The upside down baseball logo is your first clue that the Major League Baseball jersey that was for sale at a huge discount
wasn't legit.
Then there are the loose threads, a sign of shoddy workmanship, and the way the jersey will fade with a few washings.
Oh, and that "authentic" signature of Twins' player Jason Kubel on the jersey? It actually was electronically scanned and reproduced.
The jersey -- which would retail for about $250 if it were the real thing -- was among the 1,600 items of counterfeit merchandise seized by federal and local authorities at three Duluth stores about a month ago.
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On Wednesday, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement displayed the jersey and a sampling of other knock-offs seized as they warned holiday shoppers to be wary. The bogus items bearing designer names such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel filled stacks of evidence boxes.
Look closely at these items and you'll find inexpensive materials, sloppy stitching and fraying throughout. The Gucci wallet had torn seams and was partially glued together. The soles of the Nike athletic shoes were so hard they were unbendable. And the Coogi Australian jeans were littered with hanging threads.
"If the price is too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true," said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of investigations for immigration and customs enforcement in a five-state area including Minnesota.
Duluth police are seeking state charges against the store owners, while the federal investigation continues. Arnold wouldn't say what the federal probe is after but said federal investigations generally try to work their way up the supply ladder.
After the fraudulent goods were seized at New U Clothing Store, 207 E. Superior St., Christopher's Clothing, 305 W. Superior St., and Fred and Mark's Sports World, 1600 Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth police said the store owners were cooperating with authorities.
Such fraudulent merchandizing is bigger than most people imagine, said Officer Brad Wick, a Duluth police spokesman.
"It's not only the fact it's taking money away from these companies by selling the fraudulent stuff, but also it's fraud against the consumer," Wick said. "You're paying $100, you're expecting to have an authentic signed jersey. Then you find out it's worth $10."
The illegal knock-offs are major problems in New York and Los Angeles, but Duluth?
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The troubled economy combined with consumers' growing demand for brand names at bargain prices has fueled the trend, officials say. Last week, Arnold's agency busted 21 Twin Cities businesses, seizing 17,000 counterfeit items with an estimated street value of $643,000.
"People are selling it as a way of making money," he said.
But the costs are great -- $200 billion a year in lost revenue and the loss of 750,000 American jobs, according to agency summaries.
And behind it all is organized crime, officials say.
"Organized crime smuggles them in using the same infrastructure they use to smuggle drugs, weapons and other contraband in and out of the United States," Arnold said.
Typically, the knock-offs are made overseas, often in sweatshops, and smuggled into the United States, Arnold said, adding that the majority come from China.
In the United States, they're usually sold in small stores for about one-third the retail price of their legitimate counterparts. Major retail stores avoid fraud by dealing directly with brand-name companies, Arnold said.
