The year is barely underway and it’s already looking quite good for anyone liquidating their sports memorabilia collection. As recent auctions have gone to show, there’s an increasing demand, not only for sports cards, but also for game-worn jerseys and sneakers.
In January of last year, a LeBron James NBA Finals jersey fetched $3.6 million at auction while a set of Lionel Messi World Cup jerseys went for $7.8 million last December. The trend continues with a Sotheby’s auction that ended last week and saw a set of game-worn Nike Air Jordans sell for a record-breaking $8.03 million.
When anything Michael Jordan-related hits the auction block, one can expect plenty of interest and excitement to follow. Such was the case when Sotheby’s presented a set of Nike sneakers worn by MJ himself during ‘championship-clinching’ games in the respective years of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998. You don’t have to be a historian to know that the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Finals each of those very same years and that MJ played no small role in every victory, taking home six NBA Finals MVP awards.
Dubbed by Sotheby’s as ‘The Dynasty Collection,’ the set consisted of the following Air Jordan sneakers: Air Jordan VI (1991), Air Jordan VII (1992), Air Jordan VIII (1993), Air Jordan XI (1996), Air Jordan XII (1997), and Air Jordan XIV (1998).
According to legend, Jordan gifted one sneaker to Bulls communications executive Tim Hallam after each of the six championships as part of a tradition. Hallam later sold the sneakers—some of which were signed by MJ—to a private collector. That same private collector must be having a very good week right about now.
No stranger to benchmarks, Michael Jordan continues to set them through auctions like this one, which broke a record for game-worn sneakers. It comes on the heels of historic auctions such as one in April of last year, when a pair of sneakers worn by MJ in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $2.2 million. Meanwhile, the highest-selling Jordan memorabilia remains the jersey he wore during Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which sold in 2022 for a whopping $10.1 million.
In addition to ‘The Dynasty Collection,’ Sotheby’s included a set of signed photographs by Bill Smith, each one depicting Jordan after he won the 1992, 1993, 1996, and 1998 NBA Finals, respectively. Rocking a celebratory smile, MJ famously wears a single sneaker in every photo (having already gifted the other sneaker to Tim Hallam). Now it’s a lucky collector who’s smiling.
