Most people walk into Costco for paper towels. Meanwhile, the same company’s website will sell you a book signed by Babe Ruth, and it will ship to the same house as your 30-roll pack of toilet paper.
Costco’s collectibles are a different animal from the rest of the building. Nothing here has a price per ounce. Nothing is a good source of fiber. These are the things you buy to put behind glass and feel slightly fancy about, and the selection is wide enough that you can pick a sport, a band, or a metal.
A warning before we start: Availability of these items varies widely! We found all of these online. Search Costco.com before you get too attached.
Autographed items live or die on the paperwork. A signature without a certificate is a doodle, and a signature with the right one is a conversation piece. Every item below comes with an authentication company named in the listing, and that is the first thing I would look for on anything like this. Also read the return policy. Several of these are final sale.
A red Epiphone guitar hand-painted by artist David Arrigo, with Angus Young’s signature on the pick guard. The listing calls it number 1 of 1 and says it is authenticated by Fanatics. I could not find a price in the listing text I pulled.
Number 1 of 1 is the good kind of rare: nobody else owns this exact guitar. It is a piece of art as much as an instrument, so plan to hang it, not play it. The paint job and the signature are the value, and both last longer on a wall.
Verdict: Buy if you love AC/DC and have the wall. Hang it, do not play it.
A pair of navy and orange Jofa gloves in the style of the 1989 Edmonton Oilers, number 99 on the cuff. The right glove is signed by Gretzky and the left one is blank, and the pair comes in an authentication box certified by Upper Deck. No price was in the text I could pull.
A signed glove from the greatest scorer the sport has seen is hard to argue with in a hockey household. In any other household, these are very expensive oven mitts.
Verdict: Buy for the hockey fan who has everything else.
A yellow 2021 Masters pin flag, framed to about 24 by 28 inches, signed by Lee Elder and authenticated by Beckett. Elder was the first Black golfer to play in the Masters and was an honorary starter in 2021, so the flag carries some history with it. I could not find a price in the listing text.
This one has the most story per square inch of anything on this list. It is also big enough that it needs real wall space, so measure before you order. The frame does the display work for you.
Verdict: Buy if you follow golf or care about the history. It is the one I would be proudest to explain.
A 2000 Upper Deck rookie card, number 254, signed by Tom Brady. PSA/DNA graded the signature Gem Mint 10 and sealed the card in a tamper-proof holder with a display stand about 3.5 inches tall. Item #1949211, online only, sold by Mill Creek Sports. No price was showing in what I could pull, and the listing says the signature may vary.
For a football collector, a signed rookie card of that player is the short list. The tamper-proof holder is the right way to buy a card like this, since it keeps a wandering thumb from ruining the value.
Verdict: Buy if you collect cards and the price fits the budget. Look at the listing price before you fall in love.
A white Fender Player II Stratocaster with Slash’s signature on the pick guard, authenticated by PSA/DNA and Fanatics. Item #1953199, online only. The listing says it ships by UPS Ground and cannot be returned or refunded. No price was displayed in the text I could pull.
Of everything here, this is the one you could actually plug in. The catch is that you should not. Treat it like the Angus Young guitar and leave it on the wall. The no-returns rule is the part to read twice, because there is no changing your mind after the box arrives.
Verdict: Buy for the rock fan who has already decided. Skip it if you are only curious, because it is final sale.
A copy of The Babe Ruth Story, signed by Babe Ruth and graded Mint 9 by Beckett, with a display stand and a tamper-proof authentication hologram. I could not find a price in the listing text.
A book signed by Babe Ruth is the oldest thing on this list by a wide margin. It is the sort of piece a museum would put behind glass, so the display stand is not a small detail. Keep it far away from the kitchen and anyone holding a rotisserie chicken.
Verdict: Buy if you are a baseball history person with a cabinet to put it in.
A 50 gram bar of 999.9 gold from PAMP Suisse, sealed in its assay card packaging, item #1782174. Costco limits it to one transaction per membership and one unit per 24 hours, and the listing says it is non-refundable and not eligible for price adjustments. The price was not displayed in the text I could pull, and gold moves daily, so I am not going to guess at one.
It is a fine product. It is just not a collectible in the way the rest of this list is, because there is no story and no signature. You are paying for the metal plus a premium for the packaging and the shipping, and you cannot send it back if gold drops the next morning. If you want gold, buy it as gold and compare the price per gram against the day’s spot price first. If you want a conversation piece, buy the glove.
Verdict: Skip it as a collectible. Check the price per gram if you want it as an investment.
If I had room on the wall, the Lee Elder flag, because it has the best story. If I had a hockey house, the Gretzky gloves. If the budget was wide open, the Slash guitar, as long as I was sure, because there is no taking it back.
Now your turn. Which one belongs in your house? And if you have bought a signed piece from Costco, how did the authentication paperwork look when it showed up?
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when are you. getting 1. 0z silver American eagles?
Hey Hal, just a heads up that Costco only sells the 1 oz American Eagle silver coins in 20-coin tubes online, not as singles. They come and go in stock on Costco.com, so it’s worth checking back there every so often since we don’t control when they restock.