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The business of sports memorabilia is enormous. The questions always are where do you start, what do you collect, and what is your budget. Perhaps the most popular of all sports memorabilia is collecting baseball cards. "The Great National Pastime" has been a passion for many youngsters and many "not-so" youngsters for an extremely long time. However, for many, the love of sports memorabilia goes much further than collecting baseball cards. Signed jerseys, helmets, footballs, basketball are just the tip of the iceberg. We'll start with card collecting. The typical-card collector, usually the youngster, starts his collection the cheap and easy way: 7-Eleven. Sometimes they even chew the gum in the Topps card packs. If they're serious about their card collecting hobby and start at a young enough age, by the time college comes around, they've got a extremely nice and possibly valuable card collection. Next comes vintage card collecting. Vintage collecting means different things to different people. In most cases, vintage card collecting goes back sixty to ninety years. A vintage Ruth card in satisfactory condition can go for hundred's of thousands of dollars. Certainly budget comes into consideration when collecting vintage baseball cards, and nothing more needs stated. Then we have sports "gear collecting." Sports gear would include helmets, jerseys, and shoes. Further, baseballs, footballs, basketballs and hockey pucks are also part of this category. The main element that these items must have in common, if value is the driving force, is a signature by the athlete. Also, a signature on a sports memorabilia item that has some historical significance attached to it, (example: a milestone ball or puck), can make the memorabilia item that more valuable. Not that it would ever happen, but can you imagine owning the football that Brett Favre signed when her surpassed Dan Marino's 61,000 yard mark?? Sometime people get lucky by being in the right place at the right time (catching a home-run ball), and they get even luckier if they keep the item and get the famous signature with it. More often than not, balls, helmets and jerseys are signed in limited edition numbers so if you're able to pick up a few legitimately signed articles every so often, you'll have memorabilia that will have a nice value in the future. Finally, we have the ever so popular individual or team signed picture. Again, if it's attached to a milestone…say a team photo signed by the New York Yankees after a successful World Series run, the memorabilia will have more value than a team photo signed by the players in a generic sense. The most critical element to consider when purchasing true "collector" sports memorabilia is its authenticity. As with any collector item, fraud also runs rampant in the sports memorabilia industry. Make sure that you're dealing with a reputable merchant, broker or auction house when buying. A merchant or auction house that has been in business for a good period of time will provides its customers with certificates of authenticity for any memorabilia item that has intrinsic value. If a merchant holds itself out as reputable dealer in the sports memorabilia business, then it will provide the number of customers served, perhaps sales stats, and of course, appropriate customer references. So whatever your pursuit is in the collecting of sports memorabilia, enjoy & have fun! Sports Collectibles Please Visit Our Online Mall
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