Welcome to Best In Class Heritage Auctions™

For trading cards, the relevant question and definition are very straightforward. "Does the card possess exceptional eye appeal for the specific issue in the grade assigned?"

If the answer is "Yes," Best-In-Class can be achieved by any card found within the 1-10 third-party grading scale.

The caliber of a card's centering, registration, color, print quality, gloss, surface, and more are all important when evaluating eye appeal. For cards, Best-In-Class status is primarily a reflection of its beauty at arm's length, which is how most collectors view and enjoy their cards, rather than an analytical conclusion about its technical grade. 

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For professional model bats, the Best-In-Class criteria are more nuanced.

The Collector's Guide to Game-used Bats is a valuable resource that presents many of the factors our team will consider when reviewing each professional model gamer.

With cards, since the assessment is only focused on eye appeal within each grade, all grade categories are eligible. With bats, however, it is unlikely to achieve Best-In-Class as you go down the third-party grading scale. Here, our team will be looking at various attributes such as the strength of a bat's player characteristics, evidence of use, provenance, historical importance, era, and scarcity, which are examples of relevant factors, along with eye appeal.

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For vintage photos, the Best-In-Class criteria are explicitly tailored to the category:

The Collector's Guide to Vintage Sports Photos is a valuable resource that presents many of the factors our team will consider when reviewing each developed image.

While there are potential exceptions, Type I photos will be a virtual requirement for Best-In-Class consideration. They are, far and away, the most desirable Type on the photo classification scale. All the photo's additional attributes, including but not limited to condition, content (the subject of the photo), context (the circumstances surrounding the subject), clarity, and contrast are relevant to the Best-In-Class assessment.

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For all other types of sports collectibles and memorabilia, from game-worn jerseys to unopened material to display pieces, the key, universal question to remember is, "What makes a collectible exceptional within the specific category?"

More collector guides covering various additional categories can be found on our Learn More page. As it will be for all categories, context is paramount. When a collectible is certified Best-In-Class, our team will provide that context with published analysis so future buyers can better grasp its place in the upper echelon of the hobby.

These are mere examples of the thought process, so collectors have a better understanding of what the Best-In-Class designation does and does not mean.

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