Willie Mays
Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rookie card tops Memory Lane auction with six-figure sale
It is rare to find a rookie card that features two of the greatest players of all time, especially one that is signed by both legends.
But one such card is the 1980-81 Topps Basketball Magic Johnson/Larry Bird rookie, which also features NBA legend Julius Erving. A PSA 9 version of the triple-panel card signed by all three players (Auto 10) topped the Summer Rarities Auction at Memory Lane Inc., selling for $173,389, a record for the grade.
Other top sellers in the summer auction include a signed 1951 Bowman Willie Mays rookie card, which soared to $100,846.
The auction, which featured over 1,700 lots, generated more than $5.5 million in sales.
A big part of the auction was pre-war baseball cards, especially those featuring Hall of Famer Ty Cobb. The top selling pre-war card was a 1925 Exhibit (gray tint) Lou Gehrig rookie card (PSA 3.5) that sold for $117,604.
A T206 “Bat Off Shoulder” Cobb card with a Uzit back (PSA 2.5) sold for $69,929, while a T206 Old Mill Green Portrait (PSA 3) netted $47,257.
Other Cobb rarities included: a 1911 T3 Turkey Red (checklist back) (PSA 4) for $68,256; a 1910 D380 Clement Brothers Type 2 that realized $60,313; a 1911 M131 Baltimore News Newsboy Series (SGC 1.5) for $34,408; a 1912 M101-3 Sporting News postcard with a 1912 postmark for $36,197; and a 1911 M116 Sporting Life Blue Background Cobb PsA 7 that ended at $39,353.
Other top-selling pre-war cards included: a M131 Honus Wagner card for $75,252; 1921 American Caramel E121 Babe Ruth Series of 80 (SGC 3.5) that reached $39,907; and a 1916 M101-5 Jim Thorpe (SGC 5) for $29,724.
A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card (PSA 3.5) was the top selling non-autographed post-war card at $98,398.
Other top sales included: a 1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card (PSA 7) for $30,961; a 1959 Topps Sandy Koufax (PSA 9) for $27,631; a 1984 Star Michael Jordan (PSA 6) for $55,498; and the lone PSA 10 copy of the 1967 Philadelphia card of Hall of Famer Bob Lilly for $16,150.
Two top 1952 Bowman Large football sets were offered with the No. 10-ranked set on the PSA Set Registry (6.59 GPA) selling for $30,463, while the No. 14-ranked set (6.09 GPA) sold for $22,013.
The auction also included numerous lots of memorabilia, topped by a Babe Ruth game model bat that from the collection of 1920s Yankees teammate Mark Koenig that sold for $117,604.
A 1939 Pasadena City College yearbook carrying six signatures from a young Jackie Robinson went for $10,270.
