Game Worn Hockey Jerseys

Whenever I took a trip to a city that had an NHL team, I'd have to make my mandatory trip to the arena to pick up the team's official game puck. To me, it was a nice souvenir. To my wife, it was a nice cheap souvenir. To her dismay, I discovered a different, fascinating yet more costly form of hockey collectible: the hockey game worn jersey.

What is a game worn jersey?

These jerseys aren't the ones you typically buy at the local sports stores. I'm talking about the jerseys the hockey players actually wear while playing during the season.

A growing category of hockey collectibles

This hobby of collecting game worn jerseys, or "gamers" as they are called by hobbyists, has been around for quite some time, but it didn't really boom until Meigray and the NHL came to an agreement to market the jerseys.

The NHL-MeiGray game worn jersey authentication progam has brought collecting game worn jerseys to a new level. As of right now, 22 NHL teams participate in the program.

An official game-worn jersey

Each NHL game-worn jersey is tagged and numbered, along with other security measures, to ensure authentication. MeiGray also has population reports so you can look up a particular jersey by player, tag number or team. You can also see when sets were used and when a team wore their third/alternate jerseys.

Those other NHL teams

Some of the teams don't participate in the program, such as the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks. Those teams usually sell their game worn jerseys through their team store.

There are well-known dealers that sell jerseys on the secondary market. Byron's Hockeyland who has a ton of Philadelphia Flyers stuff. Captain's Jerseys just has a ton of jerseys for sale. There are also many for auction under eBay's NHL game worn jersey category. Since anyone can sell here, it is important to be cautious before you bid, however.

Rewards of game worn jersey collecting

Watching your favorite player wear the jersey that you know you are going to own is a rush. You can see when and how marks appear, or maybe see the neck get torn during a fight.

Photomatching your game worn jersey

Once you receive your jersey (or even beforehand if you question the authenticity), you can have a lot of fun trying to photomatch it. This is the process of comparing the jersey's markings and unique characteristics to photos of the player actually wearing the jersey during a game.

A lot of collectors feel this is the only way to truly authenticate a jersey. Some people are happy with the L.O.A. (letter of authenticity) that comes with it, but again, others want to see a photo of the player wearing that particular jersey.

The trick with photomatching a jersey is look for distinguishing characteristics on the jersey to match it to a photo, card, poster, etc. Mainly people use stick marks, team repairs that were made on the jersey or unrepaired holes to the jersey. Getty Images is great site to use to search for player photos.

Connecting with other collectors

There are a few forums you can visit and meet some people online that will help answer questions about the hobby and give you advise about how to stay away from fakes out there. Gamewornjerseys.com and Gameworn.net are two forums to visit to learn about the hobby.

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