Jeff Zito

Weekday Afternoons 3pm - 7pm

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 21: A man sells vintage baseball cards prior to the start of the last game at Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees on September 21, 2008 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. Yankee Stadium held it's inaugural game on April 18, 1923 against the Boston Red Sox and tonight's match will be the final game to be played at the historic stadium. During it's 85 years as ''The Home of Champions,'' the stadium has also been known as ''The House that Ruth Built'' and ''The Cathedral.'' The stadium has been host to 33 World Series, three Papal visits and has been visited by legends such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Bera, Mickey Mantle and boxing great Muhummad Ali. In 2009 the Yankees will move across the street to a newly constructed stadium estimated to cost $1.3 billion.

Look we all needed something to do during the pandemic. Some people learned a new skill, others got fit and some started collecting sports memorabilia. Well, this has caused a giant spike in the rise of any sports collectible out there from signed baseballs to jerseys of former pros.

Michael Osacky’s is a traveling appraiser and goes all over the country looking for people’s old collectibles. He has seen values almost triple in recent months for instance he recently found a letter written by Ty Cobb that he says skyrocketed from $1,500 to $3,500 in value.

Osacky has said people started dreaming about the past and got nostalgic and started looking at their collections. Whether watching old documentaries or old games they would remember having something from these old players.  Then as the pandemic drug on people wondered if they could sell some of their stuff to survive through it. He went from getting a dozen calls per week to a dozen calls per day from people who want to know what their autographs and cards are worth.

Jeff Katz, a baseball historian, and avid collector has seen similar rises in prices. He expects things like Babe Ruth autographs to stay sky-high in value, even after other goods return to pre-pandemic values.

[Source Fox 13]