I would check for widow's peaks on the shoes, one the toebox and the back.
sometimes people cut them off and you can also tell by the perforations on the toebox. the circles, they should be a little bigger, iirc
Just a suggestion, but there are legit resellers that sell these shoes within the 200 - 300 $ range for deadstock. I forgot which website but just a suggestion. Once he sends the pics upload them