Stubs4Sale.com World Series Program Collecting Tips by Michael Luchies

Collecting World Series Programs: Sports Collectible Advice

The World Series has a rich history as America’s favorite pastime’s final event of the season. The best story telling tool of a year in baseball is the World Series program. Many programs have player profiles, scorecards, and a recap of that season. For years collectors have targeted World Series programs but until recently there has not been a lot of attention given to program collecting along with World Series ticket stubs.

Where to start collecting:

Yearsto Start With- Start with the easy ones first. Try purchasing a lot at a sports auction or on Ebay. Most of the 1980’s programs can be purchased relatively cheap. The reason I suggest to buy a lot is to save on shipping costs. Often a program will cost you around $6-10 just for shipping, so buy in bulk if possible. With purchasing lots of programs you will run into situations where you may purchase extra’s of the same year. Don’t worry about accumulating a few of the same year, you can store them away and trade or sell them in the future.

It’s easier to get into your collection by purchasing the cheaper programs first. Once you have a good base to your collection you can start pursuing the harder to get and therefore more expensive pieces. Once you have a good start on the cheaper programs from the 80’s and 90’s try gathering a few harder to get programs. Get the 90’s and 2000’s under your belt and then it is off to the 70’s. The 70’s is the next logical decade to gather programs as many also are inexpensive. Start with the most recent and then work your way down.

Where to Buy- More places are popping up to purchase programs. Check your local card shows as you will usually find a couple programs sprinkled here and there. Check eBay and other online auction sites for the best deals and for larger lots of programs. For specific years check out Stubs4Sale.com, and for newer programs you can find on MLB.com and other online retailers. If you are looking for hidden gems then check flea markets and estate auctions where very rarely you will find a program that the owner most likely does not know the value and you can get a valuable program dirt cheap.

High Value Programs
Programs much like ticket stubs have a “collectability” factor that plays into the value. The larger the fan base, more memorable the series, and the older the program all play into the value. The small market teams usually do not attract much attention in the sports collectible market unless other significant events occured. The great Yankee dynasties of the mid 1900’s draw a lot of interest from sports collectors world wide. From 1950-1960 the Yankees played in 9 World Series, and all of these programs have a decent value. When looking at a programs value think “how large is the market”. The Yankees, Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers have dedicated fan bases and a rich history. To have a collection of value, you want to focus a good amount of your time around the larger franchises unless you are collecting solely on your favorite team.

-1903-1910: The first “modern-era” World Series was in 1903 between the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Americans won the series in 8 games (5-3). The programs in this decade are at the pinnacle of World Series program collecting. These are not just World Series programs but a part of sports history that has a significant value both finacially and historically. If you are going for the collection of all collections, then these programs are what you are shooting for. Don’t expect to find any of these programs for under $100 or even $500 in many cases. 1907 and 1908 where the Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers would both fetch upwards of $1000 at auction if in decent condition.

Sets

A good way to increase the value of your collection is to gather sets. You can go about collecting sets by either collecting specific decades or specific teams. Once you finish a decade or a specific team then you can move on to the next. Myself being a Detroit Tigers fan I have sought out all of the Detroit TIgers programs for several years but have still been unable to collect them all. A complete team set of programs can raise a pretty penny at an auction to the right fan. If you are just starting off then I would not suggest going after all of the New York Yankees programs, you might get overwhelmed.

Ways to Protect your Programs

Rubbermaid has been one of my best friends in collecting programs. I have had a basement flood, and a broken pipe on seperate occassions. You do want to keep the programs in the driest place possible and out of danger. No matter where you keep your collection protect it with containers that can be sealed such as a rubbermaid tub.

Things to Buy at your Hobby Shop

Got a card or hobby shop around your neighborhood? There are many items that you can pick up that go along with your World Series program collection. You can almost always find “magazine protectors” that will fit your programs and have very hard corners and sides that will protect your programs. Also you can buy a binder with pages that can hold magazines and programs to keep your collection organize. I recommend that you keep your most valuable programs in the hard cases rather than binder pages as the binder pages may allow for damage when flipping through.

Things to Watch Out For

Fakes- Believe it or not there are fake’s produced of World Series programs, mostly of the early 1900’s due to the profit that can be made off of these. Sometimes you may find one in condition that is too good to be true or at a price that seems too cheap. Use common sense when scoping out fakes. Any program that is over 50 years old will usually have some discoloration (a yellow tint to the cover or pages), a distinct smell (like a damp basement smell), and some wear on the binding. These programs haven’t always been a big collectors item and not many have been stored away for 50+ years in an age proof container so be careful.

Scored Programs- Contrary to popular belief you do not want a program that has been scored. Although this may “authenticate” the piece to you and give a nostalgic feeling to the program, any writing in the program does decrease value. The lone acception to this rule would be the 1956 World Series Game 5 where Don Larsen for the Yankees pitched a perfect game. If a game other than game 5 is scored in a ‘56 program I would still determine the value to be less than an unscored program.

Get Started

Hopefully I helped you in your quest to start or continue a World Series Program collection. Good luck!