Collecting sports memorabilia

jerseyguy · Newbie Joined: Sep 27, 2006 Posts: 1

An items price depends on the desirability and the rarity. If you put those two factors together that's really what's going to determine the market value. For example, Babe Ruth signed a lot of items. He was an American icon back in his playing days and everybody knew who Babe Ruth had him sign something. However, he is still popular; in fact, he is still the most popular baseball player as far as his collectibles. So, while there is a huge supply, there is also the largest demand of any player, so his autographs always sell very well. Another popular collectible is Mickey Mantel. He is a more recent player and signed a whole lot of things, but the demand is so high that the value is still going up. It's interesting because his autograph, in the market, is a good investment, because the market seems to be going up considerably. Just three years ago, you could buy a Mickey Mantel signed baseball for $50. $50-150 was not a problem. Now we can't keep them in stock at $600 a piece and that's just over the last three years. It's the same with a Babe Ruth signed baseball where, in the early 90s, if you paid $5000 for example, people thought you were crazy, but now they sell regularly between $25,000 and $35,000
For more info on sports collecting:
hobbies.expertvillage.com/interviews/sports-collecting-memorabilia.htm