THE HEIRLOOM INDEX
The Journal
The Journal · Notable Sales

Notable Sales — Summer 2026

A seasonal recap of the most significant results to cross the block, June–August 2026 — four editions a year, one for each season. These are publicly reported results, not our own research. Where a house has given us permission to publish its results we credit it and link the lot; every other figure belongs to the outlet that reported it.
$5,856,000
Honus Wagner — 1909–11 T206, Piedmont back (SGC Authentic)
One of three Piedmont-back Wagners known, and only the third owner in the card’s life. It had not been offered publicly in about twenty-five years, and it came with a 1958 letter from Charles Bray of The Card Collectors Bulletin — the paperwork of a hobby that was still being invented.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80003, August 21 · view ↗
View →
$3,721,000
Mickey Mantle — 1952 Topps #311 (PSA 8)
The highest figure publicly recorded at the grade. Thirty-five copies hold a PSA 8 and fourteen have graded above it; this one also carried a Mike Baker Authenticated sticker, a second opinion on eye appeal given after the number was already assigned. It is not his rookie card — that is the 1951 Bowman — and Mantle’s overall high is still the $12.6 million SGC 9.5 of 2022.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80013, August 21 · view ↗
View →
$1,830,000
Mickey Mantle — 1952 Topps #311 (PSA 8)
A second copy at the same grade, sold on June 20 at Goldin. We do not publish that house’s results as our own data, so the figure here is the one the reporting carried, and it stays on this page.
As reported by Auction Report · view ↗
View →
$1,555,500
Mickey Mantle — 1952 Topps #311 (PSA 8)
And a third, three weeks after the June sale and six weeks before the August one. Three PSA 8s crossed the block in nine weeks this summer and no two of them agreed. Whatever separates them is not the number on the flip.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80382, July 11 · view ↗
View →
$1,525,000
Babe Ruth — 1933 Goudey #181 (PSA 9)
The last of the four Ruths in the 1933 Goudey set by number, in Mint 9. The others are #53, #144 and #149; the one we follow is the 144.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80007, August 21 · view ↗
View →
$1,107,000
1952 Topps — a “brick” of eight unopened five-cent wax packs
We wrote about this one on August 7, while it was still on the block. One of three bricks known, out of a Seattle find in the early 1990s; bidding opened at $250,000 and drew forty-two bids. Low series, so there is no Mantle inside — those packs stop at card 310, and his is 311.
REA / collectrea.com — Summer Catalog Auction, closed August 16 · view ↗
View →
$597,800
Tom Brady — 2000 Playoff Contenders Championship Ticket #144 (BGS 8.5, auto 10)
Number 54 of the hundred signed tickets — the football card that came to matter most from a draft in which he went one hundred and ninety-ninth.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80051, August 21 · view ↗
View →
$414,800
Michael Jordan — 1986 Fleer #57 (PSA 10)
Eight copies of this one card sold across the same three days, from $12,810 up to this one: the whole ladder, in one room, in one weekend. A PSA 10 had sold at the same house six weeks earlier for $347,700.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80164, August 22 · view ↗
View →
$353,800
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — 1969 Topps #25 (PSA 9)
His rookie card, from his first professional season, issued under the name he was still playing under.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lot 80159, August 22 · view ↗
View →
$158,600
Bill Russell — 1957 Topps #77 (PSA 8)
A second copy of the same card, in the same grade, sold in the same sale for $146,400. The $12,200 between them is not in the number on the flip: this one carried a Mike Baker Authenticated designation and the other did not.
Heritage Auctions / HA.com — lots 80158 and 80032, August 21–22 · view ↗
View →
$125,794
Roberto Clemente — 1955 Topps #164 (PSA 8)
His rookie card, and the season’s earliest result on a card we follow — June 6, before any of what came after it.
Memory Lane — June 6 · view ↗
View →

Figures are realized prices from public auctions, stated all-in where the house reports them that way — Heritage’s include a 22% buyer’s premium. Results credited to Heritage Auctions / HA.com, REA / collectrea.com and Memory Lane are published with those houses’ permission. Any other figure is attributed to the outlet that reported it and appears here as reported news; it does not enter our records, our index, or any card’s price history. The Heirloom Index reports all of this for historical interest — descriptive, never advice.

Earlier: Spring 2026 →