Suspect Kirk Gibson 1984 Tigers jersey

[swainer]

The photo that John posted (which I can't believe your wife still allows you to keep hanging on the wall of your room John!) is a great example of Gibby's factory set 1 jersey, with the corresponding correct inventory number. These are the jerseys we all want and should command a premium for being perfect.
-Wes

HA! It's always great to hear from you Wes!!!!

[TwinLakesPark]

It appears to be hand-stitched tagging, not any sort of professional work done by the team nor at the factory. Put it this way: while I respect your right to disagree with me, if this jersey was presented to me by one of my clients, it would be designated as "Unable to Authenticate" the moment I reviewed the tagging, based on the tagging font, and irregardless of the locations of those tags.

Dave M.

So lets look at 3 examples. All 3 of these could be considered "hand-stitched". However, 2 of them have absolute provenance, unlike the 3rd (which is the jersey in discussion). One of these examples appears to have a VERY HIGH resolution that is capturing a tremendous amount of detail.

[sox83cubs84]

The font in the Gibson tags in dispute looks very little like that in the photos of the good tags that were posted (and all of which look 100% solid to me). I'm not sure WHAT the Monge was made for, but, with a inventory # of "1", I doubt I would have written an LOA on that one, either. And I KNOW I would never have written one on this Gibson.

Dave M.

[Bhawk2]

I'd like to chime in here as well. I think there is a great expectation that teams are and have always been consistent in the way they handle their jerseys, and anything with an anomaly is automatically rejected as a fake. However, particularly in the old days (like the 1970's) when teams had operating budgets a fraction of today's, they tended to cut more corners, re-using older jerseys and making clubhouse alterations and repairs. You can find plenty of group pictures of ballplayers where one has a jersey that doesn't quite match the others.

I bought 2 Oakland A's jerseys on Ebay 20 years ago, one of which was supposed to be Dick Allen's and the other Dock Ellis. They both looked like solid 1977 McAuliffe jerseys, but the NOB and number on the Allen jersey looked wrong and the Ellis NOB was clearly wrong. Neither jersey cleared $200, so I don't think anyone believed either jersey was right. I eventually shipped them to Lon Lewis, and he said the "Dick Allen" had actually been worn by Rich McKinney, but the Ellis jersey was original, with the bad NOB applied either locally or more likely on the road.

So, I would say that most jerseys with anomalies are probably not GW jerseys, but a few of them are the real thing.

[TwinLakesPark]

The font in the Gibson tags in dispute looks very little like that in the photos of the good tags that were posted (and all of which look 100% solid to me). I'm not sure WHAT the Monge was made for, but, with a inventory # of "1", I doubt I would have written an LOA on that one, either. And I KNOW I would never have written one on this Gibson.

Dave M.

There are 2 font differences and 1 material difference, but the stitching is the same. The peak of the 4 and the tail of the 2 are different, and the grain of the strip is diagonal vs up/down. However the stitching is the same. It is also important to note that the inventory tag in the neck of the Gibson in question has the same grain pattern as the tail strip. Regarding the inventory tag in the neck, I have seen many authentic/real/legit Tigers jerseys from the late 70's with a handwritten inventory number in the neck and from 85/86 with inventory numbers like this one in the neck.

The best course of action for this jersey would be to get it in the hands of Lon Lewis. I am willing to put this one to bed with agreeing to disagree. You not choosing to authenticate it is fine by mine, I can authenticate my own jerseys.

Now the Monge jersey is another story but I am going to choose to not pick that fight...

Up next, maybe some constructive educational additions to Rudy's Wilson tagging primer but with the focus on the Wilson tagging and strip tagging. Like the elusive question that has bothered my for years, why are some Wilson tags in the neck and some in the tail?

[sox83cubs84]

There are 2 font differences and 1 material difference, but the stitching is the same. The peak of the 4 and the tail of the 2 are different, and the grain of the strip is diagonal vs up/down. However the stitching is the same. It is also important to note that the inventory tag in the neck of the Gibson in question has the same grain pattern as the tail strip. Regarding the inventory tag in the neck, I have seen many authentic/real/legit Tigers jerseys from the late 70's with a handwritten inventory number in the neck and from 85/86 with inventory numbers like this one in the neck.

The best course of action for this jersey would be to get it in the hands of Lon Lewis. I am willing to put this one to bed with agreeing to disagree. You not choosing to authenticate it is fine by mine, I can authenticate my own jerseys.

Now the Monge jersey is another story but I am going to choose to not pick that fight...

Up next, maybe some constructive educational additions to Rudy's Wilson tagging primer but with the focus on the Wilson tagging and strip tagging. Like the elusive question that has bothered my for years, why are some Wilson tags in the neck and some in the tail?

I guess then that "agree to disagree" is where I'll let this go, as well.

Dave M.