A Kobe Bryant game-worn jersey from 1997 fetched $2.735 million at auction this weekend, officials said Sunday.
The jersey was worn during the Lakers’ 1997 playoff run, as well as multiple games at the end of Bryant’s rookie regular season, according to SCP Auctions in Laguna Niguel.
It was the second-highest amount bid for any game-worn basketball jersey, said Austin Widger, SCP Auctions marketing manager. The most expensive was also worn by Bryant during his rookie year, and was sold for over $3.6 million last May.
The jersey’s authenticity was verified via “photo matching” by the MeiGrey Group, an auctioneer company that also serves as the official authenticator of the NBA, Widger said.
“Photo matching is the most definitive way to authenticate game worn sports memorabilia items,” Widger said. “The authenticators match threads, dot patterns and more to images from the games the item is matched to.”
The most expensive baseball jersey sold at auction was a Babe Ruth New York Yankees one from 1928-1930 that fetched $5.64 million. Another worn by Argentinian soccer player Diego Maradona during his team’s legendary match against England in the 1986 World Cup became the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold when it fetched a winning bid of over $9 million last month, Widger said.
Other highlights from the company’s 2022 Spring Premier Auction on Saturday included:
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Only 100 copies of the Kobe Bryant Metal Universe Precious Gems card were printed in 1997. This is the only one known to have been signed by the late hall-of-famer, and sold at auction in June for $403,664. (Photo courtesy of SCP Auctions) $403,664 for the only known autographed Kobe Bryant Precious Metal Gems card;
- $342,379 for a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card;
- $275,696 for an autographed 1933 Babe Ruth card;
- $230,291 for a ticket stub from Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers;
- $227,856 for a Babe Ruth game-used bat from 1920-22;
- $73,253 for DeShawn Stevenson’s 2011 Dallas Mavericks NBA championship ring.
“The overall auction brought extremely strong numbers and many record sales. The auction total went over $8 million, which is the second biggest auction in company history,” SCP President David Kohler said. “This incredible sale happened amidst stock market volatility and war overseas, too.”
Full results from the auction can be found at SCPauctions.com
Source: Orange County Register
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