I am doing an industry overview of the autograph, collectible and
memorablia industry.  I would like to know some of the basic history
of the industry i.e.
when it started?
who were the first major players in the industry?
in what areas i.e. sports, entertainment, music etc. did the industry
start? At what specific time periods?
how the industry came to be what it is today?
How and in what areas is the industry expanding?
What types of products sell the best? Where? Internet? Major sites? Retail?

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Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 15 Jan 2004 18:38 PST

Hello -

These seem to be three separate industries.  Is there one in
particular that you're looking for?

jbf

---

Request for Question Clarification by jbf777-ga on 15 Jan 2004 21:04 PST

For example, are you looking for the "autographed collectible and
memorabilia" industry?

---

Clarification of Question by mrmylo-ga on 16 Jan 2004 10:02 PST

I would like an overview of the autographed collectible and
memorabilia industry, in addition to any information you would provide
as to them being three separate industries.
does that help

<Memorabilia ? history.

History of autograph collecting.
According to Nathaniel Adams, a University of Virginia honors major,
autograph collecting probably started in the 16th century when Germans
kept albums of correspondence when they travelled. By the late 18th
century in Europe it was popular to collect letters of famous people.
Until the 20th century literary, political and religious autographs
were collected. With the advent of the cinema, radio and television,
autographs from popular culture figures were sought. Due to the huge
demand for autographs, they would often be signed by staff members
rather than the celebrities themselves.
http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/autographs.html

A brief history of sports memorabilia collecting by John Buonaguidi &
George Keniston tells how sports fans have been collecting souvenirs
from sporting events since the beginning of spectator sports.

In the 19th century the Police Gazette, there were many advertisements
selling photographs of ballplayers and athletes. By 1888 the tobacco
industry was offering sports cards and other novelties to purchasers
of their products. As the popularity of sport rose so too did the
collecting of memorabilia. Gum and candy manufacturers started
offering images of sports personalities on stickers, cards and pins.
In the 1950?s there was a big increase in collecting sports
memorabilia. Gum cards, stadium souvenirs and pennants were collected.
Manufacturers started to offer sports-related premiums in a wide range
of  products including potato chips and tea bags. Today items
associated with well known sports personalities are highly sought
after with millions of dollars being paid for rare items. 
http://pages.ebay.com/community/library/catindex-sports-hist.html

The history of cigarette cards.
Cigarette cards were derived from trade cards which originated in
France in 1840. Trade cards were used to advertise manufacturer?s
products. Cigarettes began to be sold in packets which contained a
piece of card that acted as a stiffener to keep the cigarettes from
being damaged. It is thought that James Buchanan Duke, founder of
Dukes tobacco company came up with the idea of printing on the
stiffener. As the majority of smokers were men, subjects appealing to
men were printed on the cards including cars, sport, war and women. 
By 1890 all of the tobacco companies had started to include printed
cards in their products. In 1890 Duke formed the American Tobacco
Company and either absorbed or drove out of businesses over 250 other
firms.
http://www.cigarette-cards.com/history_of_cigarette_cards.html

Baseball cards.
According to an article by Aaron Dorksen, The Topps Co. started
issuing baseball cards in 1951. Sales grew with the issue of the 1952,
classic set. Collecting baseball cards boomed in the 1980?s with the
publication of the first Beckett Baseball Card Monthly in November
1984.
http://www.the-daily-record.com/past_issues/08_aug/020821drsports.html

Card shows began in the early 1970?s. There are dozens of shows held
at weekends all over the U.S. The largest show is the National Sports
Collectors Show held annually in July or August in a different major
city. The first national show took place in Los Angeles in 1980.
http://w ww.psacard.com/lingo.chtml?universeid=314&letter=S

Since the mid 1970?s hobby shops began appearing in the United States.
The hobby of collecting sports cards took off in the 1980?s.
http://www.teenink.com/Past/1991/1856.html

The market took off in the 1980?s, dropped in the early 1990?s
recession and again sparked interest toward the end of he decade.
http://www.sportslawnews.com/archive/Articles%202001/mlbmemorabilia.htm

1998 ? according to the FBI, 70% of sports memorabilia on the market is bogus.
http://www.westword.com/issues/1998-02-26/sports.html
http://sandiego.fbi.gov/bullpen/crime.htm

1999 ? law to regulate memorabilia industry
According to Unity Marketing, the overall collectibles market was
worth over $10 billion at its peak in 1998. By 2001 it had fallen to
$6.5 billion. According to Pam Danziger the American culture,
particularly after 9/11, had shifted from cocooning (buying things to
fill an emotional void) to connecting with people and experiences. The
Franklin Mint, one of the world?s largest collectibles companies has
recently laid off 200 employees due to decreasing sales of its
figurines. The company intends to focus on die-cast cast, airplanes
and Harley Davidson collectibles.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/7248100.htm

In the late 1980?s the memorabilia market consisted of a limited
supply of genuine articles. The present market is flooded with
counterfeit items.
Memorabilia is sold through  the following channels:
Internet auctions.
Mail order businesses and large retailers.
Upscale franchise stores
Home shopping channels.
Local shops that specialise in baseball cards and other memorabilia.
Memorabilia shows.
Movie theatres
Charity auctions.
http://www.cybercrime.gov/sports.htm

2003 - Sports memorabilia reaching saturation point.
This article by Bob Ford from the Philadelphia Enquirer describes the
lay offs in the Franklin Mint and puts their failure down to their
failure to capitalise on the boom in sports memorabilia.

According to Alan Rosen the current market for cards is soft because
there are nowadays too many sets. Autographs have been problematic due
to forgeries. According to this article the point of saturation in the
sports memorabilia industry is being reached.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/7313592.htm


-------------------------------------------------------
What sells.

According to Mark Lore, CEO of thePit.com, sports trading cards are
the most actively traded collectible in the U.S.
https://www.thepit.com/Hub/PC_200101262.asp

According to Beckett.com the top collectibles other than cards are
autographs (78%), memorabilia (61%), game-worn jerseys/uniforms (38%),
and bobble head dolls (22%).
http://www.beckett.com/cdkit/aud_circ_demo/all_data_graphs.htm#SportsCollectingHabits

According to Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports
Authenticator, one of the fastest growing sectors of the memorabilia
industry is game used items like baseball bats and balls. Mark
McGwire?s 70th Home Run Ball is valued at $3 million and Babe Ruth?s
1923 bat is valued at $1 million.
http://www.courttv.com/trials/baseball/memorabilia_ctv.html

The death of a celebrity can result in a temporary rise in prices of
memorabilia followed by a return to prices prior to the death. This
article examines this situation.
http://www.thecatchersmitt.com/deathmyth.html

Cutting edge memorabilia all the rage.
A recent trend has been the cutting up of game-used items that have
been sold with cards.
http://espn.go.com/gen/s/2000/0809/675657.html

Baseball dominates the market. Game used jerseys or bats have greater
values than replicas. A game used item attached to a milestone like
the Mark McGwire 70th Home Run ball will fetch a premium price.
Autographs on replica jerseys, equipment or programs and photos sell
for considerably less.
http://www.forbes.com/2001/12/26/1226adviser.html

According to a survey by Card Trade, new card sales account for 46
percent of card stores sales and have been declining since 1996.
Vintage sports memorabilia continues to enjoy a steady market.
http://www.fameabilia.com/cgi-bin/store/webstore.plx?user_action=link&link=article-sports


----------------------------------------------------------------------
How the industry is changing.

Authentication systems.
Due to the large amount of counterfeit memorabilia, authentication
systems were introduced to give potential purchasers the confidence to
buy.

PSA is the world?s largest sport authentication company.
http://www.collectors.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=3497

In 2000 the RealSeal solution was introduced to authenticate sports memorabilia.
http://www.businesssolutionsmag.com/Articles/2000_12/001206.htm

WeTrack launched in 2002 attaches computer chips to memorabilia to
crack down on Fraud.
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/01/27/story2.html

The UpperDeck Company uses PenCam to authenticate autographs.
http://www.aaro.ca/BreakingNews/Aug1-Sept14-01NwsBfs.html

Authentidate Sports was established to authenticate autographs in the
sports and entertainment memorabilia industry. Due to lack of sales
the company closed in 2003.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:vvwbt_WoSmoJ:www.cohenresearch.com/reports/ADAT10_21rev3.pdf+%22memorabilia+industry%22+billion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

------------------------------------------------------------
Where memorabilia is sold.

According to Beckett.com, 34% of collectors buy in shops, 33.1 % from
online auctions and 24.5% buy from online fixed price dealers. 78.5%
of buyers actively participated in sports.
The average monthly expenditure of online buyers in $149.
http://www.beckett.com/cdkit/aud_circ_demo/research_demos.htm#OtherSpedingHabits

According to this feature most memorabilia is now sold via phone
auctions or on the internet.
http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/hunt0599.htm

Companies online.

Collectors Universe Inc.
Corporate profile.
http://ir.thomsonfn.com/InvestorRelations/PubCorporateOverview.aspx?partner=6200
Collectors universe ? financial results.
http://www.forrelease.com/lath100.P1.11132003151943.29626.html

Established in the 1970?s as auctioneers of sports memorabilia. The
company is a division of Collectors Universe
http://www.superiorsports.com/auc_about.chtml 

The Rotman collectibles business, established 1977.
http://www.paid.com/about.shtml

1982 ? CEI sports
Fameabilia ? the largest national corporation selling sports memorabilia.
http://www.fameabilia.com/cgi-bin/store/webstore.plx?user_action=link&link=about

Leisure Time has been in the sports memorabilia industry since the mid 1980?s.
http://www.wallstreetcorner.com/cs-august-pg2.html

Players Authentic Direct ? distributors of sports memorabilia.
http://www.padirectinc.com/

GottaHaveIt Inc ? established 1994
http://www05.gottahaveit.com/store45/aboutus.asp

1995 ? Memorabilia Mall of Fame.
http://about.sportsline.com/releases/mallfame.htm

1998 ? Fans Edge
http://www.sunsetswholesale.com/page/page/854532.htm

Field of dreams.
http://www.fieldofdreams.com/franchise/franchise_content.html

Steiner Sports Ranks 8th in HSC top 100 industry leaders in sports collectibles.
http://store.yahoo.com/sportstation-steinersports/hscpub.html
Online sports
http://www.geocities.com/celebrity_photo/sports_fitness.html

Beckett.com
The internet?s first sports memorabilia shopping portal
http://www.nmgsports.com/beckett.htm
Beckett.com
http://www.beckett.com/ebay/aboutus.asp

JBG sports established 2001.
http://www.jbgsports.com/about.asp

--------------------------------------------
Buyers of sports memorabilia.

The Sports Market Report categorises sports memorabilia buyers as follows:

Men 92 %
Average age 37.2. 
38.4% are aged 25-39 and 29.1% are aged 10-54. 
Their average income is $91,775 - 12.6% earn over 150,000, 29.3 % over
100,000 and 58.1% over 75,000.
72 % own their own home. 
68.3% are college educated and or have a degree. 
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:HpD-qNi-UU0J:www.sportsmarketreport.com/smr/media/SMR_media_kit.pdf+%22sports+memorabilia+collectors%22+profile&hl=en&start=13&ie=UTF-8

Profiles of different collectors for different sports are given at
http://www.beckett.com/cdkit/aud_circ_demo/index.htm>



 <Search strategy:>

<"memorabilia industry" billion>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22memorabilia+industry%22+billion&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N>

<"sports memorabilia" "took off">
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22sports+memorabilia%22+%22took+off%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N>

<" memorabilia boom">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22+memorabilia+boom%22>

<"autograph collecting" history>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22autograph+collecting%22+history>

<billion "sporting memorabilia " -ebay sales>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=+billion+%22sporting+memorabilia+%22+-ebay+sales&btnG=Google+Search>


<Hope this helps.>

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Request for Answer Clarification by mrmylo-ga on 20 Jan 2004 15:40 PST

Thank you for your response.  The answer provided is thorough in
respect to the sports aspects of these industries, what was found with
respect to music, film and celebrities and the autograph collectible
and memorabilia industries

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Clarification of Answer by belindalevez-ga on 21 Jan 2004 07:33 PST

<World market for collecting.
According to MacReport,  the worldwide collecting market is worth $120 billion.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:7YX-iP1aNu0J:www.macreport.net/featured/PAID/prodserv.asp+%22movie+memorabilia%22+market+billion&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

----------------------------------------------------

Movies.

Movie posters started to become collectible in the 1960?s.
http://www.movieposters.com/

According to JGDB, movie posters and lobby cards are the most sought
after movie memorabilia. http://www.jgdb.com/mfaq1.htm

According to Good Rockin Tonight, the one sheet is the most
sought-after format for movie poster collectors.
http://www.goodrockintonight.com/lingo.chtml?universeid=397&letter=O
The most sought after tickets are from Elvis and Beatles concerts.
http://www.goodrockintonight.com/lingo.chtml?universeid=397&letter=C

The top ten movie posters sold at auction.
A poster from the 1932 movie, Mummy, sold for $453,500 at Sothebys.
http://www.efilmposters.com/topten.htm

According to Rediff.com, merchandising in the movie and entertainment
industries generates $16 billion each year.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/may/20guest.htm


Movie memorabilia is sold on the internet via ebay and other online auctions.
http://webhost.btinet.net/~sharoncol/digest.htm

------------------------------------------------------
Music 

According to Branchman.com, Since Hard Rock Cafe began collecting
music memorabilia in 1971, the value and desirability of rock
artefacts has taken off.
 http://www.brachman.com/news-lennon-piano.htm

The big name music memorabilia tends to get sold at auctions like
Sotheby?s and Christies. Butterfields held the first major auction of
Elvis memorabilia in 1994

According to Bobby Sowell, rock and rock is the most collected type of
music in the music memorabilia market.
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:B83xK_BstKEJ:bobbysowell.tripod.com/bsmusicslangid1.html+%22music+memorabilia+market%22+million&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

According to ebay a piece of music memorabilia is sold every 15 seconds on ebay.
http://half.ebay.com/help/sell_music.cfm

Top ten most expensive music memorabilia.
http://www.askmen.com/toys/top_10/46_top_10_list.html

The Hard Rock Cafe is one of the  World?s leading collectors of rock
memorabilia with a collection valued over $37 million.
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2000/09/03/story292265.asp

One of the problems facing collectors is that there are a great number
of fakes in the music memorabilia market. The large number of fakes is
having a negative affect on prices. Items without a provenance are
going unsold. An estimated 95 percent of Elvis autographs on the
market are forgeries.
http://www.elvisnews.com/output/art.asp?command=show&artid=572

Wolfgangsvault.com is a major online seller of music memorabilia.
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/

---------------------------------------------------
Autographs
According to Brookes Barnes, the autograph market is worth $50
million. Handwritten letters are most sought after and are valued at
three to five times the value of typed letters. A handwritten letter
from Beethoven fetched $50,000 and a letter from Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis fetched $10,500. Sports signatures are particularly sought
after reaching high prices. There is also a problem with fakes on the
market.

Due to the lack of hand written documents nowadays, the market has had
to adapt to selling type written documents. As electronic
communication takes over, there is also going to be a shortage of type
written documents bearing signatures.
http://www.raabautographs.com/about/article.html

Stanley Gibbons list of the top 100 most sought after autographs
includes the Beatles, the crew of the Apollo 11, Adolf Hitler, Winston
Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, and Princess Diana.
http://money.msn.co.uk/investing/Insight/SpecialFeatures/TipsGuides/SG100/default.asp

The complete list of the Stanley Gibbons top 100 autographs giving the
price for each and showing the growth in price since 1997.
http://www.frasersautographs.com/100index.html

According to an article in the New York Times by Diane Sierpina, there
are 1 million autographed document collectors nationwide.
http://archives.universityarchives.com/legacy.shtml

According to Richard Simon there are 5 million autographs collectors in the U.S.
http://about-autograph-collecting.com/

Autographs are sold at autograph shops, memorabilia conventions and
over the internet.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/8035/autographs.html

According to Sports Collector Digest,  the sports autograph market is
worth $500 million.
http://www.collectors.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=3604

PSA will grade autographed baseballs.
http://www.collectors.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=4051>

<Hope this helps.>

mrmylo-ga:
I just read through your question and the answers and they all seemed
to focus on the sports, movie and music industry, but there's a more
subversive group of collectors out there, the urban vinyl and toy
collectors.
 
I run a website which specializes in these toys, www.tenacioustoys.com
and we do a large part of our business in relatively expensive vinyl
(plastic)  toys. Most urban vinyl is produced in limited quantities
and the overall design of the toy, or at least the paint scheme in the
case of the Qee toys by Toy2R, are designed by famous and
not-so-famous artists, graffiti artists, up-and-coming designers, etc.

The best thing that collectors could ever hope to have in their
collections are these toys which are actually SIGNED by the artists
that designed them. We took some of our Knucklebears to the 2004 Toy2R
Expo at Yoyamart in NYC to have their designer, Touma, sign them and
those few signed toys commanded much higher prices than the unsigned
toys.

The same reasoning goes for WWF and WWE wrestling action figures. 

All ages and all kinds of people are collecting action figures and
urban vinyl figures nowadays. I just thought maybe a little
cutting-edge perspective from my industry would help broaden the
answers to your question. If you search on the net quickly, you will
find a broad spectrum of signed collectible figurines and urban vinyl.
Some web sites are:
www.tenacioustoys.com
www.kidrobot.com
www.spawn.com
just to name a few