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Dan Hajducky, ESPNSep 25, 2024, 02:01 PM ET
- Hajducky is an associate editor for ESPN. He has an MFA in creative writing from Fairfield University and played on the men’s soccer teams at Fordham and Southern Connecticut State universities.
Tuesday night, at Sotheby’s and Fanatics’ inaugural “Holy Grails” auction at New York City’s Harlem Parish, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft literally paid tribute to Tom Brady.
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While sitting beside Brady, Kraft paid $120,000 for a 2000 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Autograph Brady card, graded a 9.5 by card grader SGC with a 10 autograph grade. Kraft’s final bid without fees was $100,000, just beating out the next-highest bid of $95,000. Three other Brady cards sold at the auction for a combined total of $813,600 to buyers who wished to remain anonymous.
The auction was set up as a baseball diamond, with bidders — Brady and Kraft, New York Giants star rookie Malik Nabers, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, influencer and WWE wrestler Logan Paul and ESPN’s Ryan Clark — in pews straddling the first and third baseline. New York Yankees organist Ed Alstrom played classic tunes on the deconsecrated church’s pipes.
In total, the auction brought in $7 million in bids. The most expensive card sold was a rare 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente rookie card, graded a 9 by card grader PSA. It was purchased for $840,000 by collector Rob Gough, who set a since-broken record of the amount paid for a sports card when he bought a near-perfect 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card for $5.2 million in early 2021. Gough has also moved into the game-used market, investing $30 million on memorabilia over the past year.
A 2022 Bowman Chrome First Bowman Prospect Autograph Superfractor of Cincinnati Reds star Elly De La Cruz, numbered 1-of-1, also sold for $360,000 — a new auction record for a De La Cruz card. Over two weeks, the De La Cruz card racked up 79 bids.
