Brady family Super Bowl ring sells for $344,927

By the time the last bid was placed in the Goldin Auctions 2018 Winter Auction, records were smashed as nearly 1,100 lots of sports, entertainment and pop-culture memorabilia sold for $3.5 million, the most-ever for the company’s annual winter auction event.

To nobody’s surprise, the highlight of the night was a 2017 New England Patriots Super Bowl LI Championship Ring – Tom Brady Family Ring– with original presentation box and original Jostens “Brady” certificate selling for a record $344,927. The ring has 265 diamonds compared to the 283 that Tom Brady’s actual ring has and is slightly smaller than a player’s ring. The ring came with a letter of appraisal from its maker, Jostens, for Brady.

The price was a record for a football ring, surpassing Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl XXV ring, which sold for $230,401. The only piece of sports memorabilia from the past 25 years to sell for more was Mike Piazza’s historic post-9/11 home run jersey, which was sold privately by Goldin Auctions to Anthony Scaramucci and others for $365,000.

It was surely a night for rings as several more football championship rings also exceeded expectations, including: 2012 Baltimore Ravens Super Bowl Player Ring (Christian Thompson, $47,872); 2015 Denver Broncos Super Bowl 50 Championship Ring ($36,825); 1969 Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl IV Championship Ring ($29,460); 1999 St. Louis Rams Super Bowl XXXIV Championship Player Ring (London Fletcher, $23,322); 1992 Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl XXVII Championship Player Ring (Jimmy Smith, $23,322), and Lou Saban’s 1964 Buffalo Bills AFL Championship Ring ($15,957).

The holy grail of UFC memorabilia, the Original UFC V Superfight Championship Belt, created for the April 7, 1995 Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock fight, which sold for $44,190, set a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for UFC memorabilia.

The sale price is even more impressive when you realize that it fell just one bid short of surpassing Mike Tyson’s 1987 WBA Heavyweight Championship Belt, which Goldin Auctions sold for $49,800.

The sale prices for several modern trading cards and pre-war era cards also turned heads, including:

• 1986-87 Fleer #57 Michael Jordan PSA Gem MT 10 ($22,095)

• 2003-04 Bowman “Rookies & Stars” Chrome Gold Refractor #123 LeBron James Rookie Card (#8/50) Gem Mint 10 ($22,095)

• 1988 Playoff Contenders Ticket #87 Peyton Manning Signed Rookie Card PSA Mint 9 ($13,502)

• 2007-08 Finest #71 Kevin Durant White X-Fractor Subfractor Rookie Card (#1/1) BGS Mint 9 ($11,407)

• 1909-11 T206 White Border Eddie Plank PSA PR-FR 1 ($51,555)

• 1909-11 T206 White Border Ty Cobb Portrait Red Background – PSA NM-MT 8 “1 of 3” ($55,237)

• 1914 Cracker Jack #103 Joe Jackson – SGC 35 GD+ 2.5 ($40,507)

The entire auction catalog with the prices realized is available at GoldinAuctions.com.