Here's a question- maybe we can learn from each other. What's the biggest mistake you have made in collecting game used items.

I only collect pre-war unis and equipment, mostly anonymous (even the teams). Given the scarceness of information and other collectors in this area, I have made plenty of mistakes, both in determining age and value. Now that I know a few collectors of similar items, it's getting easier.

My biggest mistake is probably not factoring condition into the item's value - there are some near-pristine unis out there, and some totally ragged ones.

I think the biggest mistake collectors (new and old) can make is not having parameters to his (or her) collection and snapping up anything nice that comes available. Inevitably, when it comes time to pare down a bloated collection into one with a more specific focus, the collector takes a loss on stuff that shouldn't have been bought in the first place.

That's to say nothing of what may have fit into the collection but wasn't acquired because funds were tied up in useless stuff.

http://community.webshots.com/user/rockytopreb/

Nathan,

That is 100% correct.

When I first started collecting, I bought anything of any player that I watch today or from my childhood. It took about 2 years to realize this was insane. However, what is even more insane, in my mind, is that no matter how many times I have to thin out my collection, I tend to go right back to my old habits.

Starting! LOL!

4 5 8 20 22 33 42

In my attempt to piece together a collection of game-used jerseys of members of the Denver Broncos' Ring of Fame, I had some limited success initially dealing direclty with the players. One in particulary was QB Charlie Johnson, who was with the team in the early '70s.
Upon contacting Mr. Johnson, he'd indicated that while he didn't have a jersey (all his memorabilia had been given to his children), he had given one to one of his old school buddies who used to own a Colorado car dealership. All he had was a name and city, but armed with that, I was able to track down an address for the person who I hoped still had Charlie's jersey.
A couple of weeks passed and a phone call came. Much to my surprise, the gentleman still had the jersey framed and hanging on the wall of his auto shop, "along with a few others" so he stated. Asked if he was willing to part with it, he said that he'd been hoping for years to find someone who'd give it a good home. Needless to say, I was on the road within a couple of days to make the 200 mile trek for my prize.
When I arrived, I found that he not only had a beautiful 1975 Charlie Johnson jersey, but also a '72 Jim Turner (another Ring of Famer), a '84 Steve Watson w/ 25th Anniv. patch and a '77-'78 Bobby Maples worn in Super Bowl XII. Offered all four of these jerseys, I asked what he wanted. He stated, "Charlie gave the jersey to me, and it wouldn't be right if I made a profit on it. It cost me $75 each to have them framed... Give me $300 for the four of them." Sold!
Great luck you might say. But to my greatest mistake? Not wanting to be greedy, I only accepted four of the five jerseys that he offered me as the fifth didn't "fit" within the scope of my collection. The one I turned down was a game jersey from another one of his a Charlie Johnson's high school classmates, an early '70s Cowboys jersey from Hall of Famer Bob Lilly!

Patrick W. Scoggin
Endzone Sports Charities
http://endzone.pscoggin.com/jerseys.htm