Gold Magazine January - February 2014, Issue 34 | Page 80

investing in sports memorabilia

Sports by Numbers

S

ports fans are dispersed
far and wide, ardently
committed to a variety
of sporting pursuits, as
well as acquiring items
of importance from their chosen
field: the following selection of
some of the most prominent sales
in ten different sporting arenas
serves as full-proof testament
to that.

Baseball

With largely an
American following, key players in
the history of baseball
are shown a reverence in the US akin to
that imparted to royalty. Babe Ruth, many
will attest, has long reigned as
king of the game, and therefore
(somewhat) explains one fan paying an astonishing €4.4 million
in 2012 for one of the earliest
jersey worn by the baseball great:
a circa 1920 New York Yankees
road model donned during his
first season following his departure from the Red Sox team.

Basketball

Perhaps there is no greater representation of Michael Jordan’s
illustrious career than when he
stepped onto the court on June
11, 1997, ill with a high fever.
Despite his ailing physical state,
Jordan nevertheless scored an
impressive 38 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, to not
only claim victory for his team, the
Chicago Bulls, but also to establish one of the best games of his
career. Following the match, Jordan signed his shoes, which were
kept for 16 years before being
put up for auction at Grey Flannel
Auctions on December 11, 2013.
They sold for $105,000. The ‘flu
game’ shoes more than comfortably superseded the previous
record for game-worn
shoes, which stood
at $31,000.

Boxing

Voted as being one of the
top sportsmen
of the century, Muhammad Ali endures as a symbol
of power and force. His boxing
gloves – used against opponent
Floyd Patterson in 1965, in the
heavyweight title fight of that year
in Las Vegas, Nevada – sold for a
commendable $1.1 million. Many
believed that Ali (then Cassius
Clay) prolonged the fight, only
delivering the knockout punch in
the 12th round, as retribution for
taunts previously delivered by
Patterson.

Cricket

William Gilbert
(‘W. G.’) Grace,
born in 1948, is
esteemed by historians as being
one of the most
important cricketers in the sport’s
history, lending
to its development and later prominence. A bat
used by Grace to knock up his
first top-class century has been
valued at £80,000. As property of
the Lords Cricket Club, it is not
expected that this prized antique
will go under the hammer anytime
soon.

Football

Football: played
in the majority of countries
worldwide, and
considered to
be one of the
world’s most
popular sports.
The Sheffield
Rules – a football code detailing
the intricacies of the rules, and
considered as being the earliest
instruction on the sport – was
originally hand-written in 1857
in the English city of Sheffield,

goods at auction for investment purposes,
rather than take the current interest rates.
Indicating, furthermore, to the changing
face of sports memorabilia, Trevor VennettSmith, owner of Nottingham-based specialist
sports auctioneer Vennett-Smith, relates:
“Prices have gone up tremendously. People
often comment that this is an old man’s
game. Yet if this is true, a new generation

devised by Nathaniel Creswick
and William Prest. Described as
an important historical document,
the pamphlet sold to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby’s in 2011
for a respectable $1.4 million.

Formula 1

The helmet worn
by Sebastian
Vettel, winner of the
Formula 1
Championship for four consecutive years from 2010 until
the present, sold at a Bonhams
auction on December 9, 2013 for
a record $118,000. The signed
helmet was worn at this year’s
Nurburgring Grand Prix, which
also constituted German driver
Vettel’s first home victory. Put up
for auction with profits to benefit
the Wings for Life charity, the sale
represents the most expensive
helmet ever sold.

Golf

Golf is a niche
yet strong market, and fans
have proven
their zeal, with
one paying
$310,000 for
golfing great Bobby Jones’ green
jacket from the Augusta National
Golf Club, which hosts the annual Masters tournament. Sold
at Heritage Auctions in the US in
2011, the final price paid for the
jacket, featuring Jones’ initials on
the inside, was more than triple
that of the pre-sale estimate of
$100,000.

Ice Hockey

A jersey worn during the 1972
Summit Series games by Canada’s celebrated ice hockey player
Paul Henderson, sold in 2010
for $1.275 million. Henderson is
praised for having scored the winning goals in 3 out of the 8 games

is coming up as prices continue to soar.”
Vennett-Smith credits the Internet with having helped to bridge the gap between sports
memorabilia and the up-and-coming generations, with renewed interest in football, in
particular, being related, seeing early caps,
shirts, blazers, and medals jumping as much
as four times in value over the past five years.
Experts further detail that emerging markets

80 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus

played
in the
Soviet
Union,
leading the
Canadian
team to victory. Overall, Henderson has
played over 1,000 games in
Major League Hockey, scoring
758 points. Of all of his feats, the
Summit Series endures as the
highlight of his career.

Rugby

In spite of fervent rugby fans, rugby memorabilia has maintained
a low profile over the
years. Whilst items of
value may be found
– a 1906 blazer worn
in the South African
Springbok’s first tour
of Britain reportedly amassed £8,000 – prices
of key items are still modest in
comparison to their counterparts
under other