locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

[jake33]

In recent years, i have gotten a little bit into the locker name plates.

Just some info that I thought could be handy.

The company that makes the locker room nameplate for MLB is http://www.tag-up.com/

I went to their site, to see about making replicas. Just for displaying on my collection. As on their FAQ page, they will NOT do that at all. Their licenses are not for retail at all, so getting a fake MLB locker plate would be near impossible, because all the plates I have seen have the company information on the plate in the lower right corner (EXCEPT of coarse, the Yankees).

I even asked about production runs (like what is done for bat records) and they said, it is usually just one done per player, they do that print run of the entire team and mail them all out together, world series, all star games are a little different though.

Nice to know that there probably are not fakes floating around.

But for example you could special order whatever you want as long as there is no team logo and exact phrase of a team like "Baltimore Orioles" together on the palte. But, I wonder if you could get "Baltimore" on one part of the plate and on another area get "Orioles". You can design it anyway that you want and probably use team colors and maybe even fonts, but no logos. I bet you could copy the design of a team's plate and take off the logos and make it with the player's name and number that you would want.

So, I guess a plate with no team or mlb logo, it would be a huge red flag as fake...

The factory is not too far from my hometown, and would kind of like to see how the process takes place though.

[CampWest]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

Great info... thanks for sharing. I've been looking for a Billy Butler plate for my collection, but no luck yet.

[jake33]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

for the matter of KC, I would like to run down a farnsworth name plate if possible

[gingi79]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

Jake,

Nice research and I wanted you to know I appreciate it. I bought a couple of plates from the Braves and they don't come with any paperwork or holograms. Knowing they can't be faked is reassuring.

[David]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

A lot of manufacturers aren't in the business of selling directly to the public. They don't consider themselves retailers.

[jake33]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

Well, they do consider themselves retailers, but not for MLB items. The amount of time and effort to go through to make a fake plate wouldn't even be worth it, it would still be around $20 to make a fake one....

With Yankee plates, steiner usually gets them for one thing AND those do not have the manufacture logos on them, so Yankee ones would be very tough to make and fake. Even moreso, the die-cut plates would be very tough to rip off.

The only concern I would ever have is the plates could be easily reprinted by someone INSIDE the factory, but that is it. The layouts are probably saved on a hard drive and just a matter of pushing print on a PC to make a duplicate. But, I am sure who is in charge of the MLB items has a secure access to it, so that wouldn't happen.

I was bet by scanning the plates, they still wouldn't look right, they use a very high end print finishing and a scan would probably look awful.

[tigerdale]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

I'd like to add a little more info on the locker plates to help out. Some players can have more than one, depending on what the team orders. Some teams can order a couple of every player as backups, or order at mid season (tigers) to sell all the first half season ones. There is also a code at the bottom of the tags, this will tell you the year & month it was made..A=2001, B=2002.......J=2010....etc...I'll post examples...the first example is a Verlander world series plate...the code F10...F is for 2006 & 10 is October when it was made...

[tigerdale]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

The next is a Whitaker from the 2005 All-star weekend...the code is E6...E stands for 2005 & 6 is the month of June when it was made...

[tigerdale]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

The next is a Carl Pavano....never a Tiger, but they did try to lure him in the free agent market in 2004 & probably had this made when he visited...and the code at the bottom confirms this..D11...D is for 2004 and 11 is the month of November when it was made...

[tigerdale]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

Finally a regular season one....Ramon Santiagos from last season...J1...J is for 2010 and 1 is the month of January, when most are made for the upcoming season...

[tigerdale]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

To answer some questions, the main purpose of some of this info was to be able to date your locker tag. I know the new ones have the date on them, but say 2004 & earlier, I dont think did. Also, if you get a players season locker tag and it was made in June lets say, you can be pretty sure its not the only one he had that season. Hope this helps....

[emann]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

In recent years, i have gotten a little bit into the locker name plates.

Just some info that I thought could be handy.

The company that makes the locker room nameplate for MLB is http://www.tag-up.com/

I went to their site, to see about making replicas. Just for displaying on my collection. As on their FAQ page, they will NOT do that at all. Their licenses are not for retail at all, so getting a fake MLB locker plate would be near impossible, because all the plates I have seen have the company information on the plate in the lower right corner (EXCEPT of coarse, the Yankees).

I even asked about production runs (like what is done for bat records) and they said, it is usually just one done per player, they do that print run of the entire team and mail them all out together, world series, all star games are a little different though.

Nice to know that there probably are not fakes floating around.

But for example you could special order whatever you want as long as there is no team logo and exact phrase of a team like "Baltimore Orioles" together on the palte. But, I wonder if you could get "Baltimore" on one part of the plate and on another area get "Orioles". You can design it anyway that you want and probably use team colors and maybe even fonts, but no logos. I bet you could copy the design of a team's plate and take off the logos and make it with the player's name and number that you would want.

So, I guess a plate with no team or mlb logo, it would be a huge red flag as fake...

The factory is not too far from my hometown, and would kind of like to see how the process takes place though.

This is great info to know. Just for the record, the Red Sox dumped tons of locker name plates, going back quite a few years into the 2010 roster, at the 2 Fenway Yard Sales they did. I'm talking really BIG stacks, 100's of name plates... I haven't seen loads of Red Sox name plates via Steiner so they might be something that is exempt from their agreement (as some items appear to be). Just an FYI.

[camarokids]

Re: locker NamePlate info... get info against possible fraud

speaking of Yankees, there are a few available on mlb.com....