Hobby Musings: Auction market sees big year in 2017

by Kelsey Schroyer | Dec 1, 2017 | Hobby Musings, Mint Musings

Chris-Ivy – Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage Auctions

Hobby Musings: Auction market sees big year in 2017 – By many accounts, 2017 has been a good year for the sports memorabilia industry. The auction industry, in particular, has done some robust business, with several high-profile items and amazing finds hitting the market. One of the A-list items to sell this year was a Jackie Robinson jersey from his rookie season. Heritage Auctions was consigned the rare item, which eventually sold for over $2 million. I had the chance to catch up with Heritage’s Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions, to talk some more about what this year has meant for his company and the industry as a whole. The following interview was conducted via email.

KS: I know we still have December to go, but overall how would you rate 2017 for the auction industry?

CI: An A+! It was a record-breaking year for Heritage Sports, and my friends at competitive auction houses are reporting the same.

KS: How would you say it’s compared and contrasted with the previous few years?

CI: Great question. I’d say that the upward trend has been fairly consistent for the better part of a decade in the macro sense, but the elite material really took off in 2017. We’re seeing more results in the high-six and seven-figure range than we ever have.

KS: As of now, who would you say is the most popular/in-demand athlete in auctions?

CI: If you study the top prices in sports collectibles auctions going back twenty years, you’ll find one name dominating the results every time: Babe Ruth.

KS: Looking a little broader, what is currently the hottest category in the sports auction industry?

CI: Game used material—jerseys, bats, helmets, etc.—tends to be the anchor of most major sports collectibles auctions. That’s a trend as old as the hobby. An up-and-comer? Vintage sports photography. We’ve seen a pricing explosion over the past few years in that field.

KS: Do any of the sports stand out to you as generating bigger sales than the others?

CI: Again, baseball is the undisputed king. There is no close second.

KS: Of all the big items that you’ve seen this year hit the auction market, what is the one thing that

Jackie Robinson Game-Worn Rookie Year Jersey

got you truly giddy?

CI: That has to be the 1947 Jackie Robinson rookie jersey. One could make a strong case that it is not just the most important article of sports memorabilia to have been sold in 2017, but the most important historical artifact, period.

KS: Which 2017 item’s sale price shocked you in terms of it going for much more than you thought?

CI: The reason why Heritage has set so many world records for prices realized is that we have quite a few multi-millionaire collectors that the other houses don’t. Two of them went to war for the Norman Rockwell study for his famous painting of umpires—“Tough Call”—and when it was over, the winning bid was $1.68 million. Our pre-auction estimate had been $300,000.

KS: Most people only see the initial press for an auction item then the resulting auction, but there’s a lot more to the process than that. For people who may not know, what goes into landing these marquee deals for auction companies like yours?

CI: Consignors choose Heritage for one reason and one reason only—our ability to achieve the highest possible price for their collections. This involves exposing their consignments to the largest and most qualified bidding audience, in the best possible light. There’s an army of people who make that happen, from the consignment directors who receive the material, to the catalogers, photographers and marketing staff who create the catalogs, advertisements and press releases, to the operations staff that processes the material to the IT staff that keeps our computers and website online to the accounting team that mails the settlement checks. Maintaining our status as the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer is far more complex than most people realize.

KS: Like any other business, the auction industry is highly competitive. From your perspective though, just how much competitive pressure is involved?

CI: Sports might be the most competitive field in the collectibles marketplace, and that competition is definitely a motivating factor. We’re now at a place where our annual revenues are about double that of our next closest competitor, yet we’re still growing faster than any of them.

KS: A lot of auction companies, both big and small, are currently active. Do you feel as if there are too many auction companies though?

CI: I don’t. It’s a really vast field, particularly in the low-to-mid-value range, so there are plenty of “niches” to go around. Probably ninety percent of sports memorabilia is not of interest to us—our specialty is the truly elite material. Robb Report recently selected Heritage Auctions as one of “Luxury’s 25 Most Innovative Brands.” That’s our niche—the best of the best.

KS: If you had to pick, what do you think is currently the biggest problem in the auction industry?

CI: The most dangerous pitfall in sports collectibles—and in any collectibles field—is authenticity. Heritage stands behind every piece we sell, so we are very dedicated to the assurance of authenticity for the material that we offer at auction. Honestly, that’s one of the greatest logistical complications in bringing an auction to fruition. There are trading card authenticators, autograph authenticators, bat authenticators, jersey authenticators, photograph authenticators. Our major auctions will have literally thousands of items presented to one or more of about a dozen different authentication services.

KS: Following up on that, how do you think that problem could be resolved?

CI: Honestly, I think that the hobby is safer today than it has ever been. Between the wide array of third-party authentication services and the vast resources available on the Internet, it’s never been tougher for fraudulent material to slip past the goalie.

KS: Looking ahead a little bit, what is one bold prediction you would make for the auction market in 2018?

CI: I predict the hobby will continue to grow and that more collectors will engage. I also predict there will be some fantastic, fresh items to come to the auction block. There always are.

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Kelsey Schroyer

Kelsey Schroyer is a longtime hobby enthusiast and avid collector. His interest in collecting began when watching Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez give Babe Ruth a Hank Aaron rookie card in “The Sandlot.” Since then, he’s never looked back, focusing primarily on adding to his baseball Hall of Fame collection. He lives in Plainville, Connecticut with his wife Danielle.

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