A Canadian collector bought what he thought was a game-worn jersey from NHL prospect Mitch Marner but he says the London Knights sent him a fake in return for his $4,000.
Scott Galbraith is a dedicated collector of game-worn hockey memorabilia, owning hundreds of jerseys, sticks and other items. He’s now suing the Canadian Hockey League, which hosted the online jersey auction, and the Hockey Hall of Fame, which he claims wound up with the real jersey.
Galbraith says the jersey was made to look like it had game use but he knew immediately it wasn’t what was advertised. He’s got a former Knights player as his attorney in the matter.
The team says they tried to make amends but were rebuffed in favor of the six-figure lawsuit.
The Toronto Star talked with both sides of the dispute.
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Someone really wanted a signed New England Patriots helmet that was behind the bar at an establishment near the Pats’ home turf in Foxboro, MA.
Police publicized surveillance video of the theft and asked the public for help identifying the man:
Looking to ID team autographed @Patriots helmet thief. Any information, contact Det. Timothy O’Leary at 508-543-1212 pic.twitter.com/e7SgU7l6uB
— Foxborough Police (@FoxboroughPD) August 23, 2016
WCVB in Boston reported late Wednesday that the thief had second thoughts and called Skipjack’s the following day with a confession and a promise to send the helmet back in a FedEx box.
“I asked him, ‘why would you do that?’ he said, ‘I don’t know why, but I’m going to put it in a FedEx box and ship it back to you immediately,” said Pete Dowd, general manager of Skipjack’s.
On Wednesday, that package did arrive–along with $80 in cash to pay the restaurant bill he skipped out on. There was also a note saying “sorry for the trouble!”
“The market is as strong as it has been in 30 years. Many collectors are cashing out and selling now at the top of the market,” says founder Gary Leavitt, who is in Ohio this week purchasing more cards.
Baseball Card Roadshows gave away a NM Sandy Koufax rookie card worth $5,000 the National in Atlantic City.
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A rare image of the late Muhammad Ali is up for sale on online auction house, Catawiki. The art is part of Andy Warhol’s Athlete’s series, which examined famous athletes in the 1970s. The painting, which is numbered and signed by the artist, is set to sell for around $50,000 when the auction ends Sunday.
Warhol took dozens of photographs of Ali using his Polaroid Big Shot camera, then selecting the four to be made into screens. Pre-painted canvases were created in different flesh tones, and from there, Warhol would apply coloured areas to signify eyes, lips, hair and jackets. The silkscreen was then applied as the final layer.
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Catawicki recently sold a running shoe worn by Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt in the 2015 World Track and Field Championships in Beijing for $18,150. That was more than double the pre-sale estimate.
It was one of the shoes Bolt wore in the 100 meter dash in Beijing. He also won gold in the 200 and 4×100 meter relay, the same three events in which he won gold at the Summer Olympics in Rio.
Bolt is the only athlete to win gold in those events in three consecutive Olympic games.
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