The first thing to keep in mind is that while Sharpie markers have become popular for signing, don’t use one if you’re getting a baseball signed. Baseballs signed with a nice ballpoint pen have proven to hold up best over time. Because of its nature as a marker, the Sharpie signed ball will often fade or “melt” over time, leaving your autograph with shadows and an unsightly appearance that will greatly impact the value.

Important step number two when preserving autographed baseballs is one that’s often overlooked: avoid a lot of handling of the baseball with your bare hands, especially if they’re not clean. Even clean hands, though, contain oil from your skin that can fade the signature over time if you take it out and juggle it or carry it around

If you’ve got a signed baseball that’s faded, is it OK to trace over the autograph? NO! Never re-trace an autograph. It’s especially important with older baseballs, because one with signatures that have faded or aren’t as sharp as they once were, is still worth more than one that has been traced over. Most grading companies will reject any baseballs that have been tampered with.

Keep your autographed baseballs in protective display cases and don’t allow direct sunlight to hit them. UV rays will yellow the ball and cause major damage over a long period of time. A little natural light in the room is fine, but don’t let them get a tan.

The best temperature to store them in is 65 to 70 degrees with humidity of about 50%. Of course, some of our homes will be slightly warmer, but it’s best not to keep them in a very warm, humid room.

Follow these steps for autographed baseball preservation and your collection will maintain its value and its appearance for many years.

If you are a baseball fanatic – and even if you’re not, it is common knowledge that Babe Ruth is widely considered the best baseball player of all time. Sure you can argue certain points, but when it comes down to it he still remains the most popular name in baseball history.

At first thought on may think that a baseball signed by the Babe would be a hard item to come by. Truth be told, it is easier than you may think to find a signed babe Ruth baseball. There are probably a couple of different reasons for this.

1) Ruth was immensely popular from the moment he started playing up to present day.  He was known to stop in the middle of whatever he was doing just to sign baseballs. While there are not thousands left, there is still a good number of them available.

2) Getting an autograph was different back then. Ruth was willing to give autographs anywhere and everywhere. Many of today’s athletes are not nearly as approachable.

Despite the fact that signed Ruth baseballs are not that hard to come by, they remain one of the most popular – if not the most popular, collectors item around. Serious collectors are willing to go to great lengths to find one and pay huge amounts to purchase a high quality signed Babe Ruth baseball.

Make no mistake; if you are in the market for a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, then you are probably going to pay a pretty penny for it. There are also many team-signed baseballs from the Ruth era that will run you quite a bit of money as well.

The 1927 Yankees – or “Murderers’ Row,” as they were named are widely considered the best baseball team ever. If you got your hands on a baseball singed by the entire team, you would be holding something that would be nearly priceless in many collectors eyes.  Ruth and Lou Gehrig along with the other Hall of Famers on the team by which all others are measured, make it a fantastic item.

How much should you pay for a signed Babe Ruth baseball?  It depends on several factors including condition, the quality of the ball, readability of the signature and, of course, provenance/authenticity.  Some authentic Ruth signed balls sell for around $3000.  One or two others, stuck in drawers and never touched over the decades, have brought as much as $80,000.   A readable, authentic Ruth ball, signed on the sweet spot (narrowest point between the laces) generally runs about $6-10,000.  Beyond authenticity, condition is everything.

Unless dated, old baseball photos can offer only a guess as to when they were taken.  An autographed team ball, when all players are represented, can often be pinpointed to a specific month, week or sometimes even a day.

Stars, semi-stars, and common players are all represented equally.  In fact, the autographs of many commons may be harder to come by individually than many stars. While the accomplishments of a team in a given season can be dubious like the 1988 Baltimore Orioles or glorious like a World Series champion Yankees signed ball, the ball autographed by a team represents those accomplishments equally.

Usually, the absence of a signature by a player can help define when a ball was signed due to the date of the transaction either by trade or free agency. Of course, the more stars or Hall of Famers on a ball will result in a greater value and a higher price.

Finding an authentic team signed baseball in great condition can be a bit of a challenge. Because of the nature of the item, if all team members attempt to sign the ball right after one another smudges and smears are likely. These defects not only affect the value of the ball, but may also make authentication nearly impossible.

Depending on the price of the ball in question, a buyer may seek to have a third party authentication service certify the team signed baseball prior to completing purchase. However, a higher valued ball, for example the 1927 Yankees, will likely already have the necessary documentation proving its authenticity. One guideline however, a certificate of authenticity is only as good as the company providing it. Collectors should recognize the name, and perform some research before spending a lot of cash.   PSA/DNA, James Spence and others do a generally fine job with authentication.

Team signed baseballs are a great way to recall a World Series year, a record year for wins, or other team accomplishment. Because collectors have favorite teams and favorite players, this type of collectible benefits both desires. Sometimes just reading the names (though handwriting is sometimes questionable) can help a collector recall each individual player and the ups and downs of a baseball campaign.

The nostalgia can be somewhat overwhelming ten years down the road, as these great snapshots of history capture every player that was on the team at that specific moment.  Signed team baseballs make for a terrific collecting focus, whether you’re collecting All-Star teams, World Series winners, specific teams or those from baseball’s storied past.

One of the major reasons for the sustainability of these items is the uniqueness and value of each and every baseball. Some of the factors that contribute to this include the player who signed the ball, how many signatures are on it, and the theme of the baseball in the case of multiple signatures.

The single most important factor in determining the value of a Hall of Famer signed baseball is the player who signed it. Currently, the most in demand autographed baseball is the single-signed Babe Ruth, often considered the “Holy Grail” among collectors. While there are many of them available in today’s marketplace, the value of an authentic Ruth signed baseball continues to skyrocket. This is due his legendary status in the sport, as well as an increased number of forged Ruth baseballs in circulation. These forgeries were created to take advantage of increased prices of Babe Ruth signed baseballs, but ended up raising the prices of the authentic signed baseballs even more.

For many Hall of Fame collectors, the value of a single-signed baseball is preferred over a multi-signed ball. While logic may dictate that more Hall of Fame signatures on one ball might be worth more, this is not the case. The value of a baseball is directly affected by its collectability, and baseballs signed by big names are worth more if there is more demand for them. With signed baseballs, there are usually many more collectors of a specific Hall of Famer than there are collectors of Hall of Fame players in general. As a result, the demand for the single-signed baseballs is greater than the multi-signed baseballs, and therefore more valuable.

However, multi-signed baseballs can also have increased values if they were created around a particular theme, such as a team-signed ball. A team-signed baseball is one that is signed by a specific team from a specific year, allowing for a few discrepancies due to mid-season roster changes. The inclusion of marquee signatures, the placement and quality of those signatures, and the condition of the ball, all directly affect the baseball’s value.

Other popular and valuable themes for multi-signed baseballs include the aforementioned Hall of Famers theme, as well as  All Star teams, World Series winners and specific individual achievement themes, such as the 500 Home Run Club, and 300 Wins Club.

As the Hall of Fame continues to add to its roster with a name or two each year, baseballs signed by those players take on added value as members of the most coveted fraternity in baseball.  It’s a special group–still relatively small–and for collectors, the ultimate focus.

In addition to autographed items from all eras, and signed photos of legends such as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, the collection of hobby pioneer Larry Killeen, assembled with great care over a span of decades beginning in the 1950s, will be featured.

The collection includes thousands of autographs and is especially noteworthy for its remarkable level of quality throughout and its inclusion of hundreds of Hall of Fame signatures, including checks, photos, letters, and one of the most advanced collections of signed Hall of Fame postcards ever assembled.

The auction also presents an extremely impressive collection of particularly rare and noteworthy single-signed Hall of Fame balls, including Warren Giles, Chuck Klein, Ed Walsh, Bill Klem, Tom Connolly Willie Wells, Hilton Smith, Elmer Flick, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Chick Hafey, and Sam Crawford, in addition to spectacular high-grade examples of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.