other than seeing whether game-issued items later show up as game-used, i think another benefit to posting items here is to show their source. that is, if a seller says they "acquired it from a player/team source" and it's shown that they really just picked it up from ebay, i think that sort of information is valuable in making purchasing decisions. historic auctions, for example, once offered a david wright batting helmet that they purchased from kim stigall/ball park heroes. there was nothing wrong with the helmet. for some reason, historic felt the need to describe the helmet as "sourced from the Mets". everyone knows that provenance will add to the value of an item. hopefully, in posting items here, the real sources of certain items can be ascertained and it'll help curb all of the "acquired directly from the player/team!" nonsense.

rudy.