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.
Autograph collecting is the practice of collecting autographs of famous persons. Some of the most popular categories of autograph subjects are politicians, military soldiers, athletes, movie stars, artists, social and religious leaders, scientists, astronauts, and authors.
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. 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.
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.
The Bowman Gum Company was a Philadelphia-based manufacturer of bubble gum and trading cards. It was founded by Jacob Warren Bowman in 1927.
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.
Film memorabilia are objects considered of value because of their connection to the cinema. These include costumes, props, advertising posters, and scripts, among other things. Fans have always coveted memorabilia, but in recent years, what was once a hobby has mushroomed into big business, with millions of dollars changing hands in auctions held by such top firms as Christie's and Sotheby's. In addition, many popular films have their collectible items sold via independent, online movie memorabilia stores, web auctions, and at film studio charity events.
Jersey cards or Costume cards are baseball, American football, basketball, ice hockey, and other sports collector cards that have a small piece of the featured player's jersey in the card. Jersey cards were first introduced by Upper Deck in 1996.
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, as compared to the "tens or hundreds of thousands" of T206 cards, over three years in sixteen brands of cigarettes, for any other player. 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.
Barry Halper was an extensive collector of baseball memorabilia who had been a limited partner owning about 1% of the New York Yankees. During the auction of Halper's collection, Sotheby's Auction House called it the "World Series of Sports Auctions."
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.
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.
Sports figurines are collectible statues of professional athletes that are usually made of plastic. They come packaged with a stand and can be connected or removed from it.
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.
The Major League Baseball Authentication Program, or MLB Authentication Program, is a program run by Major League Baseball Properties, the product licensing arm of Major League Baseball, to guarantee the authenticity of baseball merchandise and memorabilia. The centerpiece of the system is a tamper-resistant security tape sticker with an embedded hologram. Each sticker carries a unique alphanumeric code. The sticker is affixed to all game-used merchandise and memorabilia, while information about the item is entered into a computer database. Between 500,000 and 600,000 items are authenticated each season.
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.
