Rugby could earn you a fast buck

BEFORE the England rugby squad had even set foot back in Blighty after winning the World Cup, the market for related memorabilia had soared higher than a Jonny Wilkinson up-and-under.

A massive surge in interest in rugby and England's World Cup campaign in particular - nearly 15 million people in Britain tuned in to watch the final on ITV - has meant that prices for items such as signed shirts and photographs have doubled or even tripled overnight. As the game continues its transition from amateur sport to big-money entertainment, prices for collectibles are, it seems, also stepping up to the big league.

So can you cash in? Canny collectors who snapped up shirts - unripped of course - signed by the England squad for between £500 to £1,000 before the final should pat themselves on the back, as these items are at the time of writing attracting bids of at least £2,000 on internet auctioneer Ebay. Charity auctions around the time of the final saw similar sums changing hands for these items.

Unsurprisingly, Wilkinson is commanding the most interest with more than 200 items relating to him up for auction on the site, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Anyone with £3,000 to spare can own one of his boots, signed and with a certificate of authentication. £1,000 will get you a pair of Jonny's shorts from the 1999 Five Nations championship. Whether they have been washed is unclear.

A signed watercolour of the drop-kick hero is attracting bids of £510, an autographed photo £300. At the ridiculous end of the spectrum, a hastily-manufactured “Jonny Wilkinson, Rugby God” fridge magnet will cost you £2.50. Bidding could be fierce. Those with a more meagre budget can snap up a Martin Johnson fridge magnet for £9 - perhaps useful for anyone going on a diet.

A framed set of commemorative stamps from the Rugby Football Association is under the hammer for about £70 and seems like a good bet for the future. If you were lucky enough to be at the World Cup games, hold on to your match tickets and programmes. Lots from the earlier stages are being auctioned for about £50. Tickets and programmes from the final could fetch three times more and will surely appreciate.

The only drawback of buying from an online auctioneer is that there is usually no guarantee that what you are bidding for, especially if it is a signed item, is genuine.

Collectors and fans will find sporting memorabilia specialists a safer bet. Berkshire-based Spirit of Sport buys ephemera and sells it online, as well as arranging regular signing sessions with sportsmen and women and selling the results.

The firm has seen a massive increase in trade on rugby collectibles since last Saturday. Founder Mark Woodhead said: 'Business in World Cup memorabilia has gone up by about 300% in the last few days. We don't have enough stock to cope with the demand. We've had emails from people offering more than £2,000 for signed replica shirts'.

Woodhead said he expected prices to level out at about £600 for a signed replica World Cup 2003 shirt once the initial euphoria has died down. But a calming in the market in the next few months doesn't necessarily mean it's not worth collecting rugby memorabilia in the future.

He added: 'Any item is only as popular as the sport. But assuming rugby's popularity continues, prices will rise in the future. Saturday's game was a dramatic, exciting first World Cup win, and items associated with that will always carry a premium.'

The really big money comes from match-worn items. So how much would you pay for the shirt Jonny Wilkinson wore when he drop-kicked England into the history books? In theory, a small fortune.

But as Woodhead explained, it's likely to remain a theory: 'If Jonny Wilkinson or Martin Johnson's shirts were auctioned in the next month, I wouldn't be surprised if they made £75,000. But these sort of items very, very rarely come on to the market as players understandably want to hang on to them.'

There is hope, however. England players have two shirts for each game - one that has the match details embroidered on it and a reserve. Woodhead believed a reserve shirt from the World Cup final could go for about £20,000 - not exactly a bargain, but an investment that would probably attract more should you decide to sell it in the future.

Rugby may not be the people's game yet, but is there a chance that high-profile items will in time attract the same interest as football memorabilia?

Brian Coles, a consultant with auctioneer Bonham's, said: 'It's only in the last five years that interest in rugby items has risen and there's a long way to go before it matches football. There isn't the volume of items being collected that you find with soccer.

'However, because there are comparatively few quality rugby collectibles, prices are increasing and the World Cup will sharpen demand considerably. Geoff Hurst's 1966 World Cup shirt was eventually sold for £90,000, so who knows?'

Perhaps you should hang on to that Jonny Wilkinson fridge magnet after all.