Major Sports Memorabilia Categories

By John Buonaguidi & George Keniston

There are many categories within the sports memorabilia collecting field. Here is an extensive list of them, along with what they consist of:

Autographs : Autographs of sports stars are popular. In this subcategory, it’s critical to ensure that what you are buying or selling is real and not a duplication. It’s not as difficult to find authentic signatures as you might think. Signatures are available, and they’re still popular. Many sports celebrities still attend sports shows, and you can sometimes purchase autographs from them in person. Prices for autographs are dictated by who the individual is and what the medium is that they have autographed. Generally, the more unique the autographed piece, the higher the price.

" Bobbin Head " Dolls: These are those little plaster (older) and plastic (newer) dolls that were generally sold at ball parks and stores that depict team mascots and/or players. They have an oversised head that sits on a metal spring and bobs around. Collectors that collect these types of dolls are among the most avid of any group of sports collectors.

Cards : Baseball, football, basketball, and so on. Cards is one of the most popular subcategories within the sports memorabilia category. In fact, most sports collectors begin with this phase of collecting. For example, many beginning collectors bought gum cards during their childhood and remember the fun they had with them. Then, later in life, they strive to collect them again, since their old cards were inadvertently thrown out by their mom or dad. The opportunities for collecting cards are endless. As mentioned in the History section earlier, cards have been issued for over a hundred years, and there are numerous types, sizes, and so on. In today’s environment, card condition is essential to its value and desirability. There are even grading services (like those in the coin and stamp collecting fields) that grade cards for a fee. Card collecting has evolved into a very serious subcategory of the sports collectable field. Vintage, highly graded cards can command very high prices. However, there are some great vintage cards that are reasonably priced as well, so don’t let high-priced high-condition cards scare you off. There are card-collecting opportunities at all price levels. Card collecting is one of the most fun and rewarding subcategory of the sports memorabilia field.

Equipment : Equipment collecting refers to acquiring pieces of sports equipment such as boxing gloves, bats, balls, jerseys and so on. On eBay, equipment can be found in the Sporting Goods subcategory in the Miscellaneous Category. Collecting sports equipment has become particularly popular in the last 5 years. Values on these collectables have risen sharply. Condition, as with most collectables, is critical to value. Completeness of the item is vital to overall value from an investment perspective. With the proliferation of sports bars and restaurants, there is an even greater demand for this type of collectable.

Jewellery : In this subcategory are items such as World Series Baseball rings and other award-type jewellery given to players and athletes. World Series Baseball Press Pins (items given to the press) and similar items are included in this subcategory. Generally these types of pieces are rare and pricey.

Periodicals : This subcategory of the sports memorabilia category includes such items as programmes from sporting events, books about sports, yearbooks and other publications issued by teams, and newspapers. In other words, any printed matter about sports is considered a periodical. The real plus to this subcategory of the hobby is that you can usually get a lot of satisfaction for a small amount of money. This is because many periodicals are reasonably priced and provide a lot of enjoyment in terms of pictures, articles, history, and so on about a favourite player, team, or sport. Additionally, periodicals are a great way to learn the history of a sport and build an impressive library at the same time.

19th century Memorabilia : Collectors in this subcategory tend to be very advanced and also historically oriented. They love items from the "roots" of sports and savor the fact that items they collect are often one of a kind. There are some truly unique and provocative pieces from this era, but prices can be high due to the rareness of the items sought. There are "museum quality" pieces among these early day artefacts.

Photographs : Images of great ballplayers and athletes are very popular collectables. Every fan likes to see a great photo of one of their favourites making a great play, or of a nice team image. Photos are real speciality items because it is critical to know if photos are truly vintage or second-generation. The price range in this subcategory varies from very reasonable to high, so there’s room for collectors in all price ranges.

Stadium Artifacts : This includes all items that come from any sports complex, ballpark, or stadium. Everything from seats to stadium signs to scoreboards to parquet flooring from the basketball courts is included here. Since much of these types of items were destroyed, they can be very challenging to locate and tend to be pricey when scarce. Such things as a stadium seat from one’s favourite ballpark make for a super den item!

Tickets : Sporting event tickets and ticket stubs are a recent sports collecting area. Over the years, most people discarded ticket stubs from sporting events. Consequently not many tickets survived. Tickets from significant games such as World Series Championships, World Cup matches, Championship boxing matches, and so on are coveted by ticket collectors.

Trophies : Trophies with athletic figures on them are a popular collectable. These make nice display pieces. In this area of collecting, the early vintage trophies are quite detailed in artwork and are the most desirable. Also, trophies given to specific major athletes are extremely sought after.

Unopened Packs : This subcategory refers to unopened packs of cards (baseball, football, basketball, and so on). Occasionally, a pack of cards from years past is found, and the discovery is very exciting for avid sports card collectors. Can you imagine finding an unopened product that is several decades old? These items are rare and command a very premium price. This is a unique segment of the hobby.

Vintage memorabilia : This subcategory generally includes pre-1960 material. Within this area, a person might collect anything from programmes to cards to equipment, but it all has to be from eras that are before 1960. There are many serious collectors in this subcategory, and it has a vast amount of potential collectables.

The preceding material was written by John Buonaguidi and George Keniston. These are the opinions of the author, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.