Sometimes, on eBay, buyers can find rare treasures for reasonable prices. Sometimes those treasures need some TLC. The jersey featured below is one of those treasures.
Ever since the 2001 NHL All-Star game here in Denver I had been looking for a blue North American authentic version of the jerseys that I could make into a Joe Sakic. I didn’t have the money to buy an authentic back then, plus I remember they were around $250. I don’t think I’d buy a blank now for that much. Either way, I trusted I’d get one eventually.
After a wait of just short of a decade I was able to finally find the jersey I was looking for on eBay, and the wait was well worth it for many reasons. First off, the seller obviously had no idea what he had. He listed it poorly as an “Avalanche alternate jersey” in a size 58. No mention in the title or description about it being an NHL All-Star jersey. He also posted one pretty bad picture of the front and that was it. Based on the size I knew this jersey was different in a good way. Size 58s are only made for the teams, not for retail sale. That had me very curious. I got in touch with him and asked him to send me pictures of the back tail (I’ll explain in a bit) and of the back of the jersey. He never responded and that worked out in my favor. I’m assuming he didn’t respond to any other people interested in the jersey too. He also mentioned in the description that the fight strap had been cut off of the jersey. That’s never good when it comes to authentic jerseys. I’m also assuming that scared off a few bidders as well. I placed a last second bid and won the jersey for a high bid of an unheard of $24. Shipping was $8 bringing the grand total of the jersey, shipped to me, to $32. Not bad at all.
Opening that box was pretty exciting when it arrived. My focus went directly to the back of the jersey on the lower right hand side. I found what I was looking for because it looked like this:
The silver NHL shield is found on all of the authentic jerseys of that era. No big deal. But the NHLPA logo to the left of the NHL shield is a big deal. Those are only found on jerseys that are made to wear in the actual NHL All-Star games. On a side note, I found the red jersey below on eBay not too long ago. It has a similar story behind it. I’ll feature it in a future post. Check out the lower right hand side of the back of the jersey. You’ll see the NHLPA logo there as well. That means it was going to be used in an All-Star game, but it ended up as a blank extra.
By the way, NHLPA stands for the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
With the good news of the future Sakic jersey being what I wanted it to be, there came a challenge too. If you look really closely where the fight strap should be, just below the middle of the back, you’ll notice that most of it isn’t there.
Here’s the front, just for the “before” reference.
Overall, the jersey was in pretty good shape. I’d classify it as very good used condition. I was happy overall. I now had my next steps to make this jersey into something special: find someone that could fix the fight strap, find a blue nameplate for the back of the jersey, find a Team Canada flag patch for the left sleeve, find a small Avalanche patch for the right sleeve, and find a company could letter it into a Sakic for me. Simple, right?
A few connections on a jersey forum that I’m a member of helped me find someone that could very easily fix the fight strap. For someone with that kind of experience that was no problem at all. That same guy knew someone that could get me some blue material for the nameplate on the eventual finished jersey. I purchased the patches I needed from a local sports memorabilia store that I’ve been going to for 25 years. And after discussing things with my favorite local jersey lettering place I found out that they were the company that lettered the All-Star jerseys for the actual game here in 2001. How’s that for a plan?
Fast forward about six months and here’s the finished product.
In the end, a $24 jersey becomes something pretty special. Man, I really love eBay sometimes. In the grand scheme of things I was able to technically make a game issued Joe Sakic 2001 All-Star jersey for a fraction of the price of a documented game issued jersey. It was quite the bargain and well worth the wait.
Many jersey collectors say that the most expensive jerseys price-wise automatically end up as the centerpieces of their collections, but sometimes the best deals steal the show in the end. This jersey is a great example of just that.
