CHICAGO (MCT) — With every scuff, stain and tear adding value, football jerseys from a bruising Sunday NFL afternoon can be trophies for collectors.

The damage, of course, is expected to occur during a game — on the field and while worn by a player. But that doesn’t always happen.

By doctoring hundreds of jerseys during several years, federal authorities say, Jarrod Oldridge and others deceived collectors and profited illegally.

Oldridge’s legal troubles didn’t cost him his company’s contract with the Bears, who said the criminal activity covered a period before they partnered. But at least two other NFL teams are moving to sever ties with the Las Vegas company while fans and collectors are left wondering whom to trust.

The episode is the latest reminder of the risk fans and collectors face when they buy expensive memorabilia, whether it’s an autograph, an old ball or puck, or game-worn equipment.

Unless a player is seen signing an item or giving his jersey to a fan — a la “Mean” Joe Greene in a 1979 Coke commercial — there is no guarantee of authenticity in memorabilia.

“The only way to know if it is for sure (authentic) is to watch the guy wear it and throw it to you,” said Joel Levine, a New York attorney whose now-defunct company, Game Exclusives, held a similar contract with the Bears during its 2006 Super Bowl season.

The stakes have only grown as teams and memorabilia companies market history as it occurs, with uniforms and equipment collected after every game. For instance, Brian Urlacher’s jersey from a November game against Detroit is available from JO Sports, Oldridge’s company, for $8,500.

Fans and collectors are told to rely on certificates of authenticity and a company’s relationship with the team or the league. But JO Sports had both.

According to court records, Oldridge admitted that from 2004 until 2008 he and others doctored jerseys and then sold them to other companies, including trading card businesses. Five others were charged as part of a five-year federal sting. Oldridge, 37, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Oldridge pleaded guilty to federal charges in Nov.; his sentencing is scheduled for May.

People have collected game jerseys worn by players in all sports for decades, but only in the last 20 years has buying and selling ones of current players become popular. After the trading card industry saw success in the 1990s by inserting a small piece of a uniform into the cardboard, companies that sought to authenticate the jerseys and legitimize the items soon sprouted. Buying and selling over the Internet helped fuel the surge.

Memorabilia experts and collectors said the latest round of legal trouble shows that fraud is rampant, not limited to vintage items.

“Now teams look at us as an industry and say this is a scuzzy industry,” said Troy Kinunen, who in 2004 founded the prominent authentification firm MEARS Online Auctions. “And the collectors who continue to perpetuate this, to continue support people involved in this kind of stuff, they’re not helping themselves.”

There are some reliable memorabilia dealers, but experts and collectors routinely cite how the industry is littered with hucksters and scam artists. There is no single regulatory entity with oversight. Third-party authenticators often serve as dealers as well, a potential conflict of interest.

Even more troubling is that modern jerseys — in any sport — are tougher to authenticate. Replicas already litter the marketplace. And with more games and more frequent replacement of uniforms, more jerseys potentially are in play.

Leagues and teams, recognizing a revenue opportunity, are now involved, forging contracts with companies to handle the sale and marketing of jerseys. Today, it’s well known in locker rooms that teams sell the uniforms, although players may request to wear the same one or purchase them outright.

“Of course, I want to keep my game jerseys,” Lance Briggs said after seeing one of his on sale for $1,750. “I guess I should start asking.”

Game-used memorabilia is still not widely available, but interest and value has grown. The items are not found in department stores or malls. Auction houses typically specialize in vintage items.

Collectors may attend charitable functions hosted by players or teams in hopes of scoring some swag. They also turn to the Internet, to trade on eBay or buy directly from companies like JO Sports.

Formed in 2003 by Oldridge, a former college pitcher, the company secured partnerships with professional teams and launched a website in 2008.

Jerseys, usually wrapped in plastic, are shipped directly from teams, and JO Sports arranges with teams which are to be sold, said Robert Kovacs, a JO Sports salesman.

Oldridge admitted to launching his fraud scheme in 2004 and authorities say it lasted until 2008. Records show he and others swapped the numbers and names on jerseys with more popular players. He made jerseys appear as if they were worn by players in games by “roughening, scuffing, washing, dirtying” and changing the appearance. Jerseys were accompanied by false certificates of authenticity.

Reached by phone in Nevada, where he lives, Oldridge said, “I have no comment. I can’t discuss anything about it.”

The company remains open. Its website has hundreds of jerseys and autographed items for sale. Videos of employees going through new shipments are posted on YouTube.

“There’s no other place to get real jerseys,” Kovacs said. “There’s a lot of support on our side, and we’re still doing business and people are still buying form us.”

Matt Conboy of Roscoe, Ill., near Rockford, has been buying jerseys from JO Sports since 2008 and said he still trusts the company. He said he preordered from JO Sports a bloody, dirty and scuffed Urlacher jersey from a 2008 game at Houston. It remains his favorite.

“It’s going to have a big impact on collectors who aren’t as comfortable with them as myself,” he said of the problems at JO Sports. “Bears jerseys prior to JO Sports were very difficult to get.”

But Conboy, who plays semi-pro football, and other collectors and experts said it’s essential to be knowledgeable on authentification — a complicated process where there is little agreement on what constitutes best practice.

Some collectors start by making sure the jersey is even kind issued for games, or one that a player would wear. That means checking manufacturers and uniform materials, as well as players’ sizes and specifications, such as long collars or shortened sleeves.

Sometimes, marks on a jersey — holes, rips, stains — are matched up to real game footage like photographs and, for more modern players, game video.

“People ask me if there’s a book or a textbook I can look this up in and there isn’t,” said Michael Heffner, president of Lelands auctions in New York.

But even photomatching has critics.

Kinunen said anyone can look at a photo and then doctor a game-issued jersey to make it look like it was worn by a player.

“Photo-matching can be faked. It’s a very amateurish way of authenticating,” he said. “It’s almost impossible to tell on a modern jersey if it’s game-worn.”

Dave Grob, a retired Army intelligence officer who authenticates for MEARS, said it’s crucial to go beyond just photomatching, and he employs digital microscopes and fabric testing, among other things.

“We’re three or four decades where we’re into this being a hobby and very little credible work is being done,” said Grob, who limits himself to vintage items. “There’s a lot of bad anecdotal information that people have just accepted as fact.”

Investing in modern jerseys is risky not only because of the potential for fraud but also as an investment, he said. If you buy a jersey worn by your favorite player from a game last weekend, there may very well be a similar jersey on the market from the same player a week later.

“When you look at what these guys were able to do, they actually had access to product (in modern jerseys),” he said. “You don’t have access to product that was produced in ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s or ‘70s.”

Baseball remains the biggest draw for collectors, and Major League Baseball now employs what experts say is the most comprehensive authentification process, including on-field security solely for retrieving game-used items. The only game-used items MLB guarantees to be authentic are those marked with its official hologram, with the vast majority of those items sold on the league and team sites, according to a spokesman.

The NFL encourages fans to buy memorabilia through its own auction house. The items come directly from locker rooms without a middleman involved, said spokesman Brian McCarthy.

The NFL and the Bears provide certificates of authenticity, but a dozen experts and collectors said in interviews they’re not always reliable. In fact, JO Sports issues certificates, too. But, according to court records, they created fake ones during the criminal period.

Because NFL teams own the jerseys, they can do with them as they please. The Bears archive them; pass them along to the Hall of Fame; distribute them at charity events; or sell them to JO Sports, the team’s exclusive partner.

Since 2008, the team has held one-year contracts with JO Sports. Scott Hagel, the Bears spokesman, said the team has been assured by the U.S. Attorney’s office and the NFL that all jerseys are being sold properly at the company.

“The authenticated pieces of inventory that we provide are assured of being accurate,” Hagel said.

Hagel said the team will reevaluate its relationship with the company when the contract expires after the season, factoring in the criminal activity. “Everything goes into the equation when you’re deciding how to move forward,” Hagel said.

On its website, JO Sports states it partners with 14 NFL teams. Most declined comment or did not respond to questions. But the New York Giants issued a termination letter that requested JO Sports stop using its images, and the Ravens are in the process of cutting ties, according to team spokesmen.

Some memorabilia executives were startled to hear the Bears haven’t taken action yet.

“That is a bit mind boggling,” said Heffner, of Lelands. “There are plenty other willing parties out there to sell.”

But collector Rick Moore of Florida, who said he has bought regularly from JO Sports since 2008, wasn’t scared off by the federal case. “It makes no difference to me now,” said Moore. “When you were a kid did you ever steal money off your parents’ end table to buy candy or cigarettes? Sure you did. All of us did.”

Peter Nash, a collector, blogger and author who has helped expose counterfeit items, said investing in memorabilia is always a risk for casual fans who don’t do enough research.

“It’s a total minefield,” said Nash. “You’re going to get burned left and right.”

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(Chicago Tribune reporter Brad Biggs contributed to this report.)