Vintage Jersey Recycling?

[bginlinehockey]

Do any major card companies actually do this? It would seem that to a certain point a player's game used jerseys would dry up on the market. For example, watching the Lemieux gamer getting cut up in the Panini video there cannot be a ton of actual Lemieux game used jerseys on the market. Most I would assume have fallen into private collections or have already been cut up.

Would it be cheaper in the long run for a company like UD or ITG to purchase older jersey cards of Lemieux for example that have already been in packs for years and re-purpose them for a new product line? I'm assuming that an authentic Lemieux game jersey would easily sell for $10,000.

Lemieux may even be too recent for this discussion. What about players who ended their careers in the 60s, 70s and 80s?

 

[nucks4cup]

With the patch faking that goes on i would hope that that is to never ever happen. And all any company has to do is sit Lemieux(or any other player down) and have him try on a jersey or 2 and they will be set with enough material for a while

 

[bginlinehockey]

Has an event worn/photo shoot jersey been used for a player like Lemieux/Gretzky/Howe?

 

[odjickfan]

Has an event worn/photo shoot jersey been used for a player like Lemieux/Gretzky/Howe?

Aren't they using an event used Howe jersey in the new Panini Prime?

 

[Jester240]

Aren't they using an event used Howe jersey in the new Panini Prime?

No. Its game used. Vegas covered it in the Prime thread.

 

[MGiuseffi1969]

There are only so many GU items from pre 1970 out there... yet companies still seem to find more and more Vintage GU stuff to cut up. Not just Hockey either. How many Babe Ruth Jerseys and Bats are readily available? Topps, UD and Donruss (Panini) have put out TONS of Ruth memorabilia. It just makes you wonder....

 

[Superdoup]

I really hope there's a rule that state compgnies are not allowed to do that! would be really bad to buy off all the Lemieux from UD and make Panini cards with them!! or vice-versa. this is as bad as the fake patching!

 

[bprice]

The answer from ITG is NEVER except from our own cards.

We do recycle the vintage memorabilia from our cards.

The process to authenticate memorabilia is painstaking and there is no way that we would buy other companies cards to use their memorabilia.

With respect to Mario Lemieux, he played a lot of years and he had a special relationship with Steve Latin the equipment man for the Penguins.

In the very lean years in Pittsburgh, Mario wore a lot of jerseys and Steve Latin sold them to make extra revenue.

When the team was refinanced, Steve was let go and many of his Mario jerseys hit the marketplace.

Authenticating game-used memorabilia is not easy, I have been collecting game-used memorabilia for over 20 years now so I think I know what that market is all about.

Brian Price

 

[lucscaps]

The answer from ITG is NEVER except from our own cards.

We do recycle the vintage memorabilia from our cards.

Dr. Price,
when you do this is it from unsold stock or from buy back items in the secondary market?
do you keep track of this kind of thing.

for example; if you you recycled something you bought back that would decrease the existing print run of the original card.

See where I"m going?

 

[bprice]

Sorry if I was not clear.

We do not do buy-backs for this purpose.

When a customer service card is outside the customer service timeline, the card is broken down for the vintage memorabilia.

Hope this gives clearer picture.

Brian Price

 

[lucscaps]

Sorry if I was not clear.

We do not do buy-backs for this purpose.

When a customer service card is outside the customer service timeline, the card is broken down for the vintage memorabilia.

Hope this gives clearer picture.

Brian Price

yup, that explains it. I pretty much figured this is what would happen with those types of cards.

 

[meingram]

Aren't they using an event used Howe jersey in the new Panini Prime?

You may be thinking of one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gordie-Howe...t=US_Hockey_Trading_Cards&hash=item257f5198bf

They did use an event-worn Howe jersey in the Father's Day Prime promotion cards.

 

[bprice]

I wish I could do the same thing with Gordie.

When he first signed for Parkhurst, he worn about six Red Wings jerseys and twelve Parkhurst jerseys at different events.

I guess I should sell them to Panini and Upper Deck. I could make a fortune.

Brian Price

 

[jetsman]

On the Ruth comment, you know how big he was right?

Seriously though, some of those swatch sizes are really small. Take a look for example at 06-07's BTP sextuplet jersey cards or the Artifacts Frozen Fabrics - each swatch was around a dime in size. Companies conserve when they need to, no question...

Now having said that, I can't help but roll my eyes some times when I see the giant swatches for jerseys from the 70s or older. Is the single sweet swatch on a card better than the six it could yield that would still be that cool?

For example, I have a Bossy Artifacts patch card The swatch, as noted above, is about a dime in size and has a pretty cool piece on it. Would it be any better if it was four or five times the size? I really don't think so. At a certain point, collectors understand when you have to conserve pieces.

 

[bginlinehockey]

Best part about this forum is that you can get a direct answer from the owner of a card company. Pretty interesting and my past/future money goes toward products that feature hard signed and actual game used cards. Photoshoot/even cards are a joke.