How are sports collectibles authenticated?

As a sports fan, one of the biggest concerns with regards to sports collectibles is their authenticity. You obviously want to get authentic memorabilia because it is worth more to you and your collection. However, inauthentic sports collectibles makes up about 70% of the collectibles and memorabilia business. Today, professional sports organizations are working with third party organizations to make sure that authentic memorabilia items are more recognizable and easily attained.

How are leagues promoting the sale of authentic memorabilia and sports collectibles?

Professional sports organizations are working hard with authenticators to make sure that sports collectibles are authentic. Authentic memorabilia is carefully recorded and tracked by professionals to ensure that collectibles and memorabilia that a sports fan purchases are legitimate.

The Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) works very closely with professional athletic organizations. They use two methods of proving authentic memorabilia. First, as soon as a PSA member gets an item for authentication, it is given a holographic sticker and a number. That number is then scanned into a data base and a description is entered for the item. This ensures that the MLB, for example, can easily verify that something is authentic by just scanning the sticker and checking the number. The MLB and other professional sports organizations keep careful record of authentic memorabilia through these databases and can use them to respond to a verification request from a sports fan.

Authentic memorabilia and sports collectibles can also have a certificate of authenticity. This is a lot easier for a sports fan to check and verify that his sports collectibles are authentic. Contacting the sports organization to request them to check the number will take longer and is a lot of extra work. Proving sports collectibles are authentic with a certificate has been around for a while and the certificate should be included without question in the sale of authentic memorabilia.

Organizations like the PSA also offer grading and verification of authentic memorabilia you’ve already bought. This means that if a sports fan buys collectibles or memorabilia that he thinks might be authentic but isn’t positive, he can check by having a PSA member look at it and give it a grade of authenticity. This is particularly important for signed sports memorabilia because of how simple it is to fake a signature. It makes getting authentic memorabilia difficult when you want signed sports gear.

These days, organizations are looking out for a sports fan who just wants to buy some authentic memorabilia. Learn more about these authentication methods before buying anything.