Shopping at an estate sale can be an excellent way to find all sorts of old or rare merchandise. If you are a sports memorabilia fan, you should be interested in shopping at estate sales, where one may run across old jerseys, rare cards or other collectibles that you won’t easily find online or at a sporting goods store.
What Should You Look for Before You Buy?
With any collectible, you need to make sure that what you are buying is authentic. The good news is that a professional estate sale company will ensure that valuable items are priced at fair market value. What You should also look for is graded items – an important factor, because it tells you the official quality of what you are buying. If an item is in good condition, it is worth more today and may continue to appreciate in value into the future.
Sets May Cost More Than Individual Items
As a collector, it is important to understand that items in a set may cost more than items by themselves. For instance, a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth may be worth less than a baseball autographed by the entire Yankees team in the same period. However, buying an individual item may still be worthwhile for an avid collector looking for whatever he or she can get his or her hands on. It may also be worth it to collect single items if that last item completes a set that you are working on.
You May Need to Plan Ahead to Acquire More Sought After Items
An estate sale may advertise items of particular significance. For instance, if there is a Super Bowl ring or a World Series ring, you can bet that a lot of people will want it. Therefore, you may want to plan on paying higher than market value or at least higher than what the advertised price is. In some cases, it may be a good idea to call or make an appointment for a personalized showing where you may be able to make an offer or negotiate to close a deal right away.
If you are thinking about buying a signed ball or a rare jersey at an estate sale, you are making a sound choice. You can find a variety of goods that the seller may not have even known about until an estate inventory was taken. Therefore, never miss an opportunity to look at estate sale listings or you may miss out on rare and valuable sports memorabilia.
