Got to thinking about this reading the thread about the Babe’s HR #714:
What would be the most valuable piece of sports memorabilia if it could legitimately be proven as the real thing? I’m thinking of something like an ancient piece of paper with the first known rules of baseball on it that was previously never known to still exist, or shoes from a runner in a really, really early Olympic games (I know, they ran barefoot).
Or, a related question, is there a known valuable piece of sports memorabilia that no one can seem to find anymore? Something that was proven to still exist, say 60 years ago, but no one knows what happened to it? Maybe a “Black Betsy” that no one can track down?
Since we seem to know a lot about the ancient Olympics already, I don’t know what we’ll be able to find that we haven’t before.
Finding an early copy of the rules of baseball will be of interest to scholars, but probably won’t have a big resale value. And since baseball evolved from different games, I don’t know what you can find.
The worth of sports memorabilia is set by the market and rarity is usually a factor. The rare Honus Wagner baseball card would still fetch a lot at auction. Joe Jackson’s bat sold for several hundred thousand dollars on eBay. (forgot the exact amount.)
If tape recorders existed at the time and someone had taped the initial discussions between the gamblers and Chick Gandil before the 1919 World Series, then you would be in business.
I think it might be the veil that The Virgin Mary wore when she make the winning touchdown in Super Bowl .XXXXXXII. Final Score: Hebrews 38, Romans 3:7.
It’s been called “The Hail Mary Pass” ever since.
[sub]Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk…[/sub]
But that sounds too low to be a record. Maybe a record for Ruth memorabilia? I thought I heard a news story on CNN today that Shoeless Joe’s bat sold for a record price, but I didn’t catch the price and can’t locate anything on the web.
I don’t recall the exact price but I heard on the news that the starting price was $500k for Shoeless Joe’s bat. There were only two bidders and the end price was less than 600k, like 575 or so.
On the same news segment, I think they mentioned some memorabilia going for over a million bucks, possibly that Honus Wagner card, not sure. It wasn’t during the latest auction that this occured though.
I found a reference to a racecar projected to sell for $3.5 million. It’s a Porsche 917K, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970. Some other car may have had sold for more at some point, that’s just the highest I could find with a brief search.