What Do You Know About Sports Memorabilia?

Sports memorabilia includes collectibles of all types. Although some immediately think football or baseball when sports collectibles come to mind, there are many more types of sports that have valuable collectibles.

The world of sports is a vast and varied world. Sports all over the globe bring value to the items associated with the sports and famous players. There is the sport of figure skating, horse racing, rugby, soccer, hockey, basketball, wrestling, swimming, track and field, tennis, diving, gymnastics, fencing, cycling, archery, weight lifting, sled dog racing, motorcycle racing, martial arts, lacrosse, boxing, golf, bobsledding, auto racing, and events associated with a rodeo, just to name a few!

For many sports items to be valuable as collectibles, they must be kept in flawless condition. The older and less flawed an item is, the more money it will be worth in the future. Many people will invest in this memorabilia for the sake of their children and grandchildren and guard it as though it were priceless. Not only is it an honor to receive something of such magnitude, it is a matter of personal pride for the person who originally obtained the item.

Sports memorabilia are a wide range, including everything from the traditional trading cards to items owned and often worn by the sports figure that became famous. An often overlooked area of interest is that of books. Many sports figures have written books about their lives, private and public. Many books are valuable just because of the person's popularity with the public, even if the person was known for being ruthless or rude.

A few books that may be of interest include: Skate by Steve Milton, A Year in Figure Skating by Beverly Smith, A Golfer's Life by Arnold Palmer with James Dodson, Kareem by Kareem Abdul Jabbar with Mignon McCarthy, Baseball Card Price Guide by Dr. James Beckett and Grant Sandground, and Baseball Desk Reference by Lawrence Lorimer.

Figure skating is an area that offers interesting collectibles. The first female skater to achieve fame was the German Professional 'Charlotte'. A magazine called 'Women's Home Companion' featured a spread on her in 1916.

Product endorsements also provide worthy collectible items. Timex featured Barbara Ann Scott, another female skater and a Canadian. She achieved an Olympic victory in 1948. That prompted a sale of thousands of dolls of her likeness. Another early female skater in demand as a doll was Karen Magnussen.

Of course, the most widespread collectibles in sports memorabilia seems to be cards. It's fairly low cost to get a child started with a baseball card collection. Although it can become a high cost ordeal as the child becomes an avid die-hard fan and learns to recognize the value of card collecting, a collection is something that may take years to obtain and may never be considered complete. This type of interest will help teach the child responsibility among other things. They must keep the cards from curious friends who haven't learned the value of collecting and greedy adults who may try to talk the child out of a precious possession.