When I find myself bragging about my sport memorabilia collection, which I admit is often, I usually wind up defending my hobby.
It always starts off innocent enough, where someone mentions that they are a big Michael Jordan fan which leads to me saying that I have an autographed, game-worn Jordan jersey hanging in my collection room.
This inevitably leads to them asking how much I paid for the jersey which in turn leads to them suggesting I get my head examined.
I then have to go into my spiel about how I think the game-used jersey is priceless and how it has much more value to me than it does on the open market.
My audience often rolls their eyes at this.
But this got me to thinking, is compiling a game-used memorabilia collection a worthwhile hobby or a futile exercise? The most important part of sport memorabilia collecting is knowing your goals as well as your budget.
If you establish that you only want to build a collection of autographed baseballs from New York Yankees' players and that you cannot spend more than $100 on any one item, then you have a pretty concrete plan and if you stick to it you will fulfill your goals of building an autographed baseball collection under your terms.
The other piece of advice I always tell people is to determine whether you are collecting game-used memorabilia because it makes you happy, or for intrinsic value, or if you are collecting with the intent of ultimately selling the items off for a profit.
To get back to my opening Michael Jordan game-worn jersey story, the follow-up question that nobody ever asks is, "What is the jersey worth today?".
If they knew that I could double my investment today they probably would stop recommending psychiatric help.
I also recommend that you stay true to your goals.
If you decide to collect in hopes of making money, but you then receive an offer on a game-worn jersey of your favorite player, you need to be able to sell the jersey and bank the profit without wavering over your emotional ties to the player and the piece of game-used memorabilia.
It always starts off innocent enough, where someone mentions that they are a big Michael Jordan fan which leads to me saying that I have an autographed, game-worn Jordan jersey hanging in my collection room.
This inevitably leads to them asking how much I paid for the jersey which in turn leads to them suggesting I get my head examined.
I then have to go into my spiel about how I think the game-used jersey is priceless and how it has much more value to me than it does on the open market.
My audience often rolls their eyes at this.
But this got me to thinking, is compiling a game-used memorabilia collection a worthwhile hobby or a futile exercise? The most important part of sport memorabilia collecting is knowing your goals as well as your budget.
If you establish that you only want to build a collection of autographed baseballs from New York Yankees' players and that you cannot spend more than $100 on any one item, then you have a pretty concrete plan and if you stick to it you will fulfill your goals of building an autographed baseball collection under your terms.
The other piece of advice I always tell people is to determine whether you are collecting game-used memorabilia because it makes you happy, or for intrinsic value, or if you are collecting with the intent of ultimately selling the items off for a profit.
To get back to my opening Michael Jordan game-worn jersey story, the follow-up question that nobody ever asks is, "What is the jersey worth today?".
If they knew that I could double my investment today they probably would stop recommending psychiatric help.
I also recommend that you stay true to your goals.
If you decide to collect in hopes of making money, but you then receive an offer on a game-worn jersey of your favorite player, you need to be able to sell the jersey and bank the profit without wavering over your emotional ties to the player and the piece of game-used memorabilia.
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