Sports Memorabilia A True Hobby Essays - Ephemera, Collecting

Sports Memorabilia a True Hobby As he stepped up to the plate, he dug his right back foot into the dirt getting a firm stance. Little did he know that the ball given to the umpire before the game which cost just nine dollars and now coming at him was going to be worth a little over 2.7 million dollars in seconds. Mark McGwire is truly a reason why a person can make money, gain notoriety and have fun while collecting memorabilia. Making money through regular jobs is one thing, making money by collecting sports memorabilia is entirely another. If one wants to make money collecting sports memorabilia, one has to be patient because collecting memorabilia is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Two main reasons why the value of sports memorabilia increases are the passage of time and the achievements of the athletes. One way to get these items before they increase in value is to attend free autograph signing sessions. Another way for one to make money is to write to an athlete and get something signed for free, then turn around and sell it. One example of this is Vince DeAngello who started this process when only a kid and now owns a very successful sports memorabilia shop. I have personally received memorabilia through letters to athletes; I have seen their value rise, then I have sold them to a sports memorabilia shop for a profit. One of the easiest ways to make money by collecting memorabilia is to follow rookies and get as much signed by them as you can. This is very convenient because rookies do not usually charge for their signatures. Also, as a first year player, rookies are more eager to sign autographs so they can make a favorable first impression. Not only can one make money by collecting sports memorabilia but one can also be seen as a hero in the eyes of the public. By collecting memorabilia, one can gain public recognition also. For example, the person who bought Mark McGwire's seventieth homerun ball for $2.7 million certainly gained public recognition. Anyone who donates a piece of his or her collection of memorabilia to a sports hall of fame such as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, will receive a great deal of public acclaim. Such recognition was given to the Rotary club who last year donated George Brett's pine tar bat to the Rockhurst Spectacular. The retired Royals reliever Jeff Montgomery is also known as a great benefactor to many charitable organizations. Considered a hero to many young children, Cal Ripken Jr. is known for his willingness to sign as many autographs as are requested both before and after games. Some people gain public notoriety by having memorabilia within their homes or business . I have gained a personal reputation for the amount of memorabilia I have in my house. Former baseball star Danny Jackson, owner of the Incredibowl draws people to his business not only to bowl, but also to gaze at his vast collection of sports memorabilia. With all of this money and fame, we often forget how fun, collecting memorabilia can be. The fun of collecting sports memorabilia can take many ways, shapes and forms. It is fun to meet star athletes and get autographs to add to your collection. One can also enjoy trading and collecting with people of similar interests. Not only does this fun come by trading, but also by watching your investment rise. My friend Brad Long was fortunate enough six years ago to invest $500 in a signed Mark McGwire jersey, which now is worth several thousands. I have also been privileged to watch my Joe Montana football go up in value. Sports memorabilia has brought many great hours of pleasure to my life, and others. I have had fun decorating rooms of my house with sports history. My neighbor and friend Jamie Quirk has also inspired me by showing me his rooms of fun with endless memorabilia. In conclusion, by collecting sports memorabilia a person can make money, gain notoriety and have fun. One of the nice things about collecting sports memorabilia is the possibility that a hero can emerge at any time, seeming from

European Exploration And Settlement Essays - Age Of Discovery

European Exploration And Settlement Essays - Age Of Discovery European Exploration and Settlement I. Europeans Look to New Worlds For Many Reasons. A. Renaissance- revival of classical art, literature, and learning. 1. Took place in Europe in 15th and 16th centuries. 2. Sparked imaginations and made people eager to explore. B. Protestant Reformation 1. Challenged Catholics who in turn persecuted Protestants. 2. Protestants longed for a place where they could worship as they wanted. C. European Nations Begin to Form Stable Governments and Resolve Power Struggles. D. Trying to Find a Quicker Route to Asia and Start Up a Rich Trade. E. New Developments in Travel. 1. Caravel- more maneuverable and quicker ship, moved with and against wind. 2. Navigation- charting of a course at sea. 3. Instruments- Astrolabe, the quadrant, and the cross- staff. II. Spain Leads The Way A. Spain was the leading nation in the Age of Discovery due to its search for wealth. 1. Wanted to find a quicker route to Asia. 2. Tired os paying the middlemen large profits. 3. Desired gold, silk, jewels, and spices. B. Columbus Stumbles On a New World 1. Christopher Columbus set out to prove world was round. 2. Queen Isabella agreed to arrange an expedition for Columbus. 3. His ships were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria which set sail August 3, 1492. 4. When they finally reached land they thought they landed on India and natives were called Indians. 5. In reality, they landed in the Bahamas on an Island Columbus named San Salvador- October 12, 1492. C. Seekers of Gold and Glory 1. Amerigo Vespucci- found land that was not Asia but a great continent. A few years later a map-maker named the new continent "America" in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. 2. Balboa- Spanish explorer crossed Isthmus of Panama in 1513- first European to see Pacific Ocean. 3. Explorers more interested in acquiring gold and power than in finding new land. 4. Conquistadors- these were the conquerors who overcame whole civilizations of native people. 5. Most famous was Cort?s who, in 1519, took over the Aztec empire and its ruler Montezuma in Mexico. 6. Pizarro who, in 1535, destroyed the Inca empire in the heart of Peru. 7. Coronado 1540-1542 discovered the Grand Canyon on an expedition to the southwest. 8. De Soto explored southern U.S.- first European to reach the Mississippi River. 9. Most conquistadors were ruthless. a. Treated natives cruelly by enslaving and killing them. b. Gold, silver, and sugar made Spanish wealthy and opened up vast area. III. England, France, and the Netherlands Stake Claims A. Spain's power made the rest of Europe nervous especially Protestant England since Spain was Catholic. B. The Search for the Northwest Passage. 1. Europeans wanted quick trade route to Asia. 2. Hoped to find Northwest Passage- northern water way connecting Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 3. Found Northwest Passage in 1906 in the frozen waters of Canada. C. A Series of Discoveries 1. John Cabot 1497 sailed to New Found-land and Nova Scotia, found lots of fish but England was too busy with other affairs to take notice. 2. Verazano 1524 explored eastern coastline of North America from North Carolina to New Found-land. 3. Cartier 1535 explored Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River and marked France's dominance on Canada. 4. Henry Hudson found Hudson River and planted seeds of New Nether land ( New York.) 5. Explorers blaze paths, settlers move in.

International Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Security - Essay Example Protection is also provided by PMCs nationally and internationally. They also give their services to supplement those services given by armed forces. They provide these services in places where there are no security details that are personal are involved. This means that the state actor is not involved in this case. 1 The PMCs work in conjunction with states. This is in line with providing training in military matters and national defence issues. They tend to be located where the conflict intensity is quite low. In these places it is usually risky to deploy armed forces to them. This is in terms of economics, diplomatic and politics. At Guantamano Bay, they help in setting up camps for detention. The Afghani president has benefited by getting bodyguards supplied to him from the PMCs. Colombia has in the past been given helicopter gunships which assisted in destroying coca crops. George H. W. Bush really influenced the privatization of these enterprises. The PMCs can be grouped generally to mean contractors of defence. Tactical skills and specialised operations are provided by PMCs to their personnel. Combat experience is also included in this. This is unlike what the other contactors of defence do. The PMCs provide their services to state forces, business corporations and non-governmental organizations that are internationally based. The difference between PMCs and defence contractors is not recognized by (GCIII) The Geneva Convention. They term them as supply contractors. They are termed as war prisoners when issued with identity card that is valid. They are termed as mercenary when they engage in combat. Demand of private military companies There is a likely hood that there will be an increase in the demand for the private military companies. Governments usually employ the private military companies to help solve conflicts. This has been done by Angola. These companies are contracted to give logistical help. Most of the states that contract the private military companies cannot afford to sustain big militaries. For example private military companies were employed to do recruitment in Balkans. International organisations also highly demand the services of private military companies. The PMCs are also contracted or employed by the UN to provide security. Once a private military company is reputable and strong, it normally has very high demand. The UN usually compares the costs incurred in having armed forces and that of employing the PMCs. It is usually very cheaper to employ the PMCs than to have the armed forces in the nation. It is estimated that there are many private military companies that operating in Africa. This is even up to 100 private military companies in operation. The African countries that have benefited from this include Indonesia and Colombia. The PMCs are mostly contracted by countries that are in very remote areas. Such places are usually very dangerous. The PMCs are mostly from the UK and the United States. Recruitment Many private military corporations are recently attracting people and the entire personnel from Special Forces. This is because the private military companies pay the employees well compared to the salaries paid by Special Forces.2 UK private military companies There are many private military companies in the United Kingdom. They include Adson Holdings, registered in Guernsey. Aegis Defence Services, AKE Group and

Color, Language, And Perceptual Categorization Lab Report

Color, Language, And Perceptual Categorization - Lab Report Example EXPERIMENTS IN CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION AND LANGUAGE The languages of South Africa have provided researcherer with the opportunity to study categorical perception across cultures. It was discovered that the South African language uses one color term for a color region while the English language needs two terms to describe the same color region. Some languages use a single term for green and blue, orange and yellow, etc. There was no boundary between the two colors in terms of their perception. The question that arose out of these studies was, do the people that speak these different languages have different perceptual boundaries as well? In answer to this question, researchers showed participants one color and then a stimuli of different colors. The participants were to identify stimuli that were the same as the target. By manipulating the target and the distracters from the same or different categories, CP effects could be studied. Using this mechanism, it was discovered that in compa rison to English speakers, African speakers were able to identify a particular hue in one word but the English speakers needed two words to describe the same hue. English speakers were faster when the distracters are green and the target was blue and vice versa for African speakers. However, when the distracters and the target were both blue and both green, English speakers were slower than African speakers. In a task in which participants were shown three colors and asked to â€Å"pick the odd one out,† English speakers picked a color different than the other two categories. African speakers did not show a bias because all three colors were in the same color category. Similar studies have recently compared the effects of language on color by comparing speakers of English and Berinmo.... In this experiment, participants were trained to categorize colors across new color boundaries and separate two types of hue referred to by the same English term. The participants’ discrimination skills were then tested along with their ability to discriminate between colors on different sides of a learned category. It was concluded that through training, CP effects were achieved. Another experiment was performed testing color discrimination. The participants were shown colors separately with a 5-s interval in between. This task involved memory and perception. When people use memory, they use verbal labels which lead to CP. The results of this experiment suggest that improved color discrimination could have been due to simple learning tricks rather than real learned behavior. In still another experiment, participants were tested in a discrimination exercise that required no memory because the two colors were shown at the same time. Color discrimination improved only across the new color category boundary. Currently, an investigation is being held to determine if color category learning can result in detection of color differences. Results have shown that this occurs mainly for hues within the learned boundary. People pay more attention to color boundary regions when they learn a new color category and improvement only occurs in those color regions. As a result of these studies and experiments, one could conclude that there is a "possibility" that language affects color perception.

Customer Journey Mapping Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Customer Journey Mapping - Essay Example The various elements that are included in the journey of a customer involves awareness, finding answers of any possible queries that the customer might have, then comes the price and when a customer is satisfied with all of the above then he performs the purchase. Most of us would think that, that is when the process ends but there is more to it which is known as the post sales journey which includes the post-sales support, lodging of any complaint that the customer found in the product or service. The assessment of this complaint is the next step in the process upon which the organization then upgrades or amends its services based on the post sales review.There are numerous benefits for the assessment of customer journey mapping however, the three main essential advantages include the fact that it gives an overview of the experience which was given to all the customers, it gives an idea about the basic needs and requirements that the organization requires and it also showcases the v arious aspects of importance and the aspects that should not be given importance.For the purpose of this assignment, I will be studying two very popular e-commerce websites i.e., eBay and amazon and will assess the process of customer journeys for each of these organization and how this affects the ways in which the customer approaches the organization. EBay has long been a very popular place for the buying and selling of goods and with over one million customers, it is a place which serves as the global market.

Factors that affect the price elasticity of supply

Factors that affect the price elasticity of supply Price elasticity of supply is a useful concept when we consider supply. It is also use to measure the responsiveness supply to a change in price when we are supplying a good. Below is the formula that use to calculate the price elasticity of supply. Price elasticity of supply (PES) = % change in quantity supplied % change in price There are a few factors that affect the price elasticity of supply. The first factor that affects the determinants of price elasticity of supply is the number of producers. If there are a lot of producers, the easier for the industry to increase the output and cause the price increase. For example, according to the law of supply, the price of a good increase, the quantity supplied of the good increase. Thats why when there are a lot of producers, more goods will be produced and caused the price increase. Besides that, another factor that affects the price elasticity of supply is the time factor. Long run is usually more elastic for supply compare with short run. For example, in the long run period the industry can invest more equipment and build more factories. In addition, they can even enter a new market and start a bigger business. However, in the short run, industry cant extend their factory to produce more goods. Besides that, the prices of the goods are not responsive to the price. Therefore, supply is more elastic in the long run. Part B Businesses always use the concept price elasticity to decide on their pricing strategy. The strategy that used by the businesses to decide their price is price elasticity of demand (PED). Price elasticity of demand can be define as the measurement of the rate of response of quantity demanded due to a price change. There is a formula that uses to calculate the price elasticity of demand. The formula is shown in the figure below. The percentage change in price The percentage change in quantity demanded PED = There are many degrees that show in price elasticity of demand. Price elasticity of demand will normally be a negative relationship between quantity demanded. To determine the degree of PED, ignore the negative sign. The first degree that shows in PED is inelastic demand. This is a degree that show the percentage change in quantity demanded is less than the percentage change in price. For example, 20% decrease in price cause a 10% increase in quantity demanded. The value is less than 1 but greater than 0 (0

Authorship debate Essay -- essays research papers

William Shakespeare’s works being just that is a notion most accept; however, there has been a lot of evidence and arguments by historians, who opt to challenge this notion, arguing that Shakespeare was the pen name of Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford had to conceal his authorship for social and political reasons. After careful examination of historian’s evidence this theory doesn’t measure up and it was indeed Shakespeare, who was the genuine author. The world has come to accept that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, during the year of 1564. The register of Holy trinity, the parish church in Stratford, records his baptism on April 26. According to the custom at the time, infants were baptized about three days after their birth. William’s father was a glover, trader, and landowner who married Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowner of Wilmcote. Therefore, the generally accepted date for Shakespeare’s birth is April 23 (World Book 344). John Shakespeare, William’s father rose [by election] to the position of Alderman in 1565; and in 1568 he was elected Bailiff, the equivalent to mayor (Reedy & Kathman). It’s believed that because William’s father was a town official, the young William was entitled to a free education at the Kings school. It has been accepted [for the most part] that William Shakespeare attended the Stratford grammar school. The Stratford gramm ar school prepared students for the university; however there is no evidence that William ever attended a university. The reason being is when William Shakespeare was thirteen his father suffered business losses. William was pulled from school and apprenticed to a trade, not an uncommon occurrence during the Elizabethan Age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  William Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway in November 1582 at the age of eighteen. Anne was twenty-six. It would only be six months later that their daughter, Susanna was born. William also had a set of twins in February 1585. Between the years of 1585-1590, Shakespeare disappeared. We considered these years as his lost years mainly because there has yet to be found any documentation or know whereabouts of him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It’s accepted that Shakespeare was in London by 1590 working as an actor and playwright. Approximately for twenty-three years he was a workin... ... died too early to have been the real Shakespeare (Michell 171). Oxford did not leave a will. If he were to have left a will, Oxfordians and Anti-Strafordians would have no doubt have more weight to their theory, that’s if his will contained Shakespeare plays and sonnets. The 17th Earl of Oxford was a recognized poet in his day, and the Oxfordians make the most of this in their attempts to prove that he wrote the works of Shakespeare. There is evidence presented about his reputation in actual context of the times and shows that while Oxford work had some admirers, but don’t all authors have some admirers, nobody seems to have considered him a great poet or playwright. Belief in the Oxfordian story that Shakespeare's works were written not by Shakespeare but by the seventeenth Earl of Oxford requires not merely suspending the rules of evidence that would normally be used to establish the authorship of a body of work, but also accepting a set of Oxfordian myths -- tales that are presented as fact but that research shows are simply not true. Some of these myths have been repeated and handed down from Oxfordian to Oxfordian for decades, without any attempt being made to verify them