How To Get Sports Autographs Authenticated.
Nowadays, the sports memorabilia industry is big business
. Lots of people collect memorabilia from the world of sport for enjoyment and to further their love of a particular team, sport or player. Collecting sports memorabilia is a fun pastime and really easy to get into. It may start with a few programs or ticket stubs and progress to buying the shirt of your favourite football team and before you know it youve got a full blown collection of different types of memorabilia.Other people collect sports memorabilia by way of investment and some actually make a lot of money out of it. They buy items from auction sites or directly from dealers and sell them on at a higher price in order to make a profit. Some people even build up successful businesses on this simple idea.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems is the rise of fake autographs in the sports collectibles industry. Fakes really do put a dampener on the industry as a whole and cause great disappointed to those true fans who part with their hard-earned money and end up being ripped off by fraudsters. It could be argued that the internet has been the making and the breaking of the sports memorabilia industry. Online auction sites such as eBay have made the buying and selling of sports memorabilia much more accessible and popular but it has also provides fraudsters with a tool to dupe unsuspecting customers in to buying an autograph without actually seeing it.
However, the growth of fake autographs should not put collectors off completely as there are a few things you can do to protect yourself and stop becoming a victim of forged sports autographs. There are plenty of respected companies out there that are willing to authenticate your collectible in order to give you peace of mind as a potential buyer.
One of these resources is PSA/DNA which is a company that has some of the sports collectible industrys most experienced and respected autograph experts on board. They will be able to examine your autographs and will be able to tell you categorically if they are genuine of fake. If your autographs are deemed genuine then they will be issued a certificate of authenticity (COA) and a unique alphanumeric number that ties directly to your items.
You can also have your autographed items authenticated at sports collectibles shows. Especially at the larger shows, for example those promoted by TRISTAR Productions, there is usually an opportunity to get autographs in person from athletes and then to have these immediately authenticated. PSA/DNA is usually on hand to authenticate autographs at show like these.
Collecting sports memorabilia can be a great hobby for anyone; it can also be a lucrative way of making a profit as long as you know what to look out for. If you do your research and keep an eye out for offers that seem too good to be true (because they probably are!) then you will get years of enjoyment out of collecting. If you want to view an excellent catalogue of sports memorabilia then visit Genuine Memorabilia.
by: Suzlar