Be advised, this post is really just the ramblings of an extremely bored man. I do not offer any refund on the time spent reading this...

As I sit down in my gradually growing "man room" I look at all of my autographed helmets and footballs and think "most of these aren't going to be worth squat in the future". Don't get me wrong, I don't collect for the money, but I don't like throwing money away. I was a huge card collector and recently got out of it because the market for cards is going to crash again just like it did in the 80's and 90's. I remember when game used jersey cards first came out and the prices were through the roof. Now, you can't even pay people to take some of the jersey cards that are made now. I believe autographs on non game used memorabilia will be the same in the near future for most current stars. There is such an over saturation of autographs (real and fake) that prices can't possible maintain their current values. I know this doesn't apply to older and deceased players, but it's going to happen with the current players.

All that being said, in my opinion, the game used market is probably the one aspect of the sports memorabilia hobby that can't really be oversaturated. For example, we'll pretend that Peyton Manning has a 13 year career and wears a new jersey for every single game of his career. That would equal 208 regular season jerseys and less than 50 playoff/Super Bowl jerseys. We all know that isn't the case, but even if it was, that number is dwarfed in comparison to the number of autographs he would sign in that 13 year period. We'll be conservative and say he signs 10,000 autographs a year, so he will sign 130,000 times during his career. We'll say in college he signed 5,000 autographs and he'll sign a total of 40,000 more after he retires in the next 20 years. That is a grand total of 175,000 autographs (not counting fakes) compared to 258 pro game used jerseys.


Do you agree? Do you think the autographs of most current stars will be worth anything in the future? Do you collect GU stuff with potential value in mind? Do you just do it for the love of it? Do you do it solely for investment purposes? Do you do it for the excitement of the "chase"? Why do you do it?

I know this really sounds like I am just worried about values and such, but it's really not. It's just me being bored and hoping to spark some discussion on the board. I have about 20 signed 49ers mini helmets that mean the world to me and they are signed by players most people have never heard of. I do it for the love of it, but I also like to consider future values when I am purchasing something expensive.