Former UCLA and Dallas Cowboys star Troy Aikman says a jersey sold by Heritage Auctions is not authentic.
On November 18, 2017 someone paid $7,800 for a jersey Heritage Auctions claims Aikman wore during the Aloha Bowl (YouTube) on Christmas day 1987.
Aikman weighed in on Twitter.
Unless I’m the one selling it, none of my memorabilia being auctioned is authentic. End of story. https://t.co/JhPV0lYG3L
— Troy Aikman (@TroyAikman) November 18, 2017
In the sleazy world of auction houses, authentication “experts” and memorabilia dealers, an athlete’s word is never the end of story.
Heritage Auctions doubled down on their claim the jersey was real.
Heritage Sports stands behind every item that we sell. This jersey has been authenticated by the most trusted third party authentication service, MEARS, as well as our internal experts. We are looking into Troy’s claim, however we believe the jersey to be 100% authentic.
— Heritage Sports (@Heritage_Sport) November 19, 2017
The auction title states the jersey comes “with photo reference.”
It’s unclear what photos they are referring to.
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Heritage has sold items that turned out to be misrepresented and even not authentic in the past.
In 2012, then President of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, issued a statement asking Heritage Auctions to take down an auction for a dinosaur skeleton. Tsakhia claimed the bones were smuggled illegally from Mongolia.
Heritage Auctions ignored the requests from President Tsakhia and the dinosaur bones sold on May 20, 2012 for $1.05 million.
By June 2012, the United States government seized the skeleton.
Add insult to injury, Heritage Auctions advertised the bones as a nearly complete individual dinosaur. Turns out it came from several different dinosaurs.
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Two auctions were pulled down in 2013 after a memorabilia blogger called out Heritage Auctions for listing a baseball supposedly signed by Lou Gehrig in the 1930s and another supposedly used to make the final out in the 1917 World Series.
Both balls were manufactured years after Heritage Auctions claims.
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In 2011, Heritage Auctions listed a letter signed by boxer Thomas Sayers. It was authenticated by both JSA and PSA. Boxing experts were quick to point out that Sayers was nearly illiterate.
The auction listing was changed, stating that PSA and JSA both believed it to be genuine but could no longer offer certificates “due to a lack of exemplars.” It sold for $10,755.
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Sports Card Radio’s most trusted third party to find out about a company is Glassdoor.
Instead of customer reviews, they’re reviews from employees.
Here are a few for Heritage Auctions.
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Check out the 1927 Yankees baseball signed by the players in dark green ink. All the signatures look the same, google that rip off as it sold for over 150K.