Same exact jersey but with new tag?

[shermdawurm]

While doing my daily ebay searching, I saw this Gary Payton signed "game worn" jersey was just listed. Here is a link to it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gary-Payton-2002-2003-Signed-Game-Worn-Seattle-Supersonics-Away-Jersey-44-2-/322460491998?hash=item4b1424a0de:g:SsoAAOSwuxFY0w0-. I was doing some research yesterday on my own GP that I just picked up and stumbled upon this Payton jersey that sold a few years ago on SCP for about $1900 (http://catalog.scpauctions.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=16999). The ebay jersey is tagged 2002-03 while the SCP one is 2001-02. However they appear to be the same exact jersey. Both of the autographs as well as the writing on the tags are identical. The only difference is in the year tags. I'm not sure whats going on but thought I'd let people know since it has already garnered a lot of attention within a few hours. I've provided some photo comparisons below.

-Sherman

[shermdawurm]

I thought I'd add that the SCP jersey does not have the 9/11 unity patch that all teams wore during the 2001-02 season. Perhaps it was removed but who knows, maybe it never had one. Maybe someone noticed this too and decided to change the year to negate the necessity of the missing patch? I would think it would be easier to just have a 9/11 patch added instead of replacing the year tag but like I said who knows. This is a perplexing situation...

Edit: I also noticed that the writing on the tag seems kind of "jagged" especially on the zero. The legit sonics gamers from this era that I've seen tend to have much smoother strokes on the writings on the tags. I'm not saying this jersey is not a real gamer but just something that stood out to me.

[Phil316]

Edit: I also noticed that the writing on the tag seems kind of "jagged" especially on the zero. The legit sonics gamers from this era that I've seen tend to have much smoother strokes on the writings on the tags. I'm not saying this jersey is not a real gamer but just something that stood out to me.

Good catch. I have seen Sonics gamers with some jagged writing before so that really isn't a concern in my opinion. The big red flag is the change in year tag.

[shermdawurm]

Good catch. I have seen Sonics gamers with some jagged writing before so that really isn't a concern in my opinion. The big red flag is the change in year tag.

Phil, do you think legit Sonics gamers from the reebok era (2001-08) should have writing on the tags? I've seen tons without any writing that are being passed off as gamers.

[Phil316]

From my experience and what I own/owned most if not all from the Reebok Era have writing on the tag. The ones that do not most likely are team/game issued. Of course like everything there are exceptions.

That being said the best defense is to always pay with a credit card. If a company does not take credit cards and you are not sure it's not worth taking the chance.