Help verify the authenticity of a historical patch!!!

[Adimasi]

Hello all, recently I was at a local card show and I found a very interesting patch card from an older gentleman selling his collection. It’s a 2002 flair hot numbers Tracy McGrady. The card is /100 and features the U.S. flag patch that players wore following the attacks on 9/11. With this being such a rare patch to find, I had my doubts on authenticity.

I did my own research and found that the hot numbers set features a base version (generally a plain single color jersey relic) and a numbered to 100 version which I noticed historically from listing seemed to be either a chunky 2+ color patch or a tag. This sort of made me more confident in the authenticity of the patch as mine is the /100 version.

Doing research on the patch itself, i photo matched the only other 9/11 patch I’ve seen (David Robinson) to the McGrady patch and both flags match up, meaning it’s not just some random iron on patch and is in fact the NBA flag patch from the jerseys.

The final thing that threw me off was the writing on the side that says “game worn jersey patch”. The bottom of “jersey patch” was slightly cut off, which gave me the impression that someone cut it and put a fake patch over the real one. Following some research I came to find that the majority of the patch cards /100 were misprinted and cut off some of the writing on the side.

Below I’ve attached a link with photos of my McGrady (the flag) and other McGradys that I was able to find online to compare (disclaimer: I only own the flag patch.) Any help on verifying this patch is greatly appreciated

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...nneGaP4XI/edit

[Deadshot]

Unless you miraculously find the person who pulled it, you probably aren't going to have any proof either way. Fleer had a lot of that random stuff that got chopped up and put in regular jersey and patch releases. Panini is a little more selective and saves it for more of their lower-numbered stuff.

[Randallk34]

That's one ugly card

Patch is nice so it's probably fake seeing other from the set

[FinSoonerGMG]

3 things with this card:

1. The patch itself you already stated your concerns and they are obviously extremely valid. The Robinson is hard to compare because its a completely different era of card and the products in modern are a lot more predictable when it comes to patches and what cards have them/dont.

2. Fleer was a Sshow and much of there stuff from this timeframe is a cluster of oddly placed patches in high numbered cards to fakes that were put in after the bankruptcy.

3. The wear on the corners of the patch window are a really bad sign for this to be authentic. Any real wear on patch windows would keep me away. It is possible for a card to get wear on the window straight from pack but this looks skeptical.

I might be way off but these three things would make me stay away from it as a buyer. If he is a PC guy then just keep it and who cares.

[seanob22]

Originally Posted by FinSoonerGMG

3 things with this card:

1. The patch itself you already stated your concerns and they are obviously extremely valid. The Robinson is hard to compare because its a completely different era of card and the products in modern are a lot more predictable when it comes to patches and what cards have them/dont.

2. Fleer was a Sshow and much of there stuff from this timeframe is a cluster of oddly placed patches in high numbered cards to fakes that were put in after the bankruptcy.

3. The wear on the corners of the patch window are a really bad sign for this to be authentic. Any real wear on patch windows would keep me away. It is possible for a card to get wear on the window straight from pack but this looks skeptical.

I might be way off but these three things would make me stay away from it as a buyer. If he is a PC guy then just keep it and who cares.

Agreed with point 3. Id say its a tampered patch