Green Bay Packers fans squared off against each other today for priceless pieces of team memorabilia at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland.
Heritage Auctions’ Platinum Night Sports Auction is traditionally the most heavily-attended live auction of the year, with sports fans coming from all over to buy their piece of sports history. Items range from Muhammed Ali’s Gloves to Mickey Mantle Baseball Cards and Babe Ruth’s 702nd home run ball, but Packers fans have even more reason to be excited.
The auction includes a game-winning extra point football from Vince Lombardi’s first victory as a Packers Coach in 1959, a signed football from the 1946 team including autographs from Tony Canadeo, Curley Lambeau, Bruce Smith, and many others, and a 1921 packers “Dope Sheet” that served as a program for the franchise’s first game.
Of particular interest are former packers President Lee Joannes’ pair of 1967 Packers Super Bowl I championship gold cufflinks. Jewelry items like cufflinks are extremely rare because jewelry to commemorate sports events is produced on a very time-sensitive and limited scale, so limited that there are only two known sets of Packers cufflinks from the 1967 season.
At the moment, championship jewelry is one of the most popular collectible categories because each item commemorates such a special event, with the added bonus of optional wearability.
The items are expected to make around $10,000, though competitive fans could easily drive prices up. Wisconsin sports history has fetched high prices in the past. Last year, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Milwaukee Bucks jersey sold for $80,000 and his first game-warn goggles from 1974 fetched a price tag of $6,500. Oscar Robertson’s 1970-71 Bucks championship season jersey went for $55,000.
Other non-packers items up for auction include the only remaining Lou Gehrig-signed ticket from his retirement speech game on July 4, 1939, a signed love note from Joe DiMaggio to Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jordan’s $33 million contract from the Chicago Bulls.