Do you trust cards with jersey/bat/etc pieces?

yankeeno7

I dont want this discussion to go how horrible it is to cut up such memorabilia.

How many of you trust that those pieces are real, especially of the players pre 70s? I feel pretty confident in newer players items because companies will get full jerseys right after a game.

I have thought about doing all of the possible HOFer jerseys and bats cards. Ive seen others do it and its a pretty neat collection and 95% of them are extremely cheap. I just worry about the pieces actually being authentic.

I would imagine if a story ever broke out how companies were knowingly putting pieces that were unauthentic, it would destroy that part of the hobby. I can see a company buying the jersey of a no name player and putting the cut on a card of Mantle, Cobb, Ruth, etc. Even the horror stories how major collectors of full game used memorabilia is bogus.

Thoughts?

thenavarro

IMO, a ton of them are fake. No empirical evidence to back up my belief. Just my gut feel and that has always served me well (I've got a big gut) lol

Even if the card companies have integrity, I don't believe their supply chain is necessarily clean even if well intentioned.

addicted2ebay

Bogus IMO they went from being called "Game Bat or Jersey" to "Relic" and the the back of the cards now read "Not from any specific game, event or season.

JasonM32

If you collect game used memorabilia than you are probably aware that major authenticators get stuff wrong all the time. They are always authenicating pro cut jerseys as game worn. These cards hold no value to me. Even if they were all 100% authentic I just don't agree with taking a game jersey and chopping it into a bunch of tiny peices. Especially if it's a hall of fame player. How many legit Babe Ruth jerseys are left in the world? Anyone who would chop one up should be killed by a firing squad. The novelty wore off for me like the second time I saw one of these cards.

There are a million of these "memorablia" cards out there too, they aren't rare. It doesn't add any value to me just because upper deck numbers a card 1/5 or 1/1 either. Also, I saw a report on tv years ago about some of the "event worn" equipment that was being put into tading cards. They had these rookie football players putting on a pair of shoes, taking them right off and just continuing to do this on pair after pair of cleats. Technically they were worn by the player for like 30 seconds. Criminal. I'm sorry if I offend anyone here but I'm amazed that anyone buys these.

raiderguy10

The memorabilia cards are a complete joke. I'm sure you've all seen this, but this is Mark Ingram at the rookie premiere or one of the "events." Exactly how many jerseys he has on is debatable - but it's safe to assume he hasn't eaten THAT many chicken legs to be that big. They basically put on random jerseys (not even theirs) that the company has laying around.





There was also a picture of Tebow floating around at one of these. He had a generic Gators jersey on with patchs sewn all over the jersey. I wish I could find it; if I'm able to run across it I'll post it here as well. But these "events" are a complete joke.

WhiteTornado

Hi, coin guy here, stumbled upon this thread and found it very interesting. I collected cards as a kid, still have some raw stuff from back then. I did buy some packs and boxes about 10 years ago but that attempt to re-enter the hobby was short-lived. Back then, the whole "game used" mania was just taking shape.

My 8-year-old son is into cards now and he has gotten a couple of "relic" cards in mix-and-match lots from a local card store. Thanks to post above by addicted2ebay, I now understand why the card companies call them Relics and don't call them "game used" anymore. I have no earthly idea how someone can authenticate a tiny swatch of cloth or other similar small piece of a ball, etc.

Not sure if any of you have heard this story, but I recall hearing about this guy when the whole New Orleans Saints bounty scandal broke. I found his involvement in fake game-used jerseys interesting. Here's one story about him, I'm sure you can find many more:

NY Times article about Mike Ornstein

If you see the hyperlink a few paragraphs into the story called "an eight-month sentence", it links to a New Orleans Times-Picayune story about his conviction in 2010 for scalping Super Bowl tickets and a scheme to sell fake game-worn jerseys.

bigdcards

I find the business practices that are very open about to be shady to begin with. There are too many x/50 cards that are the same as x/250 cards, only with a different color writing on the text. If I put out a copy of their card with that little variation, they would sue me for stealing their card. Probably because it's the same card. I was also initially fooled by the game used vs event worn thing. Then for the life of me do not understand how a sticker auto is an autographed card. I feel like glueing my card signed press pass Sooners autos to my car, and saying the 2000 Sooners signed my car.

So for me, if that's what they openly do, I have no confidence that anything they have going on behind the scenes is real. I do wonder if you make a new Babe Ruth jersey and lay it down on his grave at the same time as a Yankees game, is that game used?

Dboneesq

AUTHENTIC UNIFORMS? Can you say "Barry Halper"?

cwazzy

I don't collect jersey/bat cards but I do collect all Roy Campanella cards, including the game-used cards. I do believe that some of these are legit (for instance the 2004 Donruss game-used pants and bat cards in which they picture the item it was taken from). However, most of the newer stuff that Topps has put out I do not believe is real. I've sent them an email questioning one of the cards that I purchased last year and never received a reply from them. The fact that the card in question didn't even have the normal wording about the relic not coming from a specific game, event, etc. is enough reason for me to believe that it's not genuine game-used items in the card.

I, for one, actually hope it comes out that most of the items are indeed fake. That will stop the destroying of many of the legit pieces of memorabilia and it will lower the price I have to pay for my Campy cards.

yankeeno7

<< <i>AUTHENTIC UNIFORMS? Can you say "Barry Halper"? >>



That's exactly who I was thinking of when I started this thread. Imagine the hundreds of thousands spent on a collection that isnt authentic.

benderbroeth

i have to laugh, i would rather win an entire game used bat of ty cobb than a piece of the bat...lol

Stone193

Every time I pulled a 'relic' card from a pack - I thought about that Barry.

Who knows? I guess - like our currency - we have to take it on faith?