Any sports memorabilia collector knows that anything to do with the baseball of yore hands down a win over any other sport. Of course, it’s been around the longest with gumball cards, bats, balls, and anything and everything that can be autographed. Let’s face it, I haven’t seen any expensive tennis, golf or horse racing cards anywhere. Do you have?

Now, as for the NFL merchandise that is old and has a high price? I’d have to say the authentically worn, autographed football jersey of any Hall of Fame player or superstar would be top of the list. The current card holding the ranks is a 1948 Sammy Baugh card in mint or near mint condition, racking up around $500,000 if you have one in mint condition. A 1935 National Chewing Gum #34 Bronko Nagurski card sold at auction in 2008 in near mint condition for $66,354.

When you go into the jersey department, most items range from $300 to $2,000 depending on the player, of course, how long he played, if he’s in the Hall of Fame, and if it’s just a signed jersey instead of one that was actually used during games, which usually ends up being the case. The helmets are more or less in the same price category and again you rarely find one that is all scratched up and worn from hitting heads in the trenches so the item itself is just something that someone autographed and that It was never actually used at all. Super Bowl coins and photomints can also be expensive as the coins are usually gold or silver and are actually worth something the longer you keep them and they are somewhat rare and only a few were made as trading cards. Soccer balls work just like jerseys and helmets. Most are never-used, signed game balls, but every now and then you may find an actual game ball that was used in college or a professional game that got a superstar’s name on it. The price easily changes from a few hundred to a few thousand when it comes to an actual ball used in the game itself, rather than a ball just pulled from a bag sitting on the sidelines.

There’s a lot to look for when shopping for NFL memorabilia, or any memorabilia. The rarer it is, the older it is, the smaller amount of the item makes a big difference when buying or selling. Being in the age of computers, one must be very careful about “fakes” and replicas as the technology is advanced enough to achieve fakes. Do not be fooled.