The shoes worn by Michael Jordan during one of his most famous NBA Finals performances sold for $1.38 million at auction Wednesday night.
The “flu game” shoes were originally acquired by a Utah Jazz ball boy and signed by Jordan after he overcame what’s now believed to be food poisoning to score 38 points and lead the Chicago Bulls past the Jazz in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals in Salt Lake City. The Bulls went on to capture their fifth title in the Jordan era.
The selling price made for a hefty profit for the consignor, who had bought them for $104,000 in a 2013 auction.
The shoes headlined the Goldin 100 auction of high-end collectibles.
Also crossing the $1 million mark in the auction was a 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket Tom Brady autographed rookie card (#066/100) graded BGS MINT 9 with a 10 autograph grade. The $1.2 million paid by the buyer was half of what a card in the same grade sold for in October of last year.
Collector Rob Gough, who won the Wayne Gretzky final point jersey over the weekend, snared Kobe Bryant’s jersey from Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Finals for $462,000.
Among the items sold in the auction:
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2003-04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Rookie Patch Autograph #78 LeBron James Rookie Patch Auto (#25/99) – BGS GEM MINT 9.5, Beckett 10 $912,000
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2004-05 UD Exquisite Collection Dual NBA Logo Autographed Patches LeBron James/Kobe Bryant Dual-Signed Game-Used Logoman Patch Card (#1/1) – PSA Authentic, PSA/DNA GEM MT 10 Auto $840,000
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1955 Topps Roberto Clemente rookie card PSA 9 $792,000
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1954 Topps Hank Aaron rookie card PSA 9 $600,000
- 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Red Refractor Mike Trout (#3/5) PSA 10 $510,000.
Two early Superman comic books sold for $1.62 and $1.5 million.
A Ty Cobb bat, photo matched to use during his final season with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1928, failed to meet the reserve price, despite bids well in excess of $1 million. Without the reserve, the bat would have become the third Cobb bat to sell for more than $1 million since last November and the most expensive bat ever sold.
The record price was set a little over two months ago, when Hunt Auctions says it brokered the sale of a 1920s era Babe Ruth bat for $1.85 million.
A second bat tied to use by a baseball icon also fell short of the seller’s seven-figure reserve–a Jackie Robinson model acquired by a family attending the 1955 World Series between Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
Complete results are here.
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