The opening phase of the Goldin 100 auction this weekend was highlighted by a record sale of a Michael Jordan card, a disappointing result for Kobe Bryant's "Achillies" jersey and several interesting pop-culture sales.
Since this weekend was so packed, we're splitting this week's auction recap into two parts, with the first covering the Goldin 100 exclusively. Comments and analysis from cllct's Will Stern and Darren Rovell.
Michael Jordan signed game-used Logoman 1/1
Price: $2,928,000
Marking the most valuable Jordan card ever sold publicly, this fresh-to-market card surpassed the previous Jordan record, which was held by the 1997-98 Upper Deck Game Jerseys Autograph card, which sold for $2.7 million in a private sale brokered by Goldin in 2021.
Stern: As I wrote last week in our preview, I totally get why this card deserves to buck the negative association generally given to post-career productions, as it comes from an iconic set unavailable during his playing career.
As for its record high price? This tells me two things (neither of which take a genius to realize): First, the market for high-end modern is healthier than anyone could have predicted; second, Goldin’s ability to achieve record prices for consignors in this category has not wavered.
Rovell: I'm sorry, I still don't get these cards. If you had a Wizards jersey that was not photomatched (the back of the card doesn't say what game they took the logo off the jersey from) and it was signed by Jordan, it would command $35,000 tops.
Because it's a card and it's one-of-one, it gets to nearly $3 million? These cards continue to be, in my mind, the dumbest cards in the hobby for their price.
Kobe Bryant game-worn jersey from Achilles injury on April 12, 2013
Goldin’s star item in its marquee auction was the jersey Kobe Bryant wore the night he tore his Achilles in April 2013. The jersey failed to receive a single bid in the final 23 days of the auction since an irrevocable bid brought the price up from $425,000 to $1.22 million.
This result places it behind at least four other Bryant jerseys which have sold publicly in recent years, including a sale at Sotheby’s earlier this year for the jersey worn during Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals, which went for $1.75 million.
Stern: This is the black eye of the entire auction. It’s a bad look for Goldin, which failed to deliver upside on its first irrevocable bid (making future guarantors less likely to place similar bets with the auction house) and harms the future of the item at auction, which will never regain the allure it had this year — forever carrying the result of this auction on its track record.
Rovell: I truly believed this jersey could have topped $2 million, based how the marketplace was going. I think the tough part is that, while it is the ultimate Mamba Mentality moment, it's not from any incredible game that led to anything, and I frankly think that eliminates a bunch of bidders.
Upper Deck octo autograph
Price: $32,940
This is the only example graded by PSA, and beyond simply including the autographs of eight Basketball Hall of Famers (or future Hall of Famers), the signatures are “on-card” rather than applied via a sticker.
This is significant, as it is far more common and simple for card companies to have players come in once a year (or every few years) and sign a sheet of stickers to be used at-will. In this case, all eight legends were required to actually play a hand in the creation of the card.
Stern: This price seems shockingly low to me. Clearly, the card was harmed by its status as a modern card and one clearly produced with collectible intentionality (rather than arising from happenstance or natural scarcity).
However, when a company like Upper Deck clearly knocks it out of the park, such as in this instance, I think that should be rewarded rather than harmed. I mean, Jordan’s on-card auto alone can be $5,000 for a serial numbered product.
A Tom Brady 2013 Panini Prizm Gold /10 (no autograph) sold for $35,400 at PWCC on Sunday night. You’re telling me this card isn’t worth double a mid-career, non-auto Brady parallel?
Rovell: I agree this would have been a $75,000 card in 2022. So, why did it go for less than half of that? Because of how much Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon all have signed over the last two years.
Bruce Lee screen-worn "The Lost Interview" suit
Price: $79,300
This suit was worn by Bruce Lee during an interview with Pierre Berton in December 1971.
Known as “The Lost Interview,” it became famous as Lee’s only English-speaking interview, and according to Goldin, “the interview helped introduce to the Western world the man behind the Mandarin-dubbed martial arts films.”
The interview was reportedly lost in an archive where it was unseen for years, only recovered in November 1994. Due to Lee’s death in 1973, the interview became an invaluable record of the star’s brief but impactful time in the spotlight.
Stern: I have to admit, I was totally unaware of this interview. And when I saw it pop up in this auction, I didn’t give it a second thought. Truly, I sort of believed it was just a random piece of Lee memorabilia unfit for a marquee auction. But then, seeing that price, it became clear that I was totally mistaken.
Plus, never bet against Bruce Lee. His “Nunchaku” used in “Fist of Fury'' sold for $162,500 in December 2023.
Rovell: Bruce Lee stuff sells for a pretty penny, and I think, for the most part, his memorabilia is getting more irrelevant. This summer, he will have been gone for 41 years.
Shoeless Joe Jackson 1917-20 M101-6 Felix Mendelsohn SGC 1.5
Price: $256,200
This sale is now the fifth-highest public price for any Joe Jackson card at public auction, continuing an incredible run for “Shoeless” Joe collectibles that has seen quite a bump recently: Heritage sold a 1915 Cracker Jack card for $336,000 and a Type 1 Photo for $192,000 within the past few months.
This card comes from a well-known but incredibly scarce set of 108 cards, including names such as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson. Less than 100 total cards from the set have been graded by PSA (only one of Jackson, which is graded an Authentic).
Stern: The people clearly can’t get enough of “Shoeless” Joe. This is not going to get the headlines from the auction, but it’s a really significant sale as it allows Goldin to stake a flag in the vintage market, which is comparably far more reliable than the modern world Goldin typically aims to corner.
Rovell: You can't avoid the mystique of Shoeless Joe. He was a great player, and he always generates a great conversation. And, yes, I had never heard of Felix Mendelsohn before, but that's a positive in this market that loves scarcity.
Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer PSA 10
Price: $292,800
This is the highest sale for the card (pop: 330) since January 2022 (if you remove the recent $372,000 sale at Heritage for an MBA Gold Diamond certified example). Excluding that sale, here is a list of all the prior comps in 2024:
- $145,655
- $216,000
- $168,000
- $210,000
- $216,000
- $292,000
Stern: This doesn’t make an ounce of sense to me. I’m no grading expert, but this copy doesn’t call out to me as some shining example deserving of an eye-appeal designation (otherwise, it would have one), and I even spot some issues on both of the top front corners.
Is this purely an example of the wide exposure of the auction and a novice bidder? Something more? We’ve been told by some of the major sellers of PSA 10 Jordans that supply is running out — a reference to the glut in the market which caused auction houses such as Goldin to hold back and sell the cards in a drip, drip, drip, fashion.
But if that’s the case, I have seen zero evidence. But maybe the bidder knows something I don’t.
Rovell: You're correct, Will. This is really weird. Every week, there's a PSA 10 Jordan selling. An uptick of $75,000? I'm not buying it as much as I wasn't buying the pair of these cards that sold at Goldin for $738,000 each in January 2021. I'm not saying it's not a real sale, but it's an attempt, in my mind, of creating momentum with a card that isn't there.
Michael Jordan "Shattered Backboard" Jordan 1s
Price: $444,080
The sneakers were used in the famous 1985 game in which Jordan shattered the backboard with a dunk in a summer exhibition in Italy, inspiring a colorway of Jordans known as “Shattered Backboard.”
The history of this pair at auction is interesting, having sold for more than $600,000 at Christie’s in August 2020, then split into shares and sold via defunct-fractional platform Otis at a Market Cap of $700,000 and $10 per share. Public, the investment platform, later acquired the assets previously held on Otis, including the sneakers, and sold them at Goldin this weekend.
Stern: Usually with a provenance as shaky as this we would expect a bigger drop-off. But to be honest, considering the other big flops we’ve seen for sneakers such as the Air Ships recently, this isn’t too rough of a fall from 2020.
I imagine this was aided by the recent $571,500 sale of the jersey from the same game, which was sold by Rally (my former employer) through Sotheby’s in April 2024.
Rovell: These sold for $613,000 at Christie's in 2020. Not sure you could have done better on a less than five-year flip.
1953 Playboy #1 CGC 9.6
Price: Reserve not met
The single-highest graded copy of the inaugural Playboy magazine failed to attract a single bid at $183,000 with buyer’s premium.
That starting bid represents more than double the record for a public sale of the magazine and even would have surpassed the current record for a CGC-graded magazine, which belongs to a CGC 9.8 copy of Michael Jordan’s “A Star is Born” Sports Illustrated ($126,000).
Stern: I have to imagine this absurdly high starting bid was the result of a fussy consignor, only willing to part with the item for a price the market would never give them. Otherwise, it is just unrealistic expectations.
This is an A1-tier collectible in the magazine category, yet since when are records set on the first bid, let alone on a piece with zero comps?
Rovell: When you go to auction, you go to auction. You are making the decision you are going to see what it is worth. But this $150,000 price was absurd from the get-go. The result? No bidders.
The further result? When it comes up next, people will say: Didn't I already see this? Why didn't it sell the first time?
1986 NES Deluxe Set VGA 85
Price: $74,420
The only other time in recent memory we saw a comparable sealed NES sell publicly, it fetched $120,000 at Heritage in November 2023. That sale established a record-high for any sealed, previously commercially available console. $2.9 mi While this is a dip from that record price, it still is a strong number for a console in a nascent market through an auction house lacking bona fides in the video game market.
Stern: Props where props are due: I thought this was a poor decision by the consignor to sell this piece through Goldin rather than Heritage. Of course, I can’t say that this would have done better at Heritage, but this feels about right, and I call that a pretty big win for Goldin.
Rovell: I'm a big believer in sealed and graded consoles. As I said in our preview, I own the 1988 version of this sealed and graded, with the more common Duck Hunt/Super Mario Brothers package and no robot.
When you see how big these things are, they are incredible display pieces and hit you so hard with nostalgia you begin to taste the wood spoon from the Italian ices on your tongue because it takes you back to the late '80s so quickly.
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.