Wade Boggs - My Experience

[TwinLakesPark]

I had an experience this week that I wanted to share with you all. I was invited over to Wade Boggs’ house to preview and purchase items from his personal collection of memorabilia. Wade is in my top 5, so needless to say, this was very exciting for me in many ways. By default I am a jersey guy, but he dangled so many different pieces (jerseys, bats, gloves, etc.) in front of me that I could have easily spent a small fortune that day.

Not only was Wade incredibly accommodating, both he and his wife were an absolute pleasure to be around. They shared many personal stories with me about his playing days, which I am grateful for. He showed me many of his prized possessions and walked me through his trophy room explaining the significance of his trophies, bats, balls and jerseys.

I purchased a very special jersey that day, one of Wade’s 1983 home jerseys. He only had two of them, and he was willing to let me take one home. Several times he said, “this is one of my prized possessions, I won my first batting title wearing this jersey”. He went on to tell me how he has been presented with over 20 of those jerseys at different card shows, where he was asked to sign them as game used. Time and time again he would tell them that they were fakes and refused to sign them with a game used inscription. He stressed to me that I was holding 1 of 2 of his 1983 home jerseys, and the other one was in his closet along with all of his other 80’s jerseys. He kept them all, every year.

As I departed, we were already talking about our next meeting where he was going to present some more of his prized possessions, including some of his 85 and 86 jerseys.



Please note, I chose to remove the inscription from the picture as it is personal and I do not want to share it for potential forgery attempts.

[Nnunnari]

What a great experience, thanks for sharing and congrats on the great piece! How much stuff did he end up holding onto?
I picked up one of his '92 All-Star bats, waiting for it to arrive.

[commando]

Good lord, man.

[icollectDCsports]

TwinLakesPark -- I see you don't accept PMs. Would you consider turning PMs on so I can ask a quick question? Thanks

[Phil316]

Sounds like a fun time.

[Phil316]

I also like the fact Wade is sporting his Devil Rays BP jacket.

[camarokids]

Is Boggs hurting for money? He recently sold some Devil Rays bats at auction.

[TwinLakesPark]

What a great experience, thanks for sharing and congrats on the great piece! How much stuff did he end up holding onto?
I picked up one of his '92 All-Star bats, waiting for it to arrive.

He held on to everything, and I mean everything. He kept every one of his jerseys, with the exception of the ones that the Yankees kept. I held those 92' All-Star bats that day, they are really nice!

TwinLakesPark -- I see you don't accept PMs. Would you consider turning PMs on so I can ask a quick question? Thanks

Send me an email, wesholden at gmail dot com

Is Boggs hurting for money? He recently sold some Devil Rays bats at auction.

I don't think he is hurting, he just has a massive amount of stuff that he kept, and he is cleaning out some closets.

[emann]

Nice story, amazing jersey and Wade Boggs was my all time favorite player growing up.

That said...

The story of Wade holding onto all of his jerseys is one he also told me at a convention when presented with a jersey I own, one which has a pretty unique feature to it.

Wade barely looked at it and said "Sorry, I have both of these hanging in my closet." I replied this couldn't be true and pointed out the features, etc... To his credit, he gave it a longer look and basically said it looked very close but explained "they gave me two jerseys each year and I kept them every season."

I was crushed and went home upset that I might have been ripped off from the (well-known, reputable, and respected by GUU) dealer that I purchased the jersey from... I've handled a number of other jerseys from this era (as has the dealer) and it had all the little signs of game use and being issued from the team. The dealer offered an immediate refund, but echoed my thought that his experience was this jersey was genuine.

I asked a few other collectors/dealers for opinions (and they all said they thought it was probably ok), so I went with my gut and decided to keep the jersey. My goal for a solid year was to figure out the story of the jersey (and it's identifying feature). Do you know how many photos/cards/magazines of Wade Boggs from the '80s are out there to look thru?

After a year of furious searching, I found a relatively obscure magazine photo that looked promising. I contacted the original photographer and he was able to pull and scan his original negative for me. He confirmed the date of the game and location from the person who took the photo. I had a match... I also think I identified other photos from the prior week after I found the date (they're too far away to confirm 100%). That's it—the identifying feature on my jersey isn't in any other images I've seen.

This unique feature on the jersey I own is not going to be on either of the ones Wade has in his closet. But, I do have a photo of him standing there wearing this jersey in a game during the correct season... I've considered over the years bringing this jersey with the photo back to Wade, but I really don't want to get into an argument with one of my sports idols.

My assumption is that Wade hung onto 2 gamers every season throughout his career, but they probably were not the only ones he had in his locker. Even if some clubbie assured him they were, I'd guess a few "walked" out the door of the clubhouse, were given to charity, etc and were replaced (probably without his knowledge) over the decades. He's not the first player to tell collectors that he held onto all his gamers...

I have no doubt that anything hanging in Wade's closet is top-notch and you got an amazing piece from his collection. But for him to flatly state anything outside his closet could not possibly be real seems impossible in my opinion. It also isn't fair to collectors who didn't buy their jerseys from him directly but might just actually have the real thing. There probably are alot of fakes out there, but I'd wager there are a few real ones sprinkled in...

[sportscentury]

Nice story, amazing jersey and Wade Boggs was my all time favorite player growing up.

That said...

The story of Wade holding onto all of his jerseys is one he also told me at a convention when presented with a jersey I own, one which has a pretty unique feature to it.

Wade barely looked at it and said "Sorry, I have both of these hanging in my closet." I replied this couldn't be true and pointed out the features, etc... To his credit, he gave it a longer look and basically said it looked very close but explained "they gave me two jerseys each year and I kept them every season."

I was crushed and went home upset that I might have been ripped off from the (well-known, reputable, and respected by GUU) dealer that I purchased the jersey from... I've handled a number of other jerseys from this era (as has the dealer) and it had all the little signs of game use and being issued from the team. The dealer offered an immediate refund, but echoed my thought that his experience was this jersey was genuine.

I asked a few other collectors/dealers for opinions (and they all said they thought it was probably ok), so I went with my gut and decided to keep the jersey. My goal for a solid year was to figure out the story of the jersey (and it's identifying feature). Do you know how many photos/cards/magazines of Wade Boggs from the '80s are out there to look thru?

After a year of furious searching, I found a relatively obscure magazine photo that looked promising. I contacted the original photographer and he was able to pull and scan his original negative for me. He confirmed the date of the game and location from the person who took the photo. I had a match... I also think I identified other photos from the prior week after I found the date (they're too far away to confirm 100%). That's it—the identifying feature on my jersey isn't in any other images I've seen.

This unique feature on the jersey I own is not going to be on either of the ones Wade has in his closet. But, I do have a photo of him standing there wearing this jersey in a game during the correct season... I've considered over the years bringing this jersey with the photo back to Wade, but I really don't want to get into an argument with one of my sports idols.

My assumption is that Wade hung onto 2 gamers every season throughout his career, but they probably were not the only ones he had in his locker. Even if some clubbie assured him they were, I'd guess a few "walked" out the door of the clubhouse, were given to charity, etc and were replaced (probably without his knowledge) over the decades. He's not the first player to tell collectors that he held onto all his gamers...

I have no doubt that anything hanging in Wade's closet is top-notch and you got an amazing piece from his collection. But for him to flatly state anything outside his closet could not possibly be real seems impossible in my opinion. It also isn't fair to collectors who didn't buy their jerseys from him directly but might just actually have the real thing. There probably are alot of fakes out there, but I'd wager there are a few real ones sprinkled in...

Many false negatives, as well as false positives, have originated with players. We all know there are players who will add a "game used" inscription to anything a hobbyist puts in front of them, even when the item is bad (false positive). But there are also players who flatly reject anything and everything that is placed in front of them, despite some of the items being real/authentic (false negative). Some players mistakenly believe that they own all of their game used items, which is, of course, impossible. Other players knowingly reject good items because it does not sit well with them that other individuals possess their game used items (and thus have the potential to make money on them). A player's word is but one factor to consider when evaluating and authenticating an item.