Sports Memorabilia Value What’s It Really Worth

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I have a Derek Jeter autographed baseball. How much is it worth? We hear this question all the time. Everybody wants to know how much money they can get for their sports memorabilia. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple to determine.

The short answer is, and the answer that many sports memorabilia dealers tell their customers, is that your sports memorabilia is worth what someone is willing to pay you for it! Although this answer is simple enough, there is a way to determine the value of an item. It may not be what we can sell the item for, but we certainly can find out what similar items have sold for.
Let’s take the Derek Jeter autograph baseball as an example. We are at Yankee Stadium and Jeter is signing autographs on the rail before the game. We toss him a ball, and low and behold, he signs it. It’s our lucky day! We happened to be in the right place at the right time. We now own Derek Jeter autograph baseball.

What’s it worth?

When we get home from the game, the first thing we do is check the internet to see if we can find a value for our new prized possession. We go to our favorite search engine, type in “Derek Jeter autograph baseball” and, needless to say, we get the phone book. There are literally thousands of sites that have this.

We do some more searching and click on to Steiner Sports. Now Steiner is one of the largest memorabilia companies around, are based in New York, and do exclusive signings with Derek Jeter. They sell Derek Jeter autographed baseballs for $500 each. Does that mean my ball worth $500?

Lets continue.

Next stop, a sports memorabilia store that sell Jeter autographed baseballs for $399. In fact, this company is a Steiner authorized distributor, the ball is authenticated by Steiner, and is the exact same item that Steiner sells for more. So is my ball worth $399?

Not so fast, lets move on.

On to ebay. Here we find a very wide range of Derek Jeter autographed baseballs from many different types of sellers. Some have COA’s from Steiner, some from PSA/DNA, some from Joe’s Baseball Card Emporium, and some that have no COA’s at all. Selling prices are all over the board, from as low $50 in some cases, to over $900 in others. We don’t even know if half of these are real.

At this point we are totally confused. How can there be such a price difference for the same Derek Jeter autographed baseball? Well the answer my friends, is that they are not all the same! There are many factors that determine the value of similar items. Two of the most important factors are condition of the item and authenticity.

When you pay top dollar from a company like Steiner Sports for an autograph baseball, you get a brand new, snow white baseball, with a strong, smudge free Derek Jeter penned signature on the sweet spot. It is a top condition ball. If you pay less, you usually get less. A Derek Jeter autographed baseball signed on a dirty or soiled ball, or one that is signed on a side panel, or one where the autograph is fading, is certainly going to be worth much less.

The same is true about authenticity. If you are not sure that the ball has actually been hand signed by that player, it is worthless. Because of their reputation, a Derek Jeter autograph with a Steiner Sports COA is the best you can do. They witness every ball signed. You can’t beat that unless you see the player sign the item yourself, which is impractical in most cases. Other companies, such as Mounted Memories, Tri-Star, and UDA are reputable as well and their authenticity is not questioned in the industry. Reputation and integrity of the company or individual standing behind the product is more important than the product itself. That is why some people will pay top dollar for their items, because they know that it’s real.

So how does my ball compare with these. Well, it was a new ball before the game, but after Jeter signed it, he threw it back to me and I dropped it and it got a little dirty. Plus my friend got some mustard from his hot dog on it. Oh yea, Jeter signed it on the side panel with a sharpie, but I did witness it. Although who’s going to believe me if I want to sell it. But I still want to know what’s it worth?

The answer. It’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it!

Upcoming Sports Stars of India

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India never had a rich sporting history in comparison to other countries. If we take Olympics as a benchmark, India has always struggled to find a place in the top of the medals tally. Besides a few selected sports such as hockey and cricket, India has not made a major mark on any other sporting event if we look back at the history of Indian sports. The problem always is related to the development of good sporting infrastructure in the country and the perceptions of the people towards sports as a career launcher.

However, things have started moving ahead for the good if we look back at the past few years of performances by Indian sports stars. Government of India Sports Ministry has started making huge investments into the development of other sports in India. Many sports bodies have been set up to look after different sports in India. These bodies function in coordination with the government in ensuring that best of the facilities are provided to Indian athletes and sports stars.

These recent developments have started producing excellent results for Indian sports. We have witnessed a flurry of individual accomplishments in other important Indian sports. Major international sporting events have witnessed emergence of Indian sporting icons. 2008 Summer Olympics at Beijing saw some amazing achievements from India. Abhinav Bindra, India’s ace shooter did India proud by winning the first individual gold medal. Boxer Vijendar Kumar did India proud by winning the Bronze in Men’s Middleweight category competition. In the same Olympics Sushil Kumar, the Indian wrestler earned a bronze in the Men’s Freestyle 66 kg wrestling contest. These are just few of the recent examples where Indian sports stars have excelled and made a mark for themselves and brought glory to India. Indian sports will always find a mention of the cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar who has made the country proud and is considered as the best cricketer in the world to have ever played the game of cricket. Sania Mirza, the golden girl from the game of tennis has also surprised many by being the only Indian to have defeated three top 10 ranked female tennis stars in her illustrious tennis career. Vishwanathan Anand the maestro of Chess, is another famous Indian sports icon who has been a world champion on more than one occasion. Pankaj Advani, the reigning world billiards champion is another name that comes to mind when we talk about the rapid transformation of Indian sports. These sporting icons of India have brought name and fame to India by their many achievements and have proved time and time again that they are nothing short of best when it comes to sports.

The Case Against Sports Drinks In Schools

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The beverage industry produces enough soda for every American to consume 52-gallons each year. Although its a mind-boggling amount, the fact of the matter is their industry is stagnating. With soda sales flat, theyre turning to newer products. One of their most popular markets is the educational system. Marketed under the guise of being healthier than plain water, and an implication they are more efficient at meeting hydration needs, sports drinks have become a prominent fixture in many schools. But do they meet those claims, or are they just contributing to the obesity epidemic among U.S. children?

Research by the American College of Sports Medicine has shown that for exercise lasting less than one hour, water is the preferred method of meeting hydration needs. Their research suggests that the loss of electrolytes and carbohydrates from exercise meeting this requirement does not require the burst supplied by sports drinks that one typically gets from a modern sports drink. Their research also has shown that for activities lasting more than one hour, or occurring under intense heat, there are benefits to using sports drinks for hydration. The rapid and continuous loss of minerals under these conditions presents a risk to participants, and replenishing them rapidly improves hydration and athletic performance.

Interestingly enough, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the consumption of water, or a salt-containing flavored beverage to maintain hydration. Not only do they suggest such drinks, but the recommend children consume them regularly, regardless of whether they are thirsty.

Nutritional experts are beginning to question the need for having sports drinks available to kids during regular school hours. The logic of such an argument is that the activities occurring during regular school hours can not justify the extra calories kids consume when drinking these drinks. It has also been suggested that the extra electrolytes, which are just salt compounds, may even contribute to rising blood pressure among kids, when consumed in the absence of physical exertion. While the suggestions are controversial, most regulators are recommending limiting access during school hours, but making these beverages available during after school events and practices.

It seems inevitable that eventually, these drinks will be deemed of little nutritional or functional value for regular school day activities. After all, it doesnt seem reasonable to assume that kids or teens are at risk of becoming deficient in electrolytes while walking between classes. While they certainly offer benefits when consumed during intense exercise, theres little evidence to support the idea that they offer any positive benefits for normal day-to-day activity.

Super Bowl XLVIII Interview with Obama – Will O’Reilly find the Character or paint a Caricature

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Obama says Fox makes a -caricature’ of him – is there no truth in parody?

In the late eighties I had the good fortune of having for my friend, a Bavarian born caricature artist who was formerly the head of the art department for a major U.S. newspaper in Texas. He was going through a Bohemian lifestyle period in his life and could be found daily in the French Quarter of New Orleans setting up to do caricatures of visitors and natives alike.

Black and white pictures were the cheapest, but people were more apt to ask for the full color renderings which amplified their particular features and qualities. My friend was a master of color and shade and the pictures almost had a portrait effect laid hard into the caricature that people seemed to love.

I will not forget the answer he gave me, when one day, I asked him how he decided what features he would accent about a person to produce the uniqueness of each drawing.

He said there were two ways to decide what features to amplify. The first was, to decide for himself based on what he saw and what he heard as he engaged his subjects in conversations about where they were from, their jobs and careers, and other personal information. Very few people trusted him to decide what features he would choose to clinch the drawing. He said that deciding for them, was only used as a last resort, but why?

More often than not when he decided, they were not pleased with the final result. In fact, in some cases they would be offended. Although he was brutally honest in his artistic product, it wasn’t always exactly how his customers perceived themselves. If they were snobbish he caught it, if they were sloppy he caught that, but they wouldn’t accept that kind of honesty about themselves.

He solved the problem of the dissatisfied customer by asking them what they wanted to see exaggerated and blown out of proportion. The result was almost comical and at times – totally embarrassing.

Men with slight builds were depicted with barreling chests and powerful muscles. Women who were not so good looking were cast as luscious beauties. That is the point.

If we look at Mr. Obama through his own eyes to decide how well he is doing or what image he thinks he is impressing upon us, he will doubtless look just fine to most and great to some.

Is that what news organizations and agencies are supposed to do. Should they resort to a party line, a controlled access report or a pile of pre-pandered propaganda to inform us of what is going on with the President? If that is what we want; there are plenty of networks offering just that and little else.

Fox news has some loud mouths self-absorbed commentators and a few outright cornballs in their roster, but as far as the slogan -fair and balanced,’ can meet with any reasonable expectation, they are the only kid on the block and by no means the new kid on the block.

They can motivate without trying to mesmerize, they can expostulate without expletives and extraneous hyperbole. We are not stupid. We know O’Reilly is a hot headed Irishmen who sometimes ought to tone it down, but we are sure he is showing us his real character and not his feigned caricature.

We can disagree with him and others at Fox, but we know that they are trying to offer us an un-impeded view of events as they come down in real time. They don’t always get it, but they never ask those who they are reporting on – how they want to be depicted.

This is what makes our president insecure with Fox. What we must all remember is that, this is the president’s problem, not Fox’s problem, and by no means, is it our problem.

In the first Super Bowl interview O’Reilly kept pounding the president with the now classic, -Why do so many Americans hate you.- Mr. Obama squirmed away from directly answering that question and re-directed O’Reilly’s questioning with labored if not nervous subtlety.

With five years of his administration behind him, that question has already been answered. Now, we can only hope that Bill might ask for an explanation about why it has gone sour and what the president intends to do about it.

If the top dog at Fox doesn’t get all mushy in the presence of the Chief, perhaps this time he will paint the caricature based on what he actually sees and not what Mr. Obama wants him to see.

-And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.- (John 8: 32)

American Prophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles and reports of journalist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Sports Massage An Important Aspect of a Serious Athlete’s Regimen

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If you are a serious athlete or even a recreational athlete then you already know that your daily regiment prepares you for optimal use of your skills and energies for your favored sporting event. However, continuous exercise and fitness regimen also causes extreme soreness and muscle tension that gets increasingly worse if you do not take good care of the sore muscles and tensions that your body experiences.

Moreover, because you workout almost every day, the day-to-day soreness is inevitable and trying to relax by cooling off with stretches, steam and watching some television to zone off does not do enough for your body. You need to be completely rejuvenated from your every day workout to excel and stretch your boundaries the next day that is why you need a rejuvenating and relaxing sports massage.

If you are a serious athlete then you are probably already recommend a regular sports massage regimen that is built-in to your fitness regimen. If it is not, then it is time to seriously consider including it into your fitness schedule. Sports massage ensures that the soft tissues that you regularly work with are systematically manipulated. A variety of techniques and stokes are used. A sports therapist will recommend anything from effleurage, petrissage, friction, compression, gliding, percussion or trigger point focused massage. You may also be offered a mixture of these massage techniques to achieve maximum rejuvenation of your tissues.

The effleurage and petrissage movement in sports massage is said to increase blood flow through the vessels relieving your from tight muscles, deep massage enhances the supply of oxygen and other nutrients by opening pores, encouraging blood flow and excretion so that waste products like lactic acid can be removed quickly. Gliding and stretching movements that are a part of sports massage allows for complete relaxation by releasing tension that is naturally accumulated in the muscles because of an athlete’s regimen.

Sports massage is known to increase a sport persons sporting tenure by ensuring psychological and physiological relaxation and rejuvenation. The psychological benefits achieved from a well done sports massage include relief from anxiety, stress and improvement in mood. Most athletes that use sports massage report a sense of deep relaxation and well-being after their sports massage sessions. Massage is known to activate the parasympathetic nervous system that in turn reduces heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels causes this feeling of deep relaxation and well-being.

Scientific evidence indicates that sports massage decreases muscle soreness and enhances relaxation, two important ingredients that make a strong athlete. Overall, sports massage is known to maintain the body in a good condition by reducing or preventing injuries that are caused due to stiff muscles. They restore and rejuvenate the deep tissues and restore mobility to injured muscle tissue. They boost performance by targeting the psychology and physiological aspects of an individual and they are also known to extend the overall life of an athlete’s career.