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These record sales highlight rising market for historic sports memorabilia
For most of us, the idea of spending more than a million dollars on a sports collectible is as far-fetched as buying that mansion on the ocean. Yet that’s where the high-end market has gone: Between top-grade cards and “holy grail” pieces of memorabilia, seven-figure sums are becoming more commonplace.
We saw it time and again in 2022, when a steady stream of cream-of-the-crop sports treasures busted past the $1 million mark.
And it has continued with two big sales at Sotheby's in early 2022. In late January, a game-worn LeBron James jersey from the 2013 NBA Finals sold for $3.68 million, a record for a LeBron jersey. Two weeks later, a Kobe Bryant jersey from his 2007-08 MVP season sold for $5.8 million, a record for a Kobe jersey and the third highest-selling piece of sports memorabilia of all time.
That was followed by another record breaker — a game-worn Super Bowl jersey from Joe Montana that sold for $1.2 million at Goldin Co., making it the highest-selling football jersey ever sold at auction.
The lead dog is — who else? — Michael Jordan. He’s joined by other names you likely could guess. Babe Ruth. Ty Cobb. Mickey Mantle. Muhammad Ali. Jackie Robinson. Kobe. There’s also Tiger Woods, soccer legend Diego Maradona and baseball’s current golden boy, Aaron Judge.
1) $10.091 million
Michael Jordan 1998 NBA Finals jersey (Sotheby’s)
The significance: Air Jordan wore it during Game 1 of the Bulls’ “Last Dance” series.
If you’re a longtime hoop fan, you likely remember the 1998 NBA Finals. The Utah Jazz squared off against Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to cap off the dynasty’s “Last Dance” season.
The jersey was worn by Jordan in Game 1. The Jazz won in overtime, despite Jordan’s 33 points, but after that, the Bulls went on a rampage and took four of the next five games.
In his swan-song series with the Bulls, Jordan carried his team to the NBA title, netting 33.5 points per game, including 45 in the decisive Game 6. The triumph gave Jordan his sixth NBA ring.
In September, Sotheby’s offered Jordan’s Game 1 jersey as the lone item in its first “Invictus” auction. The presale estimate was set at $3-$5 million. By the time the dust settled, bidding had surpassed $10 million, making Jordan’s jersey the highest-priced piece of sports memorabilia ever. (For now.)
2) $8.93 million
The significance: Maradona wore it in the game featuring his “Hand of God” and “Goal of the Century” moments.
In 1986 World Cup play, Argentina edged England, 2-1, in an unforgettable quarterfinal matchup. Maradona scored both goals. His game-winner would earn the title “Goal of the Century” by FIFA.
Somehow, Maradona’s first score has an even more dramatic nickname: the “Hand of God” goal, because of the way he apparently “palmed” the ball past the opposing goalie. After the game, Maradona described the goal as being “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”
As for his jersey, Maradona swapped it with an opposing player. Steve Hodge from England’s team ran into Maradona as he was leaving the arena and simply asked if he’d trade jerseys. Maradona agreed, and off Hodge went with his treasure in hand.
In 2002, he lent it to the National Football Museum in Manchester, England. Some 20 years later, he consigned it to Sotheby’s. When the jersey landed on the block in April 2022, it carried a presale estimate of $5-$7.5 million. Bidding brought it to $8.93 million — a sports memorabilia record that stood just under five months.
3) $6.18 million
Muhammad Ali WBC heavyweight championship belt (Heritage Auctions)
The significance: “The Greatest” won and wore this belt in the 1970s.
In summer 2022, Troy Kinunen, president and CEO of MEARS Auctions, consigned his own collection of 1,600 Ali items — including some when he was still known as Cassius Clay — to Heritage Auctions. Among them was this one-of-a-kind belt, Ali’s prize for becoming the WBC heavyweight champion in 1974 and retaining it through 1978.
Having this particular belt on the block caused a stir among serious Ali collectors, and why not? Ali first won the belt by beating George Foreman in Zaire in 1974, and it’s a rarity that has few comparables. According to Heritage, it is one of only two Ali WBC belts known to exist.
4) $5.156 million
Tiger Woods 2000-2001 tournament-used irons (Golden Age Auctions)
The significance: These are the irons Woods used in winning four majors in a row.
Tiger Woods was on a roll in 2000 and 2001. In a memorable stretch of PGA tournaments, he used a set of Titleist 681-T irons to win four majors — a dominant span that golf aficionados call “the Tiger Slam.” Woods’s reign began in 2000, when he won the PGA Championship, U.S. Open and the Open Championship. The following April, he picked up where he left off by shooting 16 under par to win the 2001 Masters.
On the heels of that remarkable run, Titleist executive Steve Mata delivered a replacement set of irons to Woods, who gave him the actual “Tiger Slam” irons. Years later, in 2010, Mata put them on the auction block.
The winner: a private equity investor named Todd Brock, who bought them for “only” $57,242. A self-described “Tiger superfan,” Brock kept the irons in a frame in his Texas office until 2022, when he decided to part with them via Golden Age Auctions — and saw them reel in $5.156 million.
5) $2.736 million
Kobe Bryant 1996-97 game-worn Lakers home jersey (SCP Auctions)
The significance: Bryant’s rookie jersey.
Kobe Bryant wore this jersey in multiple games during his rookie season, per photo-matching evidence. At least two of them were playoff games in May 1997, when the Lakers squared off against the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Bryant’s freshman season saw him play in 71 games, most of them off the bench. At the time, he was a mere pup of 18; as such, his numbers paled in comparison to what we’d see him do in the 19 seasons that followed. As a rookie, Bryant averaged 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. His ultimate career numbers: 25 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game. This well-preserved jersey is a direct line to the promise he showed in starting out his Hall of Fame career.
6) $2.19 million
Mickey Mantle 1968 game-worn jersey (Heritage)
The significance: This is the jersey Mantle wore during the final game of his storied career.
On Sept. 28, 1968, Mickey Mantle stepped to the plate during a Yankees road game at Fenway Park for one last at-bat. Sadly, he popped out to shortstop, but it hardly sullied his near-mythical career. In 18 seasons, “The Magnificent Yankee” won three MVP awards, blasted 536 homers (plus a record 18 more in World Series play), stole 156 bases and batted .298. Fittingly, No. 7 won seven World Series titles.
Mantle’s final game-worn jersey has some tight provenance. He gifted it to his pal Tom Catal, who was president of the Mickey Mantle Museum in Cooperstown. He also inked a personal inscription to Catal, signing it: “To Tom, a great friend always, ‘The Mick.’”
Over the years, the jersey has been photo-matched ad nauseam and thus has been verified as the jersey Mantle was wearing on Sept. 19, when he hit his 535th career homer off Denny McClain in Detroit. That homer pushed Mantle past Jimmie Foxx by one. He hit one more (at home) off Jim Lonborg the next day, giving him 536.
The jersey has now been sold three times at Heritage: for $486,000 in 2017; $850,000 in 2020; and $2.19 million in 2022.
7) $1.68 million
Babe Ruth 1918-22 game-used, signed bat (Heritage)
The significance: The Bambino swung this war club at countless games over a five-year span.
Before Babe Ruth emerged as a prolific home run hitter, Major League Baseball’s leading round-trippers put up pretty paltry totals. Between 1900-1918, there were only two seasons when the home run leader hit more than 20.
One of the sluggers from those early years was lefty-hitting Frank Baker, who led the AL in homers four seasons in a row, starting in 1911, with totals of 11, 10 (tied with Tris Speaker), 12 and 9. It was enough of a power display that he became known as “Home Run” Baker.
Enter Babe Ruth, who, after moving from the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1920, blasted 54 homers, followed by 59 in 1921. His prodigious blasts would forever change the game.
The bat highlighted here was one of the war clubs that Ruth swung between 1918-22. (We say “war club” because it weighs 44 ounces and measures 36 inches long!) PSA/DNA authenticated the bat for game use, giving it a “GU” grade of 10.
And how’s this for a fitting factoid? Provenance shows that Ruth gifted this bat to none other than Home Run Baker, who had been traded to the Yankees in 1916 and would play with Ruth for three seasons. The Babe signed the bat in fountain pen ink, adding extra appeal. PSA/DNA authenticated the autograph and graded it 6/10.
8) $1.680 million
The significance: Robinson completed and signed this survey a year before breaking baseball’s color barrier.
In 1946, Jackie Robinson filled out an American Baseball Bureau Questionnaire, signing his name to it and creating what turned out to be a significant document.
Dated “28 Mar 1946,” the document provides us with a revealing slice of biographical material. For example, Robinson wrote “Golf” next to the line “Favorite sport, other than baseball.” After “Hobbies,” he wrote, “Boys club work.”
And, most telling, Jackie foretold the near future when responding to the query “Ambition in baseball.” His answer? “To open the door for Negroes in organized baseball.” Mission accomplished!
9) $1.62 million
Ty Cobb 1910-14 game-used signed bat (Heritage)
The significance: Baseball’s all-time leading hitter swung this bat during perhaps his most productive span.
Ty Cobb’s career average of .366 may be untouchable. So when a surviving tool of his trade comes up for auction, it creates a buzz. And when that tool dates to a span of time where he was particularly brilliant, desirability skyrockets.
Such is the case with this bat: Cobb used it between 1910-1914, a stretch of seasons during which he batted .382, .419, .409, .389 and .368. And check out his numbers in the second of those five seasons, his 1911 MVP performance: 248 hits, 148 runs, 47 doubles, 24 triples, eight homers, 127 RBI and 83 stolen bases. Whew!
The Heritage listing for the bat gives us some lively descriptions of Cobb’s “hefty slab of age-toned ash”:
“Game use is truly outstanding, the grain of the J.F. Hillerich & Son dash-dot-dash specimen so punished that two dozen nails tack down the wood where it swelled from hundreds of impacts inflicted over months if not years of work.”
10) $1.5 million
The significance: AL-record-breaking HR ball
Yankee slugger Aaron Judge hit his much-anticipated 62nd home run on Oct. 4, 2022 in Arlington vs. the Texas Rangers. Fan Cory Youmans caught it. The next day, Memory Lane Inc. offered Youmans $2 million for the ball. He declined. A month later, he received another offer, this time $3 million. Again, he declined, opting to consign it to Goldin Co. instead.
The sale went off last December and closed on Dec. 17. Bidding started strong but just as quickly hit a wall, settling at $1.5 million. Even though Youmans’s gamble backfired, it’s nevertheless an impressive payoff.
— Larry Canale writes “Online Auctioneer” in every issue of SCD. Based near Boston, he has been an SCD columnist and feature contributor for two decades. He was also longtime editor of the hobby publication Tuff Stuff. Canale has authored multiple baseball books, including two on Mickey Mantle and two with legendary photographer Ozzie Sweet.
