The Eli story doesn't make much sense. I can see others in the organization asking him to create fakes, and maybe they have some pull to get him to do it, but he personally can't ever sell the originals, as fake versions have now already been sold, and as others have pointed out - he shouldn't need the money.
I don't collect game-used, but I did buy a football that was fumbled by Walter Payton and recovered by a Falcons player. I had to give it a lot of thought - "Is it real?" I don't know. I think it is, but I could be wrong - wouldn't this ball be extremely important to Tony Casillas? He saved it for almost 30 years, so you would think so. Why would he sell it for only a $200 or so? Is he that broke?
I don't agree that buyers of such items are throwing their money away - it all comes down to how much they believe the item is real. If they believe it, then it might as well be real - but that's what forgers are counting on. If the buyer decides later that they don't believe it, they can still sell to someone who does. But if we know this is going on, we are certainly perpetuating it by purchasing items that we know have a strong chance of being fake, especially if it's for resale.
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$co++ Forre$+
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