15 Most Expensive Sports Memorabilia Ever Sold
There’s something about holding a piece of history that no highlight reel can replicate. A jersey worn during the most famous home run in baseball.
A scuffed card pulled from a 1909 cig pack. A golden belt won in a jungle on the other side of the world. Sports memorabilia taps into something deep — the urge to own a moment that can never be repeated.
And over the past decade, that urge has become very, very expensive. Prices in the collectibles market have exploded.
A few years ago, breaking the $10 million barrier for a single item felt unthinkable. Now it’s happened multiple times.
Photo-matching technology, better authentication, and deep-pocketed investors have all pushed values higher. The list below reflects the current state of that market — items that once sat in shoeboxes or vaults and are now worth more than most people will earn in a lifetime.
Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” Jersey — $24.12 Million (2024)
This is the one that reset everyone’s expectations. In August 2024, Heritage Auctions closed the bidding on a 1932 New York Yankees road jersey at $24.12 million — the highest price ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia.
Ruth wore it during Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, the game where he famously pointed toward center field before launching a home run off the Chicago Cubs’ Charlie Root. Whether or not the gesture was genuine remains debated.
The jersey had a winding provenance — acquired by a golfing friend of Ruth’s during his Florida retirement years, passed to that man’s daughter, sold to a collector around 1990, and auctioned again in 2005 for $940,000. Two experts used photo-matching and materials analysis to confirm this was the actual jersey from that game, and the market responded accordingly.
Bidding stretched over six hours before the hammer fell.
1952 Topps Mickey Mantle Card (#311) — $12.6 Million (2022)
For years, no single piece of sports memorabilia had crossed $10 million. The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card blew past that mark in August 2022, selling for $12.6 million at Heritage Auctions.
The card — graded 9.5 out of 10, making it the finest known example — was originally purchased by the consignor in 1991 for $50,000 and stored safely for three decades. Mantle arrived with the Yankees in 1951, and by the time he retired the franchise had added seven more World Series titles.
His card transcended the collectibles world and became a pop culture object, helped along by its near-perfect condition. For a generation of fans who grew up watching Mantle play, owning this card was never just about the money.
Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 Jersey — $10.1 Million (2022)
Sotheby’s sold this jersey in September 2022 for $10.1 million, making it the most expensive game-worn piece of clothing in history at the time — a record it held until Babe Ruth came along two years later. Jordan wore the bright red Bulls uniform during Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, a game the Bulls actually lost in overtime.
The season, Jordan’s final with Chicago, was documented in the ESPN series “The Last Dance,” which reignited public fascination with that era and likely pushed the jersey’s value higher. The buyer remains anonymous.
The story doesn’t.
Diego Maradona’s 1986 World Cup “Hand of God” Jersey — $9.28 Million (2022)
In the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal between Argentina and England, Diego Maradona scored two goals within four minutes of each other. The first used his hand — unreported by the referee — and he later described it as scored “a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God.”
The second is widely considered the greatest goal ever scored in a World Cup match, a slalom run through six defenders from his own half. The jersey from that game sold at Sotheby’s in London in May 2022 for $9.28 million.
Maradona had swapped it after the final whistle with English midfielder Steve Hodge, who held onto it for decades before consigning it. For a sport with a global fanbase of billions, it was a fittingly enormous price.
Pierre de Coubertin’s Olympic Manifesto — $8.8 Million (2019)
Not every item on this list is a jersey or a card. In 1892, French historian Pierre de Coubertin delivered a speech in Paris laying out his vision for reviving the ancient Olympic Games.
He committed those ideas to paper in a handwritten manuscript — and without it, the modern Olympics might never have existed. The document was lost for nearly a century before it was traced to a private collector in Switzerland keeping it in a bank vault.
When it finally came to auction at Sotheby’s in 2019, it sold for $8.8 million — a record for any sports document at the time. Kansas alumni David and Suzanne Booth had previously paid $4.3 million for James Naismith’s original rules of basketball.
Apparently, the founding documents of global sports carry enormous weight.
Lionel Messi’s 2022 World Cup Jersey Set — $7.8 Million (2023)
Six jerseys. One tournament. The entire arc of Argentina’s run to the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar, captured in the kits Messi wore during the first halves of each game — two Group Stage matches, the Round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the final against France.
Sotheby’s sold the collection in December 2023 for $7.8 million. The jerseys were consigned by AC Memento, a sports memorabilia startup backed in part by billionaire Steve Cohen, which had acquired the shirts directly from Messi.
For the Argentine legend, who spent years trying to replicate at international level what he had done for club football, the 2022 tournament represented a complete career. The market agreed.
T206 Honus Wagner Card — $7.25 Million (2022)
The T206 Honus Wagner is often called the Mona Lisa of sports cards. Printed between 1909 and 1911 by the American Company, it was pulled from production early — the prevailing (and romantic) story holds that Wagner, a clean-living player, objected to his image appearing on a card distributed in packs by a company that sold products harmful to children.
Only around 50 to 60 copies are known to exist. In 2022, Goldin Auctions brokered a private sale of a near-fine example for $7.25 million.
The card’s scarcity, combined with its legendary backstory, has kept it at or near the top of the sports card world for decades.
Babe Ruth’s 1916 Baltimore Orioles Card — $7.2 Million (2023)
Most people picture Ruth in pinstripes. This card — sold for $7.2 million in 2023 through Robert Edward Auctions — shows him in his one season pitching for the Baltimore Orioles, then a minor league team.
It predates his rise to fame entirely. The card is extraordinarily rare, with only around 10 known copies, and it captures Ruth at the very beginning of his career before he became the defining figure of American professional sports.
Shares in the card were sold at a valuation of $6 million in 2021, and the full card topped that figure two years later.
Kobe Bryant’s First NBA Jersey — $7 Million (2025)
Kobe Bryant debuted in the NBA in November 1996 with the Los Angeles Lakers, and the gold uniform he wore that night — along with during preseason, media day, and several regular season games his rookie year — sold at Sotheby’s in April 2025 for $7 million.
Bryant went on to win five championships and two Finals MVP awards before his death in a 2020 helicopter accident. The jersey sold a decade earlier for just over $115,000.
The difference reflects both the passage of time and the magnitude of what his career became. For Lakers fans, no amount of highlights fully captures what he meant to the franchise.
Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” WBC Belt — $6.18 Million
On October 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, Muhammad Ali climbed into the ring as the underdog against George Foreman and walked out as the heavyweight champion of the world. The fight — promoted as the “Rumble in the Jungle” — is one of the most documented sporting events in history, immortalized in the documentary “When We Were Kings.”
Ali spent the early rounds absorbing punishment against the ropes in a strategy he called rope-a-dope, letting Foreman exhaust himself before unleashing a knockout combination in the eighth. The WBC championship belt from that fight sold at Heritage Auctions for $6.18 million to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.
As a historical document, few objects carry the same weight.
Babe Ruth’s 1928–30 Game-Worn New York Yankees Jersey — $5.64 Million (2019)
Before the “Called Shot” jersey arrived to rewrite the record books, this was the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold. A game-worn Ruth jersey from the 1928–30 seasons sold at a Hunt Auctions event at Yankee Stadium for $5.64 million, with Ruth’s own family in attendance.
What makes it particularly distinctive is the lettering. Very few Yankees jerseys from that era had “Yankees” printed on the uniform — most were blank on the front — making this one identifiable and rare even among Ruth’s own artifacts.
There are believed to be only about five genuine Ruth game-worn jerseys in existence.
LeBron James 2003–04 Rookie Patch Autograph Card — $5.2 Million
LeBron James entered the NBA in 2003 as perhaps the most hyped rookie in league history. He delivered on all of it — and then some.
His 2003–04 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Rookie Patch Autograph (RPA) card, numbered out of just 23, sold privately through PWCC Marketplace for $5.2 million. Unlike most of the items on this list, the sale wasn’t a public auction — it was a private transaction.
But the number holds. James has since become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and a dominant force across four decades, and his collectibles market continues to reflect that standing.
Babe Ruth’s World Series Ring and Yankees Trade Documentation — $4.4 Million
Funny how one man’s odd hobby became a headline. Charlie Sheen once held onto strange keepsakes, among them relics tied to Babe Ruth.
The set featured the slugger’s World Series ring, plus papers detailing that pivotal 1920 deal when he moved from Boston to New York. That shift? Called by many the turning point of baseball’s fate.
Bidders pushed the price up until it landed at 4.4 million dollars. One piece fits in your hand. Paperwork sits heavier though.
Actual documents from the instant two teams changed paths – maybe even the game itself shifted then – mean something else entirely compared to a uniform or collectible.
James Naismith’s Original Basketball Rules Sold For Millions
That day, a new game was born when James Naismith tacked thirteen simple rules – typed neatly onto two sheets – to a gym wall in Springfield, Massachusetts, back in 1891. Though quiet at first, it grew wild over time, drawing hundreds of millions who follow it closely, while money pours in by the billion every year.
Sold at Sotheby’s New York back in December 2010, the original paper fetched $4.3 million, bought by Kansas grads David and Suzanne Booth. Makes sense, really, given that Naismith worked years at the university as both teacher and coach.
That sale marked the highest price ever paid for any sports collectible up to that point. Since then, though, it’s been beaten, again and again.
Mark McGwire Hits 70th Homer For Over Three Million
Back in 1998, seventy homers flew off Mark McGwire’s bat during one season, breaking a mark that stayed untouched since 1961 while pulling fans back toward a game still healing from the 1994 player walkout. That total seemed impossible before it happened.
By early 1999, collector Todd McFarlane walked away with the last of those orbs after paying $3.05 million when bids closed. Now it feels out of step with time.
McGwire admitted down the line he used substances meant to boost his play, while Bonds broke the mark in 2001 by hitting 73. This item stands apart – possibly losing worth compared to its sale price. Yet back then – and for a stretch beyond – it carried more weight than nearly anything else in the game.
The Price of a Moment
Every one of these fifteen things ties back to what can never be undone. There was a call made under pressure.
A score so strange it left people speechless. One selection shaping years ahead. These pieces do more than point to players – they freeze that second when the world seemed to pause together.
This is the real cost. It isn’t about threads, boxes, or printed marks. What matters sits beneath – the sureness of a moment existing, proof the thing held now stood within it.
Upward climbs in cost show no sign of stopping. That is how it has been every time before.
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