Sports Memorabilia Gone Wild!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Babe Ruth ‘called shot' jersey sells for record $24 million at auction



[FIMG=444]https://cdn.theathletic.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1440%2cquality=75%2cformat=auto/https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2024/08/25094659/babe-ruth-jersey-auction-1-1024x683.jpg[/FIMG]



The jersey was first sold in 1990 for $150,000.00



Excerpt:

A New York Yankees jersey said to be worn by Babe Ruth in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series sold for $24.12 million at a Heritage Auction on early Sunday morning, smashing the record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia in history. The road jersey was photo matched by multiple sources to Game 3 at Wrigley Field — when Ruth hit two home runs, including the famed, and debunked, “called shot” — though one leading photomatching company was not able to “match” the jersey after multiple attempts in recent years, sparking a conversation before the sale. The previous record price for a game-worn piece of memorabilia was a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which sold for $10.1 million in 2022, while the most expensive price for any sports collectible sold at auction was $12.6 million for a Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card that sold the same year. This specific Ruth jersey was last sold at auction in 2005 when it went for $940,000. It was originally discovered around 1990 when a well-known collector purchased it from a woman in Florida. According to the official story, the woman's father had received the jersey from Ruth after a round of golf. The collector sold the jersey to another private collector for $150,000. In 1999, the jersey was consigned back to Grey Flannel Auctions and advertised for auction as a 1930 Ruth road uniform. It sold for $284,000 and was eventually loaned to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore. When the jersey returned to Grey Flannel in 2005, the company elected to do additional research, which is how it first became advertised as the uniform Ruth was wearing on Oct. 1, 1932, the day of the “called shot.” The attribution to Game 3 was heavily debated at the time, but the recent rise of photomatching as a method of verification gave more credence to its connection to the “called shot” game. Chris Ivy, the director of sports at Heritage, called the jersey “the most significant piece of American sports memorabilia ever offered at auction.” go-deeper

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5722039/2024/08/25/babe-ruth-jersey-called-shot-auction/https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5722039/2024/08/25/babe-ruth-jersey-called-shot-auction/



Steve Cohen purchased the Mookie/Buckner baseball for $450,000.00 years ago. That ball should fetch $5M today, easily. Maybe twice as much -- $10M. Who knows? All it takes is two determined multibillionaire bidders who really want that ball and for whom $5M to them is like a pizza pie to us regular folk.

[Edgy MD]

It had been something like the centerpiece of The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum's small collection.



I'm guessing it won't be loaned back to them after being purchased at that price.

[batmagadanleadoff]

“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this incredible piece of American history, and I am proud that it will now be part of one of the finest private collections in the world,” [ivy, Director of the auction house] said in a statement after the sale.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cohen himself bought the jersey.

[ashie62]

It won't be Seth McFarlane or Charlie Sheen

[Frayed Knot]

Sports memorabilia is a weird business.

There's nothing tangible that made that jersey explode 160-fold (150K to $24M) and there's no guarantee that it won't reverse course the other way.

It's all entirely based on what people think it might be worth down the road mixed with a healthy dose of ego-boost in bidding that high to begin with.

[rchurch314]

“It has been an honor and a privilege to work with this incredible piece of American history, and I am proud that it will now be part of one of the finest private collections in the world,” [ivy, Director of the auction house] said in a statement after the sale. I wouldn't be surprised if Cohen himself bought the jersey.

he is an expert in that wall street grift of making the act of purchasing something instantly increase that thing in value, so yeah maybe.



When you distill it down, that's really all collectables are in general. "That's a thing I want, therefore it must be worth something" and then "that's a thing someone else wants so it must be worth something therefore I must want it too"



And this is why Fanatics can hold ridiculous grifter events like they just held.

[MFS62]

We have two Seaver bobble head dolls.(in original unopened packages)

After reading the story about the Ruth jersey, my wife decided to check out the bh dolls.

She saw the price is $399 each.



Ya never know.

Later

[metirish]

I guess that person really wanted it