There is always a birthday coming soon for a friend or a relative. If the birthday is for a sports enthusiast then more often than not, sports merchandise comes to mind. Its not as difficult as you think to shop for a sports fanatic, even if you do not know a thing about sports. And, for the most part, they are available everywhere and are not very costly as, for example, there are a number of types of NBA merchandise items available in the market.

The first thing you should do is to find out which sport the person the gift is intended for for is a fan of. But there is more to come. Lets say the person is a huge NBA fan. That does not mean that you can just purchase NBA merchandise from any team in the NBA. For example buying a Chicago Bulls fan a Detroit Pistons basketball team merchandise may be considered a slap in the face to a Chicago Bulls faithful. So give a little bit more thought to this part of the process.

Next, after finding out what sport he is a fan of, you would need to go a little deeper and find out which team he is a fan off. Do a search on the net for stores selling sports merchandise of that particular sports team. If you decide to get him a jersey, do bear in mind that most fans would have at least one jersey of the team they support. But there are at least 3 types of jersey - home jerseys, away jerseys and practise jerseys. So getting him one which he does not have would certainly make any fan happy.

It is quite possible to take the jersey gift a notch further by getting one with his favorite player's name and team number proudly printed on it. It is even possible to customize it further by having the birthday boy's very own name and favorite number displayed on the jersey.

The greatest gift, arguably, is an autographed collectible. NHL hockey jerseys with the signature of a player or every player on the team on it would send any fan into delirium. Sadly, such items are not only rare but cost quite a bundle as well. Gifts such as these are usually kept in an enclosed glass or acrylic display casing, away from oily hands with potentially destructive chemicals.

But the simple truth still remains that practically every sports fan would be more than happy to receive a gift, be it cool belt buckles, with their team's logo on it to add to their popular sports memorabilia collection.