Find Signed Sports Memorabilia for Your Collection

Like most young kids in America, I idolized professional athletes when I was growing up. In fact, one of my hobbies was writing fan letters to my favorite baseball and football players to ask for an autographed photo or card. Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed a pretty good response rate, and in no time at all had a very nice collection of framed, hand-signed photos on my wall. My most treasured pieces were from Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Walter Payton, Bill Buckner, Andre Dawson, and Ryne Sandberg. It's just too bad my mom tossed everything in the garbage the day I left for college!

Today, collecting signed sports memorabilia is a lot more complicated. There are several reasons for this, but the main ones are as follows. First of all, athletes rarely respond to autograph request letters sent directly to them at ballparks or stadiums. Instead, they have fan mail services to handle this sort of thing, and might send off an autopen reproduction rather than an authentic signature. Second, getting athlete autographs has grown into a huge, multi-million dollar industry. Because signed sports memorabilia can be very valuable, there are a lot of fakes floating around out there, which makes it all the more difficult for regular folks to find legitimate autographs of their favorite legends.

If you're serious about collecting signed sports memorabilia, there are a couple of ways you can still get what you want. You should start by identifying what kind of product you want your favorite athlete to sign. Do you want the signature to appear on an authentic jersey or helmet? How about on a great photo of the player in action? Either way, your best bet would be to buy the unsigned item yourself because it's highly unlikely that Tom Brady is literally going to hand you the jersey off his back and sign it on the spot. The next step is to attend an autograph signing session or wait for the player to exit the stadium after a game. This is an excellent way to get a guaranteed authentic signature for your collection.

An alternative to getting an autograph in person would be to purchase signed sports memorabilia online. There are stores that offer thousands of autographed items from both professional and college baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and soccer stars. Of course, you'll want to deal only with a place that provides 100% certified collectibles at reasonable prices, so be sure to shop around until you find one of these reputable signed sports memorabilia dealer.

Collecting signed sports memorabilia is a fun hobby that allows fans to get a tiny bit closer to the athletes they admire so much. Just make sure you're getting a genuine signature before you shell out any cash for these collectibles.