Eli Manning accused of grey marketing his own memorabilia

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A smoking-gun email from Eli Manning proves he quarterbacked a conspiracy to defraud collectors by pawning off phony game-worn gear as the real deal, according to court documents obtained by The Post.

The two-time Super Bowl MVP, who has a contract with memorabilia dealer Steiner Sports, instructed a team manager to get the bogus equipment so it could be sold off as authentic, the papers say.

“2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli,” Manning wrote to equipment manager Joe Skiba from a BlackBerry on April 27, 2010, according to the documents.

Less than 20 minutes later, Manning wrote to his marketing agent, Alan Zucker, who requested the helmets, saying: “Should be able to get them for tomorrow.”

The emails were filed Tuesday in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court by three memorabilia collectors who are pressing a civil racketeering suit against the Giants, Manning, Skiba, Steiner and others, including team co-owner and CEO John Mara.


Related court papers allege that the emails prove “Manning was looking to give non-game-used helmets to Steiner to satisfy — fraudulently — his contractual obligation” with Steiner.

The legal filing also alleges that Big Blue failed to produce the Manning-Skiba emails — between the athlete’s old-school AOL account and an official NFL account — even though “they claim to have no document destruction policy.”

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'Game-worn' Eli Manning helmet is a fake: suit
'Game-worn' Eli Manning helmet is a fake: suit
Manning turned over the incriminating emails last week, court papers say.

“Since it appears that the Giants failed to preserve any emails between Manning and Joe Skiba, and the Giants are keeping Skiba on the payroll and paying his substantial legal bills, the above email exchange may be the only direct evidence that Manning knowingly gave fraudulent helmets to Steiner for sale to fans,” court papers say.


On Thursday, plaintiffs’ lawyer Brian Brook said “it appears to be the case that someone at the Giants organization deleted” those emails, as well as another, previously disclosed 2008 exchange.

In that exchange, Skiba allegedly admitted to plaintiff Eric Inselberg that Manning had asked him to create “BS” versions of a game-used helmet and jersey because Manning “didnt want to give up the real stuff.”

“The first we have since Eric saved it on his AOL account and the second we have since Eli apparently saved it on his AOL account,” Brook said.

“I do give Eli and his lawyers credit for not destroying evidence.”


Manning and John Mara attend an awards dinner on April 6.Charles Wenzelberg
The suit — set for trial Sept. 25 — initially was filed in 2014 by Inselberg, who in 2011 was among six memorabilia dealers charged by the feds in Chicago with selling fake game-used jerseys.


The other defendants all pleaded guilty, but Inselberg won dismissal of the indictment against him by arguing that witnesses — including Skiba and two other Giants employees — lied to the grand jury to cover up their own fake-memorabilia sales.

Inselberg’s co-plaintiffs include diehard Giants fan Michael Jakab, who shelled out $4,300 for a helmet purportedly worn by Manning during the team’s 2007 Super Bowl season — but which he claims is really just a “$4,000 paperweight.”

The final plaintiff is Sean Godown, a US Navy senior chief petty officer and Giants fan who sold the helmet to Jakab.

Court papers say Godown began collecting game-used memorabilia between tours of duty and bought the helmet for $5,000 on eBay, but decided to sell it at a loss “after he began to question its authenticity.”


In a statement, lawyers for the Giants said: “The email, taken out of context, was shared with the media by an unscrupulous memorabilia dealer and his counsel who for years has been seeking to leverage a big payday.”

“The email predates any litigation, and there was no legal obligation to store it on the Giants server,” the statement added.

“Eli Manning is well known for his integrity and this is just the latest misguided attempt to defame his character.”

Steiner didn’t respond to requests for comment
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http://nypost.com/2017/04/13/heres-proof-eli-manning-was-in-on-giants-memorabilia-scheme/
 
Is this surprising? The game work industry has been a sham for decades now especially now. Too much money to be made so dudes passing off all kinds of **** as game worn when it's never even been in the same building as the player who supposedly wore it


The only trustworthy source is Meigrey who does the game worn for the NBA strictly now.
 
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I never understood buying game-worn memorabilia or autographed stuff any way. Whole concept is a scam for weirdos.

IMO, the only time you should own those items is if they are given to you at the live event or you met the person and personally asked them for their signature. That's the whole point of what makes it special.

Jon Jones body slammed my sisters bf onto the hood of her brand new car a few days ago. He was drunk just messing around with him. My sister called me up pissed saying there's a huge ******* dent on the hood of her car she just bought. Her bf response was, "you know how many people would kill to have a dent from Jon Jones on their car?" :rofl: Needless to say she was not one of those people :lol: But I was thinking about it and he was right. There are some dudes that probably wouldn't even repair that and would proudly tell the story when people ask what happened to their car alonzo.gif

Good for Eli for taking advantage of these idiots. If you weren't there to receive the item live, or ask for the autograph yourself, you're a god damn fool. No one is going to convince me otherwise.
 
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JJs07 said:
From the ESPN comments section:

"Even Eli's emails got intercepted."
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original.gif


laugh.gif
 as a recovering Cowboys fan, I'm secretly going to miss Eli when he's gone.





on topic tho, I actually changed my opinion on this matter based on a post in this thread, so cheers to the Internet.
 
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JJs07 said:
From the ESPN comments section:

"Even Eli's emails got intercepted."
Click to expand...

This is funny


I don't think it's a big deal. A lot of companies use fake signatures and game used memorabilia. I've never purchased anything like that because you really don't know if it's real or not so it's not worth the thousands they charge. If you're buying stuff like this, you should be aware that you're rolling the dice
 
everybody just tryna get over on somebody

no integrity in the sport so why should there be w this?
 
I don't really care about this kind of sweaty merch but this is fraud.
 
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Tero said:
aint nobody out here tryna get a eli manning signature lol
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You mean the only man to take on Brady in the Super Bowl not once but twice AND beat him? Not to mention running a perfect season as a wildcard team :rofl:

Aight b....ya need to keep the Eli slander all the way back.

#datsmyQB
 
Hennessy said:
I never understood buying game-worn memorabilia or autographed stuff any way. Whole concept is a scam for weirdos.

IMO, the only time you should own those items is if they are given to you at the live event or you met the person and personally asked them for their signature. That's the whole point of what makes it special.

Jon Jones body slammed my sisters bf onto the hood of her brand new car a few days ago. He was drunk just messing around with him. My sister called me up pissed saying there's a huge ******* dent on the hood of her car she just bought. Her bf response was, "you know how many people would kill to have a dent from Jon Jones on their car?" :rofl: Needless to say she was not one of those people :lol: But I was thinking about it and he was right. There are some dudes that probably wouldn't even repair that and would proudly tell the story when people ask what happened to their car alonzo.gif

Good for Eli for taking advantage of these idiots. If you weren't there to receive the item live, or ask for the autograph yourself, you're a god damn fool. No one is going to convince me otherwise.
Click to expand...

View media item 2404796
 
ksteezy said:
Tero said:
aint nobody out here tryna get a eli manning signature lol
Click to expand...

You mean the only man to take on Brady in the Super Bowl not once but twice AND beat him? Not to mention running a perfect season as a wildcard team :rofl:

Aight b....ya need to keep the Eli slander all the way back.

#datsmyQB
Click to expand...

imagine if Eli didn't stop him and Brady had those extra 2 rings.... :x we would never hear da end of him till da day he stepped off da planet :lol:
 
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I have a boat load of signed boxing memorabilia (gloves, replica belts, og on site fight posters, vintage ring magazines) and because it is one of the least popular sports, I never have to overpay for anything. Never purchased any fight worn articles of clothing, and I refuse to buy anything autographed by Muhammad Ali as he would be the only boxer in my opinion that has tonnes of counterfeit signatures on the market. Very different from the baseball and football memorabilia market which is flooded with fakes.
 
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