Old sports jerseys

[hormone]

I don't know if this belongs in this forum, but I was wondering if old jerseys were worth anything? I was cleaning out the closet and I saw my old jersey collection. I have some replicas of stuff like the orange Elway, an orange Harper Bucs jersey, Jagr with the diagonal Pittsburgh on it, etc. Now I know replicas aren't worth as much as authentics, but there is no wear on these jerseys and they are from the original run of these jerseys and not RBK throwbacks with RBK logos all over it. Also, I found some old authentics. The best authentic I found was the Aikman double star jersey with the 75th anniversary patch on it. It still has all the tags on it and everything. So, are these worth something???

Thanks

[DGivens87]

Sounds like you have a few nice jerseys on your hands. Best way to evaluate how much they're worth is to either list them on eBay, or search similar jerseys already on there. I've seen an authentic double star 75th Anniversary Aikman go for $300+ before.

[Discrim]

the only one I wouldn't bother with is the Harper jersey, unless you were selling it to bucco B. heh, you could fetch a pretty penny for that Aikman, and the rest you mentioned would yield a little pocket change too, I figure.

[Lee.]

Hey, depending on the size and the price, I'd buy the Harper jersey.

[spyboy1]

Old jerseys, as with a lot of things go through a fairly common lifecycle.

First, they are new and current. Price=retail

Then, they become old and outdated. Price=clearance

Then after a certain amount of time has passed they often become collectable and throwbacks, especially when that style has been retired. Price=retail

Then they age into rare and vintage. Price=retail and above.

Obviously there's many factors and your mileage may vary. Two ways to absolutley kill the resale value of a jersey is to have it customized with the wrong font in some stupid way. Wrong font, colors, quality, etc. Right now on ebay there are some "old school" red & green Devils jerseys with freakin' green numbers! Stupid!! Heat transfer yellow numbers on a Lemieux instead of sewn yellow trimmed in white is also not going to help in the future.

They second resale killer is getting your own name on it. I know of some people who own many, many jerseys that all have "Farnsworth #42" (or even worse, #69). Who the hell is going to want that, even if it's a Los Angeles Kings Burger King Alternate with exact specification lettering?

You couldn't pay me to wear a Hartford Whalers jersey when they were actually playing, but now that you can't buy one it's cool to be old school, a blank Whalers authentic just went on ebay within the last month for $150, pretty much full retail price these days and probably more than when it was new.

People really seem to value the authentics as well. They must be rather scarce since they sold fewer to begin with and many will pay a premium for the extra quality. Hockey fans in general must be on the large size, since XL & XXL seem to go for higher in my observations. Mediums and smalls are worth a lot less from what I have seen.

Having not only star players like Elway & Aikman is great, but Super Bowl Champions on top of that is really playing into your hands. Add in a rare style plus a commemorative patch? As long as it's not a size small and is correctly lettered, you're golden!

Right now, there are three diagonal Jagr's on ebay, all L or XL. A buy it now unsold at $69 and one currently bid up to $45 and one with screwed up numbers at $20. Timing is everything though, sell those when he's being a dog playing in Washington and you won't get much. Wait until he's in the Cup Finals having won the Art Ross trophy and it goes for 5 times as much.

With Christmas on the horizon, it's time to do your research and get your photos taken so you can list them just after Thanksgiving and rake in the bucks!

Got any more cool hockey? I'd love to know what you've got.

JeffB

[BlueSky]

Let me share my "old jersey" story. When I was a kid - I'm 45 now - I was into wearing jerseys but you just couldn't find them, especially anything authentic. It's hard to believe this deal when I think back on it, but the Saints had a little gift shop in their main offices, which were then on Lee Circle in New Orleans, and they ran a special: buy $25 worth of merchandise and receive a free team-issued game jersey! I was there in a flash and my prize was a road jersey in the style seen on Archie Manning below. It was #49 and the name was Whitaker. I can't recall the exact year, but WR Creston Whitaker had 1 reception for 6 yards for the 1972 Saints, so it must have been after that.

I had it for years but wore it a lot and eventually it got pretty torn up and I threw it away. Wish I'd had the sense to take care of it and keep it for the long haul.

[paynomind]

No, they are all worthless. I'll give you $20 for the lot.

[hormone]

Well, thanks for all the info. I'm going to keep most of them. What I found so far (some old, some newer)...

Authentic Aikman double star w/75th patch

Replica E. Smith white

Replica Aikman blue (older style)

Replica Elway Orange

Replica Harper Orange (wearing 82 and I remember choosing this jersey over that rookie 99 Sapp )

Replica Bucs white Dunn

Replica Bucs red Alstott

Replica Jagr diagonal Pitts

Replica Jagr black triangle penguin

Replica Lemieux white of the same year

Authentic black Lemieux when he came back (vegas gold no "C" since he wasn't) with tags

Authentic white Lemiuex vegas gold

Authentic Brian Giles Pirates (all three jerseys) with tags

Granted I didn't hit the motherload and I'm not looking to retire with this lot. I just thought it was neat that these were still there and in excellent condition. I might as well hang on to them for a while longer.