While Anthony Edwards and Caitlin Clark are taking over the ultra-modern card and memorabilia markets, key cards from the 1914 Cracker Jack set also realized big prices over the weekend.
Here's a glance at this weekend's top auction results, with analysis from cllct's Will Stern and Darren Rovell.
Anthony Edwards game-worn rookie jersey
Price: $118,978
A jersey worn by Anthony Edwards during his fourth career game sold for $118,978 at Goldin over the weekend. In October 2021, Goldin sold the same jersey for just $8,400.
Stern: Apparently all it takes to drive a player’s memorabilia market is a comparison to Kobe Bryant and conspiracy theories that he is the unacknowledged son of Michael Jordan. What’s even crazier than the rise of this jersey from 2021 to 2024 is the recent sale of a game-worn jersey from Edwards' third career game for $65,880 at Goldin just weeks ago.
2024 Bowman U Now Autographs Caitlin Clark
Price: $15,860
Just days after her first card as a professional sold for $10,000, Goldin sold an inscribed "NCAA Women's All-Time Scoring Champ" 1/1 card for $15,860, marking Clark’s fourth-most expensive card sale.
Stern: What more can we say about the insatiable desire for high-end Clark cards? My only real question here is whether it will be further fueled by a dominant showing in the WNBA or hampered if her star power possibly fades?
Rovell: I was underwhelmed by the lack of attention to Clark on her preseason debut, and I maintain that staying at Iowa would have been better for her stardom and collectibles market.
Stern: I think Rovell is missing the mark here by placing importance on her preseason debut. Who cares about preseason? Not me.
1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle (PSA 8)
Price: $79,598.40
This $79,598.40 sale of Mantle’s third-year card (issued one year after his iconic 1952 Topps card), represents just the eighth comparable sale of a PSA 8 (population: 96) in the past two years. It’s the lowest price paid for the card in this grade during that period, over which CardLadder shows a 21.25% decline in price.
Stern: This is a standout example that could be worrisome to Mantle collectors (and maybe even post-war vintage collectors). This card is a beauty, with what I find to be among the most beautiful illustrations of Mantle on a card ever produced, yet it appears to be in decline despite the strength of the market for his ’52 Topps.
Is this indicative of a narrowing demand for Mantle, slowly honing in on his 1952 Topps alone? Something to keep an eye on.
1914 Cracker Jack #88 Christy Mathewson (SGC 3)
Price: $145,905.60
This iconic example of one of Mathewson’s most sought-after cards sold for $145,905.60. This is the first sale of the card in any grade since November 2022, when Heritage sold one of the other SGC 3 examples for $117,000. This also marks a record sale for the grade and the second-highest sale of the card overall (beaten out by the $312,000 paid for a PSA 5 example at Heritage in January 2022).
1914 Cracker Jack #103 Shoeless Joe Jackson (SGC 4)
Price: $90,967.20
Among just 74 examples graded across SGC, PSA and Beckett, this card is incredibly rare to see at public auction, let alone in SGC 4 condition. The $90,967.20 sale represents the first time the card has changed hands in any grade since October 2022, when a PSA 5 copy sold for $105,100.
Behind only that sale, this marks the second-highest price paid for the card in any condition.
Stern: Both of the above Cracker Jack sales show strength for pre-war vintage as well as iconic cards from iconic sets. The imagery on the 1914 Cracker Jack cards are in a neck-and-neck race with the T206 set as far as aesthetics are concerned for any issue from the era, in my opinion.
Rovell: I get why these early vintage cards are popping. If you were to look at the winner or winners, I bet the buyer is in the 55- to 70-year-old range. I get the low pops, but at these prices, I do worry about future relevance.
2008 Wimbledon Rafael Nadal match-used racket
Price: $12,660
Goldin sold a racket used by Nadal during his 2008 Wimbledon run, the first Wimbledon title of his career, for $12,660 over the weekend. The racket holds a MEARS authentic LOA but no photo-match, which means it could have been used during any one of the matches during the tournament (and for any length of time).
Stern: Another example of the immaturity of the tennis memorabilia market affecting the value of possible grails. Rackets are notoriously difficult to photo-match, leaving buyers unwilling to bet on a piece that has the chance to hold incredibly significant meaning (in this case, an attachment to one of the most thrilling Grand Slam victories of Nadal’s career).
Last month, The Tennis Auction’s ability to successfully photo-match the championship point-winning racket from Nadal’s 2007 French Open victory against Federer powered it to a record $118,206.00 sale.
1984 Michael Jordan first NBA workout Type 1 photo
Price: $15,982
This image was originally captioned: “Doing stretching exercises during his first workout with the Chicago Bulls 9/28 is Michael Jordan, 21, both 1983 and 1984 College Player of the Year from North Carolina. He also was a star of the 1984 gold-medal winning US Olympic basketball team. He was the Bulls' first round pick. The Bulls exhibition season starts October 5 with Indiana at Peoria, Illinois."
Rovell: If Type 1's take off, this could be a steal. The market however is still very muddy and it's hard to do much without pop reports.
Stern: As Rovell notes, population reports remain the key to this opaque market, however, given the popularity and rarity of game-worn Air Ships (by definition, they were worn during only the earliest games of Jordan’s career), this photo could end up ranking among the top 10 most significant of MJ’s career as far as Type 1s go, and among the absolute pinnacle in the cross section of sneakers and Type 1s.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.