Halper Sale: $21 Million

One dealer called it the Woodstock of the sports memorabilia business. It was that kind of event, without love beads, drugs or heavy metal music, though there were plenty of highs. Other participants called the high bidding "insane" and "stratospheric." This was not the Jackie Kennedy Onassis sale, where fake pearls went for more than a hundred grand, and the slain president's golf clubs went for three quarters of a million bucks. This was the Barry Halper sale, a test of unparalleled wills and financial muscle in the sports memorabilia arena, which some people thought would yield between $7 million and $11 million. The final total was $21,812,577! A total of 85 percent of the items sold above the high estimates; many sold at 10 times the estimate, enough to prompt gasps and more head-nodding than one of those goofy, bobbing ceramic pieces. Bids were flying as was the testosterone in the room. All told, more than 1,500 bidders participated in the seven-day, 16-session sale. A cap worn by Lou Gehrig in the 1930s fetched $151,000, more than seven times what David Wells paid for what was a cap record for a Babe Ruth hat. Lou Gehrig's last glove, estimated to sell between $35,000 and $50,000, sold for $387,500, the largest sum paid for any item in the sale. "Usually there's a logic to an auction," one dealer said. "With the prices in this auction, there was no logic."

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