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Jersey LOA/COA stories + examples


slimcutta

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Crap like this irritates me more than it probably should. Look at this gem:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Martin-Brodeur-Devils-signed-game-used-Joffa-practice-jersey-auto-CBM-COA-/231898918551?&_trksid=p2056016.m2518.l4276

The issues here are the LOA's. The first letter shown is basically JSA saying that the authenticator is a good guy. OK, but doesn't tell me anything about this supposed "game worn" practice Brodeur jersey. The next LOA from the authenticator's store which provides exactly 2 sentences of what I guess is supposed to be provenance, but doesn't go into why exactly he thinks it was worn my Brodeur. The rest of the LOA (2 larger paragraphs than the first, important one) basically just says how wonderful him and his store is. Not only that, but further down on the listing is a bio of the authenticator whose area of expertise is only listed as being baseball.

This goes to show how worthless a lot of LOA's can be. As a Devils gamer collector, these LOA's provide zero as it doesn't answer:

1) What exactly is the wear they are observing/examining on the jersey
2) When this was worn and for how long
3) (and more importantly) How does he know Brodeur wore this other than it matches others that he has seen (which he doesn't describe either in terms of common characteristics), especially since there are no numbers or anything to connect Brodeur to this jersey.

I've seen some similar bad LOAs, including this piece of toilet paper -

LOA1-vi.jpg

LOA2-vi.jpg

Plenty of BS that doesn't prove anything, accompanied by a small picture that doesn't show any real detail, but does reveal it's not properly customized -

LOA4-vi.jpg

One could have just as easily written -
"Mario Lemieux was great, and he scored a lot, and he might have been better than Gretzky, but he got hurt and missed some hockey. The jersey has stitching that matches the fabric color, and the wash care instructions tag gives you information on how to wash the jersey. In comparison to similar exemplars, Brian Drent is using fancy words to misrepresent a jersey that clearly isn't game issued."

Anyways, figured it's a good opportunity to start a thread, and see some of the good and bad COAs/LOAs that you've come across over the years.

With pics please :)

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My favorite is the Guam64 COA!

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In contrast, the best I've seen is when the COA is straight forward details, and, of course, accompanied by a photomatch -

Yeah, the actual jersey is the thing that is worthless in this situation.

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There was once a very prominent game worn jersey and equipment dealer whose LOA's have been questioned by many for years.

They often included phrases like:

"that the xxxxx you purchased from us, is to the best of my knowledge, a game worn/used xxxx" - Um ok so this is an opinion letter then and not an LOA

"this LOA becomes null and void if not in the possession of the person listed at the top of this form" - not exact words but paraphrasing and I have seen this on his LOA's. What good are LOA's if they are not transferrable to a new owner? Even Meigray doesn't do that.

This same former dealer was also famous for having typographical errors in his LOA's as well as wrong information such as wrong year, wrong player, etc. He was also somewhat famous for his mistakes like when someone would order a pair of gloves from a certain player and the customer would get 2 left gloves.

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Also, I like that example Slim showed in his original post, why are people who are clearly not experts at game worn jerseys writing LOA's for game worn jerseys? You don't see experts in game worn jerseys writing LOA's for rare cards. Just like my example that was posted into this thread by Slim, why is an admitted baseball expert writing LOA's for hockey jerseys?

Hell I think I am pretty decent at analyzing Devils gamers, but there are people with far more expertise in Devils gamers and I often ask them questions about stuff instead of me trying to presume. Plus I do not go around writing LOA's for stuff I do not know about or have vague knowledge about. You won't see me trying to write an LOA for a Kings or Montreal gamers.

This is why LOA's from those who are not experts at game worn jerseys are basically a glorified piece of paper that says they guess it's real.

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This same former dealer was also famous for having typographical errors in his LOA's as well as wrong information such as wrong year, wrong player, etc. He was also somewhat famous for his mistakes like when someone would order a pair of gloves from a certain player and the customer would get 2 left gloves.

In fairness, there have been plenty of moments in the last few years where the quality of play has indicated that Devils players might be wearing two left gloves...

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In fairness, there have been plenty of moments in the last few years where the quality of play has indicated that Devils players might be wearing two left gloves...

Haha while true, this dealer sold a lot more than Devils.

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  • 1 month later...

I found this awesome example from an older post on a Devils fans FB group (I can pretty much predict the jokes stemming from that statement). Anyways this was posted by a fan who said he won this puck at one of the arcades at the Jersey Shore. Take a look at this "

This is a great example of why I roll my eyes every time I hear the line "you need a COA to show it's real" or "it's not real unless there is a COA!"

27070470451_577cfdea61_c.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

I regret that I'm only seeing this now, as it is my new favorite thing.

I'll give them credit for one thing, pretty sure that's a puck. I mean it could be a Ring Ding, but puck seems likely.

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  • 2 months later...

Same guy as before went to the same place down the NJ shore and won another autographed puck with another fabulous COA hahaha.  He got a little pissed at me when I told him that COA is worthless.

 

29157043785_d35c05a0a7_c.jpg

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  • 5 months later...

I'm not entirely sure I'd want to keep it at all, but I guess it depends on what you're happy with and what you collect. Was it a specialty jersey that was only worn for 1 game or 1 period, or was it something that should have been worn for a whole season and should have obvious wear?

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