My Larry Bird jersey main story at Mears!

[33bird]

I had Mears grade my Larry Bird home 1986-87 game used jersey that I bought from Grey Flannel last month. It got the highest possible grade of A10. My jersey and the process they used to evaluate it is their main story right now on their site at: www.mearsonline.com
Go check it out!
Greg
biggamebird@yahoo.com

[both-teams-played-hard]

Great jersey and great write-up from MEARS.
Doesn't MEARS require solid provenance before they give an A10 grade? How did GFC's evaluation differ from MEARS'?

THANKS!

[CollectGU]

Hi,

I believe that post 87 jerseys require provenance to obtain an A10, while 87' and earlier require no provenance, but must possess all proper manufacturer characteristics including tagging, lettering placement and material etc. They also must possess proper and even wear to get that grade, which Greg's Bird clearly has. Nice jersey! Congratulations

Regards,
Dave

[33bird]

Thanks guys. Yea, he is right. For basketball-1987/88 is the last year for jerseys to possibly get a grade higher than a 5 from Mears. After that year the only way to get higher than a 5 grade is to have perfect provenance from a team, etc. I personally think getting something graded a 5 is kind of a waste. I think that that basically means it's as good as issued-nothing wrong with it-but no proof at all that it was used. There's 1000's of those on the market nowadays. Anyway, it was cool because I still haven't received the Bird Jersey back from Mears yet. I was just checking their site for news and THERE it was. Pretty exciting. I should have it Monday.
Greg

[B1SON]

What was your GreyFlannel winning bid for the jersey?????

[both-teams-played-hard]

That's cool. Many forum members ask why it is necesarry to use an authentication service. Since the jersey was obtained from the authenticators from the Basketball Hall of Fame, why was another opinion needed? I realize you do not have the MEARS paperwork, but what are the differences between the 2 evaluations? Are you planning on selling the Bird jersey? Again, Great Jersey!

[33bird]

Good questions. First, before I bought it from Grey Flannel I did a ton of homework on it. I felt that it was legit and I got a fair deal on it. I felt like it had a shot at getting an A10 if graded, and if it did, I figured it would be worth the authentication fee-if I ever decided to sell it. Now it has the GF coa and a more detailed Mears coa with the A10 grade. With those 2 coas I think I could probably double my money on it now if I decided to sell it-which I'm not. I definately prefer the MEARS coa. Grey Flannel coa's hardly say anything on them. Mears measures every little thing on it-numbers, letters, length, width, etc. Photo (style) matches. Compares to it to other legitimate gamers they've graded, etc. Pretty in depth. If it passes all that inspection, then it actually has to show some evidence of use. Mine got moderate use. If it has any flaws it loses points. All Grey Flannel's coa says is they feel it's a legitimate Bird gamer, circa 1986, and shows use. See what I mean? Mears has the coa of my jersey in their database. Just do the search of coas on their site and type in larry bird or this number 307573-and you'll see the coa I'll be getting with it. Anyway, that's my main reason: If I ever resell it, that Mears A10 will really help.
Greg

[33bird]

Here's some photos.

[33bird]

Here's a few photos from that season. Notice the one where there is not much space between the top of the numbers and the CELTICS. Large NBA logo up high. Pretty dang close.
Greg