No Surprise Here: 1914 Cracker Jack Collection Smashes Several Records in Heritage Auctions' Winter Sports Card Event

Wilt Chamberlain's 1969 Topps card shoots to No. 1 with a new world record set during $12.5 million two-day auction DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (Jan. 31, 2022) — There was quite the prize inside Heritage Auctions' two-day Winter Sports Card Catalog Auction: a 1914 Cracker Jack Ty Cobb card that sold for $516,000. That's the highest price ever paid for a Georgia Peach found inside a box filled with caramel-coated peanuts and popcorn. That was but one card out of a single collector's 144-piece Cracker Jack collection that sold for a combined record-setting $1.38 million and anchored Heritage's near-sellout Winter Sports Card Catalog Auction, which closed early Saturday morning and realized a total of $12,591,161. Thousands of bidders worldwide competed for vintage and modern offerings, among them one of the highest-graded complete Cracker Jack sets on PSA's registry. Here, too, was collector Stephen Parthum's No. 1 Card assemblage, so called because he bought the very first and very last card from each set in which he was interested — sports, initially, then from old TV shows and movies given their own card releases. And his collection brought one of the weekend's biggest delights. The 1969 Topps Wilt Chamberlain No. 1 is a fantastic card for myriad reasons, chief among them it marked Topps' return to basketball cards after a 12-year break; Parthum's card, a PSA Mint 9, is one of the four highest-graded examples in the world. Appropriately, it entered the auction with a $40,000 estimate. But by the time it entered extended bidding it was already a record-setter, and when it finally closed, Chamberlain scored a breathtaking $276,000. Only six years ago, a Chamberlain '69 with the same grade sold for $9,560. Chamberlain's rookie card, a 1961 Fleer graded PSA Mint 9, also smashed its estimate in this auction, as the stunning example sold for $348,000 — proof again that Goliath's best cards, like the man himself, possess an extraordinary vertical jump at the moment. Only last summer, a Wilt rookie in the same grade sold at Heritage for $288,000. Another rookie hit one out of the park last weekend: Mickey Mantle, whose 1951 Bowman debut graded PSA NM-MT 8 sold for $504,000. Not far behind was a 1933 Goudey Napoleon Lajoie graded PSA Mint 9, which realized $384,000. In all, 14 cards sold for six figures in the Winter Sports Card Catalog Auction — including two of the finest cards from the 1914 Cracker Jack collection. The Christy Mathewson, graded PSA EX 5, is one of only two to achieve such a high number, and PSA has seen but one higher. The New York Giants hurler saw his card cross the plate for a record-setting $312,000. And the 1914 Cracker Jack card featuring "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, graded PSA EX 5, sold for $240,000, another new record for the set. The PSA EX 5 Walter Johnson from the same set sold for $84,000. That's a big number for the Big Train and another new Cracker Jack record, which does not surprise Heritage Sports' co-founder and president Chris Ivy. "Not only are these cards beautiful — and significant — in their own right, but they were far rarer than their 1915 counterparts," Ivy says. "And it's just mind-blowing that these cards survived in this condition for a day, much less more than a century, considering they were pulled from boxes by kids with sticky caramel-coated fingers." And it wasn't just century-old offerings that fared exceptionally well in the auction. One of the hobby's most popular modern cards sold for $84,000: a 2000 Playoff Contenders Tom Brady Rookie Ticket Autograph graded BGS NM-MT+ 8.5, with the signature graded Auto 10. Maybe he retired this weekend; maybe not. But this card will always be a player. And a one-of-one 1971 Topps Bert Blyleven rookie in a GEM MT PSA 10 sold for $138,000, which is newsworthy enough as this is one of those impossible-to-find gem-mints Topps from '71 considering those black borders. What makes it even more exceptional is the fact this very example of the curve-baller's card sold less than a year ago for $55,200. For a complete list of results from the Jan. 27-28 Winter Sports Card Catalog Auction, click here. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,500,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of five million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter. Link to this release or view prior press releases. Robert Wilonsky, Communications Director 214-409-1887; RobertW@HA.com