By Carrie Baker, President, Veritas Fine Art Appraisals LLC
Whether you prefer baseball cards, stadium seats, or Jordan’s iconic “sweaty flu” sneakers, the sports memorabilia industry is booming and growing at lightning speed. At the close of the 2024 Summer Olympics, America’s athletes made another impressive run, once again topping the total medal count – 126 to be exact. At the end of this summer season and another impressive USA Olympic run, nothing could be more fitting than discussing tips on collecting sports memorabilia.
The sports memorabilia industry has skyrocketed. According to the consulting group Market Decipher, the estimated valuation of sports memorabilia in 2021 was $26.1 billion, predicting it will hit $227.2 billion by 2032. Take Michael Jordan’s famed “Flu Game” sneakers. During the 5th game of the 1997 NBA Finals, Jordan was visibly battling a severe case of the flu. Like only Jordan can, he defied the odds and scored 38 points during this game. After the game, Jordan was hooked up to an IV drip in the locker room and handed his sweaty sneakers to the ball boy. The sneakers then re-surfaced at auction in 2013 and sold for $104,000. Fast-forward 10 years later – the sneakers were once again offered at auction and sold for a whopping $1.38 million.
This collecting category is chock-full of price surges like Jordan’s sneakers, but if you are new to the world of sports memorabilia collecting, here are some general tips to get started.
The rules can differ greatly depending on the type of object you are collecting, so do your homework. In other words, collecting baseballs is very different than collecting baseball cards. Some would say it would be ideal to stay focused on one area so that you can become more well-versed, increasing the overall quality of your collection.
- When applicable, check to see if the object has been verified by reputable grading authentication companies. Examples include (PSA), Professional Sports Authenticator and (JSA), James Spence Authentication to name a few.
- Provenance matters. If a seller claims that that jersey they are selling is an autographed game winning Kobe Bryant NBA Finals jersey, there needs to be proof to back that up.
- Buy only from reputable dealers and auction houses with a dedicated sports memorabilia department. This sounds obvious, but in the age of third-tier online marketplaces that sell just about anything and everything, it is worth pointing out.
Referenced Sources – https://www.marketdecipher.com/
