What issues in the hobby to you think need to be addressed? How would you change them?
If you could set the rules of the hobby, what would you do?
(This is not an excuse to bury people. If you're going to criticize someone- you must log in with your email address)
I think an area that needs to be addressed is- we need some way to distinguish game issued items from the real thing. There is so much fraud in the industry that having blank jerseys or game cut jersey with proper tagging is a very dangerous thing.
In other industries, like the music industry the items are defaced. Promo CDs either have a hole punched in the bar code or have a hole drilled into to corner of the jewel case through the label. That way they cannot be bought and sold as the real thing.
I would love it if the various leagues X'd out or stamped tagging on non used items.
Baseball needs a central company like Meigray to track and sell jerseys. I realize some people will say that this creates a monopoly but it seems to work for the hockey teams that have bought into the program.
Buying from the teams would be great, if there was ANY standardization in the way they did business! Some teams, such as the Blue Jays, are responsive, and wonderful to deal with...others, like the Royals, are a nightmare.
Bulk sales to a groups such as Meigray and Steiner are the best bet. It’s worked years ago with the Hartel’s, Ball Four’s and Sports Warehouse’s. A controlled inventory in today’s hobby environment is a must. Not all of us collectors want or can afford the Alex Rodriguez et. al., but having access to commons to mid stars at a reasonable price is what we get from a Meigray type system. And before you say anything about Steiner, if you look past the A-Rod’s and overpriced World Series jerseys, you can find deals. I got an ’83 Road Oscar Gamble for under $425 and saw an ‘83 Griffey go for the same price.
And now my pet peeve. The term “Team Issued” or “Game Issued” are a sham. If a player is “issued” a jersey, for all intents and purposes, it is in his locker ready for use. Correct me if I’m wrong but, does Brian Giles use only his set one home until he thinks it’s so worn he changes to set two? I don’t think so. I would not touch Game Issued and I’m very reluctant to purchase any jersey from the last five years. If I had a nickel for every Game Used Larry Walker Rockies jersey over the past year or so, I would have at least .60 cents. $24999.40 more and I can bid on the Alex Rodriguez Yankees jersey.
Realistically, the hobby has had the same issues for over 20+ years: egos, undereducated experts, uneducated collectors, etc. The fraud regarding the blanks, team issued and fake jerseys is the only thing which has been go from bad to worse. Sad part of that is the authenticators who were to save us have had no impact on that problem. You could go as far to say they have nurtured it.
Re: General Question- How would you change the hobby?
September 7 2005, 6:23 PM
I would also agree that there needs to be some control method on the team leftovers, such as the blanks. I would not however go as far as to label/mark the game issued jerseys. It was mentioned that someone didn't think Giles would wear just one jersey and not the other. Traditionaly(unless they're a superstar or a rockies player) most plaers are issued 2 jerseys per style/color. I think most would agree that's the industry standard. I have seen many instances where a player will only wear one jersey and not the other.
The other is considered a backup to some and they use the first one they wore until it falters and they need to use a new one. I had the chance recently to buy both the gamer and game issued backup of the same player, they were the only 2 issued to the player but one was for the most part brand new, the tags were almost perfect save for a few wrinkles/creases from being moved around while the other one was quite hammered in baseball terms and use, stains, fraying of the letters, light pilling.
This may be the case for just this one team, I don't know for sure. I would tend to believe that seeing some of the other jerseys that this seemed to be the normal practice, 1 jersey had good use, while the other looked new or had very very light use.
The other thing I'd say that needs to be changed and I really wish there was a way to do it, is to stop card companies from cutting up historic items. Babe Ruth bats need to be kept from the saw, Ted williams bats, Orlando Cepeda Pants. Pretty much anything that's flannel or considred vintage. I'd say let them cut anything from 1990 to present, since there's a ton of that stuff around even more so after 2000 and then every few years move the time frame up to say 1995-2010. I do collect cards and I do try to keep the amount of the "game used" cards I own to a minimum. ITG already lost my business the year they cut up the only known pads in existance of Georges Vezina. I've been to the HHOF twice and I would have rather seen them there on display than to say oh, I own 1 square inch of his only pads. If a second pair had surfaced I still don't think either should be cut. They haven't even noticed since another collector jumped right in to fill my spot when I stopped buying.
There also needs to be some sort of relaiable authentication system for hats, I guess using the MLB Authentics would solve that to some degree but that's alot of logging on the database on their part and they're already behind as it is.
I'm NOT pointing this at ANYONE but I wish people in the hobby had more honsety and integrity, if you feel it's a bad item or even have any notion it could be bad, keep it out of the hobby and don't pass it on to someone else. As seen in some cases on the hockey side, some will even mark the item stating it's not real.
The window for collecting game used items ,with peace of mind and an eye towards a item that was USED not just played with for one game ,has passed for the casual enthusiast. The GAME is now a BUISNESS and so is this hobby. It requires a carefull eye on the seller/item to be satisfied. I watch the goings on in this hobby daily and I would now say stay away from anything after 2002 as so far as jerseys go. If I wanted to,with what I know I could forge any jersey and sell it. I have a perfect E-bay feedback,I could include fake photos of my family or dog,type in "God bless you" or "God bless the USA"," Don't bid unless you intend on paying-been burned before" Belive me If I want I could sew a set tag into existing sew holes on any label and age the set tag to match the label-But I wouldn't but others can and do. And then I could consign this item that was obtained from an "impecable source" and then what you have is 40% of the jersey pool today. Or like what RC Walker just said the numerous Colorado jerseys out there with the COA signed in purple by Kellogg(which if I want can copy-bond paper and all. I don't know what to tell you. There are some jerseys I have that will require extensive homework to make me feel comfortable with as far as being absolutely genuine. So-I've stopped with the jerseys and gone on a tangent with warm-up jackets with names sewn on the back("Viola"on back of heavy shell windbreaker Mets #29 on sleeve-ebay Item# 5222446178--$99!!!) It's one of my best buys in this hobby and a direction away from the mainstream. It's funny though how the hobby is following the current state of the game.So-to answer your question directly you can't change it-any more than you can repair baseball they're hand in hand. Nothing will be as it was so carefully, CAREFULLY collect older items. If AmazinMemorabilia really wanted to do things right it would include a COA that would say something like:"This David Wright jersey was used by David in a Major League game on August 19th and 23,2005. During those games he went 4 for 8 with 2 hrs. included is a DVD of those two games-enjoy your jersey" But they don't AND WHY NOT? Go the extra step if your asking extra money.
