• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
    • Advertise with SC Daily
    • Write for Sports Collectors Daily
    • Write About Your Sports Collection
    • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?
  • Hot on eBay
    • Most Watched Graded Rookies
    • Most Watched PSA 10 Cards
    • Most Watched BGS, BVG Cards
    • Most Watched SGC Cards
    • Most Watched CSG,CGC Cards
    • Most Watched Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2023 Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2022 Baseball Rookie Cards
      • Bowman Chrome Cards
      • Ronald Acuna Jr. Cards
      • Shohei Ohtani Cards
      • Mike Trout Cards
      • Fernando Tatis Jr. Cards
      • Babe Ruth Cards
      • Hank Aaron Cards
      • Jackie Robinson Cards:
      • Mickey Mantle Cards
      • Willie Mays Cards
      • Vintage Baseball Card Sets
      • T206 Cards
    • Most Watched Basketball
      • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2022-23 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2021-22 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2020-21 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2019-20 NBA Rookie Cards
        • Zion Williamson Rookie Cards
        • Ja Morant Rookie Cards
      • Michael Jordan Cards
      • Kobe Bryant Cards
      • LeBron James Rookie Cards
      • Nikola Jokic Rookie Cards
      • Giannis Antetokounmpo Cards
      • Luka Doncic Rookie Cards
      • Prizm Basketball Cards
      • Panini National Treasures
    • Most Watched Football Cards
      • Most Watched NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2022 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Brock Purdy Rookie Cards
      • 2021 NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2020 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Joe Burrow Rookie Cards
        • Justin Herbert Rookie Cards
        • Jalen Hurts Rookie Cards
      • Josh Allen Rookie Cards
      • Patrick Mahomes Rookie Cards
      • Tom Brady Cards
    • Most Watched Hockey Cards
      • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2021-22 NHL Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2020-21 Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2019-20 Rookie Cards
      • Connor McDavid Cards
      • Wayne Gretzky Cards
      • Bobby Orr Cards
    • Most Watched Soccer Cards
    • Most Watched UFC Cards
    • Most Watched Golf Cards
    • Most Watched 1 of 1 Cards
    • Most Watched Racing Cards
    • Top Sports Card Dealers on eBay
    • Most Watched Memorabilia
      • Vintage Sports Memorabilia
    • Vintage Sports Tickets, Stubs
    • Most Watched Autographs
  • Ending Soon on Ebay
    • Baseball Cards
    • Basketball Cards
    • Football Cards
    • Hockey Cards
    • Soccer Cards
    • Golf Cards
    • UFC Cards
  • Top - Ad

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports collecting news - Sports cards and sports memorabilia industry news.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
      • Shop Talk
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Affordable Vintage Cards, Collectibles
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • Around The Hobby
    • Editor’s Blog
    • David Cycleback’s Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Popular Stories
  • Sell Your Cards
You are here: Home / Business/Industry News / Sports Memorabilia Industry News / Sports Collecting Year in Review, Part 2: Record Setters and Great Finds

Sports Collecting Year in Review, Part 2: Record Setters and Great Finds

December 30, 2022 By Rich Mueller

Some would say a baseball card should always hold the top ranking among the highest priced sports memorabilia, but if 2022 tells us anything, it’s that Honus and Mickey can peacefully co-exist with soccer jerseys, boxing belts and tickets to watch Michael Jordan play basketball.

There were plenty of seven-figure sales this past year—even an eight figure one—and while cards still dominated the landscape, there was a feeding frenzy for some other cool pieces, too.

In Part 1 of our sports collecting year in review, we covered some of the business news from the hobby –and some of the criminal activity. Today, it’s about the stuff that sold for big bucks and some of the incredible collections of cards that entered the hobby for the first time.

Big Deals

If you wanted a T206 Wagner and had the money to bid, you had plenty of chances.  In April, the Wagner with perhaps the best story behind it, sold for $3.1 million. How many others can say they once belonged to Charlie Sheen, went on display at a restaurant owned by stars and then got stolen?

Two more sold later in the year, including an SGC 2 that changed hands privately for $7.25 million.

Mint Mickey Mantle rookies only hit the market once in a blue moon, partly because there aren’t many of them. When one finally hit the block in the fall, bidders circled like sharks.  The winning bid at Memory Lane was nearly $3.2 million, nearly four times the old record.

There were multiple modern cards that changed hands for $2 million and up including the November sale of the 2018 National Treasures Luka Doncic Logoman Patch Autograph that netted over $3.1 million. That’s a lot, but if he makes a habit of 60-point triple doubles…

Of course, the granddaddy of all card sales was the wild war that raged over the SGC 9.5 1952 Topps Mantle that sold at Heritage Auctions for $12.6 million, a new record not just for a trading card but for any piece of sports memorabilia. It broke the trading card record that had been set just three weeks earlier by the SGC 2 Wagner.

The price broke a record set earlier in the year when Sotheby’s sold the jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored perhaps the two most famous goals in World Cup history for over $9.2 million, blowing past the $5 million+ pre-sale estimate.

2022 saw the first million dollar soccer card sale when a PSA 9 1959 Alifabolaget Pele found a new home for $1.3 million.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay continued his efforts to gobble up historic items with the purchase of Muhammad Ali’s WBC championship belt, awarded after the boxing icon reclaimed boxing’s heavyweight title with a 1974 knockout of George Foreman. Irsay, who takes his traveling museum of artifacts to various cities during the year, spent $6.18 million.

The buyer was Indianapolis Colts owner and avid collector Jim Irsay.

Golf memorabilia took a big leap forward in 2022.

A set of irons used by Tiger Woods joined the ranks of the most valuable pieces of sports memorabilia in April when Golden Age Golf Auctions sold them for over $5.1 million. 

Used by Woods during a stretch of play in 2000 and 2001 when he won four consecutive major championships, the Titleist irons and two wedges also set a record for the most expensive golf memorabilia lot ever sold.

That same auction saw Ben Hogan’s MacGregor set from 1953, when he won three of the four Majors and all five tournaments he entered, sell for nearly $247,000.

A full week pass to the first Masters tournament in 1934, autographed by 17 of the 61 players who competed, sold privately in March for $600,000, setting a new record for the most paid for a collectible sports ticket.

The ticket market also saw one of seven known ticket stubs from Jackie Robinson’s big-league debut in the spring of 1947 go for $480,000. The same auction held the only known full ticket from Michael Jordan’s NBA debut in October 1984. It netted $468,000. 

That ticket was kept in a manila envelope for 37 years before being authenticated and encapsulated by PSA. It belonged to Michael Cole, who hung onto it after he couldn’t find anyone to accompany him to the Oct. 26, 1984, game at Chicago Stadium.

The game-worn sector also grew noticeably in 2022.  Among the top pieces:  A jersey worn by Michael Jordan in Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals— the Chicago Bulls’ “Last Dance” season.  The photomatched shirt soared to $10.1 million at Sotheby’s.

A jersey photo matched to use by Kobe Bryant during some of the first playoff games in his career brought over $2.7 million through SCP Auctions in June.  

Awesome Finds

Work as a dealer or an auction company and you’ll sometimes get a chance to lay eyes on some phenomenal collections that have never been graded…

We just took in this incredible raw collection at the Long Island National 😮 It will be coming up in our Summer Card Auction pic.twitter.com/IuK6b9fpnd

— Heritage Auctions Sports (@Heritage_Sport) April 23, 2022

Actually, it was kind of the “year of the Goudey and tobacco find.”  Some descendants of Goudey Gum employees had hung on to a stash of 1930s cards including high-grade copies of Babe Ruth’s quartet of cards in the set, Lou Gehrig and a couple of the Nap Lajoie rarities. They wound up at auction, too.

Another family collection of Goudey and other 1930s cards surfaced in the fall. This time, Just Collect got the call from Arizona and arrived to find a pair of brothers with a mind blowing stash of Ruth, Gehrig and others.

Then there were the tobacco cards.  Jeff Weisenberg of National Card Investors finally landed a deal from a family heirloom stash of T206s that included 16 Ty Cobb cards and a Sherry Magie. Not long after that, another big group walked in, including a bunch of rare backs.

During the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, a dream like hoard of T206 and other tobacco cards arrived at the Goldin Auctions booth. 

There were thousands of raw T206s including hundreds of Hall of Famers, most tucked in 800-count boxes. 

Maybe next year it’ll be your turn.  We should all be so lucky.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Facebook Messenger

Related Stories:

Notes: Record for EX/MT Mantle as Brady Wobbles; Wagner Update; Pristine-Beckett Partner; NFL Jersey Auction for Ian Relief; More WBC Championship belt Muhammad AliAli’s Rumble in the Jungle Belt Sells for $6.18 Million Tiger Woods’ Clubs from 2000-01 ‘Slam’ Run Sell for $5.1 Million Finds and Revelations: 2019 Sports Collecting Year in Review (Part I) Notes: The Athletic Visits Panini; Wagner Update; Charity Jersey Auctions; Holiday Sales Notes: Huge Mantle Collection; Rookie Card Update; OJ Signing Already Notes: Wagner, Vintage Wax Update; NM Mantle RC Sale Honus Wagner card T206 SGC 10Wagner, Ruth, Mantle Top Sellers at REA

About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for over 40 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected].

Filed Under: Popular Stories, Sports Memorabilia Industry News Tagged With: 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC, Diego Maradona, great finds, Jim Irsay, Michael Jordan tickets, t206 honus wagner, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods clubs

Primary Sidebar

Our articles may contain affiliate links. When you click on links to merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

Shop Sports Cards on Ebay
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • Hockey

High End Cards and Memorabilia

  • BBCE Authenticated Boxes, Packs opens in a new window
  • Graded pre-War Card eBay Auctions
  • PWCC Premier Auction
  • PWCC Fixed Price Marketplace
  • Graded Rookie Cards on eBay opens in a new window
  • Authenticated Photos on eBay opens in a new window
  • Graded Tickets & Stubs opens in a new window

Bargain Corner

  • Michael Jordan cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Kobe Bryant cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Mickey Mantle Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Graded T206 Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Pre-War Cards Under $100 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Baseball Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Football Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Basketball Cards $25 and less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Hockey Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Complete Sets $20 and Less opens in a new window
  • Baseball Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Football Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Hobby Boxes Under $30 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1986 Rookie Cards Under $1 opens in a new window
  • Buy Boxes Directly from Topps opens in a new window

RSS Auction Report

  • Consignments Wanted – Meet Huggins & Scott at the Philly Show This Weekend
  • Heritage Auctions Icons Photography Auction Ends October 12, 2023
  • Steve Novella Offers PSA Baseball, Football & Non-Sport Cards Auction Ending Sept. 28, 2023

Footer

Categories

  • Around the Hobby
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • David Cycleback's Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Editor's Blog
  • Featured Articles
  • Hobby Shop Talk
  • National Sports Collectors Convention
  • Popular Stories
  • Rich Klein's Ramblings
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Uncategorized

Sponsor Links

  • Sports Card Forumopens in a new window
  • Buying Vintage Sports Cardsopens in a new window
  • Game Used Jerseysopens in a new window
  • Championship Rings For Saleopens in a new window
  • Vintage Basketball Cardsopens in a new window
  • NBA Signed Itemsopens in a new window
  • Autographed Baseballsopens in a new window
  • NASCAR Autographsopens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Baseball Cardsopens in a new window
  • Player Picturesopens in a new window
  • Vintage Football Cardsopens in a new window
  • Sports Collectors Storeopens in a new window

Pages

Ending on eBay Soon
  • Baseball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Basketball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Football Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Hockey Card Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
  • Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay Ending Soon
Top 100 on Ebay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Baseball Rookie Cards on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Card Auctions
  • Top Authenticated Vintage Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
Most Watched on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Graded Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Tom Brady Card Auctions on eBay
  • 50 Hottest Hobby Boxes at Auction on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Golf Trading Cards on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Wrestling Trading Cards on eBay
  • 75 Most Watched Bowman Chrome Cards
  • Most Popular Bobbleheads on eBay
  • Most Watched 1/1 Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Basketball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Complete Baseball Card Sets at Auction on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Rookie Card Auctions
  • Most Watched Goudey Baseball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Hockey Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Racing Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Soccer Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Autographs on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Jerseys on eBay
  • Most Watched Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
  • Most Watched Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay
  • Hottest Panini National Treasures Cards on eBay
  • Hottest PSA 10 Cards for Sale on eBay
  • What’s Hot on eBay
Sports Memorabilia
  • Sports Card Bargain Bin
  • Sports Memorabilia Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
About Sports Collectors Daily
  • Advertise with SC Daily
  • Contact Us
  • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Sell Your Cards
  • What’s It Worth
  • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?

Copyright © 2023 SportsCollectorsDaily.com | Web Design by Wickam Groupopens in a new window