Sports Collectibles

Collectibles march to the baby boomers’ tune

International Herald Tribune
By Sharon Reier
Published: May 18, 2007

“An illustration of the sports collectibles frenzy is the 157,000 pounds, or $310,000, paid for the shirt that the Brazilian soccer star Pele wore in the second half of the 1970 World Cup tournament when Brazil beat Italy. The jersey - sold in 2002 by the family of the Italian player, Roberto Rosato, who had swapped shirts with Pele - still holds the record for a soccer shirt. But David Convery, head of the sports memorabilia department at the Christie’s auction house, characterized the soccer collectibles market as “still very strong.” He noted that in 2005, the second Football Association cup - a trophy that was passed to the winning British team each year from 1896 to 1910 - sold for a record 488,000 pounds.

In the United States, where baseball is the preferred sport, the record price for memorabilia is $3 million, paid in 1999 for the season-record 70th home-run ball hit in 1998 by Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals. A New York Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth in 1933 was sold for $657,000 last October. Sotheby’s has set an estimated price of between $200,000 and $300,000 for a 1931 Yankees jersey worn by Lou Gehrig that it is auctioning in June.”

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UPDATE: We couldn’t find the final auction price on the Gehrig jersey, so it might have been pulled from the auction. What we did find from the same auction, was a rare Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth Dual Signed Photo From 1939 Lou Gerhig Appreciation Day that sold for $120,000.00.