The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on investing in sports memorabilia and sports art The article looks at sports arts as an investment and touches upon some of the various options available to collectors, such as signatures, inscriptions and remarques, investing in recent players for future gain, and investing in areas where there is money associated with the sport, such as tennis and golf.
The WSJ reports
Source: The Wall Street JournalSports art is available in a wide range of price points that appeal to a varied audience.
Take a recent collage painted by Daniel Moore, a sports artist in Birmingham, Ala., who specializes in scenes from the University of Alabama's football season. The image, painted to commemorate the Crimson Tide's victory over Louisiana State University in the most recent national championship, is titled "Restoring the Order" and can be purchased in an 8" x 10" size for as little as $35, or for as much as $3,000 for a 24" x 30" limited-edition "artist proof" version printed by ink jet on canvas.
Those interested in purchasing the actual painting would pay $75,000, though Mr. Moore rarely sells his originals, preferring instead to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars on reproductions.
Value of a Signature
What makes any one work of art more valuable than another? The renown of the artist? Its importance in the history of art? Its reputation among critics? Certainly, those things have a role in sports art, but there is another factor that looms larger with sports art than with other kinds of art: a signature from the subject.
"Having a signature is very important," says Brett Schissler, executive vice president of Steiner Sports, a publisher and online seller of sports art and sports memorabilia.
Indeed, an athlete's signature allows sports-art dealers to charge more. Mr. Moore produced a variety of 24" x 30" reproductive prints of "Restoring the Order" on paper. A print from an edition of 4,000 of these posters costs $190; a print from a separate edition of 1,000 posters signed by four Alabama players costs $290.
Inscriptions and Remarques
Sometimes, more is added to the poster than just a signature, and those extras can increase the initial offering price and the potential for long-term value, as well.
Some of Mr. Fazzino's "Derek Jeter" prints, for example, include not only the Yankee shortstop's signature but an extra inscription, such as "All Star MVP" or "World Series MVP" or "Yankee Captain," and these unique elements offer memorabilia cachet.
LeRoy Neiman (1921-2012), an internationally known painter long associated with boxing, the Olympics and other sports subjects, periodically drew small images called "remarques" on the white borders around the poster, which also adds value for collectors.
The added value of an inscription or a remarque ranges from double to four or five times the price of an image without those extras.
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