Guy and the Basic Game Worn Jersey 101

* Edited October 12, 2013 to add photo of jersey and remove dead eBay link

This is a post I wrote on the gameworn.net forum last week involving a Carbonneau game worn jersey.  I chose not to publicize the jersey here based on the things I wrote, I was pretty sure it was a good jersey and it is, but not 100% and when you're bidding on expensive things like game worn collectibles, it's probably good to be 100% sure.  

So essentially, in case I was wrong, I didn't want to be responsible for someone's expensive mistake.  But my information here is good, which I've been told by other game worn people, and the jersey itself closed on eBay for $1950.07 which is pretty much the average/standard price for one of Guy's Montreal sweaters.

(photo source:  eBay)

 This is the sweater (eBay link is now dead) and congratulations to the person who got it, because it's terrific!  And my offer of help with photomatching still stands, I'm always happy to help out someone who likes Guy. 

This is a basic example of the things to look for, and research, when buying game worn collectibles.  It's more casual in my writing than the things I write in this blog because well, it's a forum.

Okay. I hardly ever post here but this came up. I certainly don't know as much about gameworn in general as you guys but I do know about Carbonneau, having been a hardcore collector of his stuff for over half a decade. It's not that concentrated in GW stuff -- I have a few pieces -- but I have pretty much all the random non-GW stuff that came out during the Habs era. With Dallas there was not a whole lot. Anyway.

I'm just going on what I know and what I can take a good guess at based on what I've seen and related information, but the wear on this jersey looks about right based on other Carbos I've seen. Lots of repairs on the elbows and sleeves (yep that's Guy all right) ratty crest, stick marks, etc. The 86/04 tag -- I do not know much about Habs tagging, or Maska tagging, but there was a 1986-87 home on Classic a number of years ago with the same 86/04 tag, so I'm guessing that season? The listing does not give the year, which bugs me. Also bugging me is the "obtained from a member of Leafs staff" provenance. If you're doing provenance and you're putting it on an auction page you better come up with something better than that. How did the Leafs person get it? From the Leafs? (WTF were they doing with a Habs jersey? If they had a Habs jersey, they probably would've burned it. LOL) From Carbo himself? From a collector? Was the Leafs person a collector? If so, what do they know? Questions. If I had the answers I'd put them right on the auction page instead of having people ask in because with something of that price, they're gonna ask. I know LOAs don't come even remotely close to photomatching, but yeah. The auction page does not even mention an LOA. If you're a memorabilia dealer which this seller seems to be but you're not offering one? Suspect. 7 day return policy on the auction.

Also, a friend of mine has a 1984-85 Carbonneau home (from Marc Juteau/Classic, sleeves on that one are a disaster too) and she was told by a Habs/Carbo fan that they only issued one home jersey to him that year, which is the one she has. He didn't say about the road jerseys but I'm guessing just one too. That was two years before this jersey, if the date is right. So that also explains the wear -- less jerseys. But people can also fake wear pretty well so I don't know. Also the policy on how many jerseys issued might've changed in the two years -- Habs experts?

Also. I first saw this listing this morning. It was at $1700 then. No bids, that was just the starter. The auction has obviously been pulled -- it wasn't to end for another few days -- and relisted at $1400. When it was at 17 it had 6 watchers. I can't find information on the seller other than it's apparently Glory Days Sports in Toronto. 28 Ripley. They have a Facebook page but it's basically empty. No updates. The page has been on Facebook since 2011. [This was the one thing I was wrong about, the Facebook page I was referring to was a different one, the one linked here is active.]  eBay feedback is basically good -- no negs this year -- but that's neither here nor there re: the authenticity of the jersey.

So there you go. If anyone else can shed more light, please do so. If it is legit, I'm surprised that someone hasn't already jumped on it because it's a Montreal jersey and Guy's stuff from Montreal is most desirable. Glory days. But then again, I'm also surprised that his 2nd to last jersey on gamewornauctions a few months ago went so low. It was the last of his from his NHL career to ever hit the market (the home from his final game was retained by the Stars, per Barry, and likely given to him when he retired). And it's an SCF, even if the Stars lost that series. Based on some of the prices of other Carbos from auctions past. But that always can change.

And, if it is legit, it's pretty well photomatchable and I have a very, very good shot at matching it because I have all the Les Canadiens magazines from when Guy played with them except I think the one from 1985-86 where Gainey is doing the Superman thing on the cover. And those have tons, TONS, of Guy action photos. So if someone here or someone reading this picks it up, e-mail me.

My verdict: I'm not going to give one one way or the other, I'll leave that to the rest of you, I'm just giving what I know personally.

Oh yeah. And the pasted in Wikipedia thing on Guy's career. I edited that previously so it WAS right, but I see someone has effed with it again because his draft date is listed as 1980. NOT RIGHT. It was 1979. 3rd round. 44th overall. This is why you shouldn't rely on Wikipedia for anything. 

Cheers.