Corey R. Shanus, '82: "A Lifelong Affair with Sports Memorabilia"
Trading Sports Memorabilia, Not Just for Love but for Money
Corey Shanus remembers when he bought his first pack of Topps trading cards in the fall of 1963. Like many elementary schoolboys back then, baseball was his favorite sport and cards were the cheapest and easiest way to indulge in his love of the game and its players.
It was also the steppingstone to a lifelong affair with sports memorabilia. What started with trading cards has turned into bats, baseballs, photographs and even historical documents dating back as far as the advent of the game in the early 19th century. Thanks to his successful career in real estate, Mr. Shanus has been able to spend tens of thousands of dollars on one-of-a-kind items, including perhaps the most famous trading card of them all, the 1909 Honus Wagner T206 trading card, which he bought in 1984 for $25,500.
“It’s not what you collect, but the pleasure you get out of it,” said Mr. Shanus, who grew up a Yankees fan and lives in Westchester County, north of New York City. “I loved baseball and I love collecting and it does something to me.”
Mr. Shanus inherited the collector’s bug from his mother, a former dealer of American art, coins, glass and antique silver. The value of the cards and other items he has matters less than his love of the game and the chase of finding a gem that resonates with historical significance.
Like some of the most avid collectors, Mr. Shanus has watched as his passion has turned into a valuable investment because his half-century of collecting has mirrored the maturation of the sports memorabilia market, which has
grown from a hobby started by amateurs into a billion-dollar industry complete with authenticators, insurers and some memorabilia selling for millions of dollars.
An uncut sheet of baseball cards from 1909 in Mr. Shanus’s collection. George Etheredge for The New York Times “I feel fortunate because it’s like having your cake and eating it, too,” Mr. Shanus said. “You get a lot of pleasure in holding it, but if you sell it, it’s an appreciating asset.”
Read more at New York Times