Latest news with #MastersGnome
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How the final round of the Masters sent eBay searches soaring: 5 must-see stats
Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, reacts after winning in a playoff against Justin Rose after the final round at the Masters golf tournament, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) The Masters is one of the rare sporting events where history genuinely feels tangible every single year and 2025 was no exception. Rory McIlroy finally securing his career Grand Slam, becoming only the sixth golfer ever to do so, captivated viewers around the world. From the heartbreaking missed putt on 18, to his breathtaking playoff shot, fans were glued to their screens. His emotional walk to the scorer's table highlighted the magnitude of this historic event. It doesn't take an experienced collector to recognize its lasting significance. Some fans saw an investment opportunity, while others simply sought memorabilia to forever connect them to the moment. Unsurprisingly, eBay exploded with activity on the tournament's final day. Here are five extraordinary eBay search trends from the final day of the 2025 Masters. 1. On April 13, 2025—the final day of the Masters—global eBay users searched for 'Masters 2025' items nearly 1,300 times per hour. This staggering volume of searches underscores fans' urgency to secure a piece of golfing history in real-time. Clearly, the immediacy of Rory's historic victory drove collectors and fans alike to seek out memorabilia commemorating this iconic moment. 2. On April 13, 2025—the final day of the Masters—searches for Masters gnomes increased nearly 170% on eBay globally, compared to average daily searches during the week prior to the Masters (April 3-9, 2025). Masters gnomes have become quirky, collectible staples since Augusta National first introduced these whimsical garden figures in 2016. Each annual release, depicting unique golfer-themed gnomes, has developed into a highly coveted memorabilia item. AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 07: A view of a Masters Gnome being carried by a patron during a practice round prior to the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 07, 2025 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by) (Richard Heathcote via Getty Images) 3. On April 13, 2025—the final day of the Masters—when Justin Rose finished six-under to force a playoff, searches for 'Justin Rose' surged nearly 600% on eBay globally compared to the average day during the week prior to his final round (April 6-12, 2025). Golf casuals might not have known who Justin Rose was prior to the 2025 Masters but rest assured he cemented himself as a household name with his incredible playoff forcing performance on the final day. 4. On April 13, 2025—the day Rory McIlroy completed his career Grand Slam by winning the Masters—searches for 'Rory McIlroy' skyrocketed over 6,000% on eBay globally compared to the average daily searches during the week before the Masters began (April 3-9, 2025). The massive spike in Rory McIlroy searches highlights just how profoundly fans want to connect with history-making moments. 5. On April 13, 2025—the final day of the Masters—searches for 'Rory McIlroy cards' increased nearly 1,800% on eBay globally compared to the average daily searches during the week prior to his victory (April 6-12, 2025). As card collecting continues to boom, McIlroy's monumental victory significantly boosted the demand for his trading cards. Collectors saw immediate value and long-term investment potential in cards commemorating the 6th player ever to accomplish the golf Grand Slam. Advertisement The unprecedented surge in eBay searches on the final day of the Masters illustrates how in-sync the collecting world is with real time events. This raises an essential question for every collector: are you early enough to grab a piece of history at a good deal, or are you catching the wave at its peak, paying a premium driven by hype? The answer might depend less on timing and more on perspective. If you're in it for the flip, timing is everything. But if you're collecting because a moment moved you, because you felt something, then maybe value isn't just measured in dollars, but in memory. Your collection deserves a community. Download Mantel today.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I'm just LeBarbie - LeBron James gets his own Barbie Doll
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 19: LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers waves to the crowd during the game against the Miami Marlins on LeBron James bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium on August 19, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by) (Harry How via Getty Images) Hey Collectors, LeBron James has one more checkmark on his side of the NBA 🐐 ledger- first male athlete to get the Ken Doll treatment. Earlier this week Mattel announced that James would become a Kenbassador (their term, not ours), with his signature doll hitting store shelves April 14th for $75. Mattel did LBJ right, putting his doll in a pair of Nike's, with an AP Royal Oak on his wrist and a pair of Beats headphones in his hands. Pre-sales of the doll are already flipping for 3x the purchase price ( Buy on eBay ). Advertisement Of course, that's not the only figurine catching the eye of collectors and resellers this week… It turns out the most unexpected star of The Masters collectible universe isn't a signed Tiger Woods ball or an original 1934 badge — it's a gnome. Since Augusta National began selling Masters-themed gnomes in 2016 for under $50, they've transformed into one of the hottest resale items in the golf memorabilia world. The 2016 edition now commands thousands online ( Buy on eBay ), with newer releases regularly flipping for hundreds. Their limited availability, quirky annual designs, and a dash of Augusta mystique have turned them into must-haves for collectors. BTW — with The Masters starting today, Mantel's Keegan Wagner has some golfers, and their trading cards, worth keeping an eye on. You can read it here . AUGUSTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 07: A view of a Masters Gnome being carried by a patron during a practice round prior to the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 07, 2025 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by) (Richard Heathcote via Getty Images) If you want to really rile up someone who grew up in the 90s, send 'em your ranking of Sports Illustrated for Kids cards. Mike Metzler ran through the most important cards ever torn from the magazine, and it didn't take long to see rebuttals pop up on Mantel , including one in this week's Mail Day . In a delightful twist on traditional trading card games, the children of Kawara, Japan have gone all-in on collecting local legends — quite literally. The viral Ojisan TCG swaps out dragons and superheroes for the real-life middle-aged men of the Saidosho community, with favorites like 'Firewall' Mr. Honda and 'All-Rounder' Mr. Fujii gaining cult hero status. Originally created to bridge generations, the hand-made cards have turned civic volunteers into hometown celebrities, complete with shiny card upgrades for real-world good deeds. For ¥500, you might just pull a holographic soba master — and maybe, make a new role model too. On the heels of Alex Ovechkin's record-breaking 895th goal, a wave of hockey memorabilia has hit the spotlight, starting with the stick of Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders goalie Ovi scored on. While Sorokin gave up the goal and his equipment, Budweiser gifted the 28 netminders Ovechkin never scored on commemorative cans of beer . And Topps quickly dropped a 10-sticker NOW set ($29.99) tracking Ovechkin's milestone goals, where buyers can chase rare parallels. Meanwhile, the 1994 Rolls-Royce Corniche IV gifted to Wayne Gretzky after he passed Gordie Howe with goal No. 802, is heading to auction, with a pre-sale estimate of nearly $900K. A man has pleaded guilty to a long-running fake memorabilia scheme that spanned nearly a decade. Anthony Tremayne admitted to selling between $250K and $550K worth of forged items, including fake autographs from stars across sports and entertainment — think Kobe, Prince, even the Kardashians. He allegedly used bogus certificates of authenticity to back his forgeries and even duped an undercover FBI agent. His plea deal reduces the charges to a single count of mail fraud, but he still faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Your collection deserves a community. Download Mantel and subscribe to the Above the Mantel newsletter today.
New York Times
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Masters gnomes: From passing fad to valuable collectibles with staying power
Type 'The Masters' into a search of the most expensive sold items on eBay. The first item atop the list went for $10,250. The second collectible connected to the world's most esteemed golf tournament on the auction platform sold for $7,999.99. Purchases No. 4-7 on the same list involve offshoots of the two top sales. Advertisement These aren't pieces of memorabilia from The Masters signed by Tiger Woods or Bobby Jones, though. They're not programs or badges from the first Masters in 1934 either. These items stand 18 inches tall and are supposed to reside in and watch over someone's garden. They're gnomes. Yes, Masters-themed statues of small, white-bearded, mythical creatures who, according to Merriam-Webster, 'live in the earth and usually guard treasure.' Sounds like a sales idea Carl Spackler and Ty Webb from 'Caddyshack' concocted during a cannonball session while night putting at Bushwood Country Club. Instead, Augusta National unearthed its own treasure when it began selling the themed figures in 2016 for less than $50 ($49.95 this year) for one week each year inside The Masters merchandise shop. The tournament only allows one gnome per customer and only sells a limited supply each day the shop is open. It's part of the reason why Masters patrons line up before dawn every year to enter. The limited access and supply to The Masters gnomes, though, create a ripe resale opportunity. According to eBay, the number of items sold including 'Masters Gnome' within the title or variations of the phrase increased nearly 3,750 percent during the 2023 Masters season (March through May) compared to the same time period on the platform in 2016. As demand increased, so did prices. The average sales price for items sold including 'Masters Gnome' or variations within the title increased more than 20 percent during the 2022 Masters season compared to the 2021 season. Sales then jumped more than 50 percent during the 2023 Masters season compared to the 2022 season. The most expensive 2025 Masters gnomes, which first went on sale at Augusta on Saturday, so far have sold on eBay for at least six times as much as the retail cost. Advertisement 'I thought it was a passing fad several years ago when they started to get a little bit hot and I was wrong,' said Ryan Carey, founder and president of the golf-centric Golden Age Auctions. 'Every once in a while there are things that are sold at The Masters in the merchandise tent that sell for a lot more afterwards because they sold out quickly or they didn't make enough of them or something. Sometimes there's just a flash in the pan or it was a little fad. Something got popular or something got viral really quickly, but they don't last. 'Gnomes really flipped the script there.' Throwback to Min Woo Lee and his Masters gnome leaving Augusta after his T22 finish last year 😂👏 — Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) April 1, 2025 Carey said the gnomes are easily the most surprisingly popular piece of Masters memorabilia in existence. The auction house has yielded seven-figure sales for items like the set of irons Woods used during the 'Tiger Slam' run in 2000 and 2001 as well as an Andy Warhol painting of Jack Nicklaus. He said he's heard way more from buyers interested in The Masters' gnomes than either of those two pieces of golf memorabilia. 'The gnomes have staying power because they're making a different gnome every year,' Carey said. ' It looks different. So if anybody starts to collect them this year, a certain portion of those people are going to want to go back and find ones from prior years. The only way to find them is to buy them on the secondary market. So by creating a new gnome every year, you are increasing the potential buyers for prior years on the secondary market. 'That's why you just see these stratospheric numbers for the 2016 gnomes. That's a $10,000 gnome right now. Those gnomes are $49 at the merch tents. An astronomical return that came out of nowhere!' Advertisement This year's gnome dons a polo shirt highlighting the famous Masters peach ice cream sandwich, including one ready-to-eat sandwich in his left hand. It's one of the more exotic outfits since 2016, which will likely aid in full size polo shirts with the same design being sold on the grounds (and now on the secondary market). The outfits have varied from the understated caddy attire from 2024 to the Christmas sweater look from 2020, since The Masters took place in mid-November that year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The secretive culture of The Masters even extends to gnomes. A tournament spokesman declined an interview request by The Athletic to discuss the history, popularity and creativity behind the yard ornament. Regardless of The Masters' rhyme or reason for the existence of the gnomes, there has been and likely will be no shortage in sales for the collectible. Currently, final sales of at least $300 for Masters gnomes span four pages deep on eBay, with the $10,250 price attached to a gnome from the original 2016 release. The shrewd 2025 gnome hunter hit the Augusta grounds long before The Masters' opening round on Thursday. Onsite sales commenced Saturday during the Augusta National Women's Amateur, which is held on the course the week before professional men's golf's first major. The most expensive gnome so far sold on eBay from the 2025 event went for $699.99. Those left arriving at merchandise tents with empty shelves for the signature full-size gnomes have other options. There's a smaller gnome without the yearly outfit that typically holds a resale value around or north of $100. And this year The Masters is offering gnome salt and pepper shakers with a similar look as the smaller gnomes. With a retail price of $38, those are selling for $120 and up on eBay. It's the full-size gnomes that Masters attendees scratch and claw to buy, though. They're also the ones collectors are willing to pay a premium for outside the tournament gates. 'I don't know that anyone predicted the popularity of the gnomes,' Carey said. 'And that's how the best collectibles happen. If anybody knew that was going to be valuable, then they would've hoarded them and saved them in the original box and then they wouldn't be as valuable or as rare today and wouldn't be as valuable. They probably didn't make very many of them, and the people that bought them, they probably put them in their yard! They didn't save them as a collectible because they weren't supposed to be a collectible. That's been an absolute phenomenon.'
