Major League Baseball’s Authentication Program is active at every regular season game throughout the year but once the playoffs arrive, the effort ramps up.
As we wrote earlier this summer, fans and collectors seem willing to pay what teams are asking to be assured they have a piece of game-used memorabilia 
that’s been tagged with the correct date and moment. From ordinary game balls that simply were thrown in the dirt by a pitcher and removed from play to a bat or jersey owned by a star, virtually everything has been marketable. The audience is wider as fans who aren’t your typical collectors will often pick up an item for $50-100 just to have something authentic, whether or not they feel it has any long term potential.
Here’s the lumber that Salvador Perez muscled the #Royals into the ALDS with #Authenticated #Postseason @Royals pic.twitter.com/47nBTZlRlM
— MLB Authenticator (@MLB_Authentic) October 1, 2014
Items used in playoff games sell for more and in places like Pittsburgh and Kansas City, the chance to own something ‘playoff used’ hasn’t exactly been a common occurrence lately.
MLB has 140 authenticators on staff and four were at the Pirates’ first playoff game this week. Read more about what’s going on with the program via this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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