STEPHEN CURRY Autographs - What to Buy & What To Avoid, Watch Before Your Next Purchase

So Stephen Curry just won his 4th NBA title, and that means we just have to talk about him today. For me at least, he is one of my favorite players to watch, he is always taking these amazing looking shots and you can just tell he is so confident on the court. If I took any of the shots he's taking now back when I was in high school, my coach would have benched me 100%, so Curry, in my opinion, is just amazing.

That being said, if you don't own an autographed Stephen Curry item right now, it is probably time you just on the bandwagon and start looking for one, or at least start planning to get one! That's why today we're going to be talking all about autographs, their authentications, and which items I think are the best to have when getting Curry's autograph. We are NOT going to be talking about any trading cards today though. That topic itself is huge enough to warrant it's own video so we'll save that for another day. Today will just be about other items such as basketballs, jerseys, and a mystery item I'll talk about more in a little bit.

So starting off here, let's tackle authentication.

There is a lot of it out there. Which means you have to be a little careful about which authentications you actually trust, and it also makes things a bit more confusing and overwhelming for new people in the collectors industry as well. Plus, Stephen Curry has signed for 3 different organizations in his career track now, so that's also something to keep in mind.

Sometime around 2017 he was an exclusive athlete for Steiner Sports and then eventually became an exclusive for Fanatics (I know, very surprising). These days though, he is an exclusive athlete for USA, so any brand new item you get currently will be from them. 

In terms of authentication and what you can trust, pretty much anything with a Steiner Sports, Fanatics, or USA authentication hologram should be trustworthy and definitely worth looking at if you come across it. Of course, if an item is authenticated by JSA or Beckett, those are also good as well. I've talked a lot about JSA throughout this channel, they are always great guys to work with that you can trust when it comes to authentication in the sports industry. 

It also helps that Curry's autograph is actually pretty solid and consistent, at least when it comes from a sit down signing where he takes his time. Those autographs are always super easy to spot and recognize. It is worth mentioning though, Curry is very generous with his autograph. He is happy to sign just about anywhere at anytime, which means he has a lot of signed items out there, and unfortunately, when he is signing quickly like at a live event or say a golf course, his autograph suffers a little bit for it. 

In the case of his autographs that don't happen at an officially sponsored signing, you can still always send in the item to JSA or Beckett to get an opinion COA, and that can be worth doing. Those opinion COAs are basically what they sound like. It's a company like JSA saying that based on their knowledge and examination, the autograph looks to be legit, but they just weren't there when it happened to give it a full blown COA. So for me personally, when it comes down to Curry autographs, I prefer to just stick with items that are signed at an officially sanctioned event that is overseen by JSA or USA or some other reputable authentication company. That way you know at the end of the day that the item is 100% legit and nobody can argue that fact. Plus, if you try to get things like signed jerseys online from any place other than USA, they will probably be the cheap knock-off jerseys, and you don't really want those either.

Now you know some authentication tips, let's discuss which items you should buy.

First off, and I've talked about this numerous times in the past, when it comes to these big time athletes, which Stephen Curry definitely is, then you need to avoid inscriptions that could change. So something like "3X NBA Champ" isn't something you want to have, because obviously that changed! It's not that it still doesn't have some value, but ultimately other collectors want items that have accurate inscriptions, and well, now Curry has 4 titles, and who knows, maybe he will get more in the future still. So inscriptions like this need to be avoided until players retire. 

Also, be looking for items that are officially licensed. Officially licensed jerseys for example are worth much more than some knock-off jersey with a signature. Photos also should be officially licensed and purchased from a reputable source. Now, when it comes to photos, I have to say they are rarely on my list of most important items to have. Unless it's like a very memorable moment like Michael Jordan's 1988 slam dunk or something like that, I just don't find photos to really be all the big in the industry.

Now, when it comes to Curry specifically, the biggest item I'm looking for is a nice, solid, jersey. A Curry jersey is absolutely worth getting framed, and the price and value of these things are definitely going up, up, and up. At the beginning of the year I was seeing them going for about $600 and now they are starting to push the $1,000 mark. Plus, in general, you gotta keep in mind that autographs prices will only being going up. They never come down. So you gotta take the prices as they are now and recognize that you will have saved some money in the long run because things are only going to cost more.

When it comes to jerseys, there are obviously just so many different colors and designs. The blue Warriors jersey seems to be the most popular right now from what I can, however, I personally really enjoy the white jersey from his rookie year. It's just really clean looking and it's a style of jersey that I don't think is done anymore, which helps make it pretty unique as well. Of course, jerseys are also great items to get autographs or even inscriptions, again, just make sure that inscription isn't too specific. "Greatest shooter of all time" for example is an okay inscription to have because it can't really be definitely proved false later down the line. Again, just like autographs, inscription prices are not going down. As athletes get older they just seem to lose interest in doing them which means they are charging a lot more money to put their time into making them happen.

Moving on to basketballs, these can also be a cool item to have signed, although I personally am not the biggest fan of basketballs. I can say though, I really think the basketballs with the finals logo on them because they aren't necessarily tied to any specific year and they still look really clean. You get a nice big auto across one of those things and it just looks stellar. 

Lastly, the mystery item of today that we are going to talk about. Shoes! Now, I have to admit the shoe industry in not really in my wheel house, it's just not something I've delved into a lot, but I do think there is room to grow and potential to unlock in the autographed shoe space of the sports industry. At the moment the space just isn't that big compared to things like sneakers, but I could see that changing in the coming years, and Curry does have his own shoe line. Right now he has an exclusive line through a partnership with Under Armour, so that is pretty cool. 

Let's just touch on game used items quickly.

I'm not going to talk about these too much, because the simple fact is they are really expensive. It can be hard to get your hands on a game used item, so it's just not that realistic to talk about right now. The prices on these things are just up to the moon and they definitely aren't coming down. For example, there was just a game used jersey on Goldin Auctions from the 2016 NBA finals, game one, going for $90,000 and the bidding wasn't even closed yet. That just insane.

So you know, for most of us people, that just isn't something we are going to be looking to buy. It's way out of our price ranges. Now, if you're a rich and well-off guy, then hey, it's your money, you do what you want with it, but I'm mostly thinking of us mid-level guys right now and those kinds of prices are just probably not what we are looking at doing right now. 

That's basically everything I've got on Stephen Curry right now.

Remember, when you are looking to purchase these signed items, making there are is legitimate authentication coming along with the item, be that from JSA or somebody else. Even better is if the authentication is a witnessed authentication so you really know that somebody saw it happened and can attest to the fact that the autograph is real. 

Again, if you don't have a Curry item at home yet, it is time to really start thinking about it, because this guy has 4 titles now, and his value is just going up to the moon and it ain't coming down anytime soon.