it's long been understood by many in this hobby that, in many cases, when someone procures items from a team source, they must keep their source confidential. once, when implored to share the team source where he obtained a jersey, for example, bernie gernay said something to the effect his sources might lose their jobs if such information was revealed.
a recent comment on this Forum that "with Yankees items you can only go so far as to exposing sources" got me thinking again about "source confidentiality". many are aware that prior to the yankee/steiner arrangement, the yankees apparently went after collectors who obtained their game used jerseys. it might've had to do with the fact that the yankees considered the items to be stolen.
after all, if a team source is selling items and these sales need to be kept strictly confidential then how can such an arrangement be anything but improper? how can i think it's all legit or that the items aren't stolen?
team sources don't own the uniforms so they're not theirs to sell. uniforms are the property of the team. if such transactions were completely legit and approved by the team, then why would there be a need to keep them secret?
it's a theme i run into often in this hobby. a seller will drag out the usual line of "obtained from an impeccable team source!", i'll ask who their source is and they'll say they can't reveal their id otherwise the source would get in trouble. well if a transaction is such that your source would be fired if the team was aware of what was going on, then why would anyone want to be involved in such a transaction? for the thrill of owning stolen property?
personally, i'm more than willing to disclose the sources of all of my game used items. the truth of the matter is that i'm proud of how and where i obtained my items. it's part of the provenance and i take pride in the pedigree of my items. for those of you who feel you must keep your team sources secret, can you please enlighten me as to why?
(p.s. of course, i realize that many times the "impeccable team source" needs to be kept secret because they don't actually exist)
rudy.
a recent comment on this Forum that "with Yankees items you can only go so far as to exposing sources" got me thinking again about "source confidentiality". many are aware that prior to the yankee/steiner arrangement, the yankees apparently went after collectors who obtained their game used jerseys. it might've had to do with the fact that the yankees considered the items to be stolen.
after all, if a team source is selling items and these sales need to be kept strictly confidential then how can such an arrangement be anything but improper? how can i think it's all legit or that the items aren't stolen?
team sources don't own the uniforms so they're not theirs to sell. uniforms are the property of the team. if such transactions were completely legit and approved by the team, then why would there be a need to keep them secret?
it's a theme i run into often in this hobby. a seller will drag out the usual line of "obtained from an impeccable team source!", i'll ask who their source is and they'll say they can't reveal their id otherwise the source would get in trouble. well if a transaction is such that your source would be fired if the team was aware of what was going on, then why would anyone want to be involved in such a transaction? for the thrill of owning stolen property?
personally, i'm more than willing to disclose the sources of all of my game used items. the truth of the matter is that i'm proud of how and where i obtained my items. it's part of the provenance and i take pride in the pedigree of my items. for those of you who feel you must keep your team sources secret, can you please enlighten me as to why?
(p.s. of course, i realize that many times the "impeccable team source" needs to be kept secret because they don't actually exist)
rudy.
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