SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 25: Wayne Gretzky during 4 v 4 charity match between Team USA and Team Canada at Qudos Bank Arena on June 25, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Image: Getty)
A Wayne Gretzky rookie trading card sold at auction Thursday at The National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City for a record $465,000, according to Ken Goldin, the CEO of Goldin Auctions.
The previous record selling price by a hockey card was $94,162, set in May 2011 by the exact same trading card, a 1979/1980 O-Pee-Chee card from when Gretzky was with the Edmonton Oilers.
Thursday’s bidder requested anonymity. Goldin added this year’s bidding began on July 11 at $100,000, followed by a live auction Thursday. By the time the live auction started, the bidding price had already ballooned to $280,000.
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Other sports history memorabilia sold sold in the same auction, such as Babe Ruth’s contract with the Boston Braves,— a three-year deal worth $75,000–which sold for $360,000.
A Michael Jordan jersey worn in the 1998 NBA playoffs sold for $168,000, the second-highest price ever paid for a Jordan jersey.
Goldin also said the sale of Gretzky’s card showed the “strength and diversity of the card market.”
The grading company PSA said this Gretzky specimen was a Gem Mint 10, the highest grade for cards. Other appeared to disagree, however:
Upon closer inspection, the edges of the card do seem almost frayed, and the centering inexact.
PSA’s explanation for its grade was that O-Pee-Che cards like this one were made “with varying degrees of rough cuts,” and that this particular card appears to have a “light rough-cut, most noticeable along the right edge.” Nevertheless, PSA added that this is the “natural look” of OPC cards.
To compare Gretzky’s card with high-grade iconic cards in other sports, a Honus Wagner T-206 card from 1909 sold for $2.1 million at auction in 2012; a Mickey Mantle Topps rookie card from 1952 sold for $525,800 in December; a Michael Jordan rookie card from 1986 sold for $100,000 in 2011; and a 1948 card of NBA legend George Mikan sold for $403,664, also in December.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 25: Wayne Gretzky during 4 v 4 charity match between Team USA and Team Canada at Qudos Bank Arena on June 25, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jessica Hromas/Getty Images)
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