Appraising most items is straightforward. Form an opinion of the condition, age, scarcity, and comparative sales of the piece depending on your objective, whether that’s insurance purposes, estate planning, divorce, auction, or sale.

In our last blog we highlighted the significance of documenting your collection; now we’ll offer some suggestions for getting started.

I once sat beside a chap on a plane who was a travelling salesman. He took note of the sports memorabilia magazine I was reading—it turned out he collected World Series press pins dating back to the 1920s.

I’ve been collecting for over 50 years, and the question I’m most frequently asked is, “How’d you start?” It isn’t easily answered.