Fong Sam, General Manager at auction house Profiles in History, yesterday published an interesting article on his haxbee.com website about “the concept of auctions as peer review“, in response to a question at a panel at C2E2 (where they held their Captain America auction) about “verifying provenance“.  While Fong’s article covered a number of different topics, and referenced the concept of transparency, I thought it might be a valid exercise to ask a question/make a suggestion, to explore the possibility of the company making real steps forward in this regard.  Based on Fong’s preliminary response, it sounds as though they may actually implement a feature on their website where questions about the material that they sell can be publicly asked and answered, to the benefit of all.  If this should actually happen, I will be the first to applaud such a change in how they conduct business. [Read more…]