7 Things You Have to Know About Valuing Sports Memorabilia

This is an area that brings up the most questions for collectors worldwide and is a book in itself. Often you will hear dealers give the stock answer, 'well....its worth what someone is willing to pay for it!'. Thanks Einstein. But obviously the point is how can we, the seller, figure out what this is?

As this is an active market valuations of different pieces change from year to year. Many factors can determine this from the popularity of the athlete/team to the economic conditions of the time. Therefore, it is vital to have an updated guide showing current values. A two year old guide is worthless-throw it out!

For example, experienced sports card collectors prefer using monthly price guide magazines such as Beckett's guides. This sort of info keeps you up to date but you may find that not all collectibles are in there simply because there is not enough space! It can also be an issue when looking for details on rare or vintage pieces.

For this you would have to look at some of the reputable yearly guides produced by Tuff Stuff or Beckett's. They may be yearly but they can provide a good reference point and will have more on the rare pieces mentioned. These guides are huge and claim to list over 500,000 items so it wont make for a good vacation read! 

There are many guides out there that also cater for less mainstream sports such as fishing or antique golf collectibles. Price guides in this area are particularly useful if they carry photos of authentic memorabilia and tips on collecting that type of item. With these niche markets you may find that values vary widely in relation to printed valuations.

It is still not enough to go by book valuation so you really need to do your research on real world prices. If it is a well known piece of sports memorabilia then you can go straight over to ebay to see if something similar has been sold there and for what price.As with anything on ebay - Buyer Beware! Check the seller reputation and comments left by buyers.

Another option is to go to your local hobby shop or find a sports memorabilia dealer local to you. They may be willing to provide a no obligation estimate. However, it probably isn't a good idea to sell to them as they will want to get it at a low price before selling on for a profit. There is no harm in this - it is a business after all - but the smart seller will go somewhere else knowing it's probably worth more on the private market.

When it comes to high end sports memorabilia it may be worth paying a specialized appraiser. If an item is incredibly rare then there is little in the way of a benchmark on the open market so consulting an expert from a reputable company is your best option. Look at the top auction companies in your niche as the places to go for this.

Now, all of this may be pointless if your collectible has no value at all because youbought badly in the first place! First of all look for something related to a popular star/team. Secondly try and get something that is rare. Finally, you must keep it in as good condition as you possibly can. It would be all well and good if you have a Michael Jordan Fleer rookie card but if it's in bad condition it's not going to be worth a whole lot. This final point is absolutely key. If you neglect this then the dealer really is right - 'its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it...'