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Valuation help

I am hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. I have a recently deceased family member who was a collector. He left a collection that includes probably over 1000 autographs and I am trying to find out how to get the collection evaluated so we have an idea of the value. It is probably 80% sports figures, including everything from signed baseballs, footballs, helmets, boxing gloves to Sports Illustrated magazines to photos to bats with signatures of dozens of Hall of Famers. The other 20% is a mix of music and movie celebrities--Chubby Checker, Stevie Nicks, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Stewart, and many more---including signed albums, photos, posters, etc. Where do I go to get a realistic evaluation of its worth? The collection is located in Georgia.

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on December 27, 2015 at 2:48pm

If you wanted to put together a list, I'm sure folks here could help approximate the value of certain pieces. If you are looking to sell the whole lot, I would recommend contacting an auction house that specializes in autographs. Iconic Auctions, Heritage Auctions and RR Auctions are a few names to get you started.

If you don't want to go through the work of piecing out the collection, authenticating each one and selling it individually, auction is the way to go. Don't sign a contract with anyone unless they agree to take the whole lot.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah English on December 27, 2015 at 3:01pm

Thanks Mike, that gives me a good place to start. I am guessing 1000, but it might be substantially more than that--I was just taking a guess. There are dozens of boxes of magazines and boxes and boxes of baseballs--I don't think I could go through each one individually. I will see about contacting one of the auction houses you mentioned.