Gold Magazine January - February 2014, Issue 34 | Page 81

In this day and age where they

are getting nothing
alternative ways to channel it

in their bank, wealthy people are looking for
sports memorabilia game, which must be
heeded to ensure a triumphant investment?
Touch Invest, with adamantine resolve,
asserts that investing in sports memorabilia is
requiring of the same research and depth of
knowledge fostered for other markets, such as
the stock market.
And within sports memorabilia, the athlete
is the stock.
Thus, investors would do well to familiarise
themselves with the athlete, ensuring that he
or she has good fundamentals, good management, and, finally, good market value.
For example, in 1991, a near-mint
condition baseball card, featuring
celebrated baseball player Honus Wagner – considered by critics as one of the
greatest players in baseball’s history – sold
for $451,000. The T206 Honus Wagner
card (as it is official titled), sold again in 1995
for $500,000, 1996 for $640,000, 2000 for
$1.265 million, 2007 for $2.35 million, and,
finally, in 2008 for an incredible $2.8 million,
reflective of a soaring 521% increase.
Conversely, baseball player, Mark McGwire’s 1998 record-breaking homerun baseball
– having sold in 1999 for $3 million – has suffered a terrible loss in value, following on from
McGwire’s admittance in 2010 of having used
performance-enhancing drugs during his seemingly stellar career. Experts now suppose that
sellers would be hard-pressed to receive even six
figures for the ball today. Bad stock, indeed.
Besides such extenuating circumstances,
investors would do well to centre their efforts
on a team’s or player’s ‘golden period’, during
which particular success was achieved, of even
historic magnitude.
Sports consultant, Bonhams, Dan Davies
clarifies: “Don’t buy items made to cash in
on an event, but look for a truly historic item,
such as a shirt worn during a world cup final or
memorable match.”
Furthermore, Davies suggests that patience
is prudent, as only after players have retired,
establishing themselves as ‘greats of the game’
will prices truly see worthwhile rises: “Typically, items from sports players still alive or
playing do not tend to sell for as much.”
Unique items, with a personal connection to
a team or player, are likewise far more fecund
than signed replicas. Budd says of profitable
items that they are the sort of thing you can
pick up and touch, representative of what all
the effort and achievement was about.
A football shirt worn by Brazilian sportsman Edson Arantes do Nascimento – better
known as Pele – during the 1970 World Cup

final, sold at London’s Christie’s in 2002 for
£157,750. Meanwhile, a Yankees jersey worn
by Lou Gehrig – who famously succumbed
to a motor neurone disorder that robbed him
of his dynamism on the pitch, claiming his
life at the age of 36 in 1941 – sold in 1992 for
$363,000. Today, the same jersey is thought to
be worth almost double that figure.
On the other hand, mass-produced merchandise, due to its sheer volume and lack of
association with the athlete, is rarely considered
investment grade.
More pressingly, a criminal market has been
allowed to bloom within sports memorabilia,
with FBI statistics suggesting that over 50%
(possibly as much as 90%) of all

The sports memorabilia
market is worth some

Whatever avenue one may choose to follow,
Budd cautions: “You still have to make judgment calls about what you’re buying and what
would be a good investment.”
Indeed, the core of investing in sports memorabilia as defined by Budd may be likened to
the peak of the ‘Prime Sports Pyramid’ that
identifies the key contributors to a sportsman’s
successful performance: emotion, passion.
Budd elaborates: “There’s a rail of football
shirts in front of you, and you have to pick the
players that people will still be remembering
and talking about in ten, twenty and fifty years
time, rather than the guys that are big today
and forgotten tomorrow.
“You can only do that if you are passionate
about the sport.”
And that, it seems, is how the winner truly
takes it all.

$5 billion

signed memorabilia in, specifically, the American market are counterfeit.
Vennett-Smith confirms the risks, professing of being fearful that up to 85% of items
sold on auction websites could be fraudulent
merchandise. He says: “I often get people coming in with football star’s signatures. I have to
tell them it is a nice picture but someone has
spoiled it with a scribble.”
Regardless of country, Davies advises that
those who tread with trepidation in the sports
memorabilia market will fare well; never has
the endeavour to ensure provenance and authenticity been so imperative.
He says: “The market is awash with fakes.
Only buy from a reputable dealer who can provide a certificate of authenticity and guarantee
of a full refund if it is later discovered to be a
forgery.”
Indeed, such reputable dealers do exist plentifully, with entry and exit in the sports memorabilia market being facilitated with ease and
high liquidity