Auction Action: Goldin Elite Review & State of the Market

Goldin closed a record-breaking auction over the weekend that featured a plethora of six and seven-figure sales. So what were the best performing asset classes and sports? And how has the first weeks of 2022 compared to previous years? We review Goldin's Elite Winter Auction and examine the data beyond the hammer price.

Note: All prices include 20% buyer’s premium

Sports cards dominated the event, with the asset class representing 89.9% of all sports assets sold. There were 1,306 sports cards sold compared to 127 pieces of sports memorabilia. The sports memorabilia includes game-worn/game-used items as well as unique offerings such as contracts and signed letters. One category that displayed significant growth, even though total numbers are still low, was tickets and ticket stubs. In 2020, Goldin sold 20 total tickets and stubs across all their auctions. Over the past weekend, there were 21 tickets/stubs sold in three days. 

Based on sheer volume, sports card sales towered over other sports-related asset classes. The total sales for sports cards exceeded $40.2 million while sports memorabilia reached $2.7 million, followed by tickets which closed with $575,040 in sales. The seven highest sale prices were all sports cards and the most expensive ticket, a signed PSA 7 graded example from Tom Brady’s NFL debut, was the 40th highest priced asset sold at $175,200. The most expensive piece of memorabilia was a 1997-98 photo matched Michael Jordan jersey which struck a final price of $600,000 and finished as the 8th most expensive asset at the Elite Auction.

The gap between cards, memorabilia, and tickets closed dramatically when reviewing average sale prices. That said, sports cards still tallied an average sale price that was 12.6% higher than memorabilia and 42% higher than tickets.  

In a review of subcategories, basketball set the pace with 673 assets which accounted for 46% of all lots sold. Football finished runner-up with 393 lots, good for 27% of all sold assets while baseball and soccer represented 13% and 8% respectively. One interesting trend to watch is MMA and Marvel, both of which demonstrated impressive year-over-year growth at Goldin. In the first quarter of 2021, there were no Marvel or MMA sales at Goldin but the two subcategories combined for 13 assets sold in the Winter Elite auction. MMA-related assets even outpaced sports such as golf and tennis while Marvel card sales exceeded boxing. 

Total sales for basketball assets closed above $21 million and were followed in second by football which finished with $11.7 million. Marvel cards had their best showing ever at a Goldin auction with $321,608 in sales while MMA also reached six figures. Out of the 13 tracked subcategories, 12 finished with total sales that exceeded $31,000 and wrestling was the only to fall under five figures.

Boxing actually had the highest average sale price, closing at $96,564 while Marvel finished with the second-highest average at $53,601. While basketball cards had the highest total sales, there were fourth with a $32,495 average and football finished sixth at $29,891.

Median sales were even more skewed towards categories with limited offerings as Pokemon finished with the highest median price of $34,800, which was the only price realized for the trading card game. Boxing finished in second and Olympic-related cards and memorabilia was third with a median sale price of $15,900. Basketball had a $10,200 median hammer price while baseball was the top major sport with a median of $12,061.

The majority of assets, 55% to be precise, closed with a hammer price between $1,000-$9,999. Five figure sales, between $10,000 and $99,999, finished in second and represented 38% of all prices realized. When you add sales that closed under $1,000, that leaves 4% of all sales that were six figures or higher. That total may seem low at first glance, but how does it compare to this time last year? Goldin hosted two auctions in the first two months of 2021 that included 3,251 lots, which is more than double the single auction that closed over the weekend. Last year at this time, Goldin had just one seven-figure sale and 46 six-figure sales. That means that .03% of all sales were for over $1 million while 1.4% of all sales were for more than $100,000. At this latest auction alone, there were three million-dollar sales, representing 0.2% of the total auction, and 57 six-figure sales, which is 3.9%. The percentage of million dollar sales is 1,400% higher than this time last year while the percentage of six figure sales is 178% higher.

The 2022 auction season is already off to an impressive start as realized prices are on pace to smash the multitude of records established in 2021. With seven-figure sales becoming more common and an injection of new asset classes such as Marvel cards, just how high will prices soar in 2022? Only time will tell, but investors can count on Altan Insights to deliver continued analysis of the price data.

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