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Re: Brady on eBay
As somewhat of a newbie to the whole game issued / team issued / game cut / whateverthehellyou want to call it jersey scene, I have some observations that I’ll voice to spark (hopefully) some banter that will educate me, and hopefully others.
I’ll start with my assumption of what the process might look like, for a player to get their jersey.
1.Equip manager goes over jersey configuration with player. Player says ‘I want a size 48, fit for X type of pads, an extra 4” in body length, with X type of sleeve’.
2.Equip manager orders that jersey configuration from Reebok / Nike.
3.Reebok / Nike makes a handful of said jersey configuration - name, numbers, and specified customizations in place. Ships jerseys to the team.
4.Player gets jersey. He likes it, wears it, doesn’t need to change a thing. Game over. OR
5.Player gets jersey. He doesn’t like X aspect of jersey, informs equipment manager.
6.Equipment manager has new jerseys made (start over at step 2), or has existing batch altered locally (let’s say).
7.New or altered jerseys are received by the team. Start process over again at step 4.
8.Commerative or special patches… I would guess these are added by the team, as they change so often?
Now – this is only my assumption, and it’s based on 2 things. 1) Living my life playing sports and going through phases of this, and 2) seeing the number of different configurations for ‘game cut’ or ‘team issued’ jerseys out there. I may be way off...
I have seen game cut Brady jerseys spanning from size 42 to size 50, with a standard length, a shortened length, an increased length, with different style sleeves, etc. I know forgeries exist, but how can one tell what is real, and what is fake? Said another way, what’s to say a jersey wasn’t team issued because it doesn’t match the configuration of the jersey an athlete is wearing in a picture? Using the scenario above, I'd assume these jerseys can make their way into public or out the back door at any point in the scenario? It's not like people are purchasing them from the Patriots or Reebok / Nike, correct? Even pictures of a player from the same year, sometimes show different jersey configurations, and some pictures (for me) are hard to decipher – are the jerseys shortened, or are they tucked in and pulled up so the fold overlaps the player’s belt line? Are the sleeve cuffs loose, or elastic? Maybe the player changed pads for a game and it makes the sleeves look different? Maybe a vendor changed and the player had to go up / down a size due to manufacturing variations?
Personally, if I were buying a 2011 Brady game cut / team issued jersey, I would want the configuration to match exactly to a picture, for peace of mind; but if it didn’t I wouldn’t necessarily write it off. But that might just be my newb-ness rearing its ugly head. It seems to be a very grey area, and with all the forgeries out there you definitely have to keep a good eye on things, probably the more cautious the better. Maybe it’s more of a gut feel thing?
Again, I’m a newb, so I bring these questions up for educational purposes. There may not be a right or wrong answer. I came from collecting retail jerseys, those are all long gone so now I’m getting into game cut and game used stuff. Collecting retail jerseys was easy, as a fake can be spotted a mile away. But (in my eyes) it seems with these ‘game cut’ or ‘team issued’ jerseys there is a lot of grey area, so would just like a little insight from those with more experience, so I (and others) don't make a costly mistake. I've been digging through the forums here... but it's a lot of digging!
Fire away!
As somewhat of a newbie to the whole game issued / team issued / game cut / whateverthehellyou want to call it jersey scene, I have some observations that I’ll voice to spark (hopefully) some banter that will educate me, and hopefully others.
I’ll start with my assumption of what the process might look like, for a player to get their jersey.
1.Equip manager goes over jersey configuration with player. Player says ‘I want a size 48, fit for X type of pads, an extra 4” in body length, with X type of sleeve’.
2.Equip manager orders that jersey configuration from Reebok / Nike.
3.Reebok / Nike makes a handful of said jersey configuration - name, numbers, and specified customizations in place. Ships jerseys to the team.
4.Player gets jersey. He likes it, wears it, doesn’t need to change a thing. Game over. OR
5.Player gets jersey. He doesn’t like X aspect of jersey, informs equipment manager.
6.Equipment manager has new jerseys made (start over at step 2), or has existing batch altered locally (let’s say).
7.New or altered jerseys are received by the team. Start process over again at step 4.
8.Commerative or special patches… I would guess these are added by the team, as they change so often?
Now – this is only my assumption, and it’s based on 2 things. 1) Living my life playing sports and going through phases of this, and 2) seeing the number of different configurations for ‘game cut’ or ‘team issued’ jerseys out there. I may be way off...
I have seen game cut Brady jerseys spanning from size 42 to size 50, with a standard length, a shortened length, an increased length, with different style sleeves, etc. I know forgeries exist, but how can one tell what is real, and what is fake? Said another way, what’s to say a jersey wasn’t team issued because it doesn’t match the configuration of the jersey an athlete is wearing in a picture? Using the scenario above, I'd assume these jerseys can make their way into public or out the back door at any point in the scenario? It's not like people are purchasing them from the Patriots or Reebok / Nike, correct? Even pictures of a player from the same year, sometimes show different jersey configurations, and some pictures (for me) are hard to decipher – are the jerseys shortened, or are they tucked in and pulled up so the fold overlaps the player’s belt line? Are the sleeve cuffs loose, or elastic? Maybe the player changed pads for a game and it makes the sleeves look different? Maybe a vendor changed and the player had to go up / down a size due to manufacturing variations?
Personally, if I were buying a 2011 Brady game cut / team issued jersey, I would want the configuration to match exactly to a picture, for peace of mind; but if it didn’t I wouldn’t necessarily write it off. But that might just be my newb-ness rearing its ugly head. It seems to be a very grey area, and with all the forgeries out there you definitely have to keep a good eye on things, probably the more cautious the better. Maybe it’s more of a gut feel thing?
Again, I’m a newb, so I bring these questions up for educational purposes. There may not be a right or wrong answer. I came from collecting retail jerseys, those are all long gone so now I’m getting into game cut and game used stuff. Collecting retail jerseys was easy, as a fake can be spotted a mile away. But (in my eyes) it seems with these ‘game cut’ or ‘team issued’ jerseys there is a lot of grey area, so would just like a little insight from those with more experience, so I (and others) don't make a costly mistake. I've been digging through the forums here... but it's a lot of digging!
Fire away!
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