Sports memorabilia are collectables associated with sports, including equipment, trophies, sports cards, autographs, and photographs. A multi-billion-dollar industry has grown around the trading of sports memorabilia. [1] [2]
Sports memorabilia are collectables associated with sports, including equipment, trophies, sports cards, autographs, and photographs. A multi-billion-dollar industry has grown around the trading of sports memorabilia. [1] [2]
Items that have been in direct contact with a famous athlete can have significant monetary value. Game-used items such as a ball Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run of the 1998 season, sold for $3 million. [3] The most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold was a New York Yankees baseball jersey worn by Babe Ruth during his 'called shot' game in the 1932 World Series. It sold for $24.12 million in 2024. [4] In 2016, the ten most valuable sports cards and memorabilia sold for a record-setting combined $12,186,294. [5] The highest price fetched for an association football shirt is $224,000. The shirt belonged to Pelé, who wore it during the 1970 World Cup final in which Brazil went on to win. [6] Collectors of sports memorabilia may seek to authenticate items to prove their veracity. Autographed items are nearly always more valuable than non-autographed items. [7]
Sports memorabilia items are considered good investments by collectors, as the industry and prices of items grow rapidly. [8]
In the sports memorabilia industry, there are two main focuses of collectors: autographed cards and tickets, and used clothing and equipment. Signed cards and tickets are preferred in pristine condition, while used uniforms are considered to be more desirable when they are unwashed, as stains from dirt, grass, blood, and sweat add value. Unique or odd items are also highly collectible, and items such as hair, floorboards, and chairs from stadiums have sold for large quantities of money. [2] "Rookie" memorabilia, meaning items from an athlete's first year as a professional player, are valued by collectors. Rookie cards are often considered by collectors to be the most desirable kind of trading cards. [8]
At the Olympic Games, there is a thriving market for collectible lapel pins. Various pins representing media organizations, sponsors, athletes, nations, and mascots are distributed, and athletes and attendees often engage in pin trading amongst themselves to collect them. The tradition began at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, where cardboard pins were worn by coaches, athletes, and reporters for identification. [9] [10] Some pins have become highly coveted by collectors, including a pin from the 2016 Summer Olympics featuring an image of Pikachu [11] and a pin from the 2024 Summer Olympics featuring an image of Snoop Dogg. [12] [13]
A collectable is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old. A curio is something deemed unique, uncommon, or weird, such as a decorative item. A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text. When traded separately, they are known as singles. There is a wide variation of different types of cards.
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stadiums, or celebrities.
The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards. Topps also produces cards under the brand names Allen & Ginter and Bowman.
Non-sport trading cards are a particular kind of collectible card designated as such because trading cards have historically prominently featured athletes from the world of sports as subjects. Non-sports cards are trading cards whose subjects can be virtually anything other than sports-themed.
The Upper Deck Company, LLC, founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United States.
T206 is a tobacco card set issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size and rarity, and the quality of its color lithographs. The first series of cards were issued beginning in 1909. From 1909 to 1911 cards of over 500 major minor-league players in 16 different cigarette brands. The set featured Honus Wagner, Eddie Plank and the error cards of Larry Doyle and Sherry Magee. Several of the cards are among the most expensive sports cards ever sold.
Baseball Hobby News was a United States–based news-oriented magazine about the field of baseball memorabilia collecting. Founded in 1979 by the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Vivian Barning, who served as editor and publisher, respectively, the magazine was published on a monthly basis until 1993.
An American football card is a type of collectible trading card typically printed on paper stock or card stock that features one or more American football players or other related sports figures. These cards are most often found in the United States and other countries where the sport is popular.
A rookie card is a trading card that is the first to feature an athlete after that athlete has participated in the highest level of competition within their sport. Collectors may value these first appearances more than subsequent card issues. Athletes are often commemorated on trading cards which are highly collected based on the popularity of the athlete. Prices for rookie cards fluctuate based on consumer interest, supply and demand and other factors, but can surpass thousands of dollars.
The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman", a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette packs to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card, and a total of only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public. In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time.
An insert card is a card that is randomly inserted into packs of a sports card offering. These insert cards are not part of the regular numbering system of a set of sports cards and they tend to have a unique design. Another term for insert cards is chase cards. Insert cards either have their own numbering system. Insert cards are found less frequently than base cards. Autographed cards, memorabilia cards and parallel cards are also classified as insert cards. Insert cards are randomly inserted into packs at a specific ratio. A 1:24 ratio specifies that on average one of every 24 packs will contain a card from that insert set.
Beckett Media is a firm dedicated to covering the sports card, comic book grading, collectibles, and sports memorabilia sectors. Established in 1984 by statistician Dr. James Beckett, it was originally known as Beckett Publications.
Tristar Productions, Inc. promotes sports collectible events, distributes autographed sports memorabilia, and manufactures and distributes trading cards. The company was founded in 1987, in Houston, Texas, by Jeffrey R. Rosenberg. At Tristar's collectors shows, current and former sports players autograph memorabilia. The organization distributes trading cards for organizations including Minor League Baseball and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.
Pin trading is the practice of buying, selling, and exchanging collectible pins as a hobby. This often takes place in amusement parks and resorts such as Walt Disney World and Disneyland, SeaWorld, Universal Resorts. Sporting events, including the Olympic Games, Canada Games, and Little League World Series, feature long-standing pin trading traditions. Hard Rock Cafe also sells a pin collection.
Collectors Universe Inc. is an American company formed in 1986, now based in Santa Ana, California, which provides third-party authentication and grading services to collectors, retail buyers and sellers of collectibles. Its authentication services focus on coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia, and autographs. The company reached the combined total of 75 million certified collectibles in 2019. Collectors Universe is also a publisher in fields relating to collecting.
RR Auction is an auction house established in 1976 by Bob Eaton. The company headquarters is in Boston with a production office based in Amherst, New Hampshire. The company is known for its monthly auctions of historical documents, manuscripts, autographs, artifacts, sports collectibles, spaceflight memorabilia, presidential items and more. The auction house has developed a worldwide client base and publishes monthly catalogs in print and online via issuu.
Operation Bullpen was an FBI investigation into forged celebrity autographs and sports memorabilia that ran from 1999 until 2006. The investigation uncovered $100 million worth of fraud that occurred in the United States.
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