If you’re looking for valuable presidential memorabilia, you have to play ball.
Baseballs signed by a sitting U.S. president have been a valuable niche of the collecting industry since the 1980s, says Steve Grad, principal authenticator at PSA/DNA Authentication Services, a third-party collectibles authentication company.
Values for these signatures range from $400 or $500 to the tens of thousands depending on the number of signed baseballs for a particular president on the market, the reputation of the president and the quality of the signature and baseballs themselves, according to an analysis of mint-condition signed baseballs by collecting social media site JustCollecting.com.
Commanders in chief began signing baseballs after William Howard Taft founded the tradition of throwing the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day in 1910, Grad says. Though sitting presidents have been autographing baseballs since then, collecting them didn’t become a trend until more than 70 years later, when people began offering baseballs as a medium for signatures rather than paper or a photograph. “There’s something about presidents and baseballs that went hand-in-hand,” he says.
Presidential baseballs also have a history of black market dealings. In 1972, four baseballs — including the Opening Day ball signed by Taft in 1910 — were stolen from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. After the baseballs had passed through a number of dealers’ hands, they were eventually recovered by the FBI in 2001, according to the New York Daily News.
If you’re looking to acquire a presidential baseball on the auction market, however, it won’t come cheap. Baseballs signed by John F. Kennedy are some of the most valuable in the sector and can be worth about $40,000, says Dan Wade, head writer at JustCollecting. He estimates that there are about 20 known JFK baseballs in existence.
“He was a really sloppy signer and there were always people around him,” Grad says. “It was really difficult to get him to sign a baseball. There just aren’t as much of them.”
Baseballs signed by Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan are also rare and highly valued, he adds.
Richard Nixon’s baseball autograph is also a big-ticket item, Wade says, and can be worth as much as $2,500 because of his historical notoriety.
Signatures that are more easily available — mostly those from presidents in office more recently — are typically worth less. Baseballs signed by Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush are worth $750, $350 and $500, respectively, according to JustCollecting. “H.W. has signed boxes of baseballs,” Wade says.
There’s still time to acquire a Barack Obama autographed baseball, which can be worth $1,000 in mint condition. Much of that value comes from lack of access and his reluctance to sign memorabilia, Grad says.
Though signatures from sitting presidents are the most highly valued, current presidential candidates’ autographs can still bring in some money on the auction block.
A baseball signed by Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the most valuable at about $300 (one from her husband, Bill Clinton, during his time in office is worth about $850), while one signed by Republican candidate Donald Trump is worth $250, according to JustCollecting.
Republican candidate Ted Cruz’s signature can fetch up to $175, while fellow candidates Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush and John Kasich are worth $75, $50, $40 and $35, respectively. A baseball with an autograph from Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is worth $75.
To get the most value out of these signed baseballs, Wade says they need to be in good condition and signed with a ballpoint pen — felt-tip pens and sharpies have a greater tendency to fade — in the most narrow portion of the leather between the stitching, or the “sweet spot.” He adds that blue ink is preferable to black or other colors.
It’s also important not to jump into buying a signed baseball too quickly — forgery is highly prevalent in this collecting sector. Nearly 90% of sports memorabilia on the market is counterfeit, according to FBI investigations into the industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “It’s the bane of the industry,” Wade says.
If the baseball seems too good to be true, Grad says it probably is. He recommends getting an expert or third-party opinion on an artifact before committing to buying it, and to be wary of items being sold for less than they are valued at. “Forgeries sell for less money because people don’t know any better,” Grad says. “The rarer [the seller] says it is, the more it should raise eyebrows.”