One reason Michael Jordan sports cards were outrageously priced was the typical speculation involving sports cards in general.  Jordan was a highly anticipated rookie. Not even an injury early in his career could slow down the momentum he was already building toward in his pro career, but it took a few seasons of frustration for Jordan to blossom and his basketball cards to skyrocket.

Jordan's first few years saw only a few cards produced.  During his rookie year, in fact, there was NO mainstream basketball card set issued.  The early 90's craze made card manufacturers produce in such large volumes that each individual card was not worth nearly as much. If there is one thing Jordan was good at—it was timing.

Jordan also knew how to make an entrance. So it makes perfect sense that his 1986-87 Fleer rookie card hit the shelves at a time when card collecting was seemingly at the top of its collective game.  If Michael Jordan was a stock, it would make perfect sense that investors would choose him over the other stocks to choose from. Who else even stood out during that era that was even close in proximity to the Michael Jordan brand?  Those who stuck them away were rewarded.

During that era, Jordan was quickly becoming the most well known athlete on the planet.  Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were enjoying their rivalry too and as the NBA took off, so did basketball card collecting.  After years of playing second fiddle to baseball and football cards, collectors began to appreciate hoops too.

Now that Michael Jordan has been retired for several years, replaced by the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in the basketball world-his cards are finally seeing a slight dip in price. Now just might be the time to invest. Why not cough up the money for a basketball god who will always be revered as one of the best, if not the best, basketball players of all time?  In terms of collector interest, no one comes close, even today.  Tops on the list has to be the Michael Jordan rookie card.

Jordan appeared on multiple sets of cards as the NBA expanded its licensing agreements to Topps and Upper Deck during the 1990s.  He has some 1-of-1 autographed cards in several hot Upper Deck products.  Those are prize finds and probably worth the investment.  Jordan, after all, is the Babe Ruth of basketball.  His exclusive contract with Upper Deck has resulted in some high quality cards.

Michael Jordan sports cards were insanely priced in the 1990s. Trying to grab a Jordan rookie card at a good price was next to impossible during that era.  The ceiling had not been set on his limit and what could and would eventually be achieved. Cards typically raise in price as collectors speculate and wonder just how great that particular player will be. Michael Jordan sports cards were elevating in the same fashion that his Airness was on the basketball court.

Imagine a dunk contest with basketball cards and who would win? The prices of Michael Jordan sports cards and memorabilia provided enough lift for that theoretical flight to launch easily from the free throw line and win any dunk contest. His “Airness” changed the hoops memorabilia world forever.   Just like the actual game of basketball, Jordan dominated.

It may seem hard to believe now, but Mantle autographs were once available at shows for $5-10.  Even though The Mick turned his post-career fame into a nice living through paid signings and put his name on memorabilia thousands of times, there is still a demand for Mantle autographs and that cheap autograph will now often run $300-400 for a baseball; more for a nicer item or oversized photograph.

Now, even lesser known stars are in at least some demand by collectors.  So how do you know the autograph is real?  The simple answer is to get a stamp of approval from a sports autograph authenticator.  PSA DNA is one such company.  James Spence Authentication is considered another reliable firm. There are a couple of others who are generally knowledgeable.

There are many autographs which carry a certificate of authenticity from so-called forensic handwriting experts who have been known to study only the autograph itself—not the signing trends or signing history of the player.  One must take into account how a player signed his name in a certain era and also if it is even possible that the item in question matches the life and career of a player.

You would be surprised at the number of times some authenticators have given the OK to an item that was produced after the death of a player.  For collectors or fans who do not do their homework, it is a mistake easily avoided.  Be sure to study the authenticator as well as the autograph.  Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo are great resources for researching the background of the authenticator including his general reputation.

But is it always necessary to spend extra on sports autograph authentication?  The short answer is …maybe.

If you are spending a significant amount of money for an autograph, it would probably be best to make sure it has been viewed by someone who has seen that signature before and deemed it likely to be authentic.  That is especially true for something like Mickey Mantle autographs which have, through the years, been forged by talented con artists.

However, modern day autographs simply may not be worth an unscrupulous attempt at forgery.  There are many autographs on eBay that are perfectly fine, even without a COA.  Check the seller feedback and try and get the provenance of the item if it is not in the description.  Simple common sense is often the best guide.

Just remember, especially when buying rare sports autographs, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Baseball card supplies are inexpensive, readily available and a must for anyone who has a collection worth preserving.

Trading Card Storage

As any collector will tell you, keeping your cards in good condition requires storing them properly:

1) Soft Sleeves–The first step in storage is generally the penny sleeve or soft sleeve. These are clear plastic covers that you slide over your card for protection. They are inexpensive, with a package of 100 selling for as little as 99 cents.

2) Top-Loaders–Designed to hold your card with the soft sleeve already on, top-loaders are made of semi-rigid plastic. When considering using top-loaders, first consider your storage space. Top loaders provide more protection, but they do take up more space than just the soft sleeve. You may want to reserve top-loaders for some of your more important cards.  You can also purchase top loaders that are less rigid.  These will allow you sports cards to be removed more easily, and while not as hard as the semi-rigid top loader, they generally offer your cards plenty of protection.

3) Trading Card Boxes–While shoeboxes will suffice, they do not allow for maximum sports card storage because the box isn’t designed for it. So, most collectors will at some point decide to invest in specially-designed trading card boxes. They are stackable and you can choose sizes according to your needs. Some trading card boxes are designed to fit sleeved cards while others have slots big enough to accommodate top-loaders.

4) Trading Card Albums–Collector albums come with pages especially designed to hold your cards. While they are more expensive than sports card boxes, trading card albums do have two advantages. 1) They allow you to easily look through and share your cards with others by creating a ready-made display, and 2) they can be placed on a book shelf, taking up little room where space is tight.  You'll want some baseball card pages, which can be found online for a reasonable price when purchased in quantity.   You can also find them at a local sports card or comic book shop.

5)Screw Down Cases–These are hard plastic cases that hold one card per case. Because they take up more room than alternatives, screw down cases should be reserved for more valuable cards. As a bonus, they can be displayed using a stand which can be purchase with the case.

6) Acrylic Holders–The ultimate protection, acrylic holders encase your card in up to an inch in hard acrylic, ensuring nothing will get to them to cause damage. Acrylic holders are generally reserved for the best in a collection.

Trading Card Display

Of course you’re going to reach a point where you will want to display some of your more prized baseball or other sports cards. As mentioned earlier, trading card albums are a nice way to do that. They also take up little space when not in use. If you want to create a full-time display of your album, you can purchase a stand or stand album, which can then be neatly tucked away when not on display.

Another good option is using a wall-mounted sports card display. Much like a picture frame, wall displays come in a variety of sizes to fit your cards. If you only have a couple of cards you want to display, cubicle shelving units work well when paired with an acrylic holder. You can then show off your sports cards and still have spaces for other things—like that prized autograph baseball or cap.

Sports card collecting isn't complicated.  They're your cards, so you should store and display them however you like.  However, by keeping it organized, protecting your cards, and placing the best pieces out for display; you can ensure that you will get maximum enjoyment from your sports card and memorabilia collection and have something to show your friends and colleagues.

To purchase items for trading card storage and display, here's a link to over 3,000 listings on eBay!

Many of the biggest names of the day have several different cards in the T206 set.  Ty Cobb, for instance, has cards with his bat on shoulder, bat held away from shoulder as well as two portraits with different backgrounds.  The quality of these cards is excellent, especially once you account for the limited technology during the time frame in which they were distributed.

The cards were small and rectangular to fit inside the dimensions of a pack of cigarettes from the era.  Packs in the early 20^th century differed from those today in that they were smaller and thinner.  Most of the front of a tobacco card was taken up with the picture of the player in brilliant color.  A thin white border encircles the T206 card and on the bottom of each card was the last name of the player in a very small font along with an often-abbreviated version of the team name. Collecting T206 cards is certainly a challenge.  With over 500 cards, including some rarities, it is often a long process to complete a set, even without the famous T206 Honus Wagner, the rare Eddie Plank or the Sherry Magie error.  From a price standpoint they are expensive but not as high as one might think.   Collecting them became a favorite pastime for adults, some of whom no doubt gave the cards to their children.  Millions were produced and they are still quite available from vintage card dealers if a collector is willing to bend a bit on the overall condition of the cards.  Lower grade examples, especially of common cards, are well within the budget of an average collector.

When collecting baseball cards from this era you can collect more than just one card of each player.  There are over forty different backs known for T206 cards.  Unlike modern cards these cards did not post players biographies or statistics on the backs.  These cards had advertisements for the brand of cigarettes in which they were found.  Many collectors hoard these cards as much for the advertisements as they do the players themselves.

This of course is the set that contains the Holy Grail of card collecting, the Honus Wagner card which generates hundreds of thousands of dollars when offered at auction, even in poor condtion.  Fewer than 100 are believed to exist, perhaps significantly less. However, focusing on this one card does a great disservice to the complexity and true value of the T206 set as a whole.

This is the only set of cards you will find that represents the first formative decade of the sport of baseball.  It is a snapshot of the game in an era when baseball truly was becoming our national game.   Players like Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and many others are included.  For some players, the T206 is the only major card on which they were featured.  There are perhaps many minor cards of many of these players but none with the appeal of the T206 set.

This set is perhaps the most important baseball card set ever created.  For twenty-two years after this set was distributed, many companies like Cracker Jack and others tried to generate the same level of interest but none really succeeded.   It was not until 1933 when the Goudey Gum Company created their first major baseball card set that this was achieved.

The T206 set was the original icon  in an industry that has grown to epic proportions as the decades have passed. It will always be the first major baseball card set and the standard all subsequent sets will be measured against.

Shop for T206 cards on eBay now.

• *Quality
• *Scarcity
• *Subject Matter
• A good piece of advice is to buy the best you can afford. If there are three 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookies available, the highest graded cards are always in the highest demand and therefore will increase in value at the best rate. Since it's unlikely many more will ever emerge, you'll always be assured of having the best of the best which is never a bad position to be in . A mint ticket stub from Don Larsen's perfect game will always be appreciated by collectors-and appreciate in value as time goes on. If you're not able to afford five or six-figure items, keep quality in mind when shopping for lower priced items too.
• Like anything, it's best to do one's homework before making purchases. Opportunities abound with the growth of sports memorabilia shops and auction companies (with their phone-book sized catalogs), which show off virtually every high end sports collectible you can imagine.
• But it's important to be aware of what items are truly scarce. If only a few high grade copies of a particular card exist-- or if there is a vintage baseball photograph that is one of kind-- you're likely to see a higher rate of return based on the eternal laws of supply and demand.
• Focus on a subject matter that's of universal, lasting interest. Baseball memorabilia typically is most popular. While other sports collectibles, especially football, can also appreciate over time, baseball is the focal point of the sports memorabilia industry because of the appreciation for the game's history shared by so many fans and collectors. But the most popular athletes or teams in any sport; Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris, Joe Montana, Joe Namath and others are exceptionally popular and there are thousands of people who collect memorabilia related to their careers. Love them or hate them, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have legions and fans and followers wanting a piece of vintage team memorabilia.
• Sports authentication companies like SGC, PSA, Beckett and GAI have made shopping for high dollar rare sports memorabilia a little easier. Using experts in the field, the companies will assign grades to cards, ticket stubs, autographs and photographs and authenticate them. While it's true they do make the occasional mistake, for the most part they are trusted and provide a level of security for rare sports memorabilia collectors and investors.
• As an investor, it would be wise to consider purchasing authenticated sports cards and memorabilia in high grade. While you'll pay more, you'll also have an easier time selling and likely earn more money.

• A few options for sports collectibles that are considered rare or hard-to-find would include:
• 
  
  Old ticket stubs. You can buy stubs or even full tickets for regular season games dating back decades for less than $20, unless they are associated with an historic moment. What's fun is to research the particular game for which the stub is being offered and find out what happened. Did a Hall of Famer hit a home run or pass a milestone? Even if not, you've got a conversation piece. NFL and MLB stubs are plentiful, but you won't find as many collectors as you will for vintage sports cards of the same era.
• 
  
  Team yearbooks are also a very collectible piece of sports memorabilia that aren't expensive. MLB team yearbooks, even in great shape and dating back to the 1950s, can be had for less than $50 in most cases and often times much less. They're great fun to look at, display well and are easy to store.
• 
  
  Pocket scheduleshave been handed out for generations. Colorful and rare (who saved them after the season?), they're another item that won't take up much space and can often be purchased for less than $20 from eras long since past. Some picture players or team broadcasters.
• 
  
  World Series and All Star game programs, NFL game programs and college football programs are also reasonably priced. College football programs in particular, often feature incredible cover art with fascinating content. You can collect one program from each year of a particular school. World Series programs are a little more plentiful than All Star game programs because of the number of games played, but even programs from the 1940s can often be found for less than $150. Make sure they're intact and not falling apart.
• 
  
  It's not possible to buy mint condition Babe Ruth baseball cards for $100 these days, but lower grade Ruth cards such as his 1933 and 1934 Goudey cards can be found for less than $1,000. You might consider other vintage baseball cards in mid-to-low grade, maybe buying one from each of the popular sets.
• 
  
  Right now, NFL Hall of Fame rookie cards are popular with certain groups of collectors, but compared with their baseball counterparts, they're relatively inexpensive. The same goes for NBA and NHL rookies.
• 
  
  Another option for continuing your search for rare sports collectibles and memorabilia are vintage sports photographs. While increasing in popularity and value in recent years, it's still not difficult to find very unique, often one-of-a-kind wire photos or those from photographers of the day for less than $10. Easy to store and display, they're a great way to recall the history of the games and the personalities which forged our interest in them.

These are just a few examples of sports collecting genres that might send you in the right direction as you browse the listings here on the Sports Collectors Store website, but there are many more. That's the great thing about the hobby. There are no rules when it comes to building your collection!

Baseball card grading revolutionized the sports memorabilia hobby ever since it became popular in the 1990s.While not without its faults, baseball card grading and authentication has brought honesty to the hobby and has also acted as an impartial judge of transactions between a buyer and seller.However, many people do not understand the nuances involved in baseball card grading and use it incorrectly.

The first question is which baseball card grading service should be used. PSA (Professional Sports Authenticators) is one very popular choice. Sportscard Guaranty (SGC) is another, with its strength generally regarded to be in the pre-World War II sports card area.Beckett Grading is popular with modern card collectors, but the company has also made significant inroads with its efforts in the vintage sports card market in recent years.

So why should a collector use a baseball card grading service?There are three main reasons.

• To authenticate a card as being original and not a counterfeit.When baseball cards became extremely valuable it brought a rash of counterfeiting.Some of the bogus cards look quite real to the naked eye and can only be detected by an expert.When you buy a graded card the guesswork is taken out of the process.

• Graders can generally detect alterations.It is relatively easy to expertly trim the edges of a card to make the corners sharp. It is also possible to use a marker to touch up areas of a card that have been worn or turn a slightly worn corner sharp .Baseball card grading companies look at cards under specialized lighting to detect any alterations.While not perfect, the grading companies typically can detect sports card alterations.

• To make a card more valuable.Baseball card grading companies introduced the concept of centering into the hobby. They will measure the centering of the picture on a card to the nearest thousandth of an inch.Finding a well-centered vintage baseball card is truly harder than one might think.The printing equipment available was very poor and often produced cards that were not perfectly centered on the front or back.Well centered cards are much more valuable, especially when authenticated by a baseball card grading company.

So the question is when does it make sense to have your cards graded?The answer lies in what you are trying to accomplish.Some people grade cards simply because it encapsulates them in a nice holder that protects the card for life. Others have high quality standards for the cards they own and want these standards documented.    Some people who sell baseball cards want to increase their value.I have bought single cards and sometimes sets of cards simply because I saw some hidden value in the purchase.It is very possible to buy a card for one hundred dollars, pay a fee of less than $30 to have it graded by a baseball card grading company and increase its value by a large margin.You need to know what to look for and more importantly perhaps find a seller who does not know what to look for.I once bought a 1968 Topps Baseball set on Ebay for $1400 and sold seventy five graded cards from the set for over $5000, many of which were not big stars, but commons that were in high demand among those who collect completely graded sets.

When debating about having a card subitted for grading and authentication, it is very important to know how to pregrade a card yourself and to be honest about its qualities.You should have a goal in mind for the card before you send it.A potential grade of PSA 4 would be more than enough reason to send a raw 1933 Goudey of Babe Ruth for grading. A 1954 Topps rookie card of Henry Aaron would require a much higher grade to make it profitable to send for grading.You need to determine how much value the grading process will add to the card and weigh this against the amount of money it costs to have the card graded.This, of course, is both an objective and subjective assessment.Review company grading standards thoroughly and know it is better to err on the side of caution.

Authentication, proof of no alterations and an independent third party arbitrator on condition are all important qualities offered by the baseball card grading company of your choice, but it is best to do your homework by contacting dealers and collectors who have experience in this potentially profitable arena.

Mike Stack is a freelance writer who has been a baseball card dealer & collector for over 25 years.

The key to making money buying and selling sports cards is to use the grading services. Typically dealers and most collectors only have cards of star players sent for grading. That means you can often find top condition cards of many common players and small stars in raw ungraded form. The value of these cards can be increased greatly when graded. Some very advanced collectors with large amounts of money try to put together sets in the best possible condition and place their sets in public view on the grading company Set Registries.

About five years ago I met a dealer at a show who was selling a large amount of mint 1968 and 1969 Topps commons for one dollar each. I picked out one hundred cards that were perfectly centered and paid for them. My plan was to check the PSA population report and send the rare ones for grading. PSA does a population report that tells all of the members just how many of each individual card have achieved each grade rank. Most of the cards I purchased were very common and I resold them on eBay for basically what I paid for them. Two however were quite rare. The 1968 Bob Veale and 1969 Billy Martin cards each had a population of fewer than five issues in PSA 9 or better condition. I was sure these cards would grade MINT 9 or GEM MINT 10 so I sent them to PSA for grading. Both came back graded PSA 9 along with a bill of $50 for grading cost. I proceeded to put both of them on Ebay where they sold for $675 total, a healthy return on my $52 investment. I have since repeated this process with positive results on many occasions. These are many opportunities to do the same throughout the country.

A second way you can use PSA to your advantage is in the area of cards with qualifiers for centering. When you send a card to PSA they deal with centering in two different ways depending on your desires. If you do not want a qualifier they will knock the overall grade of the card down if it is off center typically by two full grades. A card graded PSA 9 MINT (OC) will likely wind up a straight PSA 7 NEAR MINT if you request no qualifiers on your submission form. While some collectors shy away from any kind of qualifiers, the card with the qualifier will often sell for a bit more than the card with the lower numerical grade. You can buy cards and have them graded again, selling them for profit.

If you want to bypass grading companies there are other way to make money buying and selling sports cards. Negotiating skills come into play here. There are two kinds of dealers you will encounter at card shows. Some are full-time dealers or serious part-times who move from show to show and city to city displaying their wares. They are often in no hurry to sell their products because they know eventually they will receive the true value for their cards. Other dealers, weekend warriors, who set up a table at only a few shows per year or even collectors who have decided to liquidate their hobby to make a major purchase or earn enough to pay off some debts. Talk with dealers as you walk a show and discover those who willing to wheel and deal. When you find one, be prepared to spend a large amount of money. Many dealers are more than willing to negotiate with a buyer who has large amounts of cash he is willing to drop.

The final area you can profit buying vintage cards is eBay. Look for listings with poor pictures or those that end at inconvenient times. I have bought many cards from auctions ending in the middle of the night and sold the exact same cards for profit by ending them on Sunday early evening just because late bidders never materialized.