Sports Memorabilia: PLEASE CRITQUE

Sports Memorabilia: Ebay VS. Field Of Dreams®

Sports: Fun to watch, exciting, and most of all competitive. These are the attributions that most of America associates sports with, however, in my mind society thinks that all athletes no matter what sport it is are highly overpaid. Wear does all of the billions and billons of dollars come from to pay these athletes? Well, sports memorabilia is one leading source of income to pay these athletes and is a multi billion dollar industry. Some sports memorabilia costs as low as ten cents for a card or as high as 1 million dollars for a card, like the Honus Wagner rookie card. One of the leading sports memorabilia franchises, Field Of Dreams, has been a constant store to receive a variety of delectable sports treasures of your favorite sports teams and athletes autographs in the world. President and CEO of Field Of Dreams, Joe Salvant says, "sports memorabilia has a unique appeal to it because of a single item that can demonstrate and sum up a lifetime of heroic accomplishments."
Pieces of memorabilia vary in price depending on the item and of course the athlete. Another contributor to how and why most sports memorabilia pieces costs so much money is because of the rarity of how many there are in the world. Another reason why Field Of Dreams is one of best stores for the everyday sports fan to get their memorabilia from is because of the authentic guarantee that is issued to the buyer when he or she purchases an item from the store. Each piece of memorabilia weather it is an autographed baseball by the legend Babe Ruth, or a football signed by the late and great Walter Payton, comes with an authentic piece of paper or sticker that signifies that it is a real hand written autograph by that particular individual. Being an advent sports memorabilia collector myself , having this authentication is just as important and meaningful to me as the autograph itself due to all of the millions of false and forged signatures that people get tricked into buying.
This happens especially in this day and age with the internet wear you can buy sports memorabilia from stores online. However, none is more prevalent than the ever more popular ebay when it comes to getting autographed memorabilia for low inexpensive prices that you cannot beat. People spend an estimated 50 million dollars a year on sports memorabilia on ebay. Now, I am not saying that ebay is not a reliable source for the average sports fan to receive their memorabilia, it's just that most of the items that are listed on ebay do not come with any source of authentication and proof that it is an actual hand written autograph by that athlete.
Because ebay does not enforce their users to have an authentication with the autographed items that are being bided for, some unfortunately may be fake and forged by the person just trying to make a quick and easy buck. The problem I have with buying sports memorabilia online especially on ebay is because of how much people will spend on an item and not knowing if the item is a real signature or not. I would rather spend the hundreds of dollars and even thousands of dollars on a piece of sports history that I know is authentic and 100 % real than to have a feeling in the back of my mind that this piece of history is and can be fake.
Not all of the items that are listed on ebay are fake. Some even have authenticity on them. How do you know what is real or not you ask? Well, the authenticity comes in a variety of ways. One is that there is a little silver sticker on the item which is usually a logo of that particular athletes sport. Also there might be a paper that says that the item is authentic and is signed by some one that is a high rank official in proving authentic autographs. In most bids on ebay, especially on sports memorabilia, the person selling the item will usually have a picture if the item and its authentication. At times, it will also have a brief or sometimes lengthy explanation about that particular item. The explanation also might have were the person bought the item and what company he or she got it from. Again, it may be misleading as well because the person selling the item can write what ever he or she wants to in order to persuade the person interested in it to bid on it.
In conclusion, I personally, buy all of my sports memorabilia through Field Of Dreams just because of its great atmosphere and customer service. Unlike ebay, Field Of Dreams allows you to return the item that you purchased with your full money back. The store also does repairs to the autograph and puts exotic picture frames around the autograph so it looks professional. They make great decorations for a room and especially an office so you can impress your clients with these historic treasures. Another reason why Field Of Dreams is one of the most well known and well respected stores that deals with sports memorabilia is of course because of the companies guarantee that you, the buyer is receiving the actual hand written signature of your favorite athlete or sports star. I also prefer getting my items through Field Of Dreams because they also have clothes of your favorite sports team upon request: jerseys, jackets, t-shirts, and many more items that the athletes actually wear. It feels like you are part of your favorite sports team's organization when wearing the same type of clothes they are wearing themselves. Someday, I hope to own and run a Field Of Dreams store somewhere so I can be a part of this great franchise.

Greetings!

I think you've written an interesting essay! I have made some editing corrections and also noted some things which may require a little more work:

Sports: Fun to watch, exciting, and most of all competitive. These are the attributes that most of America associates sports with; however, in my mind, society thinks that all athletes, no matter what sport it is, are highly overpaid. Where do all of the billions and billons of dollars come from to pay these athletes? Well, sports memorabilia is one leading source of income to pay these athletes and is a multi billion dollar industry. Some sports memorabilia costs as little as ten cents [give an example] or as much as $1 million for a card, like the Honus Wagner rookie card. One of the leading sports memorabilia franchises, Field Of Dreams, has been a great source of delectable sports treasures of my favorite sports teams and athletes' autographs. President and CEO of Field Of Dreams, Joe Salvant says, "sports memorabilia has a unique appeal to it because of a single item that can demonstrate and sum up a lifetime of heroic accomplishments."
Pieces of memorabilia vary in price depending on the item and, of course, the athlete. Another contributor to how and why most sports memorabilia pieces costs so much money is because of the rarity of how many there are in the world. Another reason why Field Of Dreams is one of best stores for the everyday sports fan to buy memorabilia from is the authenticity guarantee that is issued to the buyer when he or she purchases an item from the store. Each piece of memorabilia, whether it is an autographed baseball by the legend Babe Ruth, or a football signed by the late and great Walter Payton, comes with an authentic piece of paper or sticker that signifies that it is a real, hand-written autograph by that particular individual. Being an avid sports memorabilia collector myself , I know that having this authentication is just as important and meaningful to me as the autograph itself due to all of the millions of false and forged signatures that people get tricked into buying.
This happens especially in this day and age with the internet, where you can buy sports memorabilia from stores online. However, none is more prevalent than the ever more popular ebay when it comes to getting autographed memorabilia for low prices that you cannot beat. People spend an estimated $50 million a year on sports memorabilia on ebay. Now, I am not saying that ebay is not a reliable source for the average sports fan to receive their memorabilia, it's just that most of the items that are listed on ebay do not come with any source of authentication and proof that it is an actual hand-written autograph by that athlete.
Because ebay does not force their users to have an authentication with the autographed items that are being bidden on, some unfortunately may be fake and forged by the person just trying to make a quick and easy buck. The problem I have with buying sports memorabilia online, especially on ebay, is because of how much people will spend on an item, not knowing if the item is a real signature or not. I would rather spend the hundreds of dollars and even thousands of dollars on a piece of sports history that I know is authentic and 100 % real than to have a feeling in the back of my mind that this piece of "history" could be fake.
Not all of the items that are listed on ebay are fake. Some have been authenticated. How do you know what is real or not you ask? Well, the authenticity comes in a variety of ways. One is that there is a little silver sticker on the item which is usually a logo of that particular athlete's sport. Also, there might be a paper that says that the item is authentic and is signed by someone who is a high ranking official in proving authentic autographs. In most bids on ebay, especially on sports memorabilia, the person selling the item will usually have a picture of the item and its authentication. At times, it will also have a brief or sometimes lengthy explanation about that particular item. The explanation also might include where the person bought the item and what company he or she got it from. [isn't that the same thing?] Again, it may be misleading as well because the person selling the item can write what ever he or she wants to in order to persuade the person interested in it to bid on it.

You need a good summarizing paragraph for your conclusion. Also, I believe the correct spelling for eBay is with a capital "B". That's how the website does it.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,

Sarah, EssayForum.com