Trying to find tickets from the greatest moments in NCAA Tournament history, particularly those that aren't from a championship game, presents a massive challenge.
It's not that people didn't save tickets from those games.
It's that the tickets often get lost to history because they don't have specific team names on them.
"A lot of NCAA Tournament tickets can be confusing, and fans might have a hard time remembering what game they saw," said Matt Fuller, PSA's lead authenticator for tickets. "They have a date on them, but outside of that, it's usually a region and a session 1, 2, 3. I've always thought that to be a factor."
Another factor?
If it's a first- or second-round game, there are hardcore fans of eight possible teams, compared with a usual matchup of just two fan bases.
Yes, half the fans go home a loser in the first and second round, but there's another glaring factor. Teams that produce the upsets that put the "mad" in March Madness are often smaller schools with small fan bases.
"Then you have the transferring of the ticket from one fan leaving to one fan getting in with the same ticket," said Tony Gaspari, ticket collector and operator of HallofStubs on Instagram.
The most coveted NCAA tickets are the 1982 and 1979 NCAA men's finals, so it should come as no surprise that plenty of those tickets have surfaced. There are 191 tickets of Michael Jordan's game-winner in 1982 in the 60,000-seat Superdome, more than any other college basketball ticket.
The highest graded full blue variant from the game sold for $8,400 in 2021. The highest graded full yellow variant sold last year for $6,900.
The 1979 final between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird — often referred to as "The Game That Changed College Basketball" — is the fourth-most graded by PSA with 63 total tickets.
Six of the top 10 are surprisingly from games that happened more than 40 years ago, the oldest being John Wooden's last title at UCLA, which celebrates its 50th anniversary later this month.
Massive moments outside the final games are exceedingly rare as collectible tickets.
The lead moment is understandably Christian Laettner's shot in a regional final against Kentucky in 1992. That ticket has leapt into the top 10 over the last three years with 10 more graded in that time frame.
PSA has graded zero tickets from UCLA's Tyus Edney going coast-to-coast to rescue UCLA in the second round in 1995. PSA also hasn't graded a ticket from Florida Gulf Coast's shocker over Georgetown in 2013, or a ticket from Harold Arceneaux's Weber State team taking down UNC in 1999.
Only two have been graded from Bryce Drew's last-second 3-pointer in 1998 against Ole Miss and George Mason's Elite Eight upset of UConn.
The message from PSA's Matt Fuller: Check your closets and shoe boxes and do your research.
"As far as existence goes, there shouldn't be a shortage," Fuller said. "They're all mostly well attended games. It's not a straightforward ticket as most when it comes to ID'ing it."
Here's the full list of the 10 most graded NCAA Tournament tickets by PSA:
- 1982 Final, Jordan hits game-winner, 191 tickets
- 1975 Finals, Wooden's 10th and final title, 75 tickets
- 1993 Finals, UNC Wins, Chris Webber timeout, 72 tickets
- 1979 Finals, Magic beats Larry, 63 tickets
- 1991 Finals, Duke beats Kansas, Coach K's 1st Title, 43 tickets
- 1984 Finals, Georgetown beats Phi Slamma Jamma, 39 Tickets
- 1999 Finals, UConn beats Duke, 31 tickets
- 1976 Finals, Indiana's perfect Season, 28 tickets
- 1992 Elite Eight, Christian Laettner's shot, 28 tickets
- 1987 Final, Bob Knight's Indiana wins, 22 Tickets
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.