"Show and Tell" of your cheapest game used jerseys or the "best deal" you have gotten!

[AutographAddiction]

My cheapest jersey(other than the ones I have got in-person for free) came today, when I purchased a 1980(One of UNC's best football seasons ever) game used UNC football jersey for only $9.99. What a steal! It is a jersey worn by #30, Willie Harris, who was a two-time ALL-ACC player. He just happened to be from the same town as my dad, which made things even better. Maybe I will track him down for an autograph next time I'm there...

Show off your jerseys that you have gotten for really cheap or for a really great deal!

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/C:%5CDocuments%20and%20Settings%5CTaylor%20Sharp%5 CMy%20Documents%5CMy%20Pictures%5CUNC1101F.jpghttp ://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/UNC1101F.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s152/1234tls/UNC1101B.jpg
http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/C:%5CDocuments%20and%20Settings%5CTaylor%20Sharp%5 CMy%20Documents%5CMy%20Pictures%5CUNC1101B.jpg

[sox83cubs84]

I've had many over the years...I'll list 'em periodically during the life of this thread.

At a c.1990 Milwaukee show, a guy had a GU Brewers jersey of a guy named Diaz (according to the NIT tag), a 1988 road with the Harvey Kuenn patch. I asked the seller about a price. He told me "$25". I bought it without going into celebration, but the guy who drove me to the show, longtime Wrigley Field Ballhawk Rich Buhrke, left the table and went about halfway down the aisle before he could no longer the laughter he was holding in so that he wouldn't louse up this batrgain for me. And, no, if you're a show dealer, you should be educated enough in the hobby to know its pricing structure...it's not my job to tell you your asking price is too cheap. I might do that with a non-hobbyist who comes out of nowhere with a stash, but not a dealer.

Dave Miedema

[AutographAddiction]

Thanks Dave for actually responding! Too many views and people then ignoring the thread, haha! But great deal for a GU MLB jersey, I wish I could find one for $25!

[legaleagle92481]

you guys are going to laugh but 4200 for a drew brees jersey was my best deal. the same jersey sold for 2 grand more a month before at the gfc auction. jo sold other ones for a grand more. the one in the guu auction also went for much more. a few weeks later drew won super bowl and sb mvp. yes the price was high but i saved 1000s so to me its my best deal.

[Mark17]

The very first game used jersey I ever bought, back in about 1985, was a 1963 Twins home Frank Sullivan. The seller was Dave Miedema, and I paid $150 for it, and I believe $3.00 postage.

While not a "super bargain," it was a very fair price at the time, and remains one of my favorite purchases. That jersey is still in my collection, along with 4 other 60s Twins flannels (all basically commons) that all cost me a lot more than $150.

[AutographAddiction]

you guys are going to laugh but 4200 for a drew brees jersey was my best deal. the same jersey sold for 2 grand more a month before at the gfc auction. jo sold other ones for a grand more. the one in the guu auction also went for much more. a few weeks later drew won super bowl and sb mvp. yes the price was high but i saved 1000s so to me its my best deal.
well disregard the price, it is an awesome jersey anyways! I am a Panthers fan but have always highly respected Drew...

[AutographAddiction]

The very first game used jersey I ever bought, back in about 1985, was a 1963 Twins home Frank Sullivan. The seller was Dave Miedema, and I paid $150 for it, and I believe $3.00 postage.

While not a "super bargain," it was a very fair price at the time, and remains one of my favorite purchases. That jersey is still in my collection, along with 4 other 60s Twins flannels (all basically commons) that all cost me a lot more than $150.
Speaking of Dave, did you see he posted right below? Haha, what a coincidence.

[1970REDS]

When the Reds were clearing out Riverfront Stadium prior to tearing it down , they was putting several things in the Giftshop to sell , went in there one morning and they had a bunch of jerseys on a rack , they was a few flannels hanging there , when I asked how much they said they wanted $100.00 apiece for the itchy scratchy jerseys , so for $300.00 I bought a 1970 Maloney Home , 1968 Helms Home and 1971 Woodward Road.

[yankees506]

Dont really collect jerseys but my biggest "steal" if you will, would have to be my 2008 jeter gu home pants i got from steiner auctions for a paultry $156, i guess it was because i was the only person with my plate of food at the computer on thanksgiving last year :o ;) , family was a little understanding (well just the girls) once i said id let them touch them.

[AutographAddiction]

Dont really collect jerseys but my biggest "steal" if you will, would have to be my 2008 jeter gu home pants i got from steiner auctions for a paultry $156, i guess it was because i was the only person with my plate of food at the computer on thanksgiving last year :o ;) , family was a little understanding (well just the girls) once i said id let them touch them.
Once again, although Im a Braves fan- and despise the Yankees- I have always respected Jeter. Nice pick-up!

[cjw]

I was lucky enough to find a few in second clothing stores:

-a Mark Messier NY Rangers gamer ($20!)
-two 1970's Oakland A's spring training jerseys ($15 each)
-Norm Bulaich 1970 home Colts team issued ($25)
-a 1977 White Sox pajama top jersey ($20)
-and others

more interesting to me is that the Blue Jays started to really offer up there 1980's-2000's game jerseys through the Skydome team store and I could buy common and semi-star jerseys for $100 (including a stadium employee discount). Their authentic replica jerseys of current players were priced more expensively.

[G1X]

In 1976, the Toronto Toros moved their WHA franchise to Birmingham and became the Birmingham Bulls. Other than covering up the "Toros" on the sleeve, the jerseys from Toronto were usable as the snorting bull crest on the front of the jersey remained unchanged.

The Bulls decided that mesh jerseys with screened-on logos and numbers would be more comfortable, so they canned the traditional durene jerseys early on and put them for sale at the souvenir stands during the games. I happened to attend a Friday night game when they first put the jerseys up for sale. For $25, you could purchase a nice durene with name-on-back. The Bulls had many fine players at that time such as Hall-of-Famer Frank Mahovlich, Paul Henderson, and Mark Napier.

I went to each stand desperately trying to find a jersey of Napier who was my favorite Bull as well as a crowd favorite. No luck on Napier or any of the other well-known players. By the time I reached the last souvenir stand, I was ready to buy whatever was available just to have a jersey. To my surprise, a gorgeous blue Frank Mahovlich was looking right back at me. I asked the clerk the price on the Mahovlich and he said that while all the other jerseys were $25, this one would cost a little more. After a pause, he said that the price was $35.

I cannot tell you how quickly I pulled $35 out of my wallet. While us Southerners are born and bred on football, we knew who Frank Mahovlich was.

Already being a collector of the defunct World Football League at that time, I traded the Mahovlich and along with two Bulls dureens with no-names-on-back a few months later for a load of WFL jerseys and cash. In hindsight, the guy who got the Mahovlich jersey could just as easily post here and brag about the great deal he got on the Mahovlich jersey in his trade with me!

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for World Football League and Atlanta Falcons uniforms, and Willie McGee and Darren Lewis game-used items.

[spartanservitto]

This isnt really the steal of the century...

Comerica park used to have a bucket (sort of) that would hold all the game used bats, and unannounced staff used to randomly bring up bats from the clubhouse. Some days you would go up and they would have all shane halters, other times there would be gems that would be picked out so fast that you would pretty much have to be there when they were brought up.

Well occasionally you would find the most random things, away player bats I think were $25 bucks or something, while Tiger player bats were $50. I was lucky enough to randomly find a Sandy Alomar Jr. white sox bat, as well as the most random bat as well, a Jay Buhner Big Stick gamer. Not bad for $50 bucks.

-Tony

[BaseballGM]

My best deal was the time I suckered this 10 or 11 year old kid out of a game used South Carolina jersey for $20..... oh wait, that was a baseball. :D :p :eek:

[joelsabi]

My best deal was the time I suckered this 10 or 11 year old kid out of a game used South Carolina jersey for $20..... oh wait, that was a baseball. :D :p :eek:

I thought that was the reason for this thread to begin with. I guess the bait did work. :rolleyes:

[Fnazxc0114]

I picked up a hamilton rookie jersey for realy cheap at last years national. I paid 500 for it, and was happy to do so.

[Birdbats]

In Hunt's November 2007 auction, they had what was billed as a 1980 Jim Riggleman minor league jersey. http://www.huntauctions.com/phone/imageviewer.cfm?auction_num=46&lot_num=805

http://www.huntauctions.com/phone/img46/805.jpg

Noting the crew neck (circa 1971-72) and the number 9, I bid thinking it could be a Joe Torre MVP-era shirt. Sure enough, when the jersey arrived, you could see the outline of TORRE where the NOB was removed.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/birdbats/Jerseys/Torrejersey.jpg

After months of searching, I eventually found photos of Torre wearing what I believe is this jersey on Steve Dewing's website. They were taken in Atlanta in 1972.

If you clicked the first link, you know what I paid... $97. Torre has since signed the jersey for me with a "1971 NL MVP" notation.

[Jags Fan Dan]

My "best deal" was not a terrific deal, but a terrific find. I facillitated a deal between a fellow collector and a guy who runs a game used site. It was for a jersey that I already had one of, so I turned it over to the other collector as it was priced very low.

After they completed their deal, the guy who ran the site mentioned to me he had another uniform that he had never bothered to list on the site. When he sent me pics of the uniform, I nearly fell out of my chair. It was completely obliterated and photo matched to about 2 dozen football cards and numerous other photos. Needless to say, that chance find is the centerpiece of my collection.http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=14323&stc=1&d=1213221441

[sox83cubs84]

I had one trade with a Chicago area dealer that I took a gamble on, and it paid off. He was willing to swap me a 1973 Red Sox road jersey of #25, who he said was Rick Burleson, based on a 1973 preseason roster. The roster did list Burleson as #25, but, being a little guy, I would have expected a jersey he wore to be a 38 or a 40...this one was a 44. I made the trade, went home, and found out that my jersey was worn by, not Burleson, but rather ORLANDO CEPEDA. I got lucky there.

Dave Miedema

[AutographAddiction]

I thought that was the reason for this thread to begin with. I guess the bait did work. :rolleyes:


Haha, mine came from a website. But yes, I was hoping someone would admit again he South Carolina HR Ball they got from ripping off a kid...

[jayt1234]

I won at auction for $350 a Terence Newman Game used throwback jerseyfor the 2009 season. I left the auction with this as my highest bid with four hours left and was shocked it was enough to win. They only wore these for two games last year and it was used in both of them. Compared to how much Steiner is asking for the standard jersey's I feel this is a good deal. He remids me so much (style wise) of Deion Sanders.

Jay

[both-teams-played-hard]

In Hunt's November 2007 auction, they had what was billed as a 1980 Jim Riggleman minor league jersey. http://www.huntauctions.com/phone/imageviewer.cfm?auction_num=46&lot_num=805

http://www.huntauctions.com/phone/img46/805.jpg

Noting the crew neck (circa 1971-72) and the number 9, I bid thinking it could be a Joe Torre MVP-era shirt. Sure enough, when the jersey arrived, you could see the outline of TORRE where the NOB was removed.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w232/birdbats/Jerseys/Torrejersey.jpg

After months of searching, I eventually found photos of Torre wearing what I believe is this jersey on Steve Dewing's website. They were taken in Atlanta in 1972.

If you clicked the first link, you know what I paid... $97. Torre has since signed the jersey for me with a "1971 NL MVP" notation.

Nice shirt. Would you ever consider getting the NOB restored?

[Birdbats]

Nice shirt. Would you ever consider getting the NOB restored?

No, I wouldn't. The outline of the letters is the evidence that this was Torre's jersey. If you apply modern lettering, you'll not only cover up the evidence, but you'll add a non-authentic element to the jersey. At least that's my opinion.

[Dewey2007]

No, I wouldn't. The outline of the letters is the evidence that this was Torre's jersey. If you apply modern lettering, you'll not only cover up the evidence, but you'll add a non-authentic element to the jersey. At least that's my opinion.

I agree on not restoring the name. It's amazing that a well-respected auction house would miss something as obvious as the outline of Torre's name on this jersey. Makes you wonder how much time and effort they actually put into researching and looking closely at the items they put up for bid.

[both-teams-played-hard]

No, I wouldn't. The outline of the letters is the evidence that this was Torre's jersey. If you apply modern lettering, you'll not only cover up the evidence, but you'll add a non-authentic element to the jersey. At least that's my opinion.
That's what I hoped you'd say. The outline is much better than a restoration. I am against restoration. Especially jerseys recycled to the minors with different team names. If it was done by the team, leave it as-is.

[panthrotc]

$750 for a 2009 photomatched HEAVILY used Longoria Batting Helmet.
(Currently in the process of getting it signed at signing)

2500 + a signed 98 Game Issued bat that turned out to be "doctored" in a expert cardinal game used bat authenticators opinion in return i got a
RARE HR inscribed and photomatched McGwire HR Bat from 2001
(might say not cheap since i forked out 2500$ plus the bat which sold for 1800, so 4,300$ overall total, but can name the last time you saw a McGwire HR inscribed bat hit the open market? Thats what i thought...:):):):):):):)

[CollectGU]

I was trolling ebay late one night when i ended up seeing an auction for a Rod Gilbert game worn rangers jersey with a Buy it Now for $750. It had been up for approx. 4 mins. and had been viewed only 3 times according to the tracker, and my gut told me it looked good so I took a chance and bought it (know very little about hockey but knew it wouldn't last very long up there if legit). I found out after I bought it that the seller was friendly with an old record producer, song writer named Scotty Turner and offered to sell some of his stuff he'd collected over the years while on the touring road etc... Mr. Turner included a cd with the jersey where he sang some songs he wrote and in between explained where he got the jersey (kinda weird).

I had the jersey authenticated and it turned out to be good. I then flipped it at auction for $8,200:

http://www.dropthepucks.com/sotg/76-77%20NYR%20Gilbert.htm


http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gif
Congratulations, the item is yours!http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/globalAssets/rtCurve.gifHi David, http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifCongratulations on winning this item! The next step is to pay the seller. http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifhttp://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/190207764871.jpg (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190207764871&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123)RARE! ROD GILBERT GAME-WORN JERSEY ! (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190207764871&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123)Sale price:$750.00Shipping & Handling:US Postal Service Priority Mail 0

Seller:deejayphoto1 [contact seller (http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ReturnUserEmail&requested=deejayphoto1&iid=190207764871)]Seller Information:Nashville, TN 37217 United States

[sox83cubs84]

My wife, father-in-law, and I visited a then new antique store in Wheaton IL many years ago. One guy who specialized in sports items had a 1977 White Sox home jersey of HoFer and then-manager Bob Lemon on the wall for $175. Bought it, and flipped it within a week for $500.

Dave Miedema

[012562]

In the mid to late 1970's, a high profile charity organization with lots of Hollywood ties was having some kind of annual fundraiser evening with an auction. They had many donated Hollywood related items in the auction, and active participation in the event from many of these Hollywood folks. The "leftover" donations that were not deemed worthy enough for the auction that evening were sold at a garage sale that happened to take place at my neighbor's house. I was able to get a Bill Shoemaker jockey riding silk, well used, for $2.00. Unfortunately, I let that item go during the 1980's.

Tom Duino

[kylehess10]

My best deal would ofcourse be the Jason Heyward 2010 game worn jersey which I bought for $450 and flipped a week later for $3,500. It's to this day the only Heyward 2010 game jersey to ever surface.

A few other deals include:

Mark Kotsay game worn photomatched 2008 home jersey worn while collecting his 1,500th hit AND hitting for the cycle.....bought for $100 direct from the Braves

Kurt Abbott game used 2000 World Series bat photo/video matched to Game 5 where the bat broke and flew straight into the hands of Derek Jeter....bought for $75

Brian McCann game worn hat (the only one I've ever seen surface)....bought for $5 direct from the Braves

[Rob L]

As most know, Troy Percival is my favorite player (during my lifetime - still like The Big Train - Walter Johnson for all time). Anyways, on eBay, his Rookie spring training jersey came up but the seller didn't know that and didn't list it correctly. I offered $ 200 to end the auction early but they weren't interested and let it run. I won it for $ 125!! My best deal is probably a 1933 Cleveland Indians autograph page that featured the manager - Walter Johnson. A guy listed it, didn't know what it was or who the players were. I saw it come up less than 30 minutes after it was listed with it BIN for $ 75. I have had several Johnson autographs and knew this one was legit. The best deal I ever got.

[akleinb611]

Hello Everyone:

First-time poster and long-time lurker. I've made a career of collecting on the cheap, out of necessity, and when it came to game-worn jerseys, my best source was Hartel Sports, one of the biggest dealers in jerseys going back to the Eighties. Anyway, in the early Nineties, they negotiated a huge purchase from the Padres, consisting mostly of the brown and white pullover shirts used circa 1980 to 1984. Commons were $40 to $75, and they also had bargain basement shirts that had been number changed and had the name on the back removed. These were $20 each.

I figured that if I got enough of the shirts, I might be able to swap the numbers around and do some inexpensive restoration. What helped was that the Padres shirts featured an embroidered strip tag on the front tail that gave the original jersey number and the year, so there was no guesswork about how the shirts should be restored.

I purchased Hartel's remaining stock of these shirts, about a dozen, at $15 each, and when they arrived, I commenced sorting through them. Most were commons, of course (for some reason, the late Eric Show had a LOT of jerseys issued to him!), but one caught my eye, a home jersey featuring a strip tag reading "1 81." That's right, it was OZZIE SMITH!!!:D I got myself an Ozzie Smith jersey for $15, and restoration of the name and number came to about another $10.

I've gotten some good deals since then, but that's truly a once in a lifetime bargain!

Alan Kleinberger

[akleinb611]

Sorry about the gigantor scans in my last post; I thought I'd resized the files.:( Still, they probably look great if you have a 50" monitor. Doesn't everybody?;)

Alan Kleinberger

[cincy13]

Back in the early 1980s, I won a Dave Concepcion jersey as a door prize at the old Holiday Inn Sharonville, Ohio card show. It was a 1979, Home jersey. I paid $2 to get into the show.

[jtnatalierica]

ALKLEIN611,
Hey ALKLEIN, you said you purchased about a dozen of these jerseys. Do you have any to sell? I've got a brown 1984 "Stoddard" and would like to get a white one. Any larger sizes? 48-52? Please email me if it's a possibility at waelchli29808@yahoo.com Thanks, Tom W.

[jtnatalierica]

ALKLEIN611,
Hey ALKLEIN, you said you purchased about a dozen of these jerseys. Do you have any to sell? I've got a brown 1984 "Stoddard" and would like to get a white one. Any larger sizes? 48-52? Please email me if it's a possibility at waelchli29808@yahoo.com Thanks, Tom W.

[UGA016]

I just came up on a Matthew Stafford Away Signed Gamer. I also Have a Home Stafford Gamer. Ended up getting the Away for $675.00 with a trade. Sweet Jersey. Stafford Gamers are Rare and Hard to come by being he kept most of them.

[UGA016]

Here are some of the Jersey pics.

[UGA016]

Also The Home Gamer. These are 2 of my most coveted UGA Jerseys.

[sox83cubs84]

In the early 1990s, I found a pro-cut Super Bowl era Jim McMahon Bears home jersey in an area resale shop near Wrigley Field for $4.99.

Dave Miedema

[akleinb611]

To the member who asked if I still had any of the early Eighties Padres shirts for sale - sorry, they're all long gone. I sold them off over the course of ten years or so, and I wish I had more. Oh well...:(

Alan Kleinberger

[ksfarmboy]

Wasn't exactly cheap but I feel I got a great deal on it. It's a 1970-71 Gene Clines jersey. I got it off ebay for around $285 including shipping. I'd been looking for this style for a while and got lucky. Now if I could only find an all original Pirates bumble bee style at a reasonable price.

Clint

[amgmap]

Years ago I picked up a pair of game used pants from someone that got them from the St. Louis Cardinals during spring training. When I received the pants they were white with red and blue down the legs. With closer inspection, I noticed that they were tagged Set 1 1989. They also had the name O. Smith and 32 25. From what I can tell, these were a pair of Ozzie Smith game used pants. I picked these up for the low, low price of somewhere around $25. :eek:

[sox83cubs84]

In the game home run realm, I picked up Kevin Mitchell's 1989 NLCS Game 1 home run at Wrigley Field from the ballhawk who caught it for $50. The guy was broke, with no job and a ton of phone bills he couldn't pay (900 numbers for sex talk can get pretty expensive), and he gave it away as a result. I don't have it anymore, but it was a memorable acquisition.

Dave Miedema

[ironmanfan]

I know I've shown this before, but back in June of 1996 I flew out to Kansas City to see Cal Ripken Jr. pass Sachio Kinugasa (Japanese star player) for the then World Record of consecutive games played . As the game progressed, i thought it would be neat to have a game used ball from the game and at one point Chris Hoiles hit a foul ball off Kevin Appier into the stands..The guy who caught it was probably in his early 20's and could have cared less about the game or Ripken (more interested in consuming as many beers as he could). Anyways, I think I gave him $50 for the ball and he couldn't turn it over to me fast enough...Luckily, I knew the guy who had brought Kinugasa over from Japan and we all shared a ride back to the hotel after the game and I had him sign the ball (later added Cal)..It would be fair to say that no other game used balls from that record breaking night exist with both signatures

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/Game%20Used/bb003.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/Game%20Used/bb002.jpg

[AutographAddiction]

I know I've shown this before, but back in June of 1996 I flew out to Kansas City to see Cal Ripken Jr. pass Sachio Kinugasa (Japanese star player) for the then World Record of consecutive games played . As the game progressed, i thought it would be neat to have a game used ball from the game and at one point Chris Hoiles hit a foul ball off Kevin Appier into the stands..The guy who caught it was probably in his early 20's and could have cared less about the game or Ripken (more interested in consuming as many beers as he could). Anyways, I think I gave him $50 for the ball and he couldn't turn it over to me fast enough...Luckily, I knew the guy who had brought Kinugasa over from Japan and we all shared a ride back to the hotel after the game and I had him sign the ball (later added Cal)..It would be fair to say that no other game used balls from that record breaking night exist with both signatures

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/Game%20Used/bb003.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/Game%20Used/bb002.jpg


ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!

[sox83cubs84]

Best of all, Bill...no "provenance" from Al Clark.:D

Dave Miedema

[Mark17]

About 1988 I was doing a small card show in northern California, San Francisco Bay area, and another dealer had on display a banner used to commemorate the Twins coming to Minnesota in 1961. He wanted $45 for it. There was a red stain that he said was the result of Calvin Griffith spilling wine on it (he said he'd asked Cal to autograph the stain, but he had refused.)

Well, I was a card dealer then, so while I thought it was pretty cool, being a Twins fan from Minnesota, I told him if it was still available after the show I'd give him $20 for it. I spent the whole show glancing over there, wondering if I'd get it, not at all sure of its value (for all I knew, the Boog Powell flannel jersey with NOB at a table behind me was overpriced at $200.)

Anyway, as the show ended, other dealers flocked to my table to load up on my 100-card lots. The guy with the banner came by and said he'd accept the $20. Then he saw I had some 1986 Topps traded sets, and said he'd be willing to trade for two of them. Well, stuff was selling off my table so fast, I told him I'd rather just give him the $20, which I did, and he took the banner down and brought it over.

As I was leaving, he came back over and said, "You really got a good deal on that banner." Seller's remorse I figured. I replied, "Look at it this way, it was clearly displayed for two straight days, and I'm the only one who showed any interest in it, and that's because I'm from Minnesota." He nodded, that logic made him feel better.

For many years I had no idea of that thing's value. But one day, while negotiating the sale of a Twins flannel jersey to a fellow Twins collector, I mentioned it, and the next thing I knew, I was selling it for $1,200. Since then I've been told I sold it way to cheap..... but I certainly am not complaining. ;)


http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/images/icons/icon12.gif