Exactly. To me, this is not even about Serg. It's about how this is all represented in the auction. Serg did all he could for verification and in my eyes, did a darn good job of it. Very comprehensive. It's also very, very clear that Serg knows his stuff. No doubting that at all. It's the way the auction reads to me that's in question. Serg can only do so much and it's apparent he's not the one selling this.I think the point is being completely missed here. I don't think it's an attack against Sergie
Now, $40,000 is a helluva lot of money. If I were to do heavy research and came across this, I'd be worried about putting down that kind of money.
When putting down $40,000, I'd want to hear that it's beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is no question. None whatsoever.Was it actually in the movie? Well the age, the manufacture of the whip are true to the late 70's, early 80's bullwhips being made by David Morgan. Glenn Randall Jr. says that it was so. But based on the heavy use of this whip, the dimensions, it's certainly a safe bet.
My only other question which Doc pointed out above is why can't provenance be sent directly from those directly involved with owning the whip? The initial post says that letters from all parties connected the dots, so why in the world would at least copies of those not be part of this auction??? Instead we see a COA from Indygear? Not only that, but Indygear was completely misrepresented. It says,
A signed Certificate of Authenticity by Walt "Sergei" Rybinski - the staff expert on Bullwhips for the equipment and Indiana Jones Movie company "Indygear" who analyzed this whip in March 2002.
I CANNOT be the only one here who finds this to be completely misleading to one who has no idea what Indygear really is.
The bottom line here is that we all know Serg is an expert on the subject and did all he could have done and the real reason this is even coming to conversation is that the auction is slightly askew in it's representation. After re-reading the initial post I'm quite certain it is what it is, but the fact remains that the way it reads out in the description and the way the auction plays out it's provenance is not what it could or should be.