Joe Montana Game Used Lid?

[aeneas01]

lund6771 - gotcha. i guess i misunderstood your comment about the black mark on the stripe because, as i mentioned, imo its absence in a photo or video frame would not disqualify the helmet as authentic. you are obviously a savvy collector and understand the importance of research when it comes to example comparison/matching - but imo game used helmets are surprisngly difficult to photo match for many reasons. for example, throughout the season decals can be replaced, facemasks can be swapped out, identifying paint transfers can be buffed out, etc., etc.. and of course the helmets are reconditioned at the end of the year. in short a helmet can actually look quite different from game to game and season to seaon. not to mention that the number of quality closeup photos is also surprisingly small - even when it comes to the game's greatest players.

rkgobson - very, very interesting read and thanks very much for taking the time to go into so much detail. if the team letter is not authentic i would say it casts serious doubts on the helmet. but then it could be a case of an authentic helmet coupled with a fake letter in an effort to increase the helmet's value. whatever the deal i'm just glad i was never bitten by the sig bug - it clearly requires a level of expertise far greater than what i would ever be able to achieve! i'll stick to looking at helmets!

gridman80 - i thought i recognized the helmet as well but don't have it in my database. gfc used to archive their auctions and i have many photos from those sales but not this one. further i have quite a few photos of other game used wd1 niners lids sold over the years and none of them are this helmet.

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[solarlottry]

I knew Paul many years ago. Visited him at his house in San Jose back around 1995. He befriended many of the players, including Joe. He was full of stories about the niners of the glory years. He claimed that he would trade guns and workout equipment for GU items directly from the players, including JM. The picture of him w/ JOe seems tobear that out. I got a 1986 JM jersey from him that was 100% legit; but it actually came to him in a trade for some steve young stuff from a niner collector named Cooper...Cooper's 'trademark' was to have the player sign the jersey on the NOB on the first letter in a vertical style..mine had that...It sold for $16K in Vintage auction 3 years ago. I got an air helmet from Paul with a letter from Joe as well. Tha is now in the collection of a top QB collector....My take is that some of Paul's stuff was good; some was not; whether he realized it or not is not for me to say. At the end of the day Paul was a good source but when it comes to a helmet such as this...photo match is the only way to authenticate. If someone has the GFC catalogs from about 8-10 years ago I think this helmet was sold at auction by them...It went low because most collectors did not realize Joe wore Riddell for a brief period.

I know this is an old, old thread but what is really interesting about it is that even a thread this old has its value. I just visited "Cooper" last weekend and and he still has a great 49ers collection, just a bit smaller as i have had the good fortune to be able to buy a number of the great shirts he has. One of the Steve Young shirts mentioned in this post i was able to buy. He had traded a mid 80s Montana for 2 Steve Young 1993 gamers with team letters back in 1993. Cooper had 5 Montana shirts at the time and Young was a favorite of his so he made the trade. Another of the Montana shirts was sold via AMI then via Grey Flannel as part of the Gibson collection. Cooper still owns Montana's last 49er gamer and i have an 1989 Russell that he sold me with Bronco letter. Cooper has 49er jerseys from 1946 thru 1994 and in fact has every HOF niner gamer. These kinds of collections are few and far between and i feel lucky that i was able to see 50 years of 49er glory. When Cooper was collecting the game used hobby was in its infancy with things done on a very personal level. His collection came straight out of the locker room sometimes within days of the player wearing the shirt. The Montana i have was worn one week and in his hands the next. The friendship and bonding that took place between the seller (the 49ers) and the fan does not happen anymore and it is sad. Football has become big big fu*king business and thats it. The entire situation is sad as now we have no football and very bleak prospects for Football in the 2011 season.

I mainly collect shirts from the 1988-1994 49ers teams with my main focus the 1994 team. Buying todays players is something that should be done because you like the player, team etc not to make $$$. It seems with all the shirts these guys wear that another is always just around the corner. Try that with a 1988-1994 49er shirt as many were worn the entire season, not just one game. I have a Romo 1993 shirt that was worn the entire season and has at least 30 repairs. Try and find a shirt like that in a player from the last 5 years. One repair and the shirt shows "great use". The game used uniform collecting world has changed over the last 20 years just like the rest of the world. I just hope that us collectors can keep the hobby fun, safe and that the good shirts find their way into the right collections!

[commando]

Hmmmm.... Thanks for bringing this thread back to memory, a discussion from many moons ago. Joe Montana 49ers lid? American flag decal? Sounds Scoreboard-ish to me.