New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was surveying a pack of baseball cards. He looked bemused. To his left stood his friend Michael Rubin, the founder and CEO of Fanatics. To his right was a media member who was attempting to engage Kraft in the modern tradition of opening baseball cards on camera.
“You got anyone good?” the media member asked.
“I have no clue,” Kraft said.
Kraft was standing on the other side of a velvet rope near the back of Harlem Parish, a former church from the Gilded Age-turned-event space. Across the room, Tom Brady milled about. So did rapper Meek Mill, YouTube star Logan Paul, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan and former NBA center Tacko Fall, whose 7-foot-6 frame towered over a crowd of entrepreneurs and influencers. They had all come to witness “Holy Grails,” an inaugural auction collaboration between Fanatics, the sports licensing giant/trading card manufacturer, and Sotheby’s, the global auction house.
Robert Kraft looks through a pack of baseball cards at the Holy Grails auction. (Photo: Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)
The partnership, announced in June, was conceived to bring together two disparate wings of the high-end collectibles market: Sotheby’s is seeking to increase its foothold in the trading card market, which has grown as an asset class, while Fanatics is hoping to tap into Sotheby’s international reach and broader (and well-heeled) clientele.
“I say this about all categories at Sotheby’s, including art by the way, and I think it’s also true of cards,” said Brahm Wachter, head of modern collectibles at Sotheby’s. “You can invest in a stock. You can watch it on a spreadsheet. Or you can have a physical object to enjoy and love. And you never know if it’s in the red or the green or the black until you sell it. So in that time you can enjoy owning it.”
Sotheby’s reach into the sports world has grown in recent years. It announced a deal with the NBA in 2023 to be the league’s official auction partner for game-worn collectibles. And it set a record earlier this year when a collection of six pairs of Michael Jordan sneakers — one each from his NBA Finals appearances — sold for $8 million at auction.
But according to Wachter, its interest in trading cards increased during the pandemic, when the industry saw a boom. That increased interest put Sotheby’s squarely on the radar of Fanatics, which has invested heavily in trading cards, first acquiring the rights to become the exclusive trading card partner of Major League Baseball and the MLBPA and then purchasing Topps. It now also has deals in place with the NFL, NBA, Disney, Premier League, WWE and many more.
While the high-end trading card market has fallen significantly from the peaks it hit in 2021 and 2022, it remains much higher than the pre-pandemic era. An index of high-end cards (defined as cards with a last sale of $5,000 or more) maintained by CardLadder, which tracks card sales across the major online marketplaces, shows growth of 189 percent from December 31, 2019 to the present day.
“For us, the main thing about a sports card is it really represents something,” said Nick Bell, the CEO of Fanatics Collect. “A player that you love, a moment that you love. When we look at other collectible objects, whether it’s art or wine or watches, they have stories as well.”
Highest Known Sales, All Time
|
Type |
Item |
Price |
Date Sold |
|
Art |
“Salvator Mundi” by Da Vinci |
$450.3 million |
11/15/2017 |
|
Trading Card |
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (SGC 9.5 grade) |
$12.6 million |
8/22/2022 |
|
Watch |
Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime |
$31.2 million |
11/9/2019 |
|
Wine |
1945 Romanée Conti |
$558,000 |
10/13/2018 |
Data from Altan Insights
Tuesday’s event served as a symbol of Fanatics’ might in the trading card world — and Rubin’s deep rolodex of celebrity friends and partners. Brady, a friend of Rubin, has a deal with the company. On Tuesday, he sat in a front-row pew next to Kraft as four of his cards were sold for a total of $813,600. One — a 2000 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph Tom Brady graded in “gem mint” condition — went to Kraft for $120,000.
GO DEEPER
Kraft buys 6-figure Brady card at ‘Holy Grails’ auction
The auction hit $7 million in total sales, according to Fanatics and Sotheby’s, and 51 percent of sales came from online buyers. The most expensive purchase, however, came in person: Rob Gough, an entrepreneur and collector, bought a 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente rookie card graded a PSA 9 (“mint” condition) sold for $840,000. The record sale for the Clemente card in the same grade was $1.1 million in March 2021.
Other highlights included: a 2018 Topps Sapphire Autograph Superfractor (a one of a kind card) Shohei Ohtani selling for $336,000, setting a record for an Ohtani card; a 2005-06 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Autograph Patch LeBron James selling for $576,000 — after a lengthy bidding war; an autographed Steph Curry rookie card going to Meek Mill for $192,000; and an 2022 Bowman Elly De La Cruz Superfractor selling for $360,000, a new record for one of his cards.
BROKEN RECORDS! 🚨
These four cards sold in @Sothebys Holy Grails Auction, set new records for an athlete’s highest selling card!
– Shohei Ohtani’s 2018 Topps Chrome Sapphire Rookie Superfractor Auto 1/1: $336,000
– Elly De La Cruz’s 2022 Bowman Chrome 1st Bowman Prospect… pic.twitter.com/SscrfblRzi
— Fanatics Collect (@FanaticsCollect) September 25, 2024
The companies have a second auction event planned for December. But on Tuesday, the celebrity pageantry — the collision of Sotheby’s and a Paul brother — was also part of the sale. The venue was set up like a baseball stadium, the auction block serving as the pitcher’s mound, the menu including popcorn, lobster rolls and Wagyu hot dogs, the boisterous atmosphere supplemented by the Yankees’ organ player, who played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” halfway through the auction. When it was over, Wachter convened with reporters in what amounted to a postgame managerial scrum.
“We run online auctions day in and day out, but it doesn’t have the same impact,” said Bell, the Fanatics executive. “We’ve obviously made a big investment in trading cards at Fanatics. We’re taking a very long-term view on it. So for us, it’s more about bringing people together, allowing people to enjoy the cards … we hope we’re going to be in this forever.”
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(Top photo: Matt Borkowski)
