Beanie Wells Helmet? Or Fake? Newbie here...please help

[rotobadger]

Hello All. I'm new to this forum and brand new to collection sports memorabilia and was hoping I could get some advice/help/opinions on a recent purchase.

I am a huge AZ Cardinals fan and was thrilled when I found a "possibly" game used Beanie Wells helmet on Ebay. I did some negotiating and purchased it. I have not yet received it in the mail but did some studying of the pictures and have discovered that I may not have gotten a legit helmet.

First off, the American flag decal is missing from the back. Also, I emailed Frank Levenick from Real Stuff Sports and he indicated that he had not been able to find any evidence that Beanie used this helmet. In fact, it now appears that Beanie didn't even have this type of facemask on practice or game helmets. From what I've read about Frank, I trust his opinion and expertise.

The thing is, from the pictures, it appears that the helmet was used at some point as it seems to have some sweat stains and the seller said it had bits of hair still in the helmet. It has Beanie's number 26 on the back and seems to show wear with marks and scratches.

Can anyone offer some insight, advice or direction on this helmet? I am incredibly dissapointed that I may have dropped a significant amount of money on a helmet that is not what it was purported to be. It even has Beanie's signature and "09 Game Helmet" written on it (although I have no idea if this is a counterfeit signature either).

I would so appreciate some experts here taking a look at the pictures and letting me know if there might be some explanation as to the inconsistencies with this helmet. Practice helmet? Someone elses helmet (but why would it have 26 on it)?

I may have just learned a very expensive lesson in helmet collecting.

Thanks in advance for any help on this!