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MLB Authentication is Big Business
Major League Baseball’s authentication program isn’t that old.* The leagues and teams showed little interest in trying to market game-used items until just a few years ago.
Now, they’re all in.
All 2430 regular season games had at least one volunteer authenticator on hand to tag items.* To collectors, they may be banal, but MLB has proven that someone somewhere will buy a game-used foul ball from a Royals’ game.
A team of three works post-season games, keeping an eye out for potentially historic items.
You’ll be shocked to learn how many items were authenticated this season.* Safe to say even at an average selling price of $30 per item, MLB’s take is in the tens of millions of dollars.
Kyle Stack spent time with the authentication team during this past post-season and offers an in-depth look for SI.com.
More...
Now, they’re all in.
All 2430 regular season games had at least one volunteer authenticator on hand to tag items.* To collectors, they may be banal, but MLB has proven that someone somewhere will buy a game-used foul ball from a Royals’ game.A team of three works post-season games, keeping an eye out for potentially historic items.
You’ll be shocked to learn how many items were authenticated this season.* Safe to say even at an average selling price of $30 per item, MLB’s take is in the tens of millions of dollars.
Kyle Stack spent time with the authentication team during this past post-season and offers an in-depth look for SI.com.
More...