Unexpected Game Used Surprises You've Uncovered

[Dewey2007]

Last night I was researching my 2008-09 Jason Kidd game used road jersey and I discovered he wore the jersey in the game when he scored his 15,000 career point (Feb 2, 2009 @ Orlando).

Not earth-shattering or HOF material by any means but I thought it was nice to have a jersey he wore when he reached a career statistical milestone. This is signifcant only in the fact that in '08-09 Kidd became the first and only NBA player (to date) to have at least 15,000 points, 10,000 assists, & 7,000 rebounds in a career. I was one game off from him wearing the jersey when he recorded his 10,000th assist too which would have been nice.

Would like to hear any unexpected milestones or historical moments you've uncovered that game used equipment in your collection was part of.

[Birdbats]

I've had a couple bats turn out to be special. Admittedly, when I bought them, I had hopes they could be out of the ordinary, but I didn't know for sure until I'd done some research.

Earlier this year, I bought a David Freese bat from the Cardinals. After examining every WS at bat, photos and video, I learned my bat was used during the historic sixth game. Freese swung it for his first two ABs, broke it on his second AB, then switched to a black Rawlings bat that now is in Cooperstown.

The other bat was used by Rick Ankiel for his first HR as a position player. Rick's story is well known -- flamed out as a pitcher, went back to the minors, reinvented himself as an outfielder and made it back to the bigs. In his first game back on 8/9/07, he homered. It was a memorable moment in Cards history. I bought an Ankiel bat at the stadium after the fact, and it turned out to be Rick's HR bat.

Other gambles didn't turn out as well. For example, in 2006, I bought a Mark Mulder jersey from the team. Mark threw the first pitch in new Busch Stadium, and I hoped that maybe this jersey was the one he wore. When I got it signed, though, Mark told me he had the first-pitch jersey. I matched mine the second game Mulder pitched at Busch.

[Robert Sanders]

I won a couple of 2006 Pedro Martinez Mets GU items through MLB auctions, a hat and a jersey. The jersey turned out to be worn the very first time that he returned to Fenway Park after leaving the Red Sox at the end of the 2004 season. He didn't pitch in that first game, but it was the jersey he wore when he received the initial fan reaction. The hat, on the other hand, turned out to be worn on the day that he got his 200th win. I was quite surprised at the time, and continue to be, that no one at MLB auctions bothered to research the potential significance of these two items.

Robert

[michael47]

I've also had two bats turn out to be historic that were sold as regular bats. The first bat was a Paul O'Neill bat I bought from a dealer in November 1998. I was not in the market for an O'Neill bat but the bat had great use & criss-cross tape & had the look of a really nice game used bat. Since the price was high & I was not looking for an O'Neill bat I did not buy it but there was a large red mark on the bat & there was something familiar about it. I went out that night & stopped at the bookstore since in the back of my mind I had seen that bat before. I had recently been looking at the 1998 World Series book with photos from the entire 1998 Series. Sure enough, in the middle of the book there was a full page photo of O'Neill completing his swing after hitting a double late in Game #4. The photo clearly shows the red ball mark & all other marks match up perfectly. I was up at 7:00 the next morning to get to the show when it opened so that I could buy the bat before someone else did.

The second bat was a Carlos Beltran bat. After the 2008 season ended I received a list of game used memorabilia being sold by the Mets. There were two Beltran bats on the list, one cracked & one uncracked. The uncracked bat got me thinking since most of the bats for sale from the Mets are cracked. Beltran had hit the last Mets homerun in Shea Stadium history a few weeks before but I was told that this bat was not the final Mets homerun bat at Shea so I did not buy it. After thinking about it for two days I decided to ask for pictures of the bat. The uncracked bat had great use on it & I was able to match it perfectly to photos of Beltran hitting the last Met homerun at Shea Stadium.

[Dewey2007]

Just discovered another one. Found out the photomatched Jimmy Rollins Rawlings bat I have was used by him to hit an RBI double on 7/25/09 and this gave Rollins a career high 5 RBI's. He also used it to hit a homerun the following day.

[cohibasmoker]

My Super Bowl 4 game worn jersey. It came with 3 LOA's and all three LOA's missed the fact the NFL 50th patch was removed and re-positioned, the red stains on the back, the custom sleeve-ends and unique font numbers. The jersey was sent to person(s) associated with the Vikings back in 1969 where it was examined and their opinion was the jersey was worn in SB 4.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[UGA-1]

A friend alerted me that there was a Herschel Walker jersey in an auction recently. When I saw the jersey my jaw hit the floor! I had always wanted a white Walker jersey, but I knew something was different about this paticular one. Went to my archives and also got opinions from some other awesome Bulldog collectors. The auction listing did mention that this jersey was from the 1980 Tennessee game, but what it did not say is that this was the first jersey HW used as a Georgia Bulldog. It was worn in the first half and removed at halftime because of the damage. HW only wore the white tearaways in that 1st game and his first one had his name on back.

[10thMan]

Bought a Gwynn Sr. Gamer a few Years back, nothing new for me...Recently I looked through my COA Folder to find a Gwynn Family COA Stating it`s a "Post 3000 Hit" Game Used, Signed Mizuno. IMO it`s rare. Outstanding use! I almost sold it for a VERY reasonable Price, without looking at COA, didn`t know I had it! Glad I didn`t sell it. Gwynn returned to work recently, I`m interested in showing it to him & getting more Info! Sean tempbreak@ hotmail dot com

[David]

This isn't game used, but my all time best 'find' was when I bought a small stack of autographed letters from a reputable and well known dealer. It was supposed to include folks like Carl Yastremski, Neil Ball, Ralph Branca-- which it did. However, unmentioned in the auction listing and hidden in the stack was a handwritted 4 page twice signed autobiography by Jack Glasscock(!!!) and a signed typed letter from Tommy Bond (first Triple Crown pitching winner, played in the 1870) describing the uniforms they wore back then.

Glasscock's handwriting was rough and I was trying to figure out that letter, and noticed things like "1878" and "Players League." He said in the letter than he was uneducated, and in the letter he stuff like put periods in the middle of a sentences!

[David]

I should add I translated the Glasscock letter onto a web page, and historians used the letter as reference for his bio. His dad was a working class boat builder, and when Jack was 15 his dad said he played too much baseball instead of working. His dad said he could either work for him or go away and play baseball, but not both. And Jack chose baseball and left home.

[David]

For financial perspective, a cut Jack Glasscock signature might sell for $1,000.

[hockeytigers]

You guys got me thinking as I was reading this thread...what might I have in my jersey collection that might be a pleasant surprise....

I figured I would start with the player in my collection that was one of the best...Morten Andersen.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I have the jersey that Morten Andersen used when he broke George Blanda's NFL record for games played with 341 against the Chicago Bears on September 26, 2004.

[Vincent]

Ryan Brauns 100th home run line up card.
At fan fest a few years ago they had line up cards for $10 each. i bought 2 and after doing some research it was actually the one from his 100th homer. I know it probably isn't that valuable but I found it interesting

[Dewey2007]

Nice find especially for the price! It might be valuable to a Braun collector or if he keeps on winning MVP's and putting up big numbers.


Ryan Brauns 100th home run line up card.
At fan fest a few years ago they had line up cards for $10 each. i bought 2 and after doing some research it was actually the one from his 100th homer. I know it probably isn't that valuable but I found it interesting

[jake33]

I won last year an MLB auction for a game used base from the "2008 ALCS" - Turns out the game it was used in was the 2nd base that Akinori Iwamura stepped on the get the final out in game to send the Rays to their first ever World Series. It is authenticated to game 7 and authenticated to the 9th inning (amongst other innings). A borderline hall of fame worthy game used item for well under $400

Part of me always wants to sell it for a profit, but it also is once in a lifetime type of purchase. Probably better as a family heirloom.
--

Also, bought a game used Buccaneers helmet of darian barnes #30, got a few photo matches and turns out it was worn in Super Bowl 37.

I overpaid for the helmet originally at $550, but maybe with the added value, it is a $1000 item, considering the very few legit Buccaneers game used helmets that are out there.

[sox83cubs84]

A GU baseball, from a 2010 Braves win, won on eBay a few months ago and MLB Authenticated. A little research confirmed that the ball was used in Craig Kimbrel's 1st MLB save game. Kimbrel, of course, won NL ROY honors in 2011 and notched 46 saves that season.

Dave Miedema

[schubert1970]

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=35687&page=19&highlight=pete+rose+cork

http://deadspin.com/5555714/this-is-pete-roses-corked-bat

To this day I still can't belive it.

[ironmanfan]

A few years ago I purchased some Orioles line up cards from a dealer and I later discovered that one was from Cal Ripken Jr.'s 1000th Consecutive Game in 1988 @ Fenway Park (this was actually on display at the Babe Ruth Museum for a few years while they had a Ripken career time line exhibit):

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k172/whhp72/Game%20Used/ripken1000.jpg

[coxfan]

These are all great stories. Half the fun of buying a rare piece of history, whether a g-u sports item, or a rare book, is doing research and finding out more about it. Often there's more to the story than the seller even knew.

[jsr418]

I have two that turned out to be pleasant surprises. One was a Mark Teixeira bat that was MLB authenticated as being broken in the 2009 ALDS series against the Twins. It was broken in the at-bat the game after he hit the walk off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. After quite a bit of photomatching and a ton of help here, it turns out that it is the same bat that he used to hit the homerun. The at bat is replayed on a YES network commercial 20 times a day lol.

The next is an absolutely hammered Jorge Posada uncracked LVS with a ton of use and ridiculous tar from last season. Turns out to be the last bat he EVER used before retiring. Matched to every at bat including the triple he hit against the Tigers in the playoff's, his last regular season RBI, last Homerun, and last hit (he used a different bat for his last regular season at bat). Definitely one of the favorites in my collection.

[yankees506]

I have three i can think of off the top of my head. My first two favorites both involved Johnny Damon of all people

First was an Eric Hinske model bat that had an 18 on the knob and after a bit of reasearch it was used by Damon to hit hr #20 in 2009. Not a bad bat for $50 from steiner ;)

Next was a 2009 damon bwp bat that had an october production date and was photomatched to an rbi single in game 1 of the ALCS vs the Angels. I attended that game and it was the first and only time ive gotten an item from a game i attended. Also that night was insanely cold! :D

The other was a Brett Gardner Lvs with a production date of Jan and used on the 4th of JULY for an inside the park homerun. Sometimes production date is not always around when a bat was used. :confused: