Why Not to Buy Fakes Part 2

Welcome to the second party of why not to buy fakes, the series where I show you fakes from eBay, we have a laugh, and remember why these things are crap.

First I wanted to look at a couple interesting comments left on the facebook page. Thanks to Kevin, Matthew & Kris for these comments, always great to get a discussion going and these comments brought up two interesting points about fake jerseys I think are worth addressing.

Kevin says "You say that “you look like a tool if you buy these”, but I don’t think a lot of people care. I still see people proudly wearing these obviously fake Flyers Winter Classic jerseys all the time made from a leaked concept that never came to be. Drives me crazy! I would never buy or wear a fake, but, for a lot of people, if they can save a buck, they don’t care if things are a little off."

I think Kevin is absolutely right when he ways there are a lot of people that don't care. Telling the readers of this blog not to buy fake jerseys may seem a bit like preaching to the choir, but my hope is you can show these photos of terrible fakes and convince your friends to not do so. The example Kevin uses is an excellent one, the Flyers Quakers knockoffs that were common around the 2012 Winter Classic. This was actually based on an HJC concept from years ago! The interesting thing about these fakes, is while they are cheap, they're not THAT cheap. When it comes to WC jerseys, I feel people are more concerned with getting the design first to be ahead of the game rather than saving money. A lot of fake places now don't jump the gun on designs for this exact reason, as very quickly you'll lose your consumers if you put out a product that is even remotely close to the real thing.

Kris says "Price them so people can afford them and the fake market will die". I agree, and particularly now Adidas is quite the price jump from what we were used to with Reebok and CCM, however, the positive is that if you want CCM & Reebok jerseys they are very cheap in eBay right now. I'll provide a list of places that have jerseys for cheap that are 100% authentic and HJC approved. 

Matthew says "I like to own both on my part for various reasons and I hate the self righteousness of some collectors have, for christ sakes do what is best for you as a buyer and I've seen some of the current NHL jerseys that are inferior to the K.O. material wise, the NHL shop are far from saints in the jersey industry!"

There is a fair point to be made here about NHL Shop/Fanatics....it sucks...a lot, particularly if you are Canadian. It's overpriced, their customization jobs are nearly as bad as the fakes in some cases with the printed on stitching on the numbers, their selection isn't great...or good... and those Fanatics jerseys alone are basically full priced knockoffs on top of the fact they won't ship Reebok Authentic or other manufacturer direct items to Canada. If anyone wants to buy knockoffs, be my guest, I'd personally never do so, and I think that they will never pass as looking like the real thing. 

Here are a list of places you can get NHL jerseys cheaper than NHL Shop, have a better selection, and provide you with a better product. We are sponsored by none of these places and have earned their reputation in my and the other writers' opinions as being worth your money, and how buying hockey jerseys should be!

IceJerseys 
Pro Hockey Life

Coolhockey

SportsK

SportsJerseysCanada
River City Sports
Meigrey Group 
Lids

JerseyBaron_com on eBay

FullMoonJerseys on eBay

On with our fakes, from a variety of places! 

Here's a Pens fake

Now at first glance this looks like your stock standard fake: CCM tag, no logo on the arms, splotchy material for the numbers, bloated logo. But where ever this person bought this from  must have sewed the name plate on with the part where it actually goes folded over...yeah that name bar is a BIT too high. I'm going to guess the seller is selling this second hand and not trying to scam anyone, especially based on the big stain on the back of the left arm, but I'd personally avoid this and get one of the millions of other 2007-16 Pens home and roads around. 

The 2008 Pens Winter Classic jersey is HIGHLY sought after my jersey collectors and Pens fans alike, and like any rare jersey, for every real authentic, there are a dozen clones.

The first dead giveaway this is a fake, aside from the Pre Edge Reebok tags on the collar is looking at the Penguin. I've seen some concepts where people try to bend double blue and Vegas gold, but it was never done in real life, the penguin on the real jerseys had the standard yellow triangle and was the vintage style pen with the longer beak. Couple this with those stains off the N and back hem, I'd avoid this one and wait for real thing.

Here's another fake of a similar make, but look, a Meigrey Group tag....Meigrey Groop....Meigrey is an awesome group and an easy way to get legitimate game worn stuff....this is not from them, they know it's a small detail people can miss, and jersey fakers want you to think Meigrey authenticated this...they didn't...the groop might have but not the group.