Posts Tagged ‘sports memorabilia’

Have You Gotten Your FIFA World Cup Souvenirs Yet? You haven’t? Don’t worry because you can still find all kinds of FIFA-sanction World Cup souvenirs on the Internet. In fact, I just saw many different souvenir items on eBay, including World Cup soccer shirts and jerseys, key-chains, glasses and the FIFA World Cup emblems representing all the different countries. I heard a few tidbits of interesting trivia, while I was searching, so I thought I’d enlighten you on a few FIFA World Cup souvenir stories I found.

Did you hear about the five hotel workers that stole goods from hotel rooms of the England soccer team? While they may have wanted World Cup souvenirs, it cost them $800 in fines and three years in prison. They stole World Cup soccer shirts, a medal and even player underwear! There’s no need for such nonsense, because you can find official FIFA World Cup souvenirs everywhere, (some are sanctioned and some aren’t).

Just like any other kinds of sports memorabilia, you want the real FIFA-sanctioned souvenirs, but native South Africa wares didn’t really dominate too many of the souvenirs made for the 2010 World Cup. If you visited Africa anytime before the World Cup, you might have seen carved wooden figurines, made by African craftsmen, but the ones that are FIFA-sanctioned wooden soccer players were actually made in Indonesia! It was too difficult to find that many artisans willing to go through the sanctioning process in Africa, but the different team outfits were painted on by artisans in Africa, at least.

When you are searching for authentic World Cup African-made artifacts, there are few that can be found for this reason, but if you are a soccer fan, you can find many FIFA World Cup sports memorabilia choices. There are soccer jerseys, hoodies, collector glass sets, key lanyards, soccer shorts and all kinds of other fan apparel, so you are sure to find something to add to your sports memorabilia. If you haven’t gotten your FIFA World Cup souvenirs, it’s not too late and you can find them quite easily on the Internet, probably along with some more interesting trivia stories about them!

Do You Own Your Piece Of Yankee Stadium? You don’t? Did you even know you can own a piece of the action? If you are a Yankees fan, you might already know you can buy a pair of seats from Yankees stadium for $1599 or you might just want to buy the back of a seat for $275. Some of today’s popular stadium souvenirs have become part of the sports memorabilia trade that includes architectural parts of old stadiums and the Yankee Stadium still features many parts of the stadium that are for sale on the Internet or on auction websites, like eBay.

You can purchase authentic Yankee Stadium “freeze-dried grass” sod for a nickel under a hundred dollars. It is a little desktop display that could be used for a paperweight, but it is a plug of the turf in a preserved state, inside a cube that sits on a pedestal. When you are searching for stadium souvenirs, sod seems to be a popular item, but so does an authentic brick from Yankee Stadium Ceremonial Monument Park that is displayed in a handsome display case, marked with an attractive plague that states it is a “Yankee Stadium Artifact”. You will get a Yankees-Steiner Letter of Authenticity for the price of $180, but there is a limited supply of any of these types of stadium souvenirs.

Keep in mind you need a Letter of Authenticity from the Yankees organization, for it to be considered true and authentic, however. There were likely some people that got away with a few pieces of the stadium, before the security got tighter, but if you are collecting stadium souvenirs, you will want the authentic stadium souvenirs that are offered. This is especially true if you are mounting an effort to start a collection that will be worth something, someday. It might take a little bit of time to see much appreciation, but there will always be an interest in certain stadium souvenirs.

Of course, any sports memorabilia and stadium souvenirs should have COAs, like we always say, and it is almost mandatory on any collectible sports souvenirs, even the balls you catch at the ballpark. Parts of stadiums that are closing might appeal to you, but there are all kinds of things you can collect, when it comes to vintage sports souvenirs. It’s not too late to own a piece of Yankee Stadium because I just saw all of these things on the Internet the other day!

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!