A jersey once worn by Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella and later handed down through the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league system sold for $108,000 in Heritage Auctions’ May sports memorabilia auction.
The jersey, consigned by the son of Lee Ferrera, a Dodgers farmhand, dates to the 1956 season. Ferrera was with the Kokomo Dodgers, where some of Brooklyn’s used jerseys had wound up a couple of years later and wore it until the team’s new uniforms arrived.
The two-day auction generated over $3.4 million in total.
Among the other items in the sale was a New England Patriots Super Bowl LI ring, awarded to a player on the team that rallied from a 28-3 deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons. Described as “ostentatious enough to make a rapper blush, heavy enough to send a strong swimmer to the bottom of the lake,” the ring sold for $96,000. The player who consigned the ring demanded anonymity so only the auction company and the buyer will know it–at least for a while.
Not so anonymous was the consignor of a San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl XXIX ring. Eric Davis, a defensive back on the Niners’ squad that walloped the San Diego Chargers on January 29, 1995, consigned several items to Heritage and his ring netted $36,000. A Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl XLVIII ring presented to a stadium staff member, sold for $33,000.
A high-grade Babe Ruth autographed baseball, signed in blue fountain pen and dating to the 1940s, netted $36,000.
Nine items in the auction sold for $30,000 or more, including a 1966 Mickey Mantle game model bat graded GU 9 by PSA/DNA that went for $33,600, the same price achieved by a photo-matched 2001 Michael Jordan Washington Wizards game jersey. Bidders also chased a mid-1960s Paul Hornung Green Bay Packers road jersey ($31,200), a game jersey from Colin Kaepernick’s rookie season ($31,200), a 1950 Warren Spahn Boston Braves full uniform ($28,800), an early 70s Dick Butkus Chicago Bears road jersey ($28,800) and dozens of items from the career of Baseball Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter that were consigned by his family, topped by his Hall of Fame ring ($26,400).
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