Best memorabilia investment out there

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by justrun7

Game used in general seems to be a overlooked market.

I agree! Card collectors love their cards, they are easy to handle, look cool, and that will never change; hence the insane prices for a piece of cardboard.

I collected cards for more than 45 years, and when packs of cards, and cards themselves, started to get way too expensive for my budget, it was just too much for me. I then bought my first game used bat and I was hooked.

Owning an actual piece of game used memorabilia that your favorite player used in an actual game was just a new awesome experience for me.

My hope is game used memorabilia will really take off one day. Most importantly, game used fielding gloves; the rarest and most difficult piece of game used memorabilia. I'm talking about a players primary glove; not all of these gloves you see being sold as game used, that were used in spring training or for workouts.

[AstroJake09]

Originally Posted by 3arod13

I agree! Card collectors love their cards, they are easy to handle, look cool, and that will never change; hence the insane prices for a piece of cardboard.

I collected cards for more than 45 years, and when packs of cards, and cards themselves, started to get way too expensive for my budget, it was just too much for me. I then bought my first game used bat and I was hooked.

Owning an actual piece of game used memorabilia that your favorite player used in an actual game was just a new awesome experience for me.

My hope is game used memorabilia will really take off one day. Most importantly, game used fielding gloves; the rarest and most difficult piece of game used memorabilia. I'm talking about a players primary glove; not all of these gloves you see being sold as game used, that were used in spring training or for workouts.

Agreed! Once I acquired an MLB Authenticated game used hat from my favorite player in Zack Greinke, as much as I enjoy his cards, they sort of lost their luster in a way as I finally had the ultimate Greinke item. It’s almost as if the game used hat spoiled most everything else for me.

[Shoeless Moe]

1960's Game Used Batting Helmets, like this one:


https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...?itemid=114854


Why do you rarely see these? Guessing as with much vintage game used stuff once in someone's collection it's there to stay. I see jerseys often, but doesn't appear that too many helmets survived the 60's.


PS - I'm looking for a 1960's Yankees or Pirates helmet if any one has one for sale message me.

[GrayGhost]

Seems that type one photos of great players or historic events are a solid investment also. JMO.

[packs]

I've also got this ball from one of Mo's saves. Don't think anyone will be breaking his record so to own one of the saves is cool. Another bonus about this baseball is that according to the box score Doug Mientkiewicz made the last out of the game when he lined this ball back to Rivera himself:

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by packs

I've also got this ball from one of Mo's saves. Don't think anyone will be breaking his record so to own one of the saves is cool. Another bonus about this baseball is that according to the box score Doug Mientkiewicz made the last out of the game when he lined this ball back to Rivera himself:

That is cool!
Another interesting parallel is that Doug Mientkiewicz was in the final WS game when Boston broke the Curse of the Babe and caught the ball to end the game.
I'm not sure where it resides today, but he owned the ball for several years.

[Topnotchsy]

Trying to figure out what will go up in value in the future is challenging because you have to answer a two-part question: what are the items that people will want in the future, that they also don't want now (or want less now). Otherwise the items will either remain unvaluable, or remain valuable, but not significantly grow in value.

I think there are two general categories; items that are very prominent currently which experience a real changed, and items that are popular now that continue to grow.

In the latter category, I expect Jackie Robinson's legend to continue to grow. As time passes, it seems like many of the secondary characters get forgotten, but the legend around the primary characters only grows. I see that with Jackie.

Negro League collectibles are in high demand, albeit fairly niche. With the recognition of the Negro Leagues as a Major League, and additional attention on the league, I could see those growing.

An area that I think may catch on are rookie cards of vintage HOFers. Gehrig's 1925 Exhibit card blew up over the past few years and I wonder if other HOFers will as well (although at the same time, I think the number of people who know of or care about Gabby Hartnett, Al Simmons and others will likely continue to decline, so who knows...)

I remain surprised at how much cheaper programs are than tickets. I find programs so much more interesting, and wonder if the market will ever feel the same.

Finally, my personal niche of lineup cards is one that I love because of how close it is to the game. It's a rare item that actually tells the story of the game, especially when it is well-worn and marked up by the umpire or manager. I think the scarcity of any particular game makes it difficult as a primary area of collecting focus, but especially for significant games, I think there's a lot of upside.