Best memorabilia investment out there
 

I attended a collectors' event in NYC last night and met a few board members which was cool.

One of the panels was asked what they think the best underappreciated sports memorabilia out there is to invest in to turn a profit someday. One of the panelists said game worn Jeter jerseys / uniforms. I have to say, while I have zero interest in Jeter from a personal collecting point of view, I'm hard pressed to come up with a better answer. Today's $10,000 jersey could be worth many multiples of that some day.

Seems awfully sound to me.

Game used in general seems to be a overlooked market. In Goldin the current crazed LeBron triple logoman is currently at 1.45 million. Meanwhile a 2013 Eastern Conference Finals LeBron game used jersey with a massive autograph and photomatch currently sits at $62,000. There is also a full 2006 Team USA jersey currently at $39,000. I would much rather have one of those jerseys over the card, but that is just my opinion.

I'm heavily vested in the Kenner Starting Lineup Figures futures market...still plenty of room for exponential growth there!

Seriously Kevin? :D

I think game used bats and vintage publications are undervalued

I am not sure about the best but by far the worst is any type/model of Wade Boggs baseball bat. A sure money loser so avoid them. I have around 30 of them so I know what I am talking about.;):D

Steve- fun topic, great thread.

I wholeheartedly agree about Jeter. I think in 5-10 years, a game worn Jersey/Uniform of his will command a lot more then it does now (which is pretty robust, deservedly so). Especially with all the proper letters and photo-matching, etc. Great investment. A few years ago I bought a Jeter full Game Worn Home Uniform from his final season (photo-matched to the last subway series he ever played against the Mets). Great use, fully documented.

Also, about 5 years ago I purchased one of the finest Jeter Game Used & Signed Rookie Bats that's out there. Fully documented, PSA/DNA GU10.

I think he was one of the best players over the last 25 years, and a true Yankee great.

Awesome game used Derek Jeter Bat. I love bats that show tons of use. Here is my Arod 2009 bat.

I agree! Card collectors love their cards, they are easy to handle, look cool, and that will never change; hence the insane prices for a piece of cardboard.

I collected cards for more than 45 years, and when packs of cards, and cards themselves, started to get way too expensive for my budget, it was just too much for me. I then bought my first game used bat and I was hooked.

Owning an actual piece of game used memorabilia that your favorite player used in an actual game was just a new awesome experience for me.

My hope is game used memorabilia will really take off one day. Most importantly, game used fielding gloves; the rarest and most difficult piece of game used memorabilia. I'm talking about a players primary glove; not all of these gloves you see being sold as game used, that were used in spring training or for workouts.

How long is the crack (If that is a crack) in your Jeter bat?

not for my collection yet but I can see game worn items and game used bats picking up even more at some point. With the main focus on HOF'ers, infamous players, or when special records that are/were broken

I see flannel jerseys as the pinnacle of baseball memorabilia, but not necessarily the best investment, since their prices are sky high.

I believe caps are the most undervalued genre of baseball memorabilia. They're at least as rare as flannel jerseys, but they're relatively affordable — '50s and '60s flannel jerseys routinely sell for thousands, while I've paid just a couple hundred dollars each for many of my best caps from the '50s and '60s.

Jerseys and caps are tough to find and make the great display items. I don't find bats and gloves nearly as interesting. People love to show off their stuff, and I believe the best display items will always be in demand.

I love publications, but I see their values headed south as the sheer number of the them available dwarfs the number of potential collectors in the future. I also like autographs, but they're such a rabbit hole of potential fraud that many collectors are scared off by them. As for pins, they are definitely rare and desirable, but overpriced.

Game-used Flannels, pre-1970 gets my vote. They have really dried up, and collectors of these pieces are always hesitant to let them go. And I agree with Chris that game-used Caps are way undervalued as well.

Chris I am on the other end of the spectrum. I too like to display my items but I find that Bats are much easier to display than my caps. In fact I recently sold a nice Mike Trout Hat after I put up a bat display with my Mike Trout Bat. I also Love Love Publications and belive that scorecards and publications before 1910 are very undervalued and are in extremely short supply. Now as you move further on the supply increases. Take world series programs as an example. Easy to put together a collection from 1950 on but as you go back decades they get tougher to the point most WS collectors stop in the 20's. The first 5 are beyond scarce and even at current valuations I think under priced.
As for pins they have never been a focus of mine. Although I did collect PX7 Domino disks for a bit. But the earliest examples like Luxello's are beautiful and rare so again like publications. Early examples I think are undervalued. Funny but as I write this I seem to be saying that most memorabilia categories with examples before 1910 are scarce and undervalued. And you could make the same case for cards. Old Judges have always in my opinion been undervalued with a small group of collectors focused on those sets. Most vintage collectors like myself are satisfied with a few examples maybe a Hall of famer or two. Imagine if everyone who collects baseball cards ( shiny stuff included) decided they needed to have an old judge HOF in their collection the prices would rocket. But then most of us me included would be priced out of collecting stuuf we like. Which has happened to me more than once in the past 45 years of collecting.

Collect what you enjoy and enjoy what you collect.
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Team issued photos of postwar superstars. Those are not the vaunted 'Type I' photos that have skyrocketed but the under-appreciated and not well-documented publicity photos by the teams. I've been grabbing them up for years. A few have gone very strong: MJ, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, etc. Most are not there yet, though, and even the ones that are moving up can still be found on the cheap relative to baseball. I think the wave is gathering, though, because the supply on eBay has dried up. And some images:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...am%20issue.jpg

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20shooting.jpg

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...am%20issue.JPG

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...am%20issue.JPG

+1

Comparing GU flannels to baseball cards is comparing actual artifacts that were integral to the game - actually in the stadium, on the field, in the dugout and clubhouse - to mass produced, mass distributed, pictures of them.

By the way, I just won a 1955 Pirates road shirt, all original, from tonight's Leland's auction. With BP it's about $1,240. That's well less than half the price of a PSA 3.5 picture of Clemente:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203970092379

That card probably never got anywhere near Clemente, but he probably casually glanced at this very jersey a hundred times.

So, Steve…. the panelist didn’t mention NFT’s or quarter million dollar Brady cards? :p

I’m a fan of game used bats. Although I’ll never sell, I can see that some bats I bought 30 years ago have appreciated quite a bit.

I'm going to invest heavily in NFTs...as soon as I figure out what they are.

Hockey
 

I gotta believe that this sport is going to pick up in popularity in the us... lord stanley has not had a Canadian winner since 1993... Its a super exciting sport to watch and most memorabilia is on the cheap....

Ive been picking up game used sticks here and there... most have manufacture date stamps on them making them relatively easy to photo match...

I have attached photos of two Martin Brodeur game used sticks i own... both were had for under $600...

Hockey is a super exciting sport but I don't see it exploding in popularity in the US. Relatively few Americas grow up playing hockey and I think that personal connection to the sport is lacking when you didn’t grow up actually playing it. Will always have a core following but I personally don’t see that changing much.

I grew up on Long Island during the heyday of the Islanders. Everyone was Islander crazed in that era. we used to go to card stores and line up to meet bobby nystron, clark gillies, trottier, bossy, etc. Relatively few of my buddies have maintained a strong life long connection to the team.

+1. The question was about investment, however, and to that I say: if you can predict the sports memorabilia market or the stock market or any other market, you're smarter than me.

Hi Tony, thanks for your kind words...and I love that Arod gamer!...Re: My Rookie Jeter Bat- it was cracked, and then later professionally restored (it has since been rephotographed for the updated PSA/DNA LOA (GU10). The bat actually is due to go on display at The Yankee's Museum (at Yankee Stadium). They were planning a Jeter exhibit for 2020, and that was obviously postponed due to Covid. The exhibit has been on hold, but when they finally have it, I've agreed to loan it to them.

Why would you restore it? It's an historical artifact. Part of its history is that Jeter (most likely) stopped using it because it cracked. You've now erased that bit, and turned the bat into something it isn't.

Michael,

Thanks and I appreciate you sharing! Your Jeter bat will be an awesome display!

Tony

David, I agree! I will say however, depending on how bad the crack is (total separation), many prefer to have the bat repaired.

My Arod 1st Career Grand Slam Bat is cracked (no separation). PSA graded it a 9.5 due to the crack. The crack is a part of and a result of the grand slam, so I definitely want it to remain as is. PSA told me it graded a 9.5 due to the size (length) of the crack. If smaller, it would have graded a PSA 10. To me, if it's cracked as a result of its use, then it shouldn't matter. That's just my opinion.

PSA bat grading can be frustrating. I don't see a bat pounded with use, and having a crack, being downgraded .5 for the crack; it is a result of the use. Taking a bat with a crack, and then repairing it, now making it a PSA 10, doesn't make sense to me. The crack still occurred and is actually still there.

Not taking anything away from Michael's Jeter bat, as it's an awesome bat, and this is how PSA's process works.

Thanks for your kind words, Tony.

David, I should clarify. I did not mean to say that I owned the bat cracked, then had it restored...The bat was photographed with the crack (you see part of it above), it was then professionally restored, then graded, then I purchased it. In the world of game used bat collecting, it is very common that cracks are repaired/restored, as long as it is properly mentioned in the LOA (which mine certainly is), it is widely accepted, and usually preferred, as the restoration helps preserve the bat, keeps it more structurally sound, and poses less of a danger to a person handling the bat.

I think anything Jeter or LeBum James…I mean LeBron James…you’ll be safe with. Willie Mays is getting up there in years and nothing of his would be a bad investment either.

Invest in Trout and you'll do well one day. I only paid $900 for this:

https://live.staticflickr.com/4640/2...cc83f41b_w.jpg

Yah especially if you invest in Mike Trout playoff memorabilia.

well, jokes aside, Trout’s lack of moments on the big stage in front of the country isn’t going to help his collectibles. many many good QBs in the NFL that never won the Super Bowl. trout is a generational talent, and Im sure my wife has never heard of him.

One day Spahn will get his due.

Stop putting stickers on game used items. Aggravates the heck out of me when I see it. All of my game used items have the sticker on the LOA, not the item. Maybe it just something that bugs me more than others.

+1. Spahnie has the monster numbers of the legendary hurlers from two generations earlier, and that's with several of his prime years spent fighting WWII.

I also have a Brodeur Stick opening game of 2002 2003 season (Last Cup) he often dated the tape on the top of stick. I also have an autographed half of stick that I got from a friend who worked at Pru. I am a big fan of live sporting events and Hockey is the best but of all sports it translates to TV the worst. But thats ok because collecting Hockey is still affordable. And Hockey has a rich history that makes collecting fun and interesting. Maybe not the best investment but still lots of fun.

Very very nice

I can see hockey be under invested and a good potential growth opportunity

Not for me but I can see people doing it

Great stick Jonathan!!! Is it dated? I have only seen sticks with an abbreviated team name on the butt end... i was told no team inscription=not a gamer...

I think hockey has some solid potential... so much faster than it used to be, and a ton exciting young players...

+1 Absolutely!

Agreed! Once I acquired an MLB Authenticated game used hat from my favorite player in Zack Greinke, as much as I enjoy his cards, they sort of lost their luster in a way as I finally had the ultimate Greinke item. It’s almost as if the game used hat spoiled most everything else for me.

1960's Game Used Batting Helmets, like this one:


https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=114854


Why do you rarely see these? Guessing as with much vintage game used stuff once in someone's collection it's there to stay. I see jerseys often, but doesn't appear that too many helmets survived the 60's.


PS - I'm looking for a 1960's Yankees or Pirates helmet if any one has one for sale message me.

Seems that type one photos of great players or historic events are a solid investment also. JMO.

I've also got this ball from one of Mo's saves. Don't think anyone will be breaking his record so to own one of the saves is cool. Another bonus about this baseball is that according to the box score Doug Mientkiewicz made the last out of the game when he lined this ball back to Rivera himself:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d17e1140_w.jpg

That is cool!
Another interesting parallel is that Doug Mientkiewicz was in the final WS game when Boston broke the Curse of the Babe and caught the ball to end the game.
I'm not sure where it resides today, but he owned the ball for several years.

Trying to figure out what will go up in value in the future is challenging because you have to answer a two-part question: what are the items that people will want in the future, that they also don't want now (or want less now). Otherwise the items will either remain unvaluable, or remain valuable, but not significantly grow in value.

I think there are two general categories; items that are very prominent currently which experience a real changed, and items that are popular now that continue to grow.

In the latter category, I expect Jackie Robinson's legend to continue to grow. As time passes, it seems like many of the secondary characters get forgotten, but the legend around the primary characters only grows. I see that with Jackie.

Negro League collectibles are in high demand, albeit fairly niche. With the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, and additional attention on the league, I could see those growing.

An area that I think may catch on are rookie cards of vintage HOFers. Gehrig's 1925 Exhibit card blew up over the past few years and I wonder if other HOFers will as well (although at the same time, I think the number of people who know of or care about Gabby Hartnett, Al Simmons and others will likely continue to decline, so who knows...)

I remain surprised at how much cheaper programs are than tickets. I find programs so much more interesting, and wonder if the market will ever feel the same.

Finally, my personal niche of lineup cards is one that I love because of how close it is to the game. It's a rare item that actually tells the story of the game, especially when it is well-worn and marked up by the umpire or manager. I think the scarcity of any particular game makes it difficult as a primary area of collecting focus, but especially for significant games, I think there's a lot of upside.

Interesting thoughts.

I actually don’t recall seeing a line up card for an important game at auction. What I usually see is “here’s a lineup card from the NY Mets against the Cincinnati Reds from May 19, 2020….”. A lineup card from a huge game would be pretty huge indeed.




QUOTE=Topnotchsy;2246147]Trying to figure out what will go up in value in the future is challenging because you have to answer a two-part question: what are the items that people will want in the future, that they also don't want now (or want less now). Otherwise the items will either remain unvaluable, or remain valuable, but not significantly grow in value.

I think there are two general categories; items that are very prominent currently which experience a real changed, and items that are popular now that continue to grow.

In the latter category, I expect Jackie Robinson's legend to continue to grow. As time passes, it seems like many of the secondary characters get forgotten, but the legend around the primary characters only grows. I see that with Jackie.

Negro League collectibles are in high demand, albeit fairly niche. With the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, and additional attention on the league, I could see those growing.

An area that I think may catch on are rookie cards of vintage HOFers. Gehrig's 1925 Exhibit card blew up over the past few years and I wonder if other HOFers will as well (although at the same time, I think the number of people who know of or care about Gabby Hartnett, Al Simmons and others will likely continue to decline, so who knows...)

I remain surprised at how much cheaper programs are than tickets. I find programs so much more interesting, and wonder if the market will ever feel the same.

Finally, my personal niche of lineup cards is one that I love because of how close it is to the game. It's a rare item that actually tells the story of the game, especially when it is well-worn and marked up by the umpire or manager. I think the scarcity of any particular game makes it difficult as a primary area of collecting focus, but especially for significant games, I think there's a lot of upside.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate that.

Regarding lineup cards, ones from significant games are difficult to find for at least 4 reasons:

1. There are so few copies in existence (even when considering the copy that each manager has the one the umpire has, and adding to that the larger ones that they post on the dugout walls, it is still a tiny total)
2. Lineup cards weren't traditionally viewed as significant, and therefore were often thrown out. To this day, some managers and umpires toss their lineup cards (although I imagine they are more likely to preserve ones from more significant games)
3. Even when saved, many stay in the collection of the umpire or manager for many years before they decide to part with them.
4. There is generally nothing about the lineup card itself that makes it clear that it was from a significant game, outside of World Series games and the like. So at times they hide in plain site.

That said, I've collected lineup cards for years, and have been able to find/acquire some nice ones. Some came from large collections (I purchased the vast majority of umpire John Hirschbeck's personal collection, which included lineups such as Adrian Beltre's 1st career HR, Carl Yastrzemski's final career HR, Steve Carlton's final career win and others, as well as Tommy Lasorda's personal collection from the last 8-9 years of his career. That included Mike Piazza's 1st career HR, and Pedro Martinez MLB debut and 1st career win.

I've also found lineup cards on eBay that simply were not identified. I acquired Frank Thomas and Ivan Rodriguez MLB debut lineup cards in that way. 99.99% of the time, when looking up a game there is nothing of significance, but those 1 in a million are what keep me searching.

Of course, probably most common is paying market price (and sometimes overpaying in my case, since I'm a big fan of them) on the rare occasion when they turn up.

There are some really cool ones posted in this thread (some mine, some from other people). I've also included a couple of pictures here, one from Brett's 3000th hit game and the other form Ripken's.

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...=lineup&page=2

Best investment IMO
 

BABE RUTH in his playing days anything....

I am a pretty big Isles Game Used Sweater guy - collecting 70's and early 80's players...Hockey has been on fire the last three to four years - mainly jerseys, but some sticks as well....I truly believe vintage hockey GU has more room to increase......and vintage hockey cards seem to be rising as well.....

That's my pick for the future.....

In my bailiwick, boxing, I see good potential in items that are not well-researched or understood at the present time. Things like appearance cards or bout-related cards. These were made for a single event, and they just did not survive in quantity. A few examples:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...harkey%201.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...n%20Skeddy.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ght%20card.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...th_%20Jeff.jpg

I also think there is room in top quality photos of major subjects.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...trait%201.jpeg

Joe Louis, June 21, 1935, age 21. An iconic image of him. Same photo shoot produced this M120 Detroit Free Press premium.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ebsize/024.jpg

Even Ali hasn't hit his full potential.