You Never Know Where You Will Find Old Sports Memorabilia

With the West Alabama Traders Market coming up this Saturday, we're reminded why yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, and the like are great opportunities to score unique and potentially valuable sports memorabilia.

Let's face it - it's human nature to misvalue your possessions. Whether it be something that holds a great deal of sentimental value but little monetary significance or items that are rare but you only see them as junk getting in the way, we often put our own value on items we own.

The good news for everyone else is that bargains can be found all of the time. There's no better example of this than with sports memorabilia. Most of us grew up collecting sports cards or figures, and these collectibles sometimes skyrocket in price over the years.

For example, if you're a child of the 80s and early 90s like myself, you'll be speechless looking at the prices for the Starting Lineup figurines we collected as kids. These toys only cost around $5-10 and something like a 1988 Cornelius Bennett is worth $100 now.

Often times, cards get put away in a box and stuck in storage for decades. Just last year in Defiance, Ohio, nearly 700 1910-era baseball cards were discovered in an attic, forgotten for decades but preserved in mint condition. Members of the family that found them will be splitting close to $2-3 million dollars after they're all sold!

Sure, finds like that are nearly as rare as the cards themselves, but having that chance makes the search exhilarating at times. You know there has to be lots of cool old college football memorabilia in Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas. There might not be any show up at places like the West Alabama Traders Market this weekend, but you'll never know unless you go take a look.