Memorabilia – Valuable in More Ways Than One

Memorabilia of all sorts has been rising in value even in times of economic slowdown. Collectors who can afford to pay for the best don’t stop collecting just because the stock market is down, and those who have been holding onto memorabilia from their favorite celebrities are far more likely to be willing to sell. Those two factors combine to make economically troubled times a major boon for collectors of memorabilia who have a sharp eye. It also means that economically slow times are among the best times to acquire mementoes of your favorite celebrities and genres.

From movie memorabilia to sport memorabilia, there’s often far more on the market during slow economic times than there is during times when everyone is ready, willing and able to buy. Whether you’re looking for movie posters, celebrity memorabilia, Music Memorabilia or even mementoes of Triple Crown winners and horse photos, there are some beautiful pieces available through some of the most reputable dealers of memorabilia. What’s hot in memorabilia right now? Here’s a sampling.

Sport Memorabilia

If you’re looking for wall art and décor ideas for a man cave for a sports fan, nothing beats sport memorabilia. Among the most popular types of sport mementoes these days are signed team jerseys, usually framed beautifully and ready to hang on the wall. Other sport memorabilia include signed action photos and autographed equipment from baseball bats to hockey pucks.

Music Memorabilia

The music fan in your life is sure to appreciate one of today’s hottest types of Music Memorabilia – autographed guitars. It seems as if everyone from Justin Bieber to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler offers a signed guitar, with their signature authenticated, and often framed with a photo or other token of their musical career. You can find autographed guitars framed in collages with concert tickets, pieces of concert costumes and concert posters that will delight any music fan.

Celebrity Autographs

Celebrity autographs have always been hot sellers on the memorabilia market, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the presentation. If you acquire your celebrity signature through many dealers, it will be beautifully framed in a museum quality frame, not just for appearance, but for preservation.

If you choose to invest in any type of memorabilia, be sure that your purchase includes authentication. When you buy from a known, reputable dealer, your purchase will always be accompanied by a certificate that proves the origin and authenticity of the piece, and often, with other papers that prove its history.

Now is an excellent time to be looking for gifts of memorabilia or pieces to add to your collection. Check in often with your favorite memorabilia dealers to see what they have available.

Memorabilia Gift Ideas for a Housewarming Party

It’s always cause for celebration when friends buy a new house or move into a new apartment. If you’re invited to the housewarming party – or if you want to give them a little something to celebrate their new digs – dip into their favorite activities to find gift ideas for their new home. Memorabilia – whether it’s sports memorabilia, movie memorabilia, music memorabilia or any one of dozens of other interests that give rise to collectibles and memorabilia – always finds a welcome place on the walls or in display space in a new home. If you’re unsure about what type of collectibles and memorabilia gifts your friends might appreciate, consider some of these ideas to help you decide.

Memorabilia Gifts for Music Lovers

Wall art and wall hangings for music lovers run the gamut from album covers of classic albums to autographed guitars or a signed guitar display. Check the websites of dealers of collectible items to find out what they have available. Signed guitars are all the rage these days – it seems like everyone from Justin Bieber to Stephen Tyler have put their John Hancock on beautifully decorated and painted guitars – but you may find dealers offering something really special. The highest value autographed guitars will be those that were actually played onstage by the artist who signed it, but you may also find some guitars that offer extra special value because they’re framed with other bits and pieces of memorabilia from the artist’s career.

Celebrity Autographs on Unusual Items

Guitars are only one of the memorabilia items that collect celebrity autographs. For your favorite sports lover, consider an autographed team jersey, mounted and framed for display in a man room. Other ideas for a man cave include autographed basketballs, baseballs and hockey pucks, or signed baseball bats or hockey sticks. Keep your eye on collectible sites if you’re looking for an unusual piece of sports or movie memorabilia. You never know what might turn up with the autograph of a favorite sports celebrity or movie star.

Beautiful Horses and Racing Memorabilia

Triple Crown winners are favorites among those who play the ponies or show horses. If you’re looking for the perfect wall art and décor ideas for a horse lover, you’ll find dozens of stunning horse photo displays that feature Secretariat, Triple Crown winners like Affirmed and Seattle Slew and famous horses like Barbaro, whose injury in the 2006 Preakness sparked a national call for reforms in the racing world.

Celebrity, music and sport memorabilia make wonderful and thoughtful housewarming gifts for friends. If you’re looking for the perfect finishing touch or ideal gift for a sports, racing or music aficionado, check out the variety of memorabilia gifts available through a reputable dealer of mementos and collectibles.

Use Sports Memorabilia to Decorate Your Sports Bar

There are two things that differentiate a sports bar from the typical neighborhood watering hole – a great television system so patrons can watch the game, and the décor. Owners of sports bars often go overboard with the sports memorabilia, covering every available inch of wall space with sports posters, sports photos and mounted sporting equipment in an effort to hammer home the fact that yes, this is indeed, a sports bar. If you’re working on the décor for a bar dedicated to sports fans, there’s a better way to use memorabilia in your decorating. These hints and tips will help you create the proper ambiance for your bar without tipping overboard into kitsch.

Choose Sports Memorabilia for Your Customers

Before you choose a single item of décor, decide who you’re catering to and what you want the atmosphere to be. The décor for a sports bar catering to college students and twenty-something rowdies will be far different than the bar situated in the middle of a solidly working-class neighborhood with an older demographic. Once you’ve figured out who your customers are, you can aim your purchases of sports memorabilia, wall art and décor at making them comfortable.

For the younger crowd, for example, you might highlight a collection of autographed sports jerseys worn by today’s greats. Whether you choose one or two hometown favorites or a selection of greats from one sport, you can hang each jersey individually in a beautifully crafted frame that highlights the jersey as well as protecting it from damage.

Highlight a Few Specially Chosen Items of Sports Memorabilia

Instead of slapping up a wild assortment of sports-themed posters and other wall art, choose a selection of authentic sports memorabilia and build your décor around them. Unless the atmosphere you’re trying to evoke is college frat hall, you’re better off choosing a few quality items and accenting them in your design.

Build a Wall of Fame above a row of booths opposite the bar, for instance. Select autographed photos of famous players or news photos of spectacular moments in sports history that you can hang over each booth. Add accent lighting to illuminate each photo without detracting from the ambient light in the room.

Take Your Collection Off the Wall

Many items of sports memorabilia aren’t designed to hang on the wall. Intersperse autographed balls, bats, helmets and the like with the liquor bottles in your display or frame the ends of the bar in a pair of display cases filled with memorabilia commemorating local and national sports heroes.

Taking care to accent your memorabilia collection can add a great deal to the atmosphere in your sports bar. Choose your items carefully and display them artfully so that they’ll be an asset that immerses your customers in the sports experience.

How to Display Music Memorabilia

You may not have called it music memorabilia when you were a teenybopper, but those posters pulled out of the centerfold of Teen Beat and Tiger Beat may have set the stage for a lifelong love of decorating with music memorabilia. Back in the day, displaying your music memorabilia was probably a matter of sticking your posters to the wall with masking tape, or if mom was a stickler about the paint job on the wall, with sticky tack that didn’t leave adhesive behind.

You may have done the same in college, or learned to appreciate the sleek good looks of a simple poster frame, a popular way of displaying band posters on dorm room walls and in first apartments. But just as you’ve outgrown the Tiger Beat centerfolds and moved on to classier mementoes of your favorite bands, so you should have outgrown plastic frames and picture hooks. Today’s collectors of music memorabilia have far more than concert posters to collect, and displaying their mementoes and memories calls for more than cheap frames and thumbtacks.

Autographed Guitars

Guitars are among the most popular music collectibles of the past few decades. A beautifully crafted, signed guitar is often the centerpiece of a music lover’s collection of mementoes. But displaying that guitar can be a tricky proposition. It’s important to protect the instrument from dust and damage while displaying it in a way that accents its beauty. If you purchase collectible autographed guitars from a dealer of collectibles, they’re often sold complete with a shadowbox display frame, and may be framed with a certificate of authentication and often include other memorabilia to make them even more valuable.

Framed Displays

Concert tickets from your favorite Aerosmith concert, drumsticks, a headband worn in concert – these are just a few of the pieces of music memorabilia that find their way into framed collages and displays. On their own, each piece may be meaningful to you, but when you pull them together into an artfully arranged collage and frame it with a polished wooden frame, you’ve transcended the genre of memorabilia and created a work of art.

Celebrity Autographs and Photographs

Celebrity hounds have been collection autographs for decades, so it’s no surprise that the signatures of music’s stars – from B.B. King to Justin Bieber – are among the most popular types of music memorabilia on the market. Don’t hide your autographs away in a scrapbook or closed box. Celebrity autographs can become the center of your decorative scheme when you frame them with a photograph or put them together with other pieces to create a collectible display.

Don’t let your music memorabilia hide away. Display it beautifully and make it a central part of your home or office décor.

Triple Crown Winners Memorabilia

For those who love proud horseflesh, there are none quite so revered as the select club of Triple Crown winners. Since 1919, there have been only 11 horses who have achieved the singular honor, making memorabilia relating to the Triple Crown winners some of the hottest selling merchandise among the collectors of horse racing memorabilia. In addition to horse racing photos and race memorabilia signed by the jockeys who rode them to victory, a number of the famous horses have inspired movies, which has inspired another entire line of movie memorabilia related to the winners of the Triple Crown.

The Triple Crown isn’t an easy accolade to earn. In order to become a member of the elite club of horse racers, a horse must win three races – the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. All three races are confined to three-year-olds, so a horse has precisely one season in which he can take the crown. In the 125 years of formal racing history, only 11 horses have achieved that goal. Of those, only three have managed it since 1948, all of them in the 1970s.If you’re looking for a special collectible for someone who loves the ponies, consider a purchase of framed art or other memorabilia of one of these famous horses.

Triple Crown wins seem to come in spates. The first Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton, took the crown in 1919 and held it until 1930, a full 11 years. The next winner, Gallant Fox, was unseated in just five years by Omaha, who won the Triple Crown in 1935 and was defeated in turn, just two years later by War Admiral. Those wins were followed by Whirlaway in 1941, Count Fleet in 1943, Assault in 1946 and Citation in 1948. Triple Crown memorabilia from those early races is scarce and quite valuable.

The racing world waited 25 years before seeing another horse who would take the Triple Crown honors. In 1973, Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, stormed down the course at the Derby and the Preakness to take each race by 2 ½ lengths. In the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat took fire and won the course by a dramatic 31 lengths in a breakaway that still leaves people breathless. A 2010 move, Secretariat, immortalizes the relationships between the horse, his rider and his owner, and contributes even more Secretariat memorabilia for collectors to treasure.

Just four years later, Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, took the Derby and the Preakness by 1 ¾ and 1 ½ lengths, then won the Belmont by a full 4 lengths. The dramatic photo of Slew, crossing the finish line with Cruguet standing in the saddle in triumph, is a treasured piece of horse racing memorabilia.

The last winner of the Triple Crown, Affirmed, won the crown in 1978. No other horse has managed the feat since, though a few have come close.

Some of the most treasured pieces of horse racing memorabilia include portraits or photos of all three 1970s Triple Crown winners, signed by their jockeys. If you have a horse racing fan on your gift list, you can't go wrong with a gift like that.

Memorabilia as Game Room Decorations

Finding the right decorations for your game room walls can be tricky, especially if you’re trying to avoid looking dated. If you’re updating your man room or need ideas for man cave décor, toss out the velvet painting of dogs playing poker and step up to game room decorations that make your room feel and look like a private club. If you’re stuck for ideas, consider checking out some of the collections of memorabilia available from dealers online.

Cigar Aficionado

Cigar Aficionado magazine has been the premiere magazine for cigar lovers since the early 90s. Since 1994, every issue of the popular magazine has featured a well-known celebrity on the cover, enjoying a good cigar. Now one popular dealer of collectibles has gathered many of the most popular Cigar Aficionado covers into an incredible collection of collectible art for the discerning cigar smoker. If your man cave is a homage to the pleasure of enjoying a fine cigar, you might find the perfect finishing touch in one or more of their framed collection. Each cover is signed by the celebrity and framed with a real cigar. The collection is far-ranging, so there’s a good chance you’ll find one of your favorite celebrities represented among the crowd. The collection’s availability is very limited, and includes such luminaries as supermodel Claudia Schiffer, actress Demi Moore, celebrity chef Emeril and timeless sex kitten Raquel Welch.

Game Room Decorations

Replace the velvet dogs with celebrity collages featuring some of the most famous movie gamblers and casino scenes of all time. Hollywood has always been fascinated with the fast life of the casino bosses and those who live to thwart them, and Tinseltown’s obsessions has resulted in a wealth of casino-themed memorabilia to decorate your game room. You can choose from celebrity collages featuring Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro, along with memorabilia from the movie Casino, Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason as they appeared together in The Hustler or Frank Sinatra in Oceans 11, or go all out with a shadow box collage of memorabilia and photos related to the most famous fast-living movie stars of all time, the Rat Pack.

Memorabilia for the Home Theater

Turn your home theater into something spectacular with the addition of movie poster master prints and movie posters from all of Hollywood’s golden ages. From Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid to Sex and the City, you’ll find posters – signed and unsigned – framed and ready to hang on your walls.

Genuine memorabilia adds a special touch to your game room, home theater or man cave. Look for your favorite celebrities and movies online and find out what’s available through dealers of fine memorabilia.

Memorabilia Wall Art and Décor for Your Home Theater

Home theaters are among the most popular home projects over the past five years, according to a major DIY magazine. While the DIY sites focus on choosing the best audio and video equipment for your home theater room, there’s more to the theater experience than just a screen and some speakers. If you want to really immerse yourself in the aesthetics, you need wall art and décor that reflects the room’s intent. Framed movie memorabilia, including theater cards, autographed photos and movie posters, fits the bill perfectly.

You’ll find a great deal of movie memorabilia available online – posters and photographs and theater cards that come from the entire history of the movies. With the wealth of materials available, it’s far too easy to grab a poster here and a photograph there and end up with a mishmash of memorabilia and collectibles rather than a decorating scheme or a collection. If you want to create an ambience in your home viewing room, you need to start with a plan that showcases prized pieces of memorabilia.

Choose a Genre to Highlight

Are you a science fiction buff? Do you love the glamour and glitz of the movie classics? Do adventure movies make you yearn for sea spray in your face and the scent of tomb dust in your nostrils? Build a collection of movie memorabilia around your favorite genre.

Science Fiction Movie Memorabilia

For the science fiction buff, there are Star Wars and Star Trek movie posters, as well as framed collages that include photos, theater cards and autographed photos of the stars of such movies as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Avatar.

Romance and Romantic Comedies

Pay homage to the witty dialogue and undercurrent of attraction between such famous pairings as Tracy and Hepburn, Hepburn and Bogart and Harry and Sally, or sink into the lush romance of the Civil War South world of Gone with the Wind. Classic movie posters in specially designed frames and collages that include signed movie posters and photos are ideal wall art and décor for your home theater room.

Series That Transcend Time

Some of the most lavish and highly awaited films of all time are parts of series, such as the wildly popular Harry Potter series. Signed and framed movie posters from the various Harry Potter movies are destined to become the collectibles of the future. If Hogwarts isn’t quite your cup of tea, there’s The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings.

If you’re decorating a home movie theater or family room, take a look at the many choices and options for wall art and décor based on movie memorabilia to create the perfect ambiance for movie viewing.

The Appeal of Music Memorabilia

Music has a way of intertwining itself in your life in so many ways. If you’re like most people, hearing the song that was playing when you got your first kiss can transport you back to that moment, with all its sweetness and innocence. Another song might land you in the arms of your new bride on your wedding day, and yet another find you roaring down the highway in your first sports car, singing out the lyrics almost loud enough to drown out the motor. It’s no wonder, then, that music memorabilia is among the best, most popular ideas for a man cave or for decorating a family room. If you’re looking for wall decorations for your special hideaway or party room, look no further than memorabilia that commemorates the wonderful, musical times of your life.

Autographed Guitars

Put your love up on your wall with a display that honors your favorite artist. Wall displays that feature pictures, concert memorabilia and autographed guitars are among the hottest sellers on the memorabilia circuit – and with good reason. Many rock idols are known for their choice of axe – from AC/DC to ZZ Top, rock and country guitarists often have commissioned specialty guitars to suit their tastes and playing styles. Signature guitars feature custom paint jobs, neck styles and bodies, most of them recognizable in an instant by fans of an artist – or by fans of a guitar maker. Guitars that fit under the heading of music memorabilia include those custom guitars, as well as replicas of famed axes, signed and unsigned. A signed guitar adds even more value by including the artist’s autograph in the overall appeal of the piece.

Many collector sites include framed displays built around an autographed guitar. The display often includes a photo of the star in concert, often using the guitar included in the display, as well as other memorabilia that relates to the artist’s history and body of work. The frame may include concert tickets, programs or album covers that represent the artist.

When choosing an autographed guitar display as a gift, look for one that has overall appeal. Choose a guitar played by or signed by an artist that’s a favorite of the gift recipient, or that represents a special time in his life. Is he a ‘70s classic rock fan? You can’t go wrong with a signed guitar that features the signatures of the entire Aerosmith band, along with photos of the band in concert and concert tickets, all included in a stunning frame. A blues fan might fall for a B.B. King signature guitar that includes a photo of the famed blues singer and a signature plaque to pull it all together.

Whether you’re decorating a family room or looking for that special finishing touch for a man cave or home theater, explore the many types of music memorabilia that will turn a wall into a walk down memory lane.

Special Memorabilia Gifts for Horse Lovers

Is there a horse lover on your gift list? Choosing a gift for someone who loves horses can be tricky, but some gifts are bound to please anyone whose blood thrills to the sight of a champion horse barreling down the course. If you’re looking for a gift for the discriminating horse lover, consider memorabilia from one of the great races or featuring one of the best-known horses of all time. These special gifts are guaranteed to find a special place in the home and heart of any horse-loving friend.

Barbaro Memorabilia

When Barbaro took top honors at the Kentucky Derby in 2006, he was only the sixth undefeated horse to win the Run for the Roses in all of its history. His record-breaking winning margin of six-and-a-half lengths was the biggest margin since 1946. Highly favored for a Triple Crown, Barbaro suffered tragic injuries in his next big race at the Preakness, and those injuries eventually led to his death. His long fight with complications from those injuries inspired an outpouring of support and love from around the world that made him one of the best-known and most-loved Kentucky Derby winners of all time. Celebrate his moment of victory with one of the many beautifully framed photos of Barbaro and jockey Edgar Prado.

Secretariat Memorabilia

Few horses are as well-known and beloved as Secretariat, subject of the 2010 Disney movie, “Secretariat.” In 1973, Secretariat Triple Crown became the first U.S. winner in 25 years and made his way into the hearts of Americans, horse lovers or not. Even those who know nothing about the races or racehorses in general know Secretariat. Consider a framed movie poster from the 2010 Disney movie, or one of the many framed prints of Secretariat at the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont as a very special gift for the horse lover in your life.

Kentucky Derby Memorabilia

The Run for the Roses is the second-oldest race in the U.S., and is the first leg of the Triple Crown. Held each year on the first weekend in May, the Kentucky Derby is often called the “Fastest Two Minutes in Sports.” Choose a piece of Kentucky Derby memorabilia that’s sure to win a place in the home of any Derby lover’s home.  What about a framed collector’s set of Kentucky Derby tickets that includes replica tickets from every Derby from 1932 to 1981—all 50 years of Derby history, all centered around a framed photo of Ron Turcotte atop Secretariat?

These are just a few of the hundreds of horse memorabilia gifts you could give the horse lover on your gift list. It's hard to go wrong with a horse photo, so check out an online vendor of memorabilia for other ideas.

Five Ways to Collect Movie Memorabilia

 Collectors of movie memorabilia all have a story to tell about their first piece of collectible movie art. It may have started when he spotted an original lobby card from the movie that was playing on his first date and decided it would make a lovely framed art piece on his wall.  Or perhaps she couldn’t resist owning the fabulous necklace worn by the star of a favorite movie. No matter what started it, movie item collectors often suddenly find themselves with bits and pieces collected from everywhere—posters and props and cards and promotional items all mixed in willy-nilly. That’s no way to have a collection!

Whether you collect stamps, books or movie memorabilia, the most valuable and attractive collections are those that center around a central theme. Choosing a theme for your movie collection helps you focus and creates a cohesive collection that’s easier to display and sell, if and when you choose to do so. There are many ways to collect themed movie items.  These tips will help you sharpen your focus and create a more complete and attractive collection.

Focus on an Item

Choose one type of memorabilia in which to specialize – autographs, movie posters or props from mystery movies, for example. Even within those broad categories, you can narrow your focus and concentrate on things like lobby posters from romantic comedies, or autographs of Best Actress Oscar winners. A random collection of movie star autographs might be fun to own, but a collection that includes the autograph of every Best Actress of the last 25 years would be worth some serious cash , and be far more interesting to other collectors.

Focus on a Genre

Narrow your focus to items connected with movies from a particular genre.  For example, sci-fi is extremely popular because of the cool factor of special effects props. The tendency for production companies to release sequels makes it easy to narrow your collection to items connected with one particular series.  Star Wars and Harry Potter collectibles are high up on the desirability chart, but even lesser-known movies can be fun to collect.

Focus on a Celebrity

Choose a director or actor and focus on collecting props or posters from their movies. A collection of movie pieces from Hitchcock movies might include posters from all of the director’s best-known films, or iconic items from his movies. Other ideas include autographed publicity photos from each of an actress’ movies or costume pieces worn by a particular actor in each of his films.

Collecting movie memorabilia can be an interesting hobby, and specializing in specific eras, types and personalities can make it all the more interesting.

Movie Posters Top Movie Memorabilia Charts

Movie posters are among the most collectible of all movie memorabilia. Owning a piece of movie history can be rewarding and exciting, and the hunt for the perfect poster can be an exciting hobby all on its own. If you’re just getting started on your collection, there are some things you should know to protect yourself, and your precious acquisitions.

Collect What You Love

The more you know about your passion, the less likely you are to fall for a scam or buy a fake. More importantly, you should seek out those things that you’d love to put in a display, because that’s what it’s all about.

Think About Your Display Space and its Size

There are many different sizes of movie posters, and many of them are suitable for display on your walls. The most common American sizes are one sheets, which are the size most collectors want. At 27x41”, they’re the right size to hang on a wall.  Three sheets, at 41x81”, are the size of three one-sheets side by side. They’re more difficult to display, but could be a prized piece above a sofa or on a stairway wall.  Lobby cards are sets of eight cards, 11x14”, which feature scenes from the movie and were meant to be displayed in the lobby of a movie theater. The industry stopped using them in the 1980s.  Window cards are 14x22” movie posters that were hung around town in store windows to advertise the latest movie when it came to town.  And finally, insert posters were designed to fit on a sandwich board outside the theater. They measure 14x36” and can make a nice gallery display.

Specialize in Your Collection for the Best Value

Themed collections are not only more valuable, they’re also more fun to collect. Choose pieces from your favorite genre, such as sci-fi, spaghetti westerns, or the great romances, or concentrate on a particular era.  You can even collect memorabilia that focuses on your favorite star or director.

You can sign up for mailing lists from auction houses and movie collectors’ websites to find out about auctions and movie posters going up for sale.  And remember that movie posters are only one type of movie memorabilia you can collect. Other popular types of items include sports items, such as baseball cards, uniform shirts, game programs and game balls, and racing pieces.