With player collections, historic items consigned by collectors and stacks of rare and high-grade sports cards in tow, Heritage Auctions has opened its Fall Sports Collectibles Auction. The 4,200-lot event is too large for one catalog: it’s a four-volume set that will be delivered to collectors around the world beginning next week. Online bidding is already open.
Among the key items is a New York Yankees road jersey worn by Mickey Mantle during the 1954 season, the first in which he drove in more than 100 runs. The button down grey flannel represents one of the very few Mantle jerseys still available for public sale, and one of the earliest known to exist.
The jersey is autographed by Mantle in the collar. It’s expected to sell for $800,000 or more and as of Thursday afternoon, had a high bid of $270,00.
The auction features several collections sourced from former players or their families including over hundreds of pieces from the careers of Baseball Hall of Famers Al Kaline and Lou Brock, Los Angeles Rams’ Hall of Fame defensive end Jack Youngblood, and Scott Williams, a member of the first Chicago Bulls team to win a title.
A 1946 jersey once donned by Mantle’s predecessor as the chief Yankee idol of the mid-20th century is also up for grabs. The autographed Joe DiMaggio jersey has been matched to photos from Opening Day that season after DiMaggio returned from military service.
There are other jerseys from baseball immortals, among them: a 1956 Stan Musial game-worn and signed St. Louis Cardinals jersey, which was used only during that season; and a photo-matched Harmon Killebrew game-worn Minnesota Twins jersey from the franchise’s debut season in 1961.
The auction also includes a signed Walter Johnson baseball dating to the 1924 World Series, the lone championship season of the Hall of Fame pitcher’s 21-year career.
There’s Babe Ruth’s signed and inscribed 571st career home run baseball, one blasted off Philadelphia Athletics ace Rube Walberg on May 24, 1931. Ruth didn’t merely autograph the keepsake: On either side of the signature he wrote “No 6” and “May 24, 1931.”
There are more than three dozen championship rings, among them a 1991 Chicago Bulls ring from the collection of Scott Williams, then a rookie power forward. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Alvin Harper’s Super Bowl XXVII and XXVIII rings are up for sale too, as well as the 2018 World Series ring presented to Boston Red Sox pitcher Austin Maddox; and the 1960 Stanley Cup ring presented to Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
Among the more than 2,000 cards, among them a PSA 9 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson and a PSA 8 1948-49 Leaf Robinson rookie card, a PSA 8 1951 Bowman Mantle rookie, a PSA 9 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax rookie and an SGC 10 copy of Derek Jeter’s 1993 Upper Deck SP. And, of course, no sports auction is complete now without Michael Jordan’s 1986 Fleer rookie, this time an SGC 10.
Numerous Tom Brady rookie cards and tickets from his debut, his first NFL start and his first career touchdown pass, all of them signed by the future Hall of Famer.
The auction is set to close over a three night span, November 18-20.
