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So What Is The Appeal Of Fantasy Sports, Anyway?

Well, if you are new to the world of fantasy sports, you might be asking this question! You’ll be hooked, once you get a chance to play “armchair quarterback” in a real fantasy game. Sounds, a bit ironic, when you look at it like that though, doesn’t it? Before too long…you may become the Fantasy Sports Legend and take home the trophies.

The real appeal of fantasy sports is that it allows the average person to act as the owner of their own sports team in many different types of sports, including baseball, football and even fishing tournaments have fantasy sports leagues. Basically, you build a fantasy team based on real participants and their statistics. You might be surprised at how quickly you become addicted to it!

Fantasy sports have become a hobby that many people love- in fact, there are more than 30 million people that are involved in the fantasy sports leagues in the US and Canada, according to recent estimates by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.  There are billions of dollars in economic impact that is estimated to be derived from fantasy sports.

If you are wondering how these games got started, it is possible you may have heard fantasy sports referred to as “rotisserie” leagues, which were a name that was given to the fantasy sports hobby by sports reporters. There was a New York City restaurant called the La Rotisserie Francaise, where the first fantasy baseball league was believed to originate in 1980.

Since that time, the fantasy sports hobby has grown, especially with the convenience of the websites that offer fantasy sports. They track real-time stats, standings in the rankings and contain message boards, along with all kinds of major sponsors that offer prizes and awards, making it big business. In fact, there are more websites that offer fantasy sports because it was one of the few things that were exempt under the Internet Gambling Act of 2006, as long as it followed specific guidelines for giving away prizes. Basically, the prizes and awards need to be established and known before the game and can’t be contingent on the number of players or the fees they pay.

You can find fantasy leagues in football, soccer, baseball, basketball, golf, cricket, hockey and even wrestling or auto racing might be included in fantasy sports leagues. If you are a sports enthusiast and you have always thought you could create a “dream team” in your favorite sport, the world of fantasy sports leagues is a place that offers plenty of opportunity for fun and possibly, prizes. If you have a favorite sport, chances are you can find a fantasy sports league to join. You’ll quickly discover why it is so appealing!

Do You Know Why You Need Holographic COA’s (Certificate of Authenticity) For Your Sports Memorabilia? If you are a new collector, there is something that you need to know about collecting sports memorabilia. The FBI changed the face of sports trading forever, when they launched an investigation of two large forgery and fraudulent autograph sports memorabilia enterprises in the 1990’s. There was more than $100 million dollars worth of phony sports memorabilia that was found in 15 states during the original FBI investigation. It has been discovered that this phony sports memorabilia traded on the black market, in shopping malls and at Internet auction websites, so you have to be careful.

So, how do you know whether you are buying the real thing or whether an autographed sports item is phony? Fake sports memorabilia still shows up all the time because it is almost impossible to keep up with who’s selling it. Certificates of Authenticity, also known as COAs, are the best way to be fairly certain your sports memorabilia is authentic. Many dealers now trade in sports memorabilia that only includes numbered, tamper-proof and holograph-sealed COAs for this reason.

If you can get notarized letters from the athletes to authenticate their signatures-that’s even better! Many of the large sports memorabilia dealers maintain a database that shows exactly what they sold, so autographed sports memorabilia from these dealers will include holographic authenticity certificates, which are the best protection.

Did you know that if you catch a ball at the game, it still needs to be authenticated, if you ever hope to sell it or make it worth anything in your collection? This is especially important if you are a collector because almost all collectors will now steer clear of anything that doesn’t come with a COA that is holograph-sealed.

There are too many chances of finding counterfeit sports memorabilia on the market, but some dealers in sports memorabilia will give you an “authenticity guaranteed” sale. What this means is the dealer will issue a full refund, if it is ever discovered that a sports memorabilia item is fraudulent and the item will come with a Certificate of Authenticity that bears the tamper-proof holographic seal. Many of the reputable sports memorabilia sources will understand your reasons for concern if you ask for this, so don’t be lax in requiring the holographic COA on all of the sports memorabilia you purchase!

Are You Thinking About Collecting Sports Memorabilia? That’s good-it’s a great hobby! If you are like me, you fall into one of the two main types of memorabilia buyers. There are those that fall in love with the nostalgic value of the sports memorabilia they collect, but there is another group which might be in it for the investment value. Of course, there might be three types because I’m willing to sell some of my favorite items in my collection, if the profit is good enough and somebody is offering to purchase it- eBay comes in handy for that!

They say you really can’t have emotional attachment to your sports memorabilia, if you are in it for the money. There are many collectors that buy a good investment because of the nostalgia value.  If you buy from your heart and assume it won’t go up in value, it might be considered nostalgic, but you might be able to cash in and gain a big profit, unless you fall in love with the item! Here’s the way I look at that, though- the emotional value of something striking to you might be worth money to others for the same reason.

You always have to think about supply and demand laws and something that involves a big name sports hero will increase in value, eventually. The other thing to keep in mind is that less than 20 percent of a collector’s collection will be worth the big money and the rest might not mean that much to anybody, but the collector.

Be sure you are dealing with reputable buyers and sellers, because you are dealing in a market that is not as sophisticated as fine art. For this reason, the prices of the most popular sports memorabilia can fluctuate and anytime there is a championship or death involved, the value will go up on certain items. On the other hand, you never know if anybody will appreciate your collection of sports memorabilia the same way you do.

Your collection will be the most valuable to those that appreciate sports the same way you do and this applies to your heirs. If you have particularly valuable items in your sports memorabilia collection, be sure to point it out in writing. There are some heirs that might not have the same appreciation for sports and unknowingly sell it for far less than market value, amounting to substantial losses. On the other hand, if you happen to be one of the lucky buyers that find such a deal, you will be on your way to making a profit in this interesting hobby!