Author Archive for Australian Memorabilia Association

Baseball legend Babe Ruth’s shirt breaks sports memorabilia auction record

A shirt belonging to American baseball legend Babe Ruth has shattered the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever auctioned, fetching USD$24.1m after a weeks-long auction.

The online auction for his New York Yankee shirt began in July and culminated after a bidding war that lasted more than six hours on Sunday, according to Heritage Auctions in Irving, Texas. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous, Heritage said.

Within the first few days of going up on auction, the prized item broke the record by attracting a bid of USD$13.3m, with experts estimating the bidding price to cross the $30m mark.

The previous record for the most expensive sports object sold at auction was USD$12.6m, paid in August 2022 for a baseball card for Mickey Mantle.

Until 2022, no piece of sports memorabilia had ever broken the symbolic USD$10m mark, but that year saw both the Mantle card and a shirt worn by basketball great Michael Jordan blow past the threshold.

Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports, called the jersey “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction”. He said in a news release that it was clear from the bidding that “astute collectors have no doubt as to what this Ruth jersey is and what it represents”.

The Bambino – one of Ruth’s monikers – wore the record-breaking shirt during a historic game against the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series.

The story of the famous “called shot” goes that Ruth pointed in the direction of where he wanted the ball to go and proceeded to hit a home run in the exact direction.

Ruth was being heckled by the opposition, and he reportedly responded by pointing deep into the centre-field stands, before pounding the next pitch exactly in that direction for a home run.

“It is the most dramatic moment in World Series history, and it may be the most dramatic moment ever in all of baseball,” said Michael Gibbons, director emeritus and historian at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore.

The Yankees went on to win the game and the World Series in a four-game sweep. It would be the final championship win of Ruth’s career.

Heritage said Ruth gave the road shirt to one of his golfing buddies in Florida around 1940 and it remained in that family for decades. Then, in the early 1990s, that man’s daughter sold it to a collector. It was then sold at auction in 2005 for $940,000 and remained in a private collection until being consigned to Heritage this year.

Story courtesy of Aljazeera

Messi shirts sells for USD7.8 Million!

What players should I invest in?

Every week we are asked by someone “what players should I be investing in?” While we tend to stay away from giving specific player investment advice, there is a general plan we like to follow, and that doesn’t involve buying any current players for the most part.

Yes, obviously you can make some good money selling current players in the short term, however, their markets can be up one week and down the next week depending on how they or their team play. While buying and selling the young guys is super fun. You get to watch their careers unfold right before your eyes. They are very risky purchases. 99% don’t become the players they were expected to be.

If you are looking for long-term and stable investments, consider taking a look at some retired or deceased players and ask these questions:

Does the player’s item have unique special inscriptions on it?

Did the player have an outstanding career and belong to any unique record clubs?

Does the player have a unique story or play behind him?

Answering these questions may help your investment as anything that is collected, rarity is important.

Mickey Mantle card sells for USD12.6 million!

After more than a month of fanfare, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card with a 9.5 grade from grader SGC — the “finest known example” of a 1952 Topps Mantle — has sold with Heritage Auctions for USD$12.6 million including buyer’s premium. It’s the most ever paid for any sports item, card or memorabilia.

The previous record for a sports card was $7.25 million, set earlier this month by a T206 Honus Wagner card consigned to collectables marketplace Goldin.

“This card is arguably the finest-condition example of the most iconic post-war card in the world,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said in a statement. “That grade, plus the fact it has documented provenance from the most storied find in hobby history, puts this card in a category of its own.”

So the story goes: In 1986, Alan Rosen, better known as “Mr. Mint” — who Beckett Media called “bigger than the hobby” after his death in 2017 — got a call from the Boston area. A forklift operator told Rosen that a truck driver friend, Ted Lodge, had 1952 Topps cards for sale. Lodge had inherited a home from his late father and stumbled upon a fortune in pristine condition.

Even in 1986, the 1952 Topps set was hobby gold. Lodge’s father had reportedly been a driver, too, one who drove Topps’ product in the 1950s; the distribution of the 1952 set had been famously bungled and a trove of them sat in the basement, boxed, for a generation.

The notion of mostly untouched 1952 Topps in an attic seemed impossible, but Rosen hired an armed police officer, pocketed cash and drove to Quincy, Mass. In the end, he forked over more than $125,000 for 5,500 1952 Topps cards, including dozens of Mantles.
In 1991, Rosen sold one of those ungraded Mantles for $50,000. For 31 years, the buyer was anonymous and the card remained ungraded.

This is that Mantle.

For decades, Anthony Giordano rejected myriad multimillion-dollar offers. Giordano’s sons reportedly convinced him to step forward, get the card graded and part with his beloved Mantle.

It’s the third time in 12 months that the all-time record for a sports card has been broken after the early-August Wagner and the $6.606 million Wagner sold in August of 2021 with Robert Edward Auctions. Before that, back in January of 2021, a different 1952 Topps Mantle (graded a PSA 9) sold for $5.2 million; a 2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection RPA (rookie patch autograph) LeBron James card sold for $5.2 million a few months later, in April.

(Article courtesy of ESPN)

Rare John Lennon memorabilia to go to auction

Music memorabilia and records once owned by the celebrated former B.B.C. disc jockey John Peel, including a signed mono pressing of the 1968 album ‘Two Virgin’s’ by John Lennon and Yoko Ono is to be sold at auction in June.

Peel’s family said in a statement: “John/Dad was in a position to have access to many of the most celebrated people and events in the history of popular music. This is reflected in a wealth of souvenirs he collected. In going through the accumulation of 40 years of pop music moments, we decided that some of the most interesting items might find a home, with fans of his programme or of the artists whose music he played.”

Among the other items up for auction in Live in Session: Property from the John Peel Archive are a handwritten letter signed by David Bowie, a 7in of Nirvana’s 1988 single Love Buzz/Big Cheese and the BBC Radio 1 DJ’s horn gramophone, which sat on his desk at the family home in Suffolk fondly known as Peel Acres.

The Lennon/Ono pressing is estimated to sell for between £15,000 and £20,000. The auction will be held at Bonhams Knightbridge, London, on 14 June.

Article courtesy of The Guardian

Beethoven anyone?

RR Auction’s April 13th auction: Fine Autographs and Artifacts sale will be led by a four-page handwritten letter by Ludwig van Beethoven about a proposed composition. The letter by Beethoven to his librettist, the court poet Friedrich Treitschke, asks him to help secure two hundred gold ducats in payment for their planned opera Romulus und Remus. It emphasizes the “many sacrifices I have willingly made and am making for my art.” It carries a staggering estimate of USD$300,000-$500,000

An NFT of Paul McCartney’s ‘Hey Jude’ notes sold for over USD$76,000

Julian Lennon, son of John minted a collection of six non-fungible tokens based on memorabilia from his personal collection.  The six NFTs minted from various pieces of Beatles memorabilia in Julian Lennon’s personal collection sold for a combined USD$158,720 via YellowHeart and Julien’s Auctions earlier in February.

One of the NFTs featuring a photo of Paul McCartney’s handwritten notes for “Hey Jude” was the biggest seller going for USD$76,800. Other big ticket items included an NFT of John Lennon’s  Help! cape which went for USD$12,800.  The NFT of John’s Afghan coat from Magical Mystery Tour sold for USD$22,400 and an NFT of a 1959 Gibson guitar Lennon gifted his son also sold for $22,400.

 

Tom Brady’s First Touchdown Pass Ball

A man who has chosen to remain anonymous has purchased Tom Brady’s first touchdown pass ball.  The ball was thrown into the stands by former Patriots wide receiver Terry Glenn and a fan caught the ball in the old Foxboro Stadium. After keeping it in a safety deposit box for years, the Rhode Islander fan decided to put the piece up for auction.

Markings on the ball were identified through a Getty Images photo of Glenn celebrating while holding the ball up. The bidding started on May 9 and ended on June 5, 2021 and after 33 total bids, the football sold for USD$428,841.60.

What are NFTs and why are some worth millions?

A digital-only artwork has sold at Christie’s auction house for an eye-watering $USD70m – but the winning bidder will not receive a sculpture, painting or even a print.

Instead, they get a unique digital token known as an NFT.  Where Bitcoin was hailed as the digital answer to currency, NFTs are now being touted as the digital answer to collectables.  But there are plenty of skeptics who think it is all a bubble that is going to burst.

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for non-fungible token.  In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money.  With money, you can swap a $10 note for two $5 notes and it will have the same value.  However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it cannot be interchanged with something else.  It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be the one original painting.  NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but they have no tangible form of their own.

The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.

How do NFTs work?

Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable because they are one of a kind.  But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.  With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.  As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain.  The records cannot be forged because the ledger is maintained by thousands of computers around the world.  NFTs can also contain smart contracts that may give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.

What’s stopping people copying the digital art?

Nothing. Millions of people have seen Beeple’s art that sold for $69m and the image has been copied and shared countless times.  In many cases, the artist even retains the copyright ownership of their work, so they can continue to produce and sell copies.  But the buyer of the NFT owns a “token” that proves they own the “original” work.  Some people compare it to buying an autographed print.

People are paying millions of dollars for tokens?

Yes. It’s as wild as it sounds.

How much are NFTs worth?

 In theory, anybody can tokenise their work to sell as an NFT but interest has been fuelled by recent headlines of multi-million-dollar sales.  On 19 February, an animated Gif of Nyan Cat – a 2011 meme of a flying pop-tart cat – sold for more than $500,000.

A few weeks later, musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for more than $6m.

It is not just art that is tokenised and sold. Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey has promoted an NFT of the first-ever tweet with bids hitting $2.5m.

Christie’s sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple for $70m set a new record for digital art.

But as with crypto-currencies, there are concerns about the environmental impact of maintaining the blockchain.

Is this just a bubble?

A day before his record-breaking auction, Beeple – whose real name is Mike Winkelmann – told the BBC: “I actually do think there will be a bubble, to be quite honest.  “And I think we could be in that bubble right now.”  Many are even more skeptical.  David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain, said he saw NFTs as buying “official collectables”, similar to trading cards.  “There are some artists absolutely making bank on this stuff… it’s just that you probably won’t,” he warned.  The people actually selling the NFTs are “crypto-grifters”, he said.  “The same guys who’ve always been at it, trying to come up with a new form of worthless magic bean that they can sell for money.”  Former Christie’s auctioneer Charles Allsopp said the concept of buying NFTs made “no sense”.  “The idea of buying something which isn’t there is just strange,” he told the BBC.  “I think people who invest in it are slight mugs, but I hope they don’t lose their money.”

(Published  12 March by the BBC)

 

The Importance behind Third-Party Authentication

One of the toughest decisions any collector faces is when to part ways with all or some of their collection. It’s often based on finances or lack thereof, and brings with it an emotional toll. It could also be a move that’s made to trade up with the hope of landing another item that means just as much to the collector, if not more.

Personally, I have acquired many autographs in person as I’ve watched athletes and celebrities jot down their signatures sometimes even adding inscriptions. These moments are etched forever in my mind although few, if any, were actually caught on camera.  What I haven’t always done is get my items authenticated after the fact because I watched the items signed.  However, knowing that these items become keepsakes or investments, I decided to get them all Third-Party authenticated to give me peace of mind.

In the USA, PSA is the leader in Third-Party authentications.  They first introduced their autograph authentication division in 1998. Today they have collectively certified more than 35 million collectibles with a combined value of more than a billion dollars. It’s a staggering figure, but in today’s hobby climate where forgeries and duplicates still exist, it’s a necessity when it comes to selling your treasured items.

“The services offered by PSA allow everyone to ‘speak the same language,’ which makes the sale of items quick and easy,” said Brian Dwyer, president of Robert Edward Auctions in the US. “We often consult with non-collectors who are unaware of just how important authentication is for the success of their items at auction”.

Today auction house presidents wouldn’t have it any other way. People want to know what they are buying is the genuine article.

In Australia, The Australian Memorabilia Association provides the same Third-Party service.  Auction houses such as Lloyds Auctions rely on their findings to realise success of the items they auction.  As a collector, an unbiased professional Third-Party authentication will provide you the comfort of knowing the collectible is authentic and will hold its value.