Posted By:
Dan BrettaI think in order to be a collector of memorabilia such as game used jerseys or bats one has to accept a bit of "leap of faith". Unless you got an item personally from a player right from his hands at the time of the event there is always going to be some leap of faith. With this jersey I think without a good photo match you've got a bigger leap of faith. Is that why the jersey sold for a lower than expected price? Probably a bit, but I think also since it's attributed to 1913 (Federal League was considered a minor league in 1913) it's not as special as if it were a 1914 or 1915 jersey in the minds of most collectors.
As far as owning an item and also being in on authenticating the item I don't have too much of a problem with that as long as you've garnered solid evidence. After all I did some research on a $10 postcard and sold it for $400 as a result of my research. 