Sports Memorabilia Price
Sports Memorabilia Price
What's the most valuable bit of sports memorabilia?
With Barry Bonds about to break Hank Aaron's record, I've been thinking a lot about how much the ball will be worth.
In all of sports history, what physical artifact is worth the most money? Please include sources.
Also, regardless of price, which would you most like to own and why? For the record, I'd take the bat Babe Ruth used to "call his shot."
Thanks!
I wouldn't give you two cents for the Bonds ball. In September, a grand jury is going to indict him anyway and then it's ******* at best - probably the record gets deleted totally. Anyone who uses roids doesn't deserve that record. He would be just babysitting it for A Rod anyway.
I would go with the T206 Honus Wagner card has long been the most famous baseball card in existence. Known as the "Holy Grail" and the "Mona Lisa of baseball cards", an example of this card was the first baseball card to be sold for over a million dollars. Only 50 to 60 of these cards are believed to exist. One theory for the card's scarcity is that Wagner, a non-smoker, requested the production of this card be halted since it was being sold as a marketing vehicle for tobacco products. The problem with this theory is that Wagner appears on a tobacco piece produced by Recius in the late 1800s. Another theory postulates that Wagner was not offered any compensation for the use of his likeness. Consequently, he supposedly withdrew his permission to print any more copies. At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, it is stated that while Wagner was a smoker, he did not want children to have to buy tobacco products to get his card. Therefore, he requested it to be pulled from production.
Of these handful of existing cards, the single most famous, a nm-mt PSA graded 8 (which also was the first card graded by PSA serially numbered 00000001) card which initially broke the US $1 million barrier, sold again on February 26, 2007 at auction for 2.35 million US dollars to an anonymous buyer in Orange County, California. This particular card is in the best condition compared to the rest of the existing cards, having been encased in a protective Lucite sheeting for decades. Considered the ultimate pinnacle of baseball card collecting, the card has changed hands four times in the last 10 years, doubling in value on three of those occasions while having such ownership as hockey great Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall and later Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart had purchased the card in the mid-1990s to give away as part of a marketing campaign for a line of baseball cards. The winner of the give away could not afford the taxes associated with it, and it ended up being sold at auction in the mid-1990s to a Chicago businessman and collector for $640,000. In mid-2000 it was sold again for $1,265,000 to a Las Vegas-based businessman who regularly had it placed on public display at baseball games and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library before selling the card for double his purchase price in February 2007. On August 3, 2007 an SGC 10 graded card offered by Mastro Auctions sold for $192,000 to Robert Klevens of Prestige Collectibles, LLC acting on behalf of a client from Japan.
I have half a million cards here - and a great collection of signed balls but I sure would love one of those! Pax - C
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