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The last few years have played witness to the explosion of the sports memorabilia market. With companies and websites offering signed products from your heroes, unfortunately the stories of fake memorabilia have often coincidently been reported. TF90M decided to catch up with Simon Dent from SJ Dent and Co to find out about his Covent Garden sports memorabilia gallery, how he got into the market and what he thinks of sites like eBay. TF90M: Why did you decide to enter the world of sports memorabilia and set up the shop? Simon: I’ve always collected sports memorabilia, I have done for years. I actually used to work as a lawyer before and had a few clients that were sportsmen so I was given quite a few items of sporting memorabilia and I’ve had my private collection for about 10 to 15 years. I got pretty bored of working in a solicitors, an office in the city, to be honest. I was in New York and I stumbled across quite a few sports memorabilia shops and I just thought how London doesn’t have a sports memorabilia shop or gallery and I’m going to be the first one to open one. That’s how it happened really, that was March last year and the shop was up and running by the end of the end of August. TF90M: Why do you believe the sports memorabilia market has taken off over the past few years? Simon: I think there are three reasons actually. The first is that supporters want more and more, before you used to buy a programme on a Saturday and that was your fix for the week. Then you would log onto your clubs website. I just think the fans want to be closer and closer. They’ve always had photographs, they’ve always had kits and signed memorabilia is pretty much the closest you’re going to get to your club or your sporting idol. I think the second factor is that the disposable income of an average football fan has probably increased now, I think it’s probably a fact that wealthier people watch football and the more people with more money which means again, like my first point, that after buying the new kit they want something more and obviously the items that are signed and the collectors items that are worth money and appreciate in value, these people want and there is a market for it. Then thirdly, which again is quite important, is the fact that football is globalised now. There are people all over the world watching English football, watching each others football. Especially in the Far and Middle East, people now out there have got a lot of money and they basically want to get close to the Premiership players. So I sell a lot in the Far East. TF90M: How does your company gather all the pieces of memorabilia? Simon: We collect it all ourselves. We have teams of people going out collecting it and that’s pretty much it really. Every single piece has is own story behind it really. It’s a mixture of training grounds, going to hotels when clubs come to London, tracking down players. Every piece has its own different story. TF90M: How do you get the match worn shirts you sell? Simon: Well it depends really. Sources at the clubs, at some clubs we have insiders who get us the shirts. Some shirts we buy off the players, we give a donation to charity- which is obviously a very good way of doing it as everyone’s a winner. Then obviously we have some interesting stories, occasionally we get the odd one that’s been thrown into the crowd, that’s been given away in the car park as the player is leaving the ground. Really again it’s a mixed bag. TF90M: Does it upset you when people sell fake memorabilia, especially on sites like eBay? Simon: Well there is always going to be a fake memorabilia market; it’s never going to go away. However I have read some reports in the last couple of weeks that eBay sales are massively down because the public just don’t trust it any more. It’s all very well for people to hide behind a website and sell forgeries but when like myself, I’m in a shop front. I speak to every single person, they can quiz me on what I’ve got. They’re all signed by a solicitor for authenticity and of course you’d rather buy from me rather than buy from someone you can’t even speak to over the internet. TF90M: What advice would you give to someone wanting to buy sports memorabilia- go to shops? Simon: Without doubt! 100% do not buy from eBay! You may find the odd bargain on there but you’ve got to ask the question why are people selling on eBay. If you want to get real memorabilia, go to someone, see the whites of their eyes, have a chat with them, don’t even go in and buy first time round. You can come back the next day, come back a week later, comeback every lunch time, chat to them, build up a rapport with the person selling it to you. Because you know you’re parting with a lot of money and it makes me sick that people are parting with that sort of money on the internet and they don’t even get to ask questions. Someone just collects their money; it’s as simple as that. 
TF90M: What are the most sought after items of football memorabilia? Simon: The most popular memorabilia at the moment is and it has been for the last few years, West Ham, Tottenham and Liverpool. I get more requests for those three clubs than any other clubs which may surprise people but I think there is a good history at those clubs and so I think it makes a lot of sense. TF90M: Do you get many people buying memorabilia from the legends of the game such as Maradona and Pele? Simon: Well you get the collectors of Maradona and Pele and those but the West Ham, Tottenham and Liverpool is what I sell week in, week out. I think that says a lot about the fans of those clubs. Obviously we sell Maradona and Pele stuff but it’s not as popular as those three English clubs. TF90M: Do you personally ever get to meet the sports stars? Have you ever met any personal heroes? Simon: Yes all the time. Well, Glenn Hoddle, Ledley King, it doesn’t take much to guess who I support does it?! King, Maradona, Pele, all these sort of people you meet and to be honest with you for me sometimes the romance is taken out of it as it has obviously become a business but you’re still overwhelmed when you meet your heroes.  TF90M: Sounds like a good job Simon: It is!! TF90M: So if you could have any one piece of football memorabilia, what would it be? Simon: It would probably be Gazza’s shirt from the Italia 90 semi-final against Germany. By James Bailey I would like to thank Simon for his time and giving you an insight into the sports memorabilia market. I urge you all to visit the SJ Dent and Co website at http://sjdent.com/ and if you are in London make sure to pop in to the gallery at 34 Great Queen Street in Covent Garden.
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