Johnny Damon Smokers jersey

[jake33]

On the Goldin Auctions, there is a Johnny Damon Smokers game used jersey. I have been collecting Rays game used items for over 15 years and each year for the Rays throwback games, the team sells the game used jerseys and gives an issued one to the player to keep.

Goldin Auctions has a Damon Smokers jersey that is up for auction that they got from Johnny. I am left to assume one of 2 things.

1) either Johnny wore 2 jerseys in that game.
2) he is selling the issued one he got from the team as game used.

I have a game used smokers item and I will go through the database and will provide that authentication number for the Damon game used jersey to prove that at bare minimum Damon wore 2 jerseys in that game. My person hunch though is that the Smokers Damon jersey is only issued.

Below is a link to a promotional piece that MLB had to promote that Smokers auction back in 2011, mentioning the Damon jersey

In the promotional piece on the link below it states
"Johnny Damon was 4-for-4 on July 2 and passed Ted Williams on the all-time hits list. If he should stick around long enough to reach 3,000 hits, you could be assured of having the only signed game-used items from him in a Smokers uni."

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/print.jsp?ymd=20110815&content_id=23241912&vkey=news_bal

[jake33]

MLB never put the holograms of the Smokers game in the database, but I do recall seeing Damon's RAYS (NOT INDIANS) Smokers jersey up for auction back in 2011.

Regardless, the holograms for the game used items for the Smokers game were FJ 316450

[Wrigley2010]

FJ 316448 is Melvin Upton's Smokers Jersey which also does not show up in the database. Don't bother contacting MLB about adding these jerseys to the database either because they don't seem to know what to do with them or why they aren't in there.

[jake33]

I have had about 30% luck getting MLB to get authentication numbers posted... usually BB authentication codes though.

Regarding the Damon jersey, I personally believe the jersey is game issued and was the jersey the team gave to the players as a keepsake. I do NOT think Damon knew that though. I also assume Damon did not know of the game used Smokers auction, he probably looked through his old items and sold them off and inscribed game used on most if not all of them because as far as he is concerned he owned it and it was issued to him, so inscribing game used is most likely good enough for him.

[Phil316]

The jersey was authenticated by Dave Miedema and he posts here regularly have you tried reaching out to him ? Or have you messaged Ken Goldin ?

If so please post the response.

[TwinLakesPark]

The jersey was authenticated by Dave Miedema and he posts here regularly have you tried reaching out to him ? Or have you messaged Ken Goldin ?

If so please post the response.

That is why this community has so much value. There is no 1 person that has all of the institutional knowledge of every team, every year, every jersey of every special event.

There are many people that I know on this forum that are experts of particular teams and decades, those of whom (including Dave) I consult with if looking at a jersey from that team and time period. Knowing the habits of a clubhouse/equipment manager has a tremendous amount of value, which was demonstrated in the original post.

Pushing one of these resources toward the guillotine is not helpful to the community, and also reminds me why I don't come by the site as much as I used to.

What really peaks my interest about the original listing up for discussion is the statement in the listing description about this jersey being photo matched, "photo matched to Getty Images 119295411 (front) and 119295388 (back)." I would love to see that match. Maybe Ken can post the photo match for us to see?

[Phil316]

That is why this community has so much value. There is no 1 person that has all of the institutional knowledge of every team, every year, every jersey of every special event.

There are many people that I know on this forum that are experts of particular teams and decades, those of whom (including Dave) I consult with if looking at a jersey from that team and time period. Knowing the habits of a clubhouse/equipment manager has a tremendous amount of value, which was demonstrated in the original post.

Pushing one of these resources toward the guillotine is not helpful to the community, and also reminds me why I don't come by the site as much as I used to.

What really peaks my interest about the original listing up for discussion is the statement in the listing description about this jersey being photo matched, "photo matched to Getty Images 119295411 (front) and 119295388 (back)." I would love to see that match. Maybe Ken can post the photo match for us to see?

i agree 100%.

Let's be honest though. When a player inscribes "game used" an authenticator or even a collector does not put as much effort into authenticating because to him/her its already authenticated. That becomes an issue. I am not saying it happened in this case but in general i have seen it happen alot.

[Phil316]

Pushing one of these resources toward the guillotine is not helpful to the community, and also reminds me why I don't come by the site as much as I used to.

Having access to the person who runs the auction and one of the authenticators is a great thing. If any error is made you can contact them and let them know any evidence you have found. After all no one wants to buy something that has possibly been authenticated wrong.

No one was sending anyone to a guillotine. :rolleyes:

[sox83cubs84]

Having access to the person who runs the auction and one of the authenticators is a great thing. If any error is made you can contact them and let them know any evidence you have found. After all no one wants to buy something that has possibly been authenticated wrong.

No one was sending anyone to a guillotine. :rolleyes:

I didn't see it as such, but let's be honest, it's happened many times on this site before.

Anyway, I evaluated the jersey based on the information available at the time. The information Jake presented was not known by me, although it doesn't totally change my train of thought. I'd be a lot more open to walking this one back if the other jersey with MLB authentication was produced (or at least the hologram number and/or listing).

Dave Miedema

[TwinLakesPark]

Anyway, I evaluated the jersey based on the information available at the time. The information Jake presented was not known by me, although it doesn't totally change my train of thought. I'd be a lot more open to walking this one back if the other jersey with MLB authentication was produced (or at least the hologram number and/or listing).

Dave Miedema

I would agree with your position Dave. However, I wonder who photo matched this jersey as stated in the auction listing and would Ken be willing to present it here or in the auction listing?

It's one thing to make a statement that it is photo matched and another thing to actually have the visual evidence of the photo match.

[jake33]

I tried looking in old MLB auctions to find the actual listing, but I cannot find any of the Smokers jerseys or helmets old auctions, since the auction was 5 years ago. I am 100% positive I saw the authenticated Damon jersey up for auction and I know I saw it north of $350 at one point.

[yanks12025]

I tried looking in old MLB auctions to find the actual listing, but I cannot find any of the Smokers jerseys or helmets old auctions, since the auction was 5 years ago. I am 100% positive I saw the authenticated Damon jersey up for auction and I know I saw it north of $350 at one point.




How can you search past MLB auctions.

[jake33]

If it is within the last year, many times you can just google it to get to the link of the auction or a auction close to it, then search for the auction number.

[Stanley]

http://i1272.photobucket.com/albums/y393/Shootingthebreeze/rays-throwbacks1_zpstmsoipi1.jpg
I think this is it....I have no skin in the game. I just found a pic...

[Phil316]

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/429/18877086424_18d6900d2f_o.png

Another couple pics

Really hard to tell on this one.