Quote Originally Posted by MichaelofSF View Post
A word about Starter era Patriots jerseys (1995-1998) During this era if purchasing game used jerseys, I would highly recommend making sure that you have a photo match or if your photo resolution isn't high enough, a style match. I say this because I have seen MANY "game used" Patriots jerseys from this era that are absolutely not game used. Most of these jerseys have the Custom Crafted stamp on the inside of the jersey. In fact some of these jerseys even have repairs on them. But I can assure you that some of them that I have seen are not game worn. I know this from spending hours looking at photos and game film from games.
Michael:

This is great info, but as I've learned in the last few years there are no absolutes with this era of Patriots jerseys. Specifically regarding the Custom Crafted stamp, not all Patriots jerseys got them. When the Patriots Pro Shop started selling jerseys on their website a couple of years ago I ordered what was listed as a 1997 Keith Byars home jersey. I already had a home 1996 Terry Glenn and a 1997 road Byars, each of which had Custom Crafted stamps, as did every other Pats jersey from that era that I had seen. When the jersey arrived it did not have the CC stamp. My first thought was it was a fake, but the jersey had a TON of marks/burns/damage/repairs and it came straight from the Patriots. I went to the internet to see if I could photo match it. It took all of 2 seconds to identify it as the jersey Byars wore in the 1996-97 AFC divisional playoff and Championship games against Jacksonville and Pittsburgh. When I was in Boston last year I met with Jim Scollins from the Pro Shop and told him this. He told me that during that time frame the Pats actually used three different shops to do the names/numbers/logos, not just Custom Crafted.