Diana Moffitt loved her time at St. Gregory School in San Mateo, California.
So, it made sense that, at age 46, she still had her box of memories from her first- to eighth-grade years.
Unlike yearbooks and documents collected by most, Moffitt (known then by her maiden name of Diana Villalobos) knew there might be some value in what she had, but she wasn't quite ready to part with it.
That was until she and her husband got hooked on watching the second season of the Netflix show "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch."
And she soon knew it was time to consider selling one particular keepsake.
The piece in that box possibly worth thousands? The playbill to St. Gregory's 1991 version of "The Wizard of Oz." The famous actor inside the Cowardly Lion? A 13-year-old named Tommy Brady.
She consigned the piece to Goldin Auctions, and it sold Monday night for $10,980.
The playbill features a picture of Brady in a T-shirt featuring Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon and reading, "Look Mom, I Can Fly."
"Our Cowardly Lion is delightfully brought to life through Tommy," the description by his photo reads. "He feels like he has a natural talent as the lion because of his hot temper. Tommy is no coward, although he does a fine job as the flubbery feline. Off-stage, Tommy enjoys sports and, like most lions, he also likes to sleep."
When it came time to audition for roles in Mr. Taverna's eighth-grade class play, Brady was ready.
"He was always a friend and always kind and yes, very confident," remembers Moffitt, who played a munchkin. "And in that outfit, he had to do the skipping in step with everyone else."
Having a picture of Brady as the Lion would be cool, but Moffitt's copy has a signature from a 13-year-old Tommy.
"I remember Mr. Taverna telling us, 'If anyone asks you for your signature, you give it to them!" Moffitt said.
And Moffitt was a memory collector at heart. Inside the playbill, prospective buyers will see not only Brady's signature, but all other 31 children in the show.
After watching the Netflix show, Moffitt called Goldin headquarters in New Jersey and told them what she had, and the auction house happily accepted the consignment. The lot also included St. Gregory's Class of '91 "Prophesies" poetry book, in which seventh graders would write a poem about eighth graders. The unknown seventh grader did pretty well on the predictions:
Tommy Brady what a guy People who know him can see he's not shy. Everyone in the world will know his name Working with money will bring him fame. After settling down with a beautiful wife On a farm in Minnesota, he will spend his life. In the year 2010 Tommy will be The most successful person in eternity.
Brady hasn't shied away from telling people about his role as the Lion. In 2013, for Halloween, he got dressed up as the Lion again with his then-wife, model Gisele Bundchen, playing the role of Dorothy for trick or treating. In 2018, Brady told WEEI radio he won the drama award for the best actor at St. Gregory's, calling acting "very similar to football."
"You put the prep in a way," Brady said then. "You practice everything, and you go through it and you’re working with the team. And you have one chance to perform. All that energy and emotion for a couple of hours ... for us in football you have three hours a week that you try to build your emotional, physical energy for, and then you go put it out there and you do it in a live performance," Brady said. "You try not to make mistakes, although you’ll never be perfect. I just think there’s a lot of correlation. I have a great appreciation for those types of things.”
Moffitt hasn't seen Brady in person since high school, but she did go to Levi's Stadium to see Brady, then with the Bucs, play the 49ers in December 2022.
"It's wild how big he became," Moffitt said.
Moffitt could have never known back then how big Brady would become. He didn't put on a football helmet until the ninth grade.
That's because Brady's father, Tom Sr., was the volunteer athletic director at St. Gregory's when San Francisco 49ers great Randy Cross came to address the kids at the school. He asked Cross when Brady should start playing tackle football, and Cross told him not before 14.
Goldin has been successful selling childhood items before. In 2020, the auction house auctioned off a baseball signed by an 8-year-old Derek Jeter for $36,000. Two months later, it sold a Little League team ball signed by 13-year-old Mike Jordan for the same price. The most shocking childhood sale for the auction company was Lionel Messi's signed ID, from when he was 8, which sold for an astounding $181,200 in 2021.
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.