Exploring the value and selling options of an amazing piece of memorabilia.
The most recent request to cross my path came via a conversation I had with a reader named Martin on Facebook. Martin is in the enviable position of having a great piece of memorabilia in his possession: A Limited-Edition “2008 Stanley Cup Finals Patch” Autographed Sidney Crosby Pro Jersey. This item was produced by Frameworth Sports Marketing, who hold the exclusive rights to autographed Crosby memorabilia at present, and was a limited to a run of 87 (of which, Martin’s was numbered 82). The autograph itself is nicely placed at the top left of the “7” on the numbering at the back of the jersey, while the Stanley Cup patch is located above and to the right of the Penguins logo on the front. The jersey came with a nice certificate of authenticity from Frameworth, listing the print run of the release, the number of the item and a signature by company president Brian Ehrenworth.
Martin was curious about two things: 1) How much would this jersey be worth; and 2) How one could go about selling it. First things first, let’s address value. I always find it’s best to start at the roots of the item if possible. In this case this involved a trip to the Frameworth website to scan the selection of autographed Crosby jerseys and get a ballpark figure. Now, the product in question is no longer listed, in all likelihood having sold out long ago! This does not mean we’re out of luck though, as there are comparable products that we can use to gauge value off of. One is the “2009 Stanley Cup Finals Patch” Autographed Pro Jersey. For this particular product, a white jersey goes for $999.99 and the black jersey at $1,129.99. While providing a rough estimate, we need to keep two things in mind here. First, the 2009 version is not limited edition, whereas Martin’s 2008 jersey was limited to 87. Based on this alone, we would expect Martin’s to come in a bit higher. At the same time, however, we have our second factor to consider: they won the Cup in 2009, but lost in 2008. Is this enough to counteract the price inflation via the limited production run of the 2008 version? I don’t believe so, in that the value dictated by its rarity will still command a higher price. At the same time one has to believe that it will limit the extent to which it would rise, so let’s not completely discount the impact of Cup winning versus losing year. So a guesstimate at this point? I’m inclined to put the value around $1300.00 at this stage of the game.
Lest we forget, however, that once it leaves the store it becomes a passenger on the back of the market! This can be either a positive or negative depending on the player. In Crosby’s case, I see it as a positive as he’s a guy that you could not reasonably expect to lose tremendous amounts of value in his market over the course of his career. Rather, one would expect a slow and steady rise over time, especially with regards to limited edition pieces. Where is this going to be reflected? My best read of this tends to exist in the secondary market, what arms-length dealers and Joe Q Public are able to price the pieces at and receive for them. In this instance, given Crosby’s exclusive deal with Frameworth, we have a unique opportunity to have our finger on the pulse of the secondary market when it comes to retailers as we have the following assumption to work under: If they are selling autographed and authenticated Crosby jerseys they have purchased them from Frameworth. As such, this allows us to compare the Frameworth price with the secondary market price and see how much they feel they can markup the price without driving away buyers. This suggests to me how strong they feel the market is for him as if they feel they can jack the price up a few hundred over their purchase price then they feel confident the secondary market will bear it.
In that regard, I went searching out dealers for their Crosby jerseys to see how much a reasonable secondary market value was. After looking across a number of locations a reasonable value to tag on the secondary market value of an autographed Crosby pro jersey was approximately $1500.00. Note that I only said for a pro jersey? I wasn’t finding the type of limited edition “Cup Finals” patched jersey that Martin has. So does it hold more value on the secondary market? Well, compared to retail stores, probably, yes. I’d probably only tag it for an extra $100 though ($1600.00) and I’ll tell you why: The secondary value is inflated in the sense that a chunk of it is used for retail overhead such as operating costs and don’t necessarily reflect more value in the jersey per se. At the same time, if they can get $1500.00 for theirs then Martin could reasonable expect to ask $1600.00 for his based on the extras his jersey offers above merely being an autographed pro jersey.
The question now becomes where to sell. A lot of this will be dictated by one big factor: Martin lives in London, England!!! Suffice it to say that I will be leaning on some internet options here for him given the fact that trying to sell a piece of hockey memorabilia in England will make it quite difficult to get close to proper value. While it is true that in this day and age we have many more options at our disposal than in the past with the availability of the internet, there remains a great deal of option weighing that needs to be taken before deciding which option will best serve ones needs as a seller. Here are a few of the options I would consider under Martin’s circumstances:
1) Internet-Based Auction House: Basically, in this case you are consigning the item, meaning that while retaining ownership of the item you are permitting someone else to sell it for you. This tends to be where more high end stuff gets moved as the people coming to these sites know the type of product that is going to be sold and are, on the whole, more willing to make a more major investment in a premium product.
Selling in this manner can work in various ways. Some places may require you send the item to them. Some will get you to hold onto it. Some will handle the shipping. Others will want you to do it. So a little variance is to be had. What remains constant is that the service provider is going to want a piece of the action in terms of cash here! What you’re likely looking at is a 10%-15% cut of the selling cost going to the auctioneers. They differ in how they collect this though, whereby some will cut it from the actual money that would go to the seller (but perhaps more potential buyers as the price doesn’t include extra purchasing fees), and some adding the percentage to the final cost such that the buyer is on the hook for it while the seller gets their full payoff (perhaps making buyers a little less willing to buy from that site). As you can see, each has their advantages and disadvantages so you need to consider where you’re willing to give a little in a case like this. Other things to consider:
a) These sites oftentimes offer either auction or store-based options. If you think you might be able to get more than value for it, try the auction. Want to play it safe and go with a set price? Go store.
b) If you go auction, inquire as to the ability to set starting prices. You’ve got to be able to assess what the lowest you would go is while also not setting a value so high no one will bid on it. The service provider will want a say in this so be prepared to be having a conversation, not setting out a list of demands!
c) Most often, auctions will run in cycles, whereby items will be up for a 2-6 week period on a site until everything is closed in preparation for the next cycle to begin. As such there may be a certain amount of waiting you will have to do before your item will hit the market.
d) Check out how the site advertises itself. Some auction houses will display items in magazine ads and other formats so inquire as to whether your item would benefit from such exposure.
e) Research the site!! Look for people’s feedback and ask the site themselves for references.
2) eBay: The bastion of my wallet over the years, eBay allows some options for Martin that the auction one may not have offered. The first is being able to control the sale of your item completely on your own. Some people feel more comfortable having this control while others would prefer to have someone else handle all the details. If you’re the former, eBay works! You can control all aspects of the sale and dictate the conditions under which your item will be listed. You can also do so for potentially less of a financial hit than at an auction house. Say the auctioneers wanted to hit you for the commission. So you sell for $1500, they hit you for $150 (10%) to $225 (15%) of your “profit”. Now let me do a breakdown of how I envision this sale going down on eBay with all the features that would help along the sale (going on the premise of a $1500 value):
a) Insertion Fee: $4.00
b) International Site Visibility: 0.40 cents
c) Six Pictures: 0.75 cents
d) Featured First (makes it featured at the top of the page when the listing area is open so it stands out): $25.00
e) Reserve Pricing (Let’s say we set the starting bid at $800, we could set a reserve price of $1250 so that if the bidding doesn’t hit that value by the time the bidding ends the item will not be considered sold): $12.50
f) Sale Fee: Based on a $1500 selling price = $43.82
So you hypothetically sell for $1500 and your hit is $86.47, 5.8% of your selling value. Yes, shipping and insurance will cost extra also, but the potential is there to have to do that anyways with an auction site. Good deal!
What is the downfall? Well, whereas auction sites are draws for people more willing to pay for premium items, eBay is stocked full of bargain hunters. As such you may end up getting somewhere in between your reserve and ideal price for the item as opposed to the upper level you were aiming for. This is also assuming it moves at all! That being said, there are plenty of folks who have been readily able to move higher end memorabilia using eBay, so not all hope is lost here!
3) iOffer: Based on a model similar to eBay, iOffer differs in the sense that rather than auctioning you can barter around prices, make and refuse offers, make trades, etc. Fees are also lower and the listing stays up until it sells or you take it down (unlike eBay). My big problem as a seller concerns the traffic. Yes, eBay costs more, but has a HUGE exposure base. iOffer operates on a much smaller level, with about 35,000 sellers and 1 million overall users as of last year. If you’ve got the patience though it’s not a horrible way to go.
So there you are! Thanks so much to Martin for allowing me to dissect his piece of hockey memorabilia here at Hockey Den! I wish him the best of luck as he sets forth trying to sell this great item, and trust that he will keep us in the loop about how things pan out! Cheers!
