Legendary Auctions has been selected to handle the sale of the sports cards and sports memorabilia items in the celebrated, multi-million-dollar Dreier Collection. Owned by a father/son team in Santa Barbara, California, the collection is actually a private museum and includes some of the most rare and high grade sports cards and memorabilia known to exist, many of them one of a a kind. In November of last year, Chad and Doug Dreier were named as buyers of game-used and game-worn items from Kirk Gibson’s memorable 1988 World Series home run that were sold by SCP Auctions. Now, however, they have decided to liquidate their holdings and the auction’s size and scope will be the hobby’s biggest collection to go on the auction block since Barry Halper’s collection was sold by Sotheby’s in 1999.
Due to the size, scope and significance of the Dreier Collection, it will take nearly two years and several sale events to publicly offer all of the sports-related material, according to Legendary Auctions. The Dreier Collection will be sold in a combination of private treaty, online events and live auctions. The private treaty sale is scheduled to begin immediately and will feature vintage sports items that offer once-in-a-lifetime collecting opportunities including:
• One of the finest T206 Honus Wagner cards in the hobby, graded PSA VG-EX 4
• The only known uncut sheet of S81 Turkish Trophy silk premiums
• Unheard-of complete sets of the 1888 Joseph Hall Cabinets and 1914 Boston Garters
• The most comprehensive assembly of 1898 Cameo Pepsin celluloid pins
• Elite Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax game jerseys
“It is a collection that commands every adjective you can think of – impeccable, amazing, phenomenal, diverse, top quality,” said Legendary’s president and CEO Doug Allen. “Even the most seasoned collector will be blown away by the collection’s depth, breadth and level of completeness.”
The Dreier Group paid $1.19 million for the five items, which included Gibson’s home run bat from Game 1 of the 1988 World Series ($575,912.40) and his game-worn jersey ($303,277.20), his batting helmet ($153,388.80), NL Most Valuable Player Award ($110,293.20) and World Series trophy ($45,578.40).
For all intents and purposes, the Dreier Collection owes its existence to the Tooth Fairy. More than 50 years ago, five packs of 1950s Topps left under a pillow in exchange for a lost tooth sparked the collecting instinct within Chad Dreier.
If Dreier’s name is familiar, it may be more for his tenure as President, CEO and Board Chairman of the Fortune 500 Company The Ryland Group than for his collecting efforts. Between 1993 and 2009, Dreier nearly doubled Ryland’s annual production (from 8,000 homes to more than 15,000) and increasing its total revenues from approximately $1 billion to $4 billion.
Dreier quietly constructed one of the world’s premier collections of sports cards and memorabilia outside the corporate limelight with little or no media fanfare. In fact, very few people beyond Dreier’s intimate circle were aware of, let alone had direct access to, the private museum where Chad and his son Doug curated the burgeoning collection.
Friends, family, business associates and celebrities including Ernie Banks, John Wooden, Kobe Bryant, Tim Brown, Roy Williams, Kirk Douglas and Gene Simmons have viewed the collection but it will now return to the hobby at large.
“It sounds cliché but it’s true,” said Chad Dreier. “It is just time. Maintaining a collection of this caliber and size requires a considerable amount of energy that I want to put other places at this stage in my life. I can’t think of a better thing to do with our collection at this point than make it available for other collectors to appreciate.”
“We are excited that the public offering of our collection will enable a much broader base of collectors to enjoy these historic items,” added Doug, who was instrumental in the museum’s formation, execution, operation and acquisitions. “To date, more than 10,000 visitors have had private viewings, but with the public sale many more will be able to enjoy it as we have.”e size
After working with Legendary over the past eighteen months to sell millions of dollars of items that were not part of the Museum display, Chad Dreier opted to sell the family’s collection with the help of the Chicago-based auction company. “I have dealt with all the auction houses out there as I amassed the collection,” said Chad Dreier. “Based on relationships that my family has developed with Doug Allen and the team at Legendary Auctions they were the natural choice. I am confident my collection is in good hands and will be presented in the best possible light to the hobby’s most passionate collectors.”
Auction events will be announced over the next two years and will be offered as one-day online events attached to Legendary Auctions’ regular auction calendar. Special private treaty sales and live auctions may also be conducted to showcase unique themed portions of the collection.
“We are excited and honored to bring the Dreier Collection to the hobby,” said Allen. “The sale of the collection holdings will be bittersweet, but we are committed to present it in a manner that will maximize the return for the family while paying tribute to a hobby veteran who built one of the finest collections ever assembled.”
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