What types/kinds of Game Used Equipment Do You Consider Over/Undervalued?

[David]

Obviously jerseys get the lion's share of attention on the market. So, in your opinion, what types of equipment (gloves, jerseys, shoes, etc) do you feel are undervalued and underappreciated, and which do you feel are overvalued? If you wish, you can pick a sport or era as well.

Just thought it would be an interesting subject for opinions and theories.

[costas]

pants and lineup cards are undervalued.

[godwulf]

pants and lineup cards are undervalued.

Agree about lineup cards. Pants, you can kind of understand why there wouldn't be all that much excitement about them. Jerseys have team names and/or logos, various patches, usually a player name - you know immediately what you're looking at when you see it - while pants have none of those things. Plus, they're tough to display effectively, and quite frankly just look odd when displayed alone.

But back on topic: most of the fielder's gloves that I see up for sale or auction are vastly overpriced. Just because a glove has a player's name embroidered on it, and it looks like somebody might have played catch with it a few times - that doesn't make it nearly as valuable or important as some Sellers would have one believe.

[gingi79]

Gloves are undervalued but overpriced. I have one, a Matty Diaz and it's photomatched, with MLB Hologram and came from his memorabilia agent.

It's really worn, well used, name embroidered and pretty rare. As my favorite player, it's one of my favorite pieces. That being said, I really overpaid because of the absolute authenticity. (Elite's stuff for example is most likely real but when dropping hundreds of dollars or more, I want to be absolutely sure and barring him handing it to me, this is as ironclad as I can get)

He isn't an All Star (YET) and I hope to see him improve on his last few successful seasons (and not shipped to another team i hate AHEM FRANCOEUR AHEM) and then the "value" should exceed the price. However since it's the rarest piece from my favorite player, it's one of my most valuable. If that makes sense?

[indyred]

Authenticated home run, hit, historic type game used baseballs. Same for goal/game used pucks. Doesn't seem NFL or NBA does a lot in authenticating game used balls as far as to certain points or touchdowns. Does anyone own a certified touchdown football. Always amazed when I see players just toss them into the stands.
Helmets seem undervalued. When a player use very few of them and mostly have very good use on them.
Line up cards are nice cheaper items. Again, I know MLB and NHL sell them all the time on there sites. I have never seen a NFL or NBA line up cards. Does anyone even know if they have to turn in an official list for games?

[tigerdale]

I agree with the home run baseball. It to me seems to be the one piece that no one has control over. A player could, if he wanted to, wear multiple jerseys, switch bats often, change helmets, shoes...they have control of this. A home run baseball, mlb authenticated at that, is rare. There is NO WAY that this can be cheapened or more put out on the market just to sell. To hit a home run & have it authenticated is rare in my book.

[legaleagle92481]

I agree on the homer bats and goal pucks being undervalued. Overvalued I would say are jerseys in many cases. Jerseys that a player wore on the bench (for a game he dressed for but did not play in like a pitcher who did not pitch that day or a 3rd QB) go for hundreds as do jerseys that were only worn for one game (ala most of the jerseys auctioned by NFL auctions) and jerseys of nonstar players sometimes go for $1,000s. (A Jim Leonhard went for $1,200 about a month ago on NFL auctions and Kevin Faulk went for 5k on there)

[xpress34]

Great thread... something similar was posted earlier about order of importance/value of GU pieces...

Being a Baseball guy, I will kept my opinions based in that sport.

I agree that many jerseys are WAY over valued based on how many a player may get and or wear - especially if they are honing in on a historical feat and they change jerseys every inning or something. I will give Nolan Ryan credit for his 'plan' for his final season in 1993 before his arm gave out. Nolan figured he would have about 36 starts, so when he ordered his 1993 Jerseys from Goodman & Sons (they are the ONLY brand he wore 'In Game' since his time with the Angels), he had a special tail tag numbering each - 18 home and 18 road. That may seem like a lot of jerseys (which it is for baseball), but when you're talking about a HOFer and because of the numbering, you can tell which game the jersey came from, I thought it was very clever, without being deceptive to the fans.

Bats are sometimes over valued (IMO) as many will be used over the course of the season - unless a milestone is hit with it or it is part of a historic moment or such.

Batting Gloves... WAYYYY Over Valued and Overpriced. Most players use multiple pairs per game... do the math over 162 game season...

Hats are UNDER valued as a player may wear the same lid (outside of special hats - AS Game, 9/11, etc or if the team has home/road/alt hats) the entire season (John Wetteland comes to mind) meaning he had ONE hat for the entire year sometimes. Same with the WS. Some players wear a new hat and jersey each game - in 2007, the Rox wore both the ALL Black Hats and the Black w/ Purple Bill in the WS. Most players donned a new one each game. My Matt Holliday WS GU was verified personally by Matt as being the ONLY hat he wore (Blk/Purple) during the series except for the one game they wore the solid black.

Cleats are also undervalued as most players wear the same pair for the entire season!

Finally, GU gloves - while I agree many are overpriced, I think they are also undervalued by collectors... many players use one glove over multiple seasons, so there may be very few gamers of a player from his entire career.

Just my humble opinion...

- Chris

[TriplexXxSports]

I think that from a FOOTBALL guys prospective Practice Jerseys are undervalued. Game jerseys seem to be a dime a dozen in recent years. Worn, for the most part, in only 1 game. The use per jersey is inconsistent (i.e. a jersey from week 2 could be slaughtered since it was used in a game on grass with pouring rain for all 4 quarters, and a jersey from week 3 could show hardly any use since it was used in a dome on turf).

Practice jerseys on the other hand are usually beat to death by the time they hit the market. Some players will use the same practice jerseys year after year. Laundered 100 times, repaired dozens of times, etc. Also, since they are used for so long (depending on the player and team) they are very hard to find because there are so few. When was the last time, if any, have you seen a Brian Urlacher practice jersey on the market? I have only seen 1 in my lifetime......

Great Thread...

[allstarsplus]

Pants don't have much relative value on their own----now if you can match up a game used jersey with the pants for a full uni, then you have something special!