Ticket Collectors

[Exhibitman]

I think they look nice sometimes in slabs and the protection is great for klutzy collectors like me. I had three rather delicate tickets that I needed in nice stable holders so I sent them in on the PSA March special. I hope to have them back in time to take to the National . Same with all sorts of paper ephemera. Like this die-cut Benny Leonard that is now in an SGC case:



No way was I leaving that one raw in my hands!

Buying is less of an issue for me because the ones I collect [boxing, mostly] are not valuable enough that there has been a counterfeiting problem. Still, a slab does help me feel safer to purchase from a random venue like eBay.

As for resale, I think it depends. When it comes to resale through auctioneers, slabbing may save some money in the long run. Most AH's will give me a 0% commission deal on slabbed items but will hit me for 5%-10% on raw items [value and rarity dependent, of course]. A $100 ticket may not be slabworthy but a $300 one might make sense. I also tend to think that the slab will attract impulse purchasers. For example, a while ago I purchased a rare ticket that I stumbled across at a show. I was able to handle it and verify the security features and stock, so I knew it was 100% legit. I would probably have passed on it had I seen it on eBay raw at the same price.

[RTK]

I'm hardly a ticket collector although I have picked up a few over the years along with the ones I've saved from the many events I've attended. I actually like the creases and wear on vintage tickets, they help tell a story. Someone handed the ticket to an usher, excited to be going to a game, not knowing it would become historic. The ticket was stuffed in a pocket, thrown in a drawer along with a handful of change. Maybe weeks later used as a book mark, to be forgotten in the book, years later sold at a garage sale. I always wonder who used the ticket, a little boy, a grandpa, a war vet in uniform. I enjoy handling them, it's like touching history. If I slabbed any, I think I'd only slab ones from truly historic games; perfect games, no hitters, etc...

[Gary Dunaier]

Back in the days when tickets were torn, I would always pre-fold my ticket ahead of time so that it got a neat tear along the dotted line.

Now that tickets are scanned, when I go to games I put them in a hard plastic holder and leave them there. They can still be scanned through the plastic, and the ticket remains in mint condition.


(Photo taken July 16, 2013. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here.)