Collecting sports memorabilia is a hobby that can fill your spare time with importance and give you a distraction to everyday life. Most collectors of today started out collecting baseball cards of their favorite players as a child. Whether it was vintage cards like a Ted Williams Play Ball Rookie or Joe Dimaggio Goudey Rookie card or a 1951 Bowman or 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle Rookie card or today's rookies like Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr. or Albert Pujols, If you collected cards as a child chances are you have moved onto collecting bigger pieces or memorabilia. Collectors that collect sports memorabilia as a hobby see their memorabilia as having a sentimental value; they might look at it as a childhood memory, or as an important moment of life shared with his or her favorite star or team. What you decide to collect is a matter of personal preference.

Some people collect items from a broad range of different sports while others only collect items that pertain to a particular sport or a particular athlete. The sports memorabilia you collect makes a statement about you as a collector. Every sports collectible you have acquired over time tells a story and signifies an important moment in sports history. Some collectors choose to focus on a broader collection from an entire team within their sport of interest for example; Baseball memorabilia of the New York Yankees, Basketball memorabilia of the Detroit Pistons, or Football memorabilia of the Indianapolis Colts. Other collectors may prefer to keep a more general collection, acquiring any or all memorabilia, Die cast collectibles, Bobble Heads, or sports art from their sport of choice. Some collectors choose to collect items from a specific era of a sport or team "vintage" items.

Then there are collectors who fancy a specific player or players within a specific sport or sports and enjoy collecting items only related to that player or players. Since collecting depends on the interests of the individual collector, it may deal with almost any subject including sports collectible & sports memorabilia. The depth and of the collection may also vary. There are numerous items a collector can collect anywhere from autographed baseballs of their favorite player or team to more unique and rare items like games used equipment ( gloves bats jerseys even cleats ) to limited edition pieces like bobble heads and figurines, Perez - Steele Postcards and autographed sports art.

Collecting Sports Memorabilia as an Investment

While most sports memorabilia collectors collect as hobby, or just for the love of the sport or athlete that they admire. Some sports memorabilia collectors take it a step further, and choose carefully the sports memorabilia they acquire as a sound investment that will increase in value year after year. The more significant the item being signed the greater value that item will hold for years to come.

By acquiring unique, rare, or vintage sports memorabilia not only do you make a sound investment for the future and you will find that it is much more fun to collect the type of sports memorabilia that others do not have, while at the same time investing in your future. While the market is flooded with items like 8x10 photos or baseballs with just a signature of many of today's players, a more unique or rare item will always hold a greater value for example, there are numerous Albert Pujols autographed baseballs found all over the internet which hold a book value of $175.00, but if you find one that has an inscription such as "2001 NL ROY" for his 2001 rookie of the year season or his "03 Batting Champ" for the national league batting title he won in 2003 or "2005 MVP" then your investment will at least double or even triple right off the bat so you will have acquired a valuable piece of sports memorabilia that will increase greatly in value over time as his amazing career progresses. So you see, collecting sports memorabilia is not only a fun hobby to have, but a wise investment as well.

Yankees Sports Collectibles and Yankees Sports Memorabilia