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Sports memorabilia popularity soars during pandemic

As Americans stay at home, some professional baseball card collectors are seeing an uptick in interest.

The combination of stay-at-home lockdowns, the lack of televised sports and a yearning for nostalgia has fueled a sports card and memorabilia renaissance. 

Sports cards that were once reserved for children and super fans have now become big business and the phenomenon of card breaking has helped boost prices to new heights. 

It's an event in which a box or case of cards is divided up among collectors, who sign up to buy only a selection of the cards. 

If the unboxing, or breaking, unveils a valuable card, you have hit the jackpot. 

Box breakers like Chris Justice livestream the card openings to hundreds online:

"What makes it exciting is, to most people, a), you get to see a whole case of cards that would've cost a thousand dollars, you get to see it for a fraction of the cost and see all the cool cards that come out. B), you have a chance at winning a lot of these cards that sometimes go for thousands of dollars."

It's not just baseball cards. 

Sports memorabilia are seeing a resurgence as the prices for game-used jerseys and equipment is exploding among auction houses. 

An autographed game-worn pair of Air Jordans just sold for over half a million dollars.

And it's not just M.J.

A 1921 Babe Ruth game-used baseball bat just sold for over $900 thousand dollars.

It looks like it's time to dust off that collection and give it another look for some diamonds in the rough. 

Because your sports collection may be worth more than just memories.

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