Sam Snead’s 1954 Masters Trophy is back on the auction block and there was a flurry of bidding activity on Tuesday at Green Jacket Auctions. The high bid now sitting at $278,000.
The last Masters trophy to reach the auction block was one of Arnold Palmer’s, which sold through the Boston-based golf memorabilia company for $444,012 in 2016. Since that auction, Green Jacket says it has received inquiries about purchasing Palmer’s trophy at an even higher amount.
Snead’s 1952 Masters trophy sold for $115,525 through Heritage Auctions in 2014.
Classic Auctions says it will offer the same 1950s Bobby Hull jersey sold for $90,000 through Heritage last month in its own upcoming auction—this time with photomatching to the second half of his rookie season of 1957-58, rather than 1958-59. They say it wasn’t used beyond that time frame.
The wool #16 sweater is the earliest Hull gamer ever to be offered publicly. It was originally a 1961 birthday gift to a young Chicago boy whose uncle served as barber for several Black Hawks players. Autographed by the Hall of Famer, it sold for $90,000 in February.
Los Angeles Angels sensation Shohei Ohtani has signed an exclusive autographed memorabilia deal with Topps Authentics, the memorabilia arm of The Topps Company.
The deal follows a baseball card contract Ohtani signed just after leaving Japan to sign with the Angels earlier this winter. His first pack-pulled autographed card appeared in 2018 Topps Heritage Baseball, which is currently in stores.
Ohtani is a rare dual-threat player. In Japan, as a pitcher, he had 624 strikeouts in 543 career innings in the Japan Pacific League, and hit .322 with 30 home runs and 98 RBI in 169 games. He struggled this spring but the Angels believe that in time he’ll become a valuable asset as both a pitcher and hitter.
“We always support Major League Baseball players and have become great partners with a number of athletes over the years,” said David Leiner, Global General Manager of Sports & Entertainment for Topps. “We’re thrilled to work with Ohtani and his team and to see what he will do on the field this year.”
Topps’ autograph signings are witnessed by representatives of Authenticators Inc. Other MLB players who are part of Topps Authentics include Francisco Lindor, Gleyber Torres and Amed Rosario.
Ohtani-signed baseballs, jerseys and bats are already for sale on the Topps website.
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