We Call it Progress, Part 1

Here’s how the Game-Worn Jersey hobby has grown over the last 15 years …

Fifteen years ago, teams like the Philadelphia Flyers weren’t highlighting Fan Appreciation Nights like the Flyers did after Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Montreal by holding and televising a Shirts Off Our Back ceremonies in which the players stripped down to their shoulder pads to hand a sweaty gamer to a lucky fan. But there we were at Wells Fargo Center, sponsoring one of the coolest new traditions in hockey. Stu Oxenhorn was snapping photos, Joe Manley was handing out Flyers-MGG Letters of Authenticity, and I stood at the Zamboni entrance like a proud papa as each Flyer smoothed out his jersey on one of those great MeiGray presentation boxes being held afloat by each winning fan, so he could sign the back number while taking a picture with the lucky fan.

And I wasn’t halfway home driving north on I-95 when I got a text (No, I don’t text while driving … I pulled over to read it!!!) from one of our clients (a Canadiens fan) telling me he was watching the telecast and saw my between-periods interview. It prompted him to jump on our website and order a jersey that happened to be a New Arrival, simply because the player who wore this jersey shared his last name. “See, your appearance has already paid off,” he wrote.

Now this jersey happened to be a jersey here on consignment, which meant that the collector who hired us to sell it for him was pretty happy this morning to see his jersey no longer on our website for sale. Considering I picked out an orange tie to wear with my tan/brown plan sports coat in honor of the Flyers-MGG Program, I called Saturday night a win-win for all concerned.

Why am I telling this story? Because it’s important to keep a perspective on how our hobby is changing … for the better. It’s easy to talk, as some old-time collectors do, about there being too many sets worn by teams, and how nobody buys and trades like in the old days. But I think that view ignores what’s really going on: The Game-Worn hobby has gone mainstream. Casual fans and hardcore collectors both appreciate _ for very different reasons _ that you can own a jersey directly off a player’s back.

There are more jerseys than ever being worn, but there are more collectors than ever wearing them, too. Ever look around at an NHL rink? Each night there’s a sea of (pick your team’s color). There are more jerseys because there are more collectors and more fans to understand why this is the coolest hobby around.