Fanatics Collect Bringing 'Holy Grails' to Sotheby's Auctions
Fanatics Collect and historic auction house Sotheby’s are bringing elite sports cards to the mainstream spotlight with their debut joint venture Holy Grails. Featuring thirty-three of the most sought after trading cards, grails of sports idols Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and LeBron James will be amongst the lots included in this premiere event.
The Holy Grails exhibit is located at the Harlem Parish in New York City and will have these esteemed articles on display for free and open to the public viewing on Monday, September 23 from 2:00-8:00 PM and Tuesday, September 24 from 10:00 AM-4:30 PM. Advanced bidding has already begun on Sotheby’s website with the live auction taking place on Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 PM EDT.
Currently leading the bidding (at time of writing) in the six-figure range are seven cards spanning baseball, basketball, football, and even Pokémon. The head of the pack is a 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente Rookie card in a PSA 9. A previous sale of this card in the same grade sold for $792,000 in June 2023, according to data from Card Ladder.
Closely following the lead is a CGC 9 1998 Pokémon Japanese Promo Illustrator Holo CoroCoro Comics Pikachu signed by Takumi Akabane, one of the original designers of Pokémon Trading Card Game. An unsigned copy of the card in a CGC 10 has previously sold in September 2023 for $495,000.
Rounding out the top three of ‘Holy Grail’ pre-live auction bidding is a card emblematic of basketball card collecting: a one of one 2005-06 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs of Michael Jordan and Julius “Dr. J” Erving in a BGS 8.5 with a 10 autograph grade. At time of writing the bidding was at $220,000, but after being locked away in a private collection for almost two decades the card is projected to possibly reach a million dollar benchmark.
Follow the live bidding action for Holy Grails Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM EDT on Sotheby’s website.
LAUREN RIZZO SHAFFER