Memorabilia

Collecting golf memorabilia can be great fun and also lucrative. Most items of value date from pre 1950. Because golf has been around for a long time in the UK , antique golf and golfing memorabilia can still be found in attics or just waiting to be discovered in junk shops or boot sales.

The mostly collected golfing memorabilia items tend to be clubs, balls and books. In the main, the older the item is the more value it may have. The better the condition, the higher a price it will realise. Just because something is old does not mean that it would have more value. For example, an iron from 1895 in good condition would not be as desirable or as valuable as a wooden head putter from the same year. This is because in a bag from this era there might be several irons to cover an array of shot making requirements, but only one putter. If however one of the irons was a patented club, one with an unusual design that proved not to have worked very well in its day, then it would have only been produced in small numbers as it may not have sold well, so could be the most valuable of all.

The astute buyer will always be looking for the unusual antique golf memorabilia, in whatever sphere. Golf balls appeal greatly to the collector simply because they were produced with such a variety of different pattern covers. From pimple shape to squares dimples to rings and swirls, even one with a map of the world covering the ball. Also as balls from that period were sold in attractive paper wrappers, a ball with that wrapper still intact, is indeed very desirable and valuable item.

So how do you go about finding out what to collect and were to buy antique golfing memorabilia. As always the net is a great place to start looking for any information on the subject. Whilst there are only a few dealers to buy from, and somewhat difficult to find, there are many books on the subject. These can normally be found from any second hand sporting book shops. Also try auction houses. There are quite a number of auctions through out the year at venues all over the country, selling golf memorabilia, some times in conjunction with other sporting goods items, check out the antique gazette for locations and also your local newspapers.

So good luck and good hunting, it’s all out there to be found.