OJ McDuffie Dolphins lettering issue

[gingi79]

Both myself and another collector had interest in the OJ McDuffie 1996 GU jersey currently on eBay. However, the nameplate (and the LOA signed by a liar; but I digress) gives us pause.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/O-J-McDuffie-Miami-Dolphins-1996-Game-Used-Worn-Jersey-SCD-Lou-Lampson-LOA-/271927563536?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f50255510

The season tag of "96" looks real. Therefore considering the fact Miami adopted a drop shadow "3-d" font for 1997, this jersey could only have been worn in one or more 1996 season games.

Has anyone ever been able to prove a game used jersey had such poorly cut "m", seemingly mismatched "f"'s or most importantly, a "u" that is not only not sewn with parallel lines but seem to be about to meet?

[Samets]

I always go by photomatches vs the paper that comes with...

Based on a few minutes of searching, I think I have what I would call a decent photomatch and a starting point for more research:

[Phil316]

Looks like a match to me.

[GMEN92]

Looks like a solid match to me as well.. So I guess that means the loa is correct as well

[Samets]

Funny enough, the seller had found the same picture with the match...

For historical sake, here's the side by side for when the eBay auction will die...

[finfanrb23]

Hey there guys, I wanted to throw in my knowledge on this particular jersey as I was the original buyer when it went up last weekend. It went up late at night on a Saturday evening and I immediately noticed the wear and what seemed like a pretty solid photomatch, so I disregarded the questionable LOA and put in an offer. A few moments later another offer was submitted, so I pulled the trigger on the buy it now not wanting to miss out. After paying I immediately started to have some troubling thoughts. The location of the jersey was West Babylon NY less than 3 miles from Lindenhurst NY the home to one of our community’s biggest shysters, Steve Misturini. Writing this off as coincidence I waited for the jersey to arrive while trying not to jump to conclusions. Upon receiving the jersey, I googled the shipping address which matched that of a yogurt shop owned by Misturini called YoLuvIt Frozen Yogurt. http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=50341 As this prior thread shows, ‘yoluvit247’ was a prior ebay username of Misturini. As many of you may remember Misturini had a rather public spat in People’s Court with one of our more seasoned NFL Collectors ‘Mulligans’ over a Tom Brady GU jersey with which Misturini added wear. Even without this jerseys red flags (which I’ll touch on in a moment), it came from Steve Misturini and at that point I wanted nothing to do with it and requested a refund.

But digging a little further into gingi79’s concerns, the dolphins only wore aqua for games against the Cardinals and Eagles during the regular season that year. The photo Samets provided was against the Eagles and I was able to track down game footage from that game in question. As you can see the wear does match up in the front pretty well, but the nameplate is a mess. The ‘Mc’ appears to be cut off of another jersey, pretty horribly I might add (you can still see the aqua underneath, whoever modified it didn’t even take the time to remove the jersey it was originally attached to, and the inner parts of the ‘c’ are slanted).

The ‘U’ top portion is almost touching and as you can see from the game footage this does not match the jersey in question. I even attempted to pull the NOB a little to simulate the tension shoulder pads would provide, but the ‘U’ always had this strange shape. Also within the neck above the W and 96 tags it seems that there are some extra loose threads possibly associated with retail tagging? These threads also appear on the exterior as well.

Looking into the past sales of danielcunningham4572012 (http://myworld.ebay.com/danielcunningham4572012/), you can see a ‘Marshall Faulk Game Used Helmet’ which recently sold for $430.99. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marshall-Faulk-2002-Game-Used-Worn-St-Louis-Rams-Helmet-No-Reserve-/271887922988?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f4dc8772c&nma=true&si=i03fAcIvuu7PTIvldw%252B%252BaAWZsBo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Looking at this thread http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=25829 you can see that this helmet was attempted to be sold by Misturini in 2012. Seems as though he fixed some of the issues forum members called out and resold it this past month.

So even if you can look past the issues with the OJ jersey, it no doubt originated from Steve Misturini or danielcunningham4572012 (http://myworld.ebay.com/danielcunningham4572012/). Avoid him!!!! His items look solid, but that is how he gets you. Reverse photomatching, adding wear, whatever he can do to make a sale.

If I am wrong with calling out this particular seller I’ll gladly eat crow and apologize, I just don’t see how this is anyone other than Misturini.

[sek122482]

Really appreciate the post! gingi79 and I had been emailing about this jersey and both had the concerns he laid out. I still was on the fence because the wear seemed to match from the photos but with your new post I will steer very clear of this jersey. Thanks again!

Scott

[Samets]

finfanrb23, great observations and with the screen capture of the reverse of the jersey, there's no doubt that it's a reverse engineered creation.

[BarryMeisel]

Hi everybody,

I can add a few circumstantial facts to this thread.

In MeiGray's infancy, the Summer of 1997, I was invited by the Miami Dolphins to pitch our new company.

I spent two days at their Davie, Fla. training facility examining the hundreds of game-worn jerseys stored in one large storeroom, and assisting in their very early attempts to market these jerseys on site.

Many of the jerseys had nameplates already removed. And there were many jerseys tagged with a 96.

Now I cannot specifically say I remember this McDuffie, or a No. 81 without a nameplate. But the addition of a non-worn nameplate would very much coincide with the fact that much of the inventory lacked names on back.

Hope this helps,

Barry

[Phil316]

So it "could" be the McDuffie but with a restored nameplate? I do not collect Dolphins jerseys or anything by Steve M.

If it is not the jersey that is matched then someone went to great lengths to alter the jersey if that is the case.

[gingi79]

The facts to date:

It's connected to Steve M.
It's connected to Lou Lampson
The name plate is off from all known exemplars.
The wear is similar but easily replicated to a photo from that era which is included in the auction but never referenced in the description, even in passing.
Evidence has been presented showing it may not be all original. Barry from MeiGray backs this idea up and offers that it could possibly have been worn, stripped of the nameplate by the Dolphins and is potentially real but with another added nameplate.

[Eric]

The Tim Dwight jersey he is selling here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tim-Dwight-San-Diego-Chargers-2003-Game-Used-Worn-Jersey-JB-Memorial-Patch-/271940252062?hash=item3f50e6f19e

was originally sold to me in 2005 with some other items which all turned out to have fake use. I recognized it as soon as I saw the pics.
The original thread mentioning contrived wear is here
http://www.network54.com/Forum/379976/message/1107453059
Eric

[bgakladd]

Throwing this in there also concerning the 2002 Faulk Rams helmet in case it pops up for sale again. The date code (012696H) is from 1996, not early 2000's. Bad helmet.