2008 Reebok Knockoff Road Replica
#10 Santonio Holmes with Super Bowl XLIII Patch
Manufacturer: some Chinese sweatshop
Size: 54
*Not* Purchased From: eBay
Lettered by: Manufacturer
The Story: If it's possible for a guy's career to be defined by one play, this is the guy. When that play wins the Super Bowl for the Steelers, I'm okay with that! Santonio Holmes second biggest accomplishment in Pittsburgh was his penchant for marijuana arrests. He was off to the New York Jets not long after.
I'd have never bought a Holmes jersey in a million years. However, I would buy a Polamalu jersey and was scouring the internet looking for an authentic. I found one on eBay and bought it, but the jersey I got wasn't the jersey I bought. The seller was really cool about it. He got this fantastic deal on all the "authentic" jerseys he could sell and was going to get rich selling them, but he was completely unaware of the fact that they were Chinese-made counterfeits. After speaking with him on the phone and explaining things to him, he was pretty scared that he just invested a significant amount of money and wasn't getting what he thought he was getting. When his big shipment came - and it wasn't confiscated by the Department of Homeland Security - he thought I was lying. He was so sure that these jerseys were legit that he offered to send me one to validate for him. This is that jersey. I explained to the seller in great detail how I knew this was a knockoff jersey and he told me to keep it. He was out so much money already that he didn't want to pay to have it shipped back to him, knowing he'd make less profit than what that shipping charge would be.
It's actually not a bad quality jersey, in and of itself, but it is a bad quality knockoff. The differences between this jersey and an authentic are many (compare to this Hines Ward Super Bowl XL jersey). I've never worn it, and the tags are still on it. But I've used it numerous times for comparison purposes to prove a jersey to be an authentic or a fake.
Size: 54
*Not* Purchased From: eBay
Lettered by: Manufacturer
The Story: If it's possible for a guy's career to be defined by one play, this is the guy. When that play wins the Super Bowl for the Steelers, I'm okay with that! Santonio Holmes second biggest accomplishment in Pittsburgh was his penchant for marijuana arrests. He was off to the New York Jets not long after.
I'd have never bought a Holmes jersey in a million years. However, I would buy a Polamalu jersey and was scouring the internet looking for an authentic. I found one on eBay and bought it, but the jersey I got wasn't the jersey I bought. The seller was really cool about it. He got this fantastic deal on all the "authentic" jerseys he could sell and was going to get rich selling them, but he was completely unaware of the fact that they were Chinese-made counterfeits. After speaking with him on the phone and explaining things to him, he was pretty scared that he just invested a significant amount of money and wasn't getting what he thought he was getting. When his big shipment came - and it wasn't confiscated by the Department of Homeland Security - he thought I was lying. He was so sure that these jerseys were legit that he offered to send me one to validate for him. This is that jersey. I explained to the seller in great detail how I knew this was a knockoff jersey and he told me to keep it. He was out so much money already that he didn't want to pay to have it shipped back to him, knowing he'd make less profit than what that shipping charge would be.
It's actually not a bad quality jersey, in and of itself, but it is a bad quality knockoff. The differences between this jersey and an authentic are many (compare to this Hines Ward Super Bowl XL jersey). I've never worn it, and the tags are still on it. But I've used it numerous times for comparison purposes to prove a jersey to be an authentic or a fake.