If you are looking for a REAL jersey do not look on Craigslist or Ebay

With the economy the way its is, people have started looking for cheaper ways to get what they want. With an authentic jersey being between $200 and $400 people have turned toCraigslist or Ebay or even flea markets to get jerseys for between $40 and $75.

I have seen alot of these jerseys that you can get at a flea market or Craiglist and they are sometimes just laughable how utterly wrong they are. Sometimes they are the wrong color or the name does not have the right letters and sometime is even spelled wrong.

Now don't get me wrong i completely understand that $200 to $400 is crazy to spend on a jersey. When you could go to your local flea market and spend $50 on a Michael Vick jersey that is made in Taiwan and may last you maybe 3-4 months i can see the appeal.

I have friends that have bought them on Ebay for $40 and swore that they were real, until he bought a Cincinnati Bengals Chad Johnson jersey that was spelled Johnosn. Any NFL jersey that says it is made in China is a knockoff except the Miami Dolphins. Here are some of the ways to tell a REAL authentic jersey.

• Reebok, Mitchell and Ness or Majestic would never let a jersey leave the factory with miss aligned stitches or completely missed stitches at all.
• On a real jersey the numbers are glued down prior to stitching so there will not be any type of bubbles or wrinkles in them at all(even if you fold them they will bounce right back)
• If you look at the jock tag at the bottom of a Reebok NFL jersey the football in the NFL logo will actually have a ball shape. Fakes do not.
• On MLB Majestic jerseys when you button the front the two halves of the logo are perfectly aligned with no gaps at all and if you look at the jock tags on a Cool Base jersey it is screen printed on and the Fakes are sewn.
• If you are purchasing from somewhere that seems too good to be true, trust me it probably is.
• Think of it this way if a jersey costs $260 in a store or online, how could people be selling it for $40 or maybe $50 and still make money.

If you are going to purchase a jersey on the Internet then please do your research and do not get duped into buying a knockoff or a down right fake jersey from a non reputable dealer who is getting them from China for maybe $10. There are websites where you can check you see if your jersey has any of the signs of a knock off if you would like to.

With Reebok losing the NFL contract after the 2011 season to Nike, the jerseys that are left over from that to might be able to get on clearence or closeout after next season. The only problem with that is that when Nike takes over you can expect major changes to be made to the standard uniform they have when they switch to the Pro Combat uniform. If you are going to buy one from the internet just please research the seller and use common sense.