Dale Murphy GU on eBay?

[gingi79]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dale-Murphy-1986-Game-worn-used-Braves-jersey-rare_W0QQitemZ330365233111QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item4ceb4d67d7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Need some help from the peanut gallery. Don't know anything pre-1994 Braves and I really want a Murphy GU. Any opinions?

[CollectGU]

I believe this thing sold right after your post. If you are seriously looking at buying something, I wouldn't suggest asking for opinions on here as you make people aware of some gems and it's likely to be bought up or "uction ended early" on you...

Dave

[33bird]

Maybe he bought it? Yea, I'm always leery about posting things I want from ebay on here. Afraid I might suddenly lose it to someone else. I'm not a Braves expert, but I think that Murphy jersey was legit and a gorgeous jersey. You don't see too many Murph jerseys out there. Hope you got it.

[gingi79]

Nope, I didn't get it. I was going to put a small note on my post to please not buy it out from under me but I figured it was too much to risk on something I didn't know enough about.

If someone got it on this board and I pointed you to it, You are welcome.

In this day and age, unless it's photomatched, comes with wear and a photo LOA signed by the team or from someone like Splinters From the Pine, I am not buying it off eBay without having done my research.

Thanks anyway :D

[CollectGU]

I'm not positive but I believe Dave Bushing won that jersey....

[sox83cubs84]

I'm not positive but I believe Dave Bushing won that jersey....

Beautiful piece...if, indeed, Dave B. won it, it will undoubtedly get a deserved A10 from MEARS...I see no flaws in that piece.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[ahuff]

I saw that right after it was listed, but was also somewhat cautious, as it seemed like too good of a price. I will second what others have said - based on personally being burned in the past. People will buy stuff out from under you, within minutes of your posts. I know everyone has their own opinions, but I think it is terrible to do that to "player" collectors in the name of a buck. I've tried to only send e-mails to people that I trust and have dealt with in the past. Howard Wolf is one of the classiest I've dealt with and will certainly answer your questions, if he knows the answer. He has NEVER bought a jersey out from under me, when I have done that.

If you are interested, I'd keep your eyes open, because I have noticed that many of these Ebay finds often pop up in other auctions shortly after they are aquired.

[Number9]

Just a point for those that may not know about those 'purchased from' stamps in jerseys from this era. These were added by the owner of Sports Warehouse and were NOT added by the Braves.

I once sold him a Braves jersey (not this Murphy) that was NOT stamped, and when he put it on his web site he had added the stamp. Now to me that is wrong, because many people think those stamps mean the jersey was directly purchased from the team. But that is not the case, sometimes it was, like with Indians and Giants jerseys, but in many cases it was not the case.

I believe/assume he put the stamps in jerseys he was certain were good in his mind, but again to me the stamp implies something completely different -- that the stamp connects the jersey directly to the team and that is not the case in the jersey I sold him. I bought it from a dealer who bought it from the Braves, so that jersey was sold by the team, to a dealer, then to a collector, who sold it to another dealer, who added the stamp.

My suggestion in general is to not put a lot of stock in those 'purchased from' stamps, ignore them, and focus on the rest of the jersey's characteristics.

The Murphy looks good to me, I have an 86 home, but I would like to see the nameplate better, is it puckered etc, and look at the lettering better too, but at quick glance it looks nice.

[lon lewis]

I don't know how rare that jersey is when there's at least 4 floating around. Here's some "after" photos of 4 of them that I restored the NOB and in at least 1 case the front where it had been replaced by Greenville all of the jerseys were tagged '86 None had any sort of significant wear.
Photos are circa 1988. I wonder if the ebay jersey is among those shown?

[genius]

Isn't the year tag on that one the "salesman's sample" tag? I thought the Wilson game jerseys had wider tags with the jersey number and year, for example I have a 1980 Wilson Stargell with a wider tag, same font, says "8 80". I have owned a pseudo-Tekulve in the past with the exact same tag as this one, only "84" for a previous year.

[skipcarayislegend]

Here's some "after" photos of 4 of them that I restored the NOB and in at least 1 case the front where it had been replaced by Greenville all of the jerseys were tagged '86 None had any sort of significant wear.

Lon, when you restored the Murphys was "3" the original number on all of them?

[sox83cubs84]

Isn't the year tag on that one the "salesman's sample" tag? I thought the Wilson game jerseys had wider tags with the jersey number and year, for example I have a 1980 Wilson Stargell with a wider tag, same font, says "8 80". I have owned a pseudo-Tekulve in the past with the exact same tag as this one, only "84" for a previous year.

The only tagged salesman's sample jersey from Wilson have been well over a dozen 1983s and 2 1984s. I'm not saying they couldn't exist, but, if this were patterned the same way as the 1983-4s, there would be no NOB and the number would be located too high to accommodate a NOB. Also, just a boxed year tag was the norm for Wilson Braves knit jerseys in the 1980s.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[lon lewis]

Skipcareyislegend, All of the jerseys already had the 3 on them I only did the NOB and as I mentioned, the front logo on at least 1 of them. There were actually more jerseys than I photo'd at the time. Since this took place 20+ years ago, I don't recall specfically how many Murphys were restored in total, but it was more than shown in the photos that I posted.

[skipcarayislegend]

Skipcareyislegend, All of the jerseys already had the 3 on them I only did the NOB and as I mentioned, the front logo on at least 1 of them. There were actually more jerseys than I photo'd at the time. Since this took place 20+ years ago, I don't recall specfically how many Murphys were restored in total, but it was more than shown in the photos that I posted.

Thanks, Lon. Amount of use aside, they sound like genuine shirts then. Is that your opinion as well if you can recall? One last question, how difficult would it be to detect a NOB restoration on one of them? Thanks.

[lon lewis]

Skip, The jerseys that I worked on were "genuine" as far as being ordered by the Braves. However I had the impression at the time that any "use" or laundering (on those jerseys that showed any) came after the '86 season. Some of the jerseys were just too "new" to have seen any major league game action.

As far as being able to tell if the NOB was restored, if I did it it may or may not be detectable as I used the same or matching material for the plates and made the vertical arc letters in the same fashion as Wilson did and usually did a prettty good job of placing the new plate where the previous one was located. There are however some things that you can look for such as: Is there evidence of a previous plate ( stitch marks or outline) visible? does the plate material match in both color and weave? Does the "grain" run in the same direction as the jersey body? Does the plate exibit the same wear/laundering as the rest of the jersey? Does the color of the polytwill used for the letters match the rest of the jersey? Of course you could also check the front to see if there is an outline of either "Braves" or "Greenville" behind the "Atlanta" logo. And then you could get into the stitch patterns and the like but I think that I've given you enough ( or maybe an overload) information to go on for now.

[skipcarayislegend]

Wow, thanks Lon. That's interesting. If MEARS does end up with the ebay Murphy perhaps we'll see an article about it from Dave G.

[skyking26]

Skip, The jerseys that I worked on were "genuine" as far as being ordered by the Braves. However I had the impression at the time that any "use" or laundering (on those jerseys that showed any) came after the '86 season. Some of the jerseys were just too "new" to have seen any major league game action.

As far as being able to tell if the NOB was restored, if I did it it may or may not be detectable as I used the same or matching material for the plates and made the vertical arc letters in the same fashion as Wilson did and usually did a prettty good job of placing the new plate where the previous one was located. There are however some things that you can look for such as: Is there evidence of a previous plate ( stitch marks or outline) visible? does the plate material match in both color and weave? Does the "grain" run in the same direction as the jersey body? Does the plate exibit the same wear/laundering as the rest of the jersey? Does the color of the polytwill used for the letters match the rest of the jersey? Of course you could also check the front to see if there is an outline of either "Braves" or "Greenville" behind the "Atlanta" logo. And then you could get into the stitch patterns and the like but I think that I've given you enough ( or maybe an overload) information to go on for now.
Lon, can you email me at: skyking442@hotmail.com?

Bob

[skipcarayislegend]

Looks like MEARS has it.

http://www.mearsonlineauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=5488