Memorabilia industry sees surprising surge during COVID-19, how you can start buying and selling

Are you a superfan of sports or entertainment? If your answer is yes, now may be the perfect time for you to stock up on memorabilia, or if you’re a collector, now could be your best chance to sell. Brandon Steiner, sports memorabilia expert and founder of CollectibleExchange.com tells us the traffic on his collector marketplace website has picked up drastically during this time. Here’s more for him.

During the three-month stay-at-home order due to COVID-19, people had a lot of time on their hands. One remedy to the “boredom” has been downsizing and clearing out closets and garages across the country. As a result, says sports memorabilia expert and head of CollectibleXchange.com Brandon Steiner, there has been a huge “uptick in the buying and selling of collectibles,” and many of the memorabilia has been “vintage.”

Steiner, who launched the company last December, says: “The increased activity has been ‘holiday-like!’” Steiner notes that “there are over 50,000 collectibles, and our office is packed. People are calling and posting daily as they clean out their closets, garages and basements.”

• The restart of sports: “Our country needs it, and this must supersede the money. If done in a smart a cautious way, we’ll all win from sports on TV, and some good competition to take our minds to a neutral space. I believe the winners in this will be hockey – which has the biggest advantage in playoff hockey which it the best part of the sport – and tennis which will have an increased viewership and reengage its fan base.”

• Sports Without Fans in
  Attendance: “I worry about players: can they stay
  focused and motivated if they’re the type of player who feeds off of the fans
  or if their team isn’t that good. “Sports without fans is fixable because TV
  can do things in the production work for us watching at home to avoid the empty
  stadiums.”

• Winner will be sports
  gambling and betting: “Since fans can’t go to
  the games, gambling on the games may increase, as well as more participating in
  fantasy sports, to replace going to the games. At the same time for fans whose
  routine is going to the games will now potentially not be able to attend for
  almost a year.”

• College Sports: “I’m nervous about college sports because there are a lot of
  things that can make this difficult to manage players and keep it safe with the
  campuses open. There are a lot of variables and we have to remember that these
  are kids.”

CollectibleXchange.com will launch its UFC collectible line of signed and game used product this week, as well as a Syracuse Carrier Dome series of memorabilia. For more information visit their website.