The COVID-19 Shift – Sports Memorabilia & Authenticity

It doesn’t just take a championship game loss for sports fans to lose their minds – a global pandemic will do it, too.

It’s been just over a few months since sports fanatics have been able to watch live sports, but the community continues to remain tight-knit, whether it be watching playbacks of old seasons, online e-sports, or interacting with fellow fans in online forum discussions.

One area we’ve seen continue to grow over the past while is sports memorabilia. It’s a massive business where plenty of money can be both made, and lost for collectors. According to collectible.com, the total value of the U.S. sports memorabilia market amounts to $5.4 billion annually.

And did you know that according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, up to 50% of the sports memorabilia products that are available in the United States is considered to be counterfeit. For some items, counterfeit rates could be as high as 90%.

So, the question becomes – how do you know if your collectables are truly authentic? Have your products been marked or tagged to prove their authenticity years down the road? Having the ability to prove it doesn’t only provide a sense of comfort for both buyers and sellers, but is proven to also increase the value of the product with proper authentication. For example, an autographed hockey puck from Chicago Blackhawk, Andrew Shaw, retailed for about $40 in 2015. At the time of writing, the same puck authenticated with our own DNA marking retailed for over $110. 

And the benefits don’t stop there.

It’s safe to say that authentication of memorabilia will not be just a value-add for buyers in years to come, but more of an expectation. As the industry grows, authenticated items will increase in value, and collectors will naturally expect more certainty when it comes to making purchases. 

The DNA Matrix™ is an identifiable gene segment that is embedded into inks, dyes and resins to provide an invisible ‘tag’ that will protect the marked products for life.

Want to know more how we’re protecting buyers and sellers of sports and entertainment memorabilia around the world? Contact us today.