Jim Kelly Gamer Collection

[ChrisCavalier]

Hello gobills,

I just wanted to add that I had the honor of meeting Mr. Kelly in Cleveland last year at the HOF induction.

I didn't know I was going to meet him as he came into the restaurant in the hotel very late one evening. Someone introduced us and we spent somewhere between 30-45 minutes talking.

Turns out Mr. Kelly is also a collector and he told me that he was one of the first people to start exchanging his jerseys with other players.

I think you mentioned he is your hero in one of your previous posts and I will say I think you picked a good one. Even without meeting him, anyone who watched the 'Four Falls of Buffalo' documentary on ESPN can easily see that he is a quality individual along with people such a great player.

Btw, on a side note, today is the feast day of one of my heroes...Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

-Chris

[gobills123]

Hello gobills,

I just wanted to add that I had the honor of meeting Mr. Kelly in Cleveland last year at the HOF induction.

I didn't know I was going to meet him as he came into the restaurant in the hotel very late one evening. Someone introduced us and we spent somewhere between 30-45 minutes talking.

Turns out Mr. Kelly is also a collector and he told me that he was one of the first people to start exchanging his jerseys with other players.

I think you mentioned he is your hero in one of your previous posts and I will say I think you picked a good one. Even without meeting him, anyone who watched the 'Four Falls of Buffalo' documentary on ESPN can easily see that he is a quality individual along with people such a great player.

Btw, on a side note, today is the feast day of one of my heroes...Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

-Chris

That sounds like an AMAZING experience Chris!!! Very very cool, and that must have been pretty fun to hobnob with a former NFL QB.
He seems to have certainly grown up over the years, just from an outside perspective. Its not uncommon to hear stories of Jimbo and the crew from the 90s glory days and their 4am adventures. Lets just say they seemed to be stuck in their 80s partying ways and living like rockstars... which they were. I cant pretend to know what he thinks, but I'd imagine blows like losing Hunter and then the Cancer would send a man one of two ways. Luckily, he seems to have embraced life and his family, taken the highroad, and is all the better for it.

I remember staring at his PROLINE card as a kid with my mouth open in awe at the collection he has. I will say that my work has him in for personal signings a few times a year and although he collects - I dont think he pays much attention to the details. In fairness, when your collection comes from the source (after game swaps etc) and you know its the real deal there isnt the same process of vetting the shirt. As I think I mentioned way back in the post - he didnt know very much in re: to the details of his jerseys. Some of the earlier Champions I brought in were thought to be Ferguson's until I showed him pictures of him wearing a style match. He got a kick out of that, but it was then I realized the 'source' wouldnt be very helpful in answering my questions.

It is odd however, that when you think of the premier Bills player to own a jersey of you'd probably think of #12 (maybe #78 or #83 but even still). The thing is, he gave out SO many shirts over the years and to make matters worse there are SSSSOOOO many 'retail authentics' that people either pass off as gamers or just dont realize they arent (even selling for 1K plus via auction sites) theres just a ton of his stuff out there. I think thats one of the reasons I tend to prefer pre 1991 Bills/Kelly stuff. Its not as 'uniform' as the post 91 AND there are not retail authentics to clutter and confuse things. Sadly, they are harder to come by BUT little by little I've been able to add. I paid $500 for my Norwood (after a 7 yr search) and thats far and away the most i've ever paid. All the rest have been 'finds' (pawn shops, estate sales, CL, 'framed that turn out to be gamers' etc) or trades. Anyway, my point is I'm glad I picked a player who isnt totally obscure and as a result there is enough stuff out there to keep me busy with out having to break the bank. For example, the 1991 from last week the owner was happy to get $100 for it. He didnt know or didnt care what it was. He was just happy to get $$ for something sitting in back of the closet since it was given to his son after his weekly show where he gave away the previous weeks gamer some 26 yrs ago. For me, it was $100 well spent!!!