A ticket to Jackie Robinson's major-league debut sold at Heritage Auctions for $324,000 on Friday.
It is the third-highest price ever paid for an unsigned ticket, trailing the $480,000 paid for another Robinson debut and a full Michael Jordan debut, which sold for $468,000. Those two tickets sold in the same Heritage auction in Feb. 2022.
Robinson's 1947 debut, which broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, is widely considered by ticket collectors to be the holy grail.
CLLCT'S FULL COVERAGE OF HERITAGE SUMMER PLATINUM AUCTIONS:
- Babe Ruth ‘Called Shot’ jersey sells for record $24.12 million
- Jackie Robinson 1951 jersey sells for record $5.52 million
- Mickey Mantle jersey from 1952-53 World Series sells for $3 million
- Hank Aaron rookie jersey sells for record $2.1 million
- Michael Jordan jersey from 'Last Dance' season sells for $360,000
- Ty Cobb T206 card sells for near-record $870k
- Barry Bonds' record-tying 755th HR ball sells for $102k
But as late as 2021, collectors could get lesser conditioned ones for around $50,000. An authentic ticket sold at Heritage for $40,800, and an ungraded one in good condition sold at Hunt for $58,750. This despite the fact that the population has doubled, from seven to 14, over the last two years.
What makes Friday's sale remarkable is that it's for a ticket graded by PSA to be a 1.5, and it had a pre-sale estimate of $100,000. An authentic, which was later resubmitted and got a 2, sold for $240,000 at SCP. One graded a 3, the highest in the total population, was sold last year for $300,000. A PSA 2 was sold by Heritage in 2022 for $480,000 to Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio.
"It's really not that different from a painting," Attanasio told cllct. "And it's something that it's easier to share."
Robinson's debut April 15, 1947, is celebrated every year, as MLB players all wear his No. 42.
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.