MEARS is the outgrowth of current and previous efforts of many individuals. The initial collective hobby presence was in the form of Sports Collectors Digest-Authentic (SCDA). Under the SCDA umbrella, the organization learned the value of creating and leveraging data bases, demonstrating a commitment to educating the hobby through editorial support for Sports Collectors Digest, as well introducing concepts for the grading and recording of those grades in various population reports for game used memorabilia. During its brief history, SCDA was sought out to offer opinions on some of the most high profile pieces of sports memorabilia to ever come to market. These included:
The jersey Roger Maris wore when he broke Babe Ruth’s single season home run record in 1961.
Photo-imagry anlysis by MEARS team for this
Roger Maris record setting jersey.
The bat used by Babe Ruth to hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium.
December 2nd, 2004 sold for $1,265,000
A concept, which was part of the original SCDA plan, that was never able to reach fruition, involved moving this sector of the hobby to the on-line medium. The reasons for this move were as obvious as they were important.
- Collectors manage and process information in a much more rapid manner than in years past.
- Collectors network and communicate via the internet.
- On-Line mediums are not bound by many of the shortfalls of print media such as page count, use of color, and latency issues involving production and distribution.
The migration to MEARS is intended to carry forward the positive initiatives of SCDA. In addition, by leveraging technology, we will provide collectors with the necessary resources in order to enable them to learn more about the hobby while making more informed purchase decisions. Most importantly, our efforts are designed to return a sense of control and confidence in the hobby back to those who provide the most influence…the collecting public.