no consequence that you can get 8000 items right but if you make a single error, regardles of how trivial and regardless that you will offer to buy back any mistake, no matter what it is, it never seems to be enough for the self proclaimed so called authorities who wait at the computer for an auction catalog to come out merely for the purpose to rip it to shreads to show the world how much they know and how little others do. This behavior is no longer tolerable to me. I do not wish to be a third party authenticator from this day on and will not sign nor look at any piece until such time that MEARS no longer does any research of any kind for anyone except for items in which we sell, much like Lelands does for their own merchandise, all with a money back guarentee. Dave Grob, Troy Kinunen and our able staff can and will continue to do the quality work that everyone expects and I will concentrate soley on the for sale sight and will not grade nor authenticate my purchases and will leave that to the staff. I will continue to write as well as I acually enjoy that along with selling and going to shows. When something is no longer a joy and the pundits far out number the frienly's, time to let someone else do it."

Now most on this forum, know that Dave and I go back a long way. Nobody, in my opinion, has been more honest and open and particularly to his mistakes.He's made some and I've probably made more. He and I have had business dealings since 1990. Never a problem and we've had many opportunities for that to happen. When my widow needs help with my "stuff" after I go, I've told her to call Dave.

Poor Dave has been the target from the New York Daily News to the secret pundits. I think he'd just had his fill. He's tried to help people
and it's been costly for him personally.

That's my two cents.

Why anybody would want to do that job in the first place escapes me - it is totally thankless. You can do 99 right, make a mistake on one, apologize for it but still won't be able to live it down. I always thought Dave made himself available to people who had questions, which I think is great, unlike some other people in his profession.

Dave Bushing has always been a friend and a gentleman to any and all collectors. I have never been afraid to refer any of my customers to Dave for his valued opinion. We all make mistakes, but some people never want to forget. It is a shame.

Hi Joe, I agree with Fred and Brett that the authentication of sports items is very unique and requires a great deal of insight and knowledge. I would think this event will create a large hole in the collector industry. Hopefully things will get better as Dave seems to be a valuable resource in the sports hobby.

Dave

I have also been dealing with Dave Bushing since 1990 or so and believe him to be extremely honest and fair. Consider Dave a friend!
John Graham

Thanks for all the kind words, am not disappearing, just not going to do authenticity anymore. As for gloves, got a Rawlings GJ99 in a rawlings mail away plain cardboard box that was post marked july1968. what was the first year these were made and why the mail in , anybody know? ps got a great mib glove this week on ebay from mark walters and probably ran john up a bit on that nice pepper martin and travis jackson. dave