The phrase photo-match gets thrown around a lot these days.
It's an important phrase, and in the game-worn authentication world it means that the EXACT item being authenticated is PROVEN authentic and game-used because a picture of the EXACT item can be produced to prove the item legit.
An item is NOT photo matched because the style matches, or the color matches, or the number on the player's back matches. An item is NOT photo matched if it looks similar.
MeiGray works with photographs and video to try and prove items real. We have photo matched jerseys and sticks and helmets, pucks and skates and even footballs.
Yes, footballs. They get scuffed. They get marred with white chalk from the yard lines and sidelines. And the referees mark the balls with their unique marks to ensure no ringers are snuck into NFL games. Those marks are done by hand and are detectable from photos ... if you look hard.
And basketball jerseys today are relatively easy to photo-match because the airknit holes in each jersey create a fingerprint in which no two jerseys are exactly alike.
We believe a photo-matched item is the best type of item to own in one's collection. Now we admit it's far easier to photo-match a jersey Robert Griffin III wore two weeks ago that the Washington Redskins delivered to us unwashed as part of our game-worn jersey program than it is to photo-match a jersey worn by Jim Brown 50 years ago.
Nevertheless, if a jersey was worn in an NFL or NHL or NBA game, it can be conclusively proven to be real ... if it's real.
It just takes time, effort, and a desire to let the facts take you wherever they lead.
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