Quote:
Originally Posted by REA
Howard, I had nothing to do with the Hall of Fame transaction, it predated the Halper auction, and when it occurred I had no idea what was even included. Halper did a lot of wheeling and dealing and had a million items. There was no way for us to even begin to know what Halper had, what he had gotten rid of, what went to the Hall of Fame, or what he kept. I have never been a jersey guy but just looking through a few old auction catalogs over the past day, I immediately found one 1951 Mantle uniform and believe there was another (sold by other auctions) that were sold in the 1990s and noted specifically as being from Barry Halper, so the answer to your question “How many '51 Mantle Jerseys - replica or otherwise could Barry have had?” is at least two, maybe three! (not including the limited edition signed 1951 Mantle jersey replicas, which he also had). This jersey in question was not in the 1999 Halper auction. I found it with his collection after his passing in 2005 and had no idea it had anything to do with the Hall of Fame. Our job was to auction the material in the estate. For this jersey, JSA said the autograph was real, but the jersey was not. It was still a great display piece that we thought a lot of collectors would want. We described it as a signed replica jersey. That’s how we describe jerseys that are not real but are signed and great for display.
Sincerely,
Robert Lifson
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I know JSA authenticates signatures, but I know they don't authenticate unforms...
The simple thing would be for the HOF to simply admit that the jersey in question is still in their archives (real or not).
Possibly the guy who did all the catalog/inventory work for Halper would know how many '51 replicas he had.