NEWS: Paul Henderson’s 1972 Summit Winning Goal Jersey from Canada-Russia Series becomes most valuable hockey collectible ever after selling for $1.2 million
June 15, 2010 by Richard Budman ·
It’s now simply known as “The Goal.” It happened in Moscow, Russia on September 28, 1972 when Canada defeated the U.S.S.R. in a highly charged and dramatic hockey series.
The jersey that Paul Henderson wore when scoring that historic goal is currently being auctioned and is set to become the most expensive piece of hockey memorabilia ever sold. It is currently up for sale at Classic Auctions.
Is the Paul Henderson jersey worth $250,000 or more? The short answer is “yes.” The oldest rule in the collecting world is an item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. So if someone is putting down hundreds of thousands on the Henderson ‘72 Series jersey – than that’s what it’s worth.
In the sports memorabilia world – while the physical item the collector is buying may be a jersey, stick, or puck. What the collector is really buying is a piece of history.
And People collect history. It can be argued that Henderson’s ‘72 Summit Series winning goal is one of the most celebrated and historic hockey moments in Canadian history.
If the Henderson ‘72 Canada jersey does indeed top $250,000 (and as of June 15th – it’s sitting at $232,000) it would make it the most expensive piece of hockey memorabilia ever sold.
A jersey from Wayne Gretzky’s career is believed to have traded hands privately for $250,000. Just a month ago, a sweater from the rookie year of Bobby Orr fetched almost $200,000 at an auction.
There has been much debate on what should happen with the Henderson jersey. A majority feeling it should end up in a Hall of Fame somewhere. The hardware retailing giant, Canadian Tire, recently bid $200,000 for the jersey feeling it would be a nice item to display on a tour around it’s stores (and no doubt, a massive publicity coup in the process.) But when some media complained that might not be such a good idea. Canadian Tire dropped out of the bidding.
UPDATE (June 23): There was some furious bidding at the end between two bidders but the Henderson ‘72 Jersey was sold for $1,067,538 last night – more than double any of the most optimistic estimates before the auction began. The winning bid (comes to over $1.2M after all auction fees factored in) was submitted by Mitchell Goldhar, owner of SmartCentres.
The Henderson ‘72 jersey sale becomes the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of hockey memorabilia.
Don’t want to spend a million dollars on a ‘72 Summit Series collectible? Consider this item from HoundsTV
Auction listing for Henderson ‘72 Jersey at Classic Auctions.
Don’t want to spend a million dollars on a ‘72 Summit Series collectible? Consider this item from HoundsTV
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