from David Seideman at Forbes,

Over the weekend at the White Plains County Center, Kenny Palma, a dealer and collector, set up in his usual space in the corner of the East Coast National sports collectors show, as he has pretty much since he entered the sports memorabilia business just four years ago. Baseball bats, cleats, and catcher’s equipment were piled high on a dozen tables. A huge assortment of sports jerseys hung on a clothing rack like the those they wheel around in Manhattan’s garment district 25 miles south.

One jersey was missing from the rack because Palma had recently sold it in a big auction. It was an autographed Mark Messier hockey uniform shirt from the New York Rangers’ only Stanley Cup championship, in 1995, over the past 73 years.

Palma paid about $300 for it as part of a bigger collection he bought from a collector. “I didn’t like the way it was framed, so I took it out and brought it to the shows and hung it with the rest of my jerseys,” he says. Over the course of half dozen shows during a six-month span dozens of dealers and thousands of collectors, including me, walked past it. “I was asking $1000, but people offered me from $300 to $400,” Palma says.

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