The cllct team is constantly getting texts, emails and DMs asking for help valuing, storing and selling collectibles. In our cllct mailbag, we'll be answering questions from readers — not only to help them, but also to provide a resource for the broader community.
Reader Greg Mihailides recently wrote in asking for advice on how he should handle his more "notable" tickets from his collection, now that he has found his interest in collecting revitalized.
Our resident ticket expert, Darren Rovell, took things from here.
Darren Rovell: Hey Greg, I'm going to take the ticket questions, as I'm the resident expert at cllct.
Greg Mihailides: Max Scherzer no-hitter, June 2015. My actual tickets were printed, but they sent an email after the game asking if fans who bought tickets wanted to pay a small fee for a commemorative ticket from the day. I have four.
Darren: Commemorative tickets have little to no value. If they didn't get you into the game, it doesn't have much worth. The Nationals sold up to 20,000 of these things at $5 each, which is probably closer to what they are worth.
Greg: Jon Lester no-hitter, May 2008. Believe or not, I’ve been in attendance for two no-hitters. This is one I'd want to keep, so my question is whether grading a ticket like this is worth it to preserve it?
Darren: This is a question I get a lot. How should I preserve it? You should absolutely get it slabbed. If you don't want to spend a fortune, just submit it at the value/economy service level. You'll wait four months to get it back, but so what?
Greg: 1967 World Series stubs. My grandparents attended Games 6 and 7 at Fenway Park. I have both stubs for both games. They're not in great shape as they have some old tape on the edges that held up their place in an old scrapbook. Since I have multiples, I was thinking of maybe holding one of each and selling or trading the others.
Darren: World Series tickets are plentiful. They are nice looking, and people have usually saved them, going all the way back to the 1930s. PSA has graded 22 stubs of Game 6 and 45 of Game 7 in 1967, when the Cardinals and Bob Gibson won the title. Tickets in your condition would sell for about $100 each.
Greg: I have lots of Red Sox and Celtics used tickets. Some include Red Sox-Yankees games during the heat of the rivalry in the early 2000s. There’s a Pedro 16-strikeout game, Michael Jordan's second-to-last game in Boston. There’s lots of phantom World Series tickets for games that were never played in 2003 and 2004.
Darren: This is where the fun comes in ticket collecting. I bet you have something that is worth writing on the slab that doesn't immediately come to your mind. The best returns are often the ones you'd don't realize you have.
Do the work and go through everything. And don't waste your time with phantom tickets or proofs.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.