$1M LeBron & Trout Record Rookie Cards; 6 Pieces of Memorabilia You Can Buy With a Milly Maker Win

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With a million bucks up for grabs week after week in PGA tournaments — and more coming for MLB and NBA — DFS players everywhere can enjoy spending Wednesday nights fantasizing about what they’ll do with their winnings, before lineups come crashing back to Earth with an endless string of double-bogeys and missed Friday cuts. If you don’t pay attention to the memorabilia markets, maybe these items aren’t on your wish list. After all, you could be forgiven for thinking that things are all about ancient MLB players’ tobacco cards, but it’s not all Honus Wagners and Mordecai “Three Finger” Browns.

The memorabilia market has been on fire in recent months. Perhaps it’s all the free time that people have had during the pandemic, perhaps it’s a simple matter of timing or a lot of people with a lot of disposable income. Regardless, some new records have recently been set in the memorabilia market, and some other amazing items are coming up with big price tags.

A Big Night for Trout and Others in May

Back in May Goldin Auctions held an event featuring several incredible pieces of sports memorabilia. During the auction a Michael Jordan rookie card sold for $97,200, a Kobe championship ring went for over $200,000 and his 2012 Olympics ring for $70,000, while a LeBron jersey came off the block for a whopping $362,500.

Sadly, this team garment bag carried in the 1970s by Tacoma Yankees General Manager Steve Naccarato only managed to garner a single bid from the lucky winner who took it home for $123.

Suitcases smelling of the Seventies aside, by far the biggest item in the May auction was a Mike Trout rookie card, which obliterated records by closing at a gargantuan $900,000. That is so much that if you win the Milly Maker and buy it, you’ll be able to afford less than 1,000 1970s Tacoma Yankees garment bags along with it.

This Mike Trout autographed rookie card sold for $900,000 tonight! pic.twitter.com/kJVbihIJhH

— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) May 21, 2020

The Trout card was released in his draft year, three years before he reached MLB, and is a special holographic card with a “Mint” rating.

The King Has Something to Say About That Memorabilia Record

Just a month later, at the end of June, Goldin Auctions announced that a new block was going up, this time including a LeBron James rookie card.

JUST IN: We have a new record for a modern day card. This LeBron card is currently at $960,000, including buyer’s premium, in @GoldinAuctions sale.

There are 23 days left.

Previous record was Mike Trout card, which sold in @GoldinAuctions sale last month for $922,500. pic.twitter.com/5gOzn0h46r

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 26, 2020

No. 14 of the 23 cards of its type in existence, the item comes signed by LeBron and includes a swatch of fabric from a Cavaliers jersey that LeBron wore in a game his rookie season. For just $960,000 it could be yours — the auction closes in just few days on July 18. Or you could put something like 11 kids through four years of college. Either way.

The auction is expected to shatter records and crack the $1 million mark when things are finished on July 18, and it will be interesting to watch the final bidding as things get close to the cutoff. There are more than 20 bids on the card currently. They can’t all be Nicolas Cage and Todd MacFarlane.

The Summer Auction has some other incredible items, including another Kobe championship ring, a lesser Trout rookie card, a signed game-worn Patrick Mahomes jersey, a Micky Mantle rookie card, and much more.

Somehow this unopened bottle of Ted Williams’ Moxie soda is only currently bid up to $100.

Would it be worth more if he’d opened it and taken a sip? Are you buying the potential to clone your own squad of super-hitters at that point? It’s also concerning to see the Williams family pawning off some of his items. If they’re strapped for cash, how long until his frozen head hits the block?

Sad Seattle Singer Blows Them Both Away

Put the Trout and LeBron rookie cards together with most of the other items we’ve mentioned so far and you’re about halfway to the stunning total received for the acoustic guitar that deceased Nirvana front-man Kurt Cobain played during the band’s MTV Unplugged session.

IT'S OFFICIAL: "Iconic Kurt Cobain guitar becomes most expensive sold at auction" via @GWR #JuliensAuctions #KurtCobain #Nirvana #MTV #RODE #GuinnessWorldRecords #Auction #Guitar #WorldRecord @rodemics @MTV https://t.co/QYadcwNiyF

— Juliens Auctions (@JuliensAuctions) July 2, 2020

As music memorabilia goes, this is the GOAT, Cobain’s guitar sold for a completely bonkers $6.01 million at auction, a record by more than 50% for an auctioned guitar, or nearly 1,000 times the price of the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar without it having first been played by an overrated 1990s singer-songwriter.

This got me wondering what other items might be on or hitting the auction block in the next few weeks. If you knock down a Milly Maker before the end of July you can take your pick of an amazing selection of things other people don’t want in their houses anymore.

6 Cool Pieces of Memorabilia You Can Buy With a Milly Maker Win

Michael Jordan’s Rookie Contract

For the low-low reserve price of $20,000 you can see every spot where the GOAT and his agent initialed his rookie contract and … I’m not sure what else really. This one just feels like the kind of item a bad guy movie lawyer would have hanging on his wall.

An annotated and signed copy of Michael Jordan’s rookie contract signed by Jordan, his initial agent Donald Dell and Bulls GM Rod Thorn has hit the auction block with @gottahaverock. Minimum bid is $20,000. pic.twitter.com/KQ1rYRhCzI

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 15, 2020

John Candy’s Barf Costume from Spaceballs

Half man, half dog all comedic genius. This one is on sale as part of the famous Prop Store’s Summer Auction. The perfect item for someone stuck in lock-own, buy it and you can be “(your) own best friend.”

Joe Burrow “Number 1 Pick” Signed Helmet

This one is an early investment opportunity, currently at just $380.00 by Pristine Auctions the rookie first overall pick signed it and made sure to note his potential value.

A Piece of Yankees History

As a Yankees fan, something about this one pains me. It’s different seeing Yankees championship memorabilia up for sale than it is seeing, say, the actual Dodgers World Series trophy. Awarded to Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson, this one is from the 1999 World Series, which makes sense as a sale — it was Nelson’s third with the team in four years, after all. For just the price of $22,000 after nine bids, this one can be yours from Goldin Auctions.

The Headpiece from the Staff of Ra

OK, maybe not the Staff of Ra, if that’s even a thing. This is from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark — another item from the Prop Store’s movie memorabilia auction — and is far more famous than anything from antiquity.

Still works, but don’t forget to “take back one kadam” if you plan to use it to find the Ark of the Covenant, otherwise you’ll be

Go to the Danger Zone

I have to think this one would have gone bigger if the pandemic hadn’t wiped out the release of the 30-years-later sequel Maverick, which was pushed to 2021, robbing us of more Maverick, Iceman and Top Gun for at least another year. But for you ’80s kids out there, for just way too many dollars you can pick up this amazing piece of movie memorabilia, sit on your couch pretending to shoot down MIGs and flip your neighbors an inverted bird out the window.

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