Card Companies and "Game Used" Cards

[Eric]

How do card companies get game used items?

I have been wondering about this for some time. Perhaps forum members could shed some light.

Where do the card companies get the game used items that get chopped up and put in cards.
I was looking on ebay recently and saw this card
Bidding on a Rivers 2007 National Treasures Game Used Jersey Tag card, serial #'d 1/3

(Is this a Donruss card?)



I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the swatch, but it occurred to me that the three examples of Chargers jerseys that I have seen which came from the team have been heavily tailored size 50 shirts.

2 from the 2007 season

1 from the 2006 season

Had me wondering where the jersey in the card came from.

I know for a fact that sometimes card companies purchase from auction houses. Years ago there was a one of a kind piece that I bid on, and due to a techinical glitch the auto-bid didn't raise my bid so I lost it. I contacted the auction house and they mentioned that the piece had been won by a card company.

Do they buy pieces from ebay? Dealers? Teams? Does anyone have first hand knowledge on this topic?

The fact that the NFL game used section of the hobby has been so clogged with bad jerseys in the past few years makes you hope that they buy pieces right from the teams

Anyone with confirmed info out there?

Eric

[suave1477]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

Eric this is a great topic and has been discussed before on the forum. The reality is unless someone here knows the card company directly who knows where these so called pieces come from, but I believe it is safe to assume that they are not just coming directly from a card company. I believe a good amount is coming from Auction Houses, Ebay, collectors personal collections, Teams and other sources.

Look back on this forum discussing topics of cards with wrong game used pieces in them. Some thing is defintiely funny about them.

I believe there is a member who personally owned an All Star game or All Star futures Game used Jersey of Papelbon. Yet on ebay someone was selling and baseball card with a swatch in it of the same Jersey.

How is that possible??? I asked the person who owned it, he said he still had it. I even called the company to find out the deal. All I got was voicemails with no reply.

I have seen a Strawberry Jersey Game Used Card with a piece of a patch in it, Impossible because the colors on the patch were never ever worn by the Mets.

It is definitely scary and has made me stay away from collecting the game used cards.

Here is a perfect example: go on ebay right now and look for Yankees Game Used cards, how many recent players are out there with pieces of Yankees Jerseys, Are they getting them from Steiner???? and then cutting them up????

[orioles03]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

i remember when i was with the orioles in 2006 upperdeck sent jerseys for tejada ,bedard,roberts, mora.my job was to make sure they wore the jerseys for one inning and then get the jerseys from them and then package them up and ship them out.all they had to do is just wear them, the 2006 jerseys did not even have the hendricks iron on patch on the sleeve it was a big deal i'm not sure who they were paying but they wanted to get them to wear the jerseys to put on cards

[bigtruck260]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

Hi Eric -

From what I have read (I used to collect these things)...

Playoff/Donruss used to be the same company. Not sure if they are now. I know Donruss was having some financial trouble after losing the MLB contract.

Some companies have authorized dealers that they procure autographs (usually cut sigs) and game used/event used items from. They also buy them from eBay, auction houses and other dealers that they feel have genuine merchandise.

I stopped collecting novelty cards when I came across several eBay auctions that had bat barrels from store model bats embedded in cards and numbered 1/1 or some ridiculously low number.

This is probably a reason that GU collecting is becoming so popular. Kids are realizing that for the $300 you might spend on opening boxes - or buying these "rare" cards with an unidentifiable layer of fabric...you could easily own a nice gamer of that player...or at least have a nice down payment on something.

[PudgePollyMillerFan]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

I know that I wanted some Detroit Tigers game worn jerseys from last season and was told by Steve Graus (Tigers Authentics Mgr at the time) that I would have to wait until the next set of jerseys came out because he promised the first set to a card company who was picking them up directly from the team....players I wanted that were not availabe were Pudge, Verlander, Sheffield, Granderson and Ordonez.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

And the really scary thing is, if you can find issues with a SWATCH, imagine the issues you might find if you could view the entire jersey. And the sad fact is, with the swatch cards, there is almost no way of ever determining authenticity. That could be a piece of Babe Ruth's jersey or it could be a piece of grandpa's flannel boxer shorts. You are never going to know. So the cards are worth only what value or trust you put into a COA. Which to me, ain't much.

[suave1477]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

. That could be a piece of Babe Ruth's jersey or it could be a piece of grandpa's flannel boxer shorts. You are never going to know. So the cards are worth only what value or trust you put into a COA. Which to me, ain't much.

Heeeeeeey my grandpas flannel boxers are worth a lot ill sell you a pair for $1.99, he wore them for a whole year and shows plenty of use lol lol

[Eric]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

I guess this is also a good thread to post bad swatches... Go nuts.

[David]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

I know some of the high end jerseys in the Barry Halper/Sotheby's auction were won by card companies. I believe this includes the Ty Cobb Athletics jersey.

[orioles03]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

when i was staying over jay gibbons house a card company sent him two of every game used item they made of him the thing is all of his jerseys he ever wore were in a box in his basement and the only other one he ever gave away was to me he was asking how they made game used jersey cards when he has all of his jerseys i saw the box it was loaded with jerseys.he also said bat cards he does not know where they got the bats from .i do have a contract he signed with donruss explaning to him they will pay him $10,000 to sign about 2500 cards

[EndzoneSports]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

Here a 2002 Donruss Elite Throwback Threads game-worn memorabilia card #TT-14 of quarterback Craig Morton… A caption above the photo on the back reads, "This is a photo of the actual jersey from which this swatch was taken."


The card’s photo depicts the a jersey which was sold at an American Memorabilia auction in 2000 as identified by the unique auto/inscription on the back which denoted it as being “Super Bowl XII game-worn”. While it cannot be discerned by the card’s photo of the back of the jersey, when auctioned by AMI, the catalog clearly showed the blue/red on white Russell Athletic manufacturer’s tagging on the front of this jersey, which dated the jersey style to post-1983--A jersey not only manufactured six years after Super Bowl XII, but also at least one full year after Morton’s 1982 retirement.



There was a bit of ironic justice in knowing that this one, which Donruss had shelled out in excess of $2,200 to obtain, had been chopped up into tiny little swatches.

Best regards,

[OleMiss]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

I check the Beckett site every once in while. There are always post on there linking to auctions on ebay where there are cards with fake patches on them. Not saying this one is, but apprently there are alot of folks that have figured out how to cut up a patch or piece of a jersey and put multi colored patches on the card. Of course the multi colored pieces sell for alot more then single color cards.

I've never understood why a card company doesn't start putting coupons for the actual jersey in card packs. I think this would be a big hit. Instead of getting a piece you get the entire jersey with a letter from the company when it was game used.

[3arod13]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

Anyone remember the Manny Ramirez Corked Bat Card.

http://www.beckett.com/estore/news/?s=1&eskin=beckett&a=1076

[3arod13]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

In my opinion, all game used memorabilia in sports cards should only come from the teams themselves, back up by an LOA.

[bubbrubb25]

Re: How do card companies get game used items?

How do card companies get game used items??? They go to a sports store and buy a few jerseys. Well atleast sometimes it seems like thats what there doing.