ARod flips the bird to Steiner again.

[kingjammy24]

barry,

thanks for the enlightenment. i think this is a good discussion because it's important for collectors to understand exactly how some of these exclusive contracts work, lest they purchase an item based on incorrect assumptions. if the industry is going to use "exclusive" with an asterisk, then it'd be helpful for them to detail to collectors what the asterisk entails. i'm sure many collectors were under the impression that steiner was the only retail source for legit 2007 game used Yankees jerseys and apparently that's not the case.

striking a deal with a team or league seems to leave open the loophole for players to order all of their jerseys themselves and market them outside of any team/league deal.

perhaps the team gave ARod the BP shirt, as might've been permitted by the steiner contract, and ARod himself chose to sell it to a third-party marketer. perhaps he purchased it privately and sold it privately. it's all legit but it leads to several confusing issues.

funny thing is that steiner sued david ortiz on this very issue. "Ortiz also violated the exclusivity clause of their agreement by providing at least four other companies with autographed memorabilia and game-used items, diluting the value of items provided to Steiner, the suit claims. The lawsuit asks for $1 million plus interest and an accounting of Ortiz' dealings with memorabilia companies in which he received money for autographs and used items."

anyway, i look forward to hearing the details about the 2007-08 NBA & MGG Authentication Program.

rudy.

[BarryMeisel]

You're welcome, Rudy.

Two things to keep in mind, also:

1) You are assuming all items sold outside the "exclusive" dealer's domain are legit. We have found with our team deals that an alarming number of items that you would identify as falling outside the claim of exclusivity were, in fact, bogus items.

2) Don't forget the secondary market. If MGG sells a jersey from a team with which MGG has an exclusive arrangement, and then the jersey is resold in the secondary market, the impression could be left that the item originated somewhere other than MeiGray. We have had that happen to us in cases where sellers want to avoid publicizing another company.

All the best,
Barry