An interesting rabbit hole...

[JohnnyAppleseed]

The early 2000s were rife with a phenomenon known as patch faking, where you slide an interesting patch piece into a common jersey card. Many times it's a beautifully centered league-logo card, commanding a massive premium over your standard swatch or patch. In some rare cases, these are actually authentic.

This card up for auction from Slab Sharks caught my eye as a candidate for obvious fake (not my card):


It checked all the boxes as a culprit for early 00s faked patch. Star player, beautifully centered shield, a card not serially numbered so there's no evidence of it being anything else prior to being faked. Oh, and the NHL didn't use the silver logo until 2005, so there's that.

But, I wanted to do some digging, since I like to be thorough and something didn't track (notably, Emblems Patch cards from ITG would often contain pieces of jersey tags and commemorative logos). And what I found was very interesting.

There was, in fact, evidence that a silver NHL shield logo existed, and would be used specifically for Buffalo as part of a 1998 Entry Draft patch:


However, I found no evidence that this kind of patch was ever used on a Buffalo Sabres jersey. I looked closer at the card, and two things stood out to me. First, the NHL letters went diagonally from top-left to bottom-right (correct for the time period) while the modern Silver shield goes from bottom-left to top-right. Second, the NHL 2000 advertising logo seen on Hasek's jersey was silver and black, so I thought maybe it came from that. I ruled that out pretty quickly, as there is no NHL shield on that logo.

I tried one last avenue for evidence of it being real. Since the card has an image from a game that was clearly played in the 1999-00 season, I had to see if game-worn jerseys from the 1999-00 season had silver and black logos instead of orange and black. And I found this 1999-00 Rob Ray jersey Auction with several photos.


That is a silver and black NHL shield on a game-worn jersey matching what we would find on this period-specific card. I am not saying this Hasek card is 100% authentic (I am always skeptical) but it is far more likely to be authentic than faked. And I learned something that most sources on the internet have wrong: The NHL did use a silver-and-black NHL Shield before 2005.

Oh, and I guess someone spent nearly $4k on a Rob Ray jersey.

[creasecollector]

I'm no expect, but while they did use silver NHL shields prior to 2005, I am unsure which jersey would have the shield on a black background like this one here. Usually they are on a red or grey portion of the jersey back on those late 90's Sabres jerseys.

Not saying it's real/faked one way or the other, but it is interesting. I know that 1999 Emblem set did have some crazy patches which did include shields.

Here's a Messier from the same set I found:

[stoopid]

Good sleuthing. However, the case remains unsolved!

[ThatGuyPal]

This is more research than I did in most school projects lol nice work

[JohnnyAppleseed]

Originally Posted by creasecollector

I'm no expect, but while they did use silver NHL shields prior to 2005, I am unsure which jersey would have the shield on a black background like this one here. Usually they are on a red or grey portion of the jersey back on those late 90's Sabres jerseys.

Not saying it's real/faked one way or the other, but it is interesting. I know that 1999 Emblem set did have some crazy patches which did include shields.

Here's a Messier from the same set I found:

I think the black you're seeing is just the shield itself. It's so centered that I can't see any of the jersey behind the shield at all (unlike the Messier).

[avalanchefan21]

Wow... that is some impressive detective work, anyone think Dr Price would be able to confirm?

[creasecollector]

Originally Posted by JohnnyAppleseed

I think the black you're seeing is just the shield itself. It's so centered that I can't see any of the jersey behind the shield at all (unlike the Messier).

Most likely the case yes.

I think it could be a real shield card.

[Triple B]

Originally Posted by avalanchefan21

Wow... that is some impressive detective work, anyone think Dr Price would be able to confirm?

Message him through the President's Choice website and see if he remembers. He's made so many cards, I don't know how he'd confirm.