Photo matching is finding a distinct characteristic on a jersey that matches it to a game picture. There are several image sites that you can use including Getty images, Corbis images,  AP images, Google and other search engine images. Another good way of matching items is the websites that allow you to watch all of the games like league pass. A style match is matching a jersey to a picture that does not include any unique characteristics. A style match is if you have a “special event” jersey from a player but are only able to find pictures of the jersey being used and not able to match anything unique between the two.

The best way to go about photo matching is to find something distinct about the jersey that you want to match. How does the stitched on numbers and patches line up with pin striping? Is there any rips or repairs? Is there any loose threads? Is there any dirt or extensive wear? After finding something you can match the next step is to search the internet for the proverbial  needle in a haystack. Being able to search dates on image websites like Getty make things a lot easier. Just enter the date ranges that apply to the search and start looking through picture after picture for the same characteristic from the jersey. This process can be very time consuming and you often come up with nothing.  If you are persistent and lucky you will be rewarded.

I was lucky enough to match this Shaq jersey to an in game picture. The first thing I did was go to Google Images and search for Shaq pictures from the 1993-94 NBA season. On pin striped jerseys the placement of the sewn on numbers will always be different in relation to the pin striping. So, I looked at how the edges of the “3” and “2” line up with the stripes. I then just went from picture to picture until I found one that matches. On my jersey both the left parts of the “3” pretty much line up perfect with a stripe(as illustrated with the green circles). After finding one that matched(image 2) I looked to match up other points on the jersey. The bottom left of the “2” matches up perfectly with a stripe(as illustrated by the pink circle).  There are many other points of interest that match up in these jerseys as well. After combining all of these points I was convinced that the jersey I owned was the exact jersey that is seen being worn by Shaq in this picture. One of the pictures that did not match my jersey was image 3. It is not as easy to see where the left part of the “3” is in relation to the stripe, but if you look at the top left part of the “2 ” you can see that it is slightly overlaps a stripe. That is not the case in my jersey and the matched picture(as illustrated in the red circles).

In this modern era of collecting game worn memorabilia a lot of items not only come with proof of authenticity but the also come with documentation linking an item to a specific game. In these cases its as simple as finding a picture from a specific game. Being able to enter a date into a search makes it about as easy. The only thing left for the collector to do is find a unique characteristic that matches. In this example the Julius Jones jersey comes with documentation linking the jersey to the game on 9/10/06 against the Jaguars. The jersey is hammered with game wear so the only thing left to do is pull up the images from that date and make the obvious match.

Here is an example of a style match. This is a special events jersey from the 9/11 Remembrance game. The jersey is documented from MLB as to being authentic and from that game. There is however no unique characteristics that can be matched with the available images. It does not become a photomatch until a unique characteristic is found. It may be that the current images available don’t offer a good angle or the pictures need to be higher resolution. The search can continue though. There will be many times when you will not be able to find a match. The photos available to you might all be poor resolution, bad angles, or a different jersey being worn in the picture. The best thing to do is to take a note about the characteristics you were looking for and move on to try and match another item.  You might stumble upon the image you need at a later date.