A couple years ago, the Detroit Red Wings offered a series of Training Camp and Exhibition jerseys at their end of the year sale that had their nameplates removed. Without knowing for sure, the team sold the jerseys without their standard LOA in an as-is environment.
After positively identifying some of these jerseys, collectors contacted the team to see if the removed nameplates were still around. Unfortunately, they were not. Where did they go? After talking to a number of collectors, it was revealed that a couple years before the sale, there was a stash of nameplates from jerseys. These would have had to have been training camp and exhibition name plates because regular season jerseys have letters stitched directly to the numbers.
Recently, a collector who also has a number of cards was able to identify that the missing nameplate for one of the jerseys ended up in cards. It seems that at some point, the team took the pile of nameplates and send them to upper deck. Now, the only question that remains is why the nameplates were removed in the first place.
Some collectors find enjoyment in trying to figure out the when’s and why’s of certain situations that jerseys or memorabilia end up in. Often times, I find myself wondering which jerseys were the ones cut up into cards to know which have been removed from the hobby. Only strong definitive investigative work can tell the tell.
