If you Google “sports memorabilia expert,” this Web site appears at or near the top of the list. I guess when you’ve written a couple of books on the topic, you occasionally draw some attention.

So it was this week that my phone began ringing. Television producers wanted to get my take on the value of O.J. Simpson memorabilia. I never thought I’d end up on Inside Edition and Court TV with Star Jones, but there I was. I also showed up on CNN (twice), with Anderson Cooper and Nancy Grace. (I wish I could get these media outlets this fired up when I have new books to promote!)

Simpson showed poor judgment on any number of levels by busting into a Las Vegas hotel room. But the most amazing thing was that he risked his freedom for about $1,000 worth of autographed memorabilia, most of which was signed by Simpson himself.

Imagine that. Would you risk prison time to retrieve a bunch of common photos that you had signed? Why not just sign some more? The Vegas stash also included a baseball signed by Hall of Famer Duke Snider and a lithograph autographed by NFL great Joe Montana. Both players are still living and have signed a ton of collectibles. So this wasn’t exactly rare memorabilia The Juice was after.

Heck, the value of the memorabilia probably won’t pay for more than an hour or two of Simpson’s legal expenses.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Sports Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.