When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
What this is: 2009 Donruss Certified Mirror Gold Materials Prime #15 Lee Evans, with an authentic game-worn PRIME jersey swatch, serial numbered 29/50. This is the best relic in the group I am listing this week and it is worth being specific about why. Two things separate it from the ordinary Certified jersey cards: the Mirror Gold tier is numbered to 50 rather than the 100 of the blue tier, and the swatch is a genuine three-colour prime piece -- a seam section cut from the jersey rather than a plain single-colour body panel. The front caption reads AUTHENTIC GAME-WORN PRIME JERSEY, with the word PRIME printed in, which is Donruss distinguishing it from the standard swatch. Raw, not in a holder.
Memorabilia / certificate -- please read: The back carries the standard Panini guarantee, quoted exactly as printed: \"The enclosed piece of jersey was cut from an Authentic Jersey personally worn by Lee Evans in an official NFL Game. The authentic Game-Worn Jersey was obtained and is guaranteed Panini America, Inc.\" There is no third-party grading and no separate certification number.
Appearance & swatch detail: The front is Certified\'s mirrored chrome design with a tall arched frame, but the corner wedges and the Certified oval at the bottom are gold rather than the blue of the /100 tier -- that colour is how you tell the parallel apart at a glance. Evans appears at the left in the Bills\' royal blue home jersey with the white number 83, red and blue striped helmet on, pulling the ball in with both hands. The swatch window sits low on the card and this is the part that matters: the piece inside is a three-colour prime running left to right -- a band of royal blue at the left edge, then a wide strip of white, then a larger field of navy, with a visible red stitch line running down the boundary between the white and the navy where the panels were sewn together. You can see the actual thread. A single-colour swatch is cut from the middle of a jersey panel; a piece like this comes from a seam or a shoulder stripe, which is why prime swatches carry a premium. BILLS runs in grey capitals beneath the window with AUTHENTIC GAME-WORN PRIME JERSEY under it, LEE EVANS on a black nameplate, and the gold 2009 Certified oval at the foot. The back is white with the Bills helmet, WR / 83, a vital-statistics line, a two-row statistics table, the Panini certificate text and the serial 29/50 in grey at the bottom. Corners are sharp, the card is flat, and I find no creasing, bends or surface scratching.
Worth knowing: Serial 29/50 verified against the card in hand. When you compare sold prices, check three things on the copy you are looking at: whether the oval is gold (/50) or blue (/100), whether the caption says PRIME, and how many colours are actually in the swatch. Prime cards from this set turn up with one- and two-colour pieces as often as three, because the cutting is luck of the draw -- a three-colour piece with the stitch line showing is the good end of that range.
Playing career: Evans was the thirteenth overall pick of the 2004 draft out of Wisconsin, the first receiver Buffalo had taken in the first round since Eric Moulds in 1996. At Wisconsin he caught 75 passes for 1,545 yards in 2001. He had two 1,000-yard seasons for the Bills, 1,292 yards in 2006 and 1,017 in 2008, and produced one of the great single games in franchise history on 19 November 2006 against Houston: 265 receiving yards, a Bills record, including 205 yards in a single quarter and two touchdown catches of more than 80 yards in that same quarter -- the first player in NFL history to do it. Over eight seasons with Buffalo and Baltimore he finished with 381 receptions for 6,008 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Condition described honestly and as accurately as possible from close examination of the actual card. I am not a professional grader and make no claim about what this would receive on a professional grading scale. The scans accompanying this listing are of the actual card, front and back -- what you see is what you will receive.
Ships promptly in a penny sleeve and rigid toploader, packed between paperboard in a bubble mailer for protection. Tracking provided on every order. Please review all photos carefully and feel free to message with any questions before buying.
