Autographs are one of the most exciting parts of sports memorabilia, but also one of the riskiest.
This category focuses on signed items, COAs, holograms, authentication companies, signature changes, fake autographs, and the small details collectors should pay attention to before buying. That includes Michael Jordan, Upper Deck Authenticated, Fanatics COAs, LeBron signature changes, Maradona, Pelé, fake PSA slabs, and other authentication issues in the hobby.
A clean signature is not always safe. A shaky signature is not always fake. The item, surface, signing period, provenance, authentication, and seller all matter.
I write about autographs from a collector’s point of view: what looks right, what feels wrong, where the market puts trust, and why paperwork alone is not always enough.
The historic baseball that Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hit out of Miami’s LoanDepot Park last month has now become the most expensive baseball ever sold at auction. At an auction hosted by Goldin, the ball fetched an astounding price of $4.39 million. This ball marked Ohtani’s 50th home run of the season, making … Read more
Long before fans could read the sponsor logos, they already knew who was coming. A bright yellow helmet with green and blue stripes appeared in the distance — and everyone instantly recognized Ayrton Senna. Even decades after his final season in Formula 1, the design remains one of the most iconic visual symbols in motorsport … Read more
Sports autographs are one of the most personal parts of collecting. A signed basketball, jersey, rookie card, photo, or pair of shoes can feel very different from a regular collectible. That is also why fake autographs are such a big problem in sports memorabilia. Few athletes are forged as often as Michael Jordan. Why Michael … Read more
A Ronaldo Nike boot for £65,000 is not a normal memorabilia listing. At that price, nobody is buying “cool boots.” The seller is asking you to buy the whole chain: Ronaldo, Nike, player supply, season, wear, provenance, maybe a match. Fine. Then show it. The swoosh does not do the work. CR7 branding does not … Read more
Today we are looking at one of the most important athletes in sports history: Jackie Robinson. When collectors talk about legendary baseball memorabilia, Robinson is in a category of his own. And that matters, because not every great player automatically has extremely valuable memorabilia. There are many Hall of Famers and former stars whose autographs … Read more
Kobe Bryant autographed jerseys are among the most emotional pieces in modern basketball memorabilia. And in his case, the story is both powerful and tragic. Kobe died in 2020 in a helicopter crash, together with his daughter Gianna and seven others. After that, demand for his memorabilia increased dramatically. Collectors, fans, and investors all looked … Read more
Joe DiMaggio is a strange name in today’s sports memorabilia scene because almost nobody collecting him now saw him play. His career belongs to another world. No PSA slabs, no auction archives, no population reports, no collectors checking comps from their phone. DiMaggio was already an old story before the modern memorabilia market had its … Read more
If you are buying signed sports memorabilia, the authentication behind the autograph matters just as much as the signature itself. A trusted authentication service can dramatically increase buyer confidence, resale value, and long-term collectibility. In today’s market, the three names collectors encounter most often are PSA/DNA, Beckett Authentication Services (BAS), and James Spence Authentication (JSA). … Read more
Fake autographs used to sound like an easy problem. Compare it to a real one, look at the shape, check the slant, send it to somebody who knows signatures, done. In reality, that was always too simple, and now it is even worse. Some autographs give you a lot to work with. Weird letter formation, … Read more
