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$7M ‘Holy Grails’ Auction Is a Home Run
Across 32 lots, Sotheby’s and Fanatics Collect’s first auction dedicated exclusively to trading cards had an impressive average value of $218,138.
T uesday 24 September was a night of firsts. It was the night of Holy Grails, Sotheby’s and Fanatics Collect’s first sale dedicated to trading cards, and the auction house’s first to be held inside a church.
At the Harlem Parish, a remodeled upper Manhattan church, New York Yankees organist Ed Alstrom piped Kendrick Lamar while a concession stand handed out popcorn to bidders and fans.
Auctioneers David Pollack and Kimberly Pirtle took the rostrum on a stage resembling a baseball field.
The auction opened with a home run. A one-of-a-kind 2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Autographs Superfractor rookie card of current Los Angeles Dodger Shohei Ohtani (right) smashed its high estimate of $120,000 when it passed the block at $336,000, setting a new record for the man who’s arguably baseball’s greatest active player. “I think my favorite thing in the sale was, in a way, the Ohtani card,” Brahm Wachter, head of Sneakers, Sports Memorabilia & Modern Collectibles at Sotheby’s, told The Athletic. “It’s why I put it in lot one.”
Other sales were more personal, closer to home. Robert Kraft walked away with a 2000 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph card of none other than Tom Brady, the quarterback who led Kraft’s New England Patriots for 20 seasons.
All told, 32 lots sold for a total of $7 million. The leading lot was a 1955 Topps rookie card of baseball legend Roberto Clemente.
A 1948 Leaf #79 rookie card commemorating Jackie Robinson’s historic rookie year fetched $312,000. Poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips wrote that the card, “in its quiet way, pays homage to Robinson’s shattering of baseball’s longstanding racial barriers.”
The auction marked Sotheby’s partnership with Fanatics Collect, whose CEO Michael Rubin was in attendance alongside a number of other stars: Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Logan Paul, sports journalist Taylor Rooks, artist Rashid Johnson, former NBA center Tacko Fall, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro and more.
In addition to sports cards, Holy Grails also featured a curated selection of Pokémon cards, led by a Promo Illustrator Holo Pikachu that achieved $360,000.
