Photo – Match or so you think
I am writing this because in the last few months I have found out things that are really a big problem with photo matching companies and Auction houses with respect to what they tell you about the jersey you submit. This is no disrespect to any of my dear friends that have photo matching companies, do photo matching as part of their authentication process or any auction house, that’s why I will be leaving names out. But when I see mounting issues, I have to say something because it affects the hobby.
Now that being said they do, do excellent work, when they can find a match to a picture they can use. Let that sink in,,,,,,,,,,, a picture they can use, yup, they are only telling us about matches on pictures they have the right to use. If they find a match to your jersey and they don’t have the license to use the picture, they aren’t telling you about it in lots of cases.
The reverse is true as well, if you submit a picture along with your jersey and they can’t use it, there is a good chance they will not.
That is how I found out, I submitted to an auction house a jersey with two photomatches. When the auction goes live, I am like, what happened to my photo matches and why is there a third now from a photo matching company, but not mine? Neither did the auction house or the photo matching company have the rights to use the photographs I submitted so they didn’t. They didn’t even have the courtesy of telling me this.
So, in doing some digging around, it appears that this is a policy that some auction houses have, and most photo matching companies do.
I now wonder how long this has been going on. I wonder how many jerseys got said there was not a match when there really was.
I wonder if any of you guys have been told there is a match, but the company can’t use it. How about did they ever show it to you and say they can’t use it. How many auction houses said they can’t use a picture you provided. How many times has a auction house told you they have a match but can’t use it because of licensing. How many times has there been a match and your clueless.
Now, another thing that is behind the great curtain of Photo matching companies, it appears that all the millions of images a particular company says it has, so do all the other ones as well. Which means for the most part they are working from the same box of pictures it seems.
They all have the same imaging electronics or close to the same, but what I hope they don’t all do is my next point.
I found that it is possible people looking at your jersey trying to photo match it has never owned a jersey, nor do they collect game worn jerseys. In fact, one guy I spoke to had been a store clerk before looking at my $100,000 jersey. He didn’t even collect sports memorabilia. To me someone that does photo matching should have some working knowledge of the sport, and the jerseys teams wear before trying to match something.
This is probably why the report I got back had 2 yrs before and 1 year after listing dates before the year my jersey was from and after they stopped using that style, the next season. That didn’t stop them from wasting time and effort.
Different photo matching companies have different policies regarding how many points in a picture they need before calling it a match. I have seen many matches that are just one distinct point on the picture match to the jersey. One thread even and we call it a match. So, some companies are turning down good jerseys that are matched to 2 points in a picture, but not a third or fourth that is” Their Policy “. The question is what they are telling you. I am a fingerprint expert, have been to the FBI school for fingerprints and put guys in jail, having 3 points for a match.
Inconclusive, maybe, not good enough photo, blurry photo, I say what photo are you looking at, my report had dates and an opinion about the photo being not a match, not even showing me what picture it was. So, they are rendering an opinion on something I have no way to countering with my own opinion about the pictures. I had all kinds of terms on my report and just a few words for each picture along with a date. Very poor reporting in my opinion
Mistakes and omissions occur, I have gotten photo matches wrong, and so has many other people. I am sure that these companies try not to make mistakes just like we do. That’s why I say no matter where the jersey comes from do you homework and I think the same is true for photo matching.
I also think some kind of standard needs to be agreed upon, by the companies getting together and forming a alliance to better with collector and dealer input. There is a standard that LOA’s follow, which kind of just happened over time by me writing them and people taking my basic one and expanding on them. The standard should be if I have a thread match and one company says yes and the other one doesn’t, this is not a proper standard in my opinion. I also think you can match jerseys by a thread or one mark. Jerseys are more basic than when I did fingerprint investigations when I was a cop.
Not sure what all companies have done over time with this issue of licensing Photo’s, hopefully this will open some eyes, and we can get more information about this issue. I know there are people out there that use photos by cropping and pasting the watermarks away. But I don’t know if that is the right answer to this issue.
My question is how many of you guys got bamboozled by what is behind the curtain of pictures and licensing, and you had no idea. How many jerseys would have sold for more, had they used the picture they couldn’t use.
The last thing to remember about photo matching is every jersey is not going to be photo matched, especially when you get older than 2000. Remember as well, you actually might be looking right at your jersey, but because there is no mark matching it, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be you jersey when it more than likely is.