Latest news with #sportsmemorabilia
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark breaks own record with one-of-a-kind rookie card auction sell
Caitlin Clark continued her record-setting ways this week. As the Indiana Fever star guard continues to navigate back from a right groin injury, Clark had reason to smile on Thursday night. In the latest illustration of her superstardom, Clark reset her own off-the-court record. On Thursday, one of Clark's rookie cards sold for $660,000 on the Fanatics Collect auction site. It's by far the most ever paid for a women's sports card and it's nearly twice the amount garnered by the previous record holder, which was similarly a Clark rookie card. The new top seller is the 2024 Panini Instant Rookie Royalty WNBA Flawless Platinum Caitlin Clark Logowoman. It features a photo of Clark and a game-worn patch from her Fever uniform. The 1-of-1 numbered, autographed rookie card also has the written message "769 points and counting," referencing Clark's WNBA rookie record number of points scored. This record-setting card garnered 26 bids after extended bidding began at $336,000. It resets the record books after Clark's autographed 2024 Panini Prizm WNBA Gold Vinyl 1/1 was auctioned by Goldin for a then-record $366,000. Before that, the record amount garnered by a women's sports card was the $266,400 paid three years ago for a signed 2003 Serena Williams card. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Josh on X: @JoshOnREF This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Caitlin Clark breaks own record with 1-of-1 rookie card auction sell
Reuters
5 days ago
- Sport
- Reuters
Caitlin Clark rookie card sells for record $660k
July 25 - Even in an injury-plagued season, Caitlin Clark's impact off the court remains large after her rookie trading card sold for $660,000 at a Fanatics Collect auction this week. The card, which represents Clark's 2024 season with the Indiana Fever, is a Panini WNBA Rookie Royalty card that includes an autograph and a swatch of her jersey. A separate 2024 Panini Prizm rookie card of Clark sold for $366,000 in March. Clark, 23, has played in just 13 of the Fever's 25 games this season because of leg injuries, while also missing Saturday's WNBA All-Star Game. She has averaged 16.5 points and 8.8 assists this season, after scoring 19.2 points with 8.4 assists in 40 games as a rookie lasts season. The 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year set a WNBA single-season record with 337 assists and established WNBA rookie marks with 769 points and 122 3-pointers. --Field Level Media
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
A counterfeiter's suicide note lifts the lid off a seedy corner of US sporting culture
At 9am last Tuesday, the City of Westfield police in Indiana pulled up to a warehouse on South Park Drive, armed with a search warrant and a fleet of semi trucks that indicated they knew exactly what they were looking for. As part of a continuing investigation into fraud and counterfeiting, they confiscated thousands of items of sports memorabilia. The following day, the same crew fetched up at a property on Hoover Street bent on adding to their pile of evidence. Upon entering those premises, however, they also discovered the body of Brett Lemieux, owner of both businesses, with a shotgun by his side. In the hours in between the first raid and the second, Lemieux apparently realised the jig was up, logged on to a private Facebook group and wrote a lengthy posting lifting the lid off an especially seedy corner of US sporting culture. The proprietor of Mister Mancave, an outfit that has supposedly generated $350 million (€299 million) selling autographed balls, bats and jerseys to fans across the country over the past two decades, admitted the majority of the merchandise he flogged was fake. The 45-year-old also named co-conspirators in the elaborate boondoggle, explained in some detail how they had scammed so many people, and then took his own life. 'I hope no one tries to hide this,' wrote Lemieux. 'I want to expose it all and how big of an operation – you all knew it was going on but grasp how big it was ... It was a thrill having every athlete in every sport from every authentication company at your fingertips to produce the signature flawless ... READ MORE 'I was addicted. It was a rush. I wanted out. But the money was too good. I can make $100,000 in a week if I wanted to. The fact that not one dealer that knew what we were doing to the industry, or when I took their exclusive, no one ever picked up a phone to confront me. That baffled me.' According to some business experts, the sports memorabilia market in the US is worth a staggering $30 billion a year and growing fast. Much more so than in Ireland or the UK, the appetite for paraphernalia touched or signed by famous athletes in the US seems to be insatiable. The bigger the name involved or the more significant the moment the item relates to, the more ridiculous the sums are. The ball that Shohei Ohtani hit for his 50th home run last season sold for $4.3 million. From rare trading cards to game-worn gear, just about anything with a player's signature on it is eminently collectible and deemed to be worth money. Many make these purchases as investments, believing they will most likely increase in value as years go by. Lemieux's revelations and the awful circumstances of his demise have thrown a cloud over an already shady business that has traditionally attracted plenty of flim-flam artists on the make. One expert reckons the authenticity of just about every signed bauble bought and sold over the past 20 years must now be called into question. While some of his rivals seriously question the veracity of the numbers being bandied about in his name, if Mister Mancave did indeed, as he claimed, launch 80,000 fraudulent items into the market following the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, the true origin of every ball or jersey related to the former NBA star is in serious doubt. Young baseball fans attempt to get autographs before a game between New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves. Photograph: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Established companies such as Fanatics, Panini, Tristar, James Spence Authentication, Mill Creek Sports, GT Sports Marketing and CardVault (50 per cent of which is owned by Tom Brady) are legit operators in the memorabilia space. These corporations fork out vast sums for the right to collaborate with individual athletes, teams and leagues, selling licensed merchandise bearing official signatures and imprimaturs. In a world where just about anybody can fake somebody else's handwriting, though, they also spend small fortunes combating armies of swindlers, trying to preserve the integrity of their business. [ Michael Jordan's 1998 Air Jordans sell for record $2.2m at auction Opens in new window ] Issuing certificates of authenticity (COA) with every purchase, they place identification holograms in products to prove their bona fides, and their security teams, often staffed by former FBI agents, trawl online marketplaces trying to catch grifters. It is believed Fanatics and other outfits assisted the authorities investigating Lemieux and his complex operation that was, for a long time, very effective. Partly this was due to him changing the business name any time suspicion grew up around his sales. Lemieux and his accomplices appear to have figured out ways to circumvent the elaborate precautions taken by the big companies. Using autopens purchased for $150 from Amazon to copy autographs, they also discovered an outlet in China that replicated the distinctive holograms deployed by their corporate rivals. Then they put their high-class fakes for sale online for half what they might cost from a more reputable source. When a signed Brady or Patrick Mahomes shirt was picked up cheap and subsequently gifted to somebody for Christmas, the recipient hung it in their home or office, none the wiser to any skulduggery afoot. Even after all the brouhaha surrounding Lemieux's scorched-earth posting and the talk of an authentication crisis in the industry, the market for gear seems unaffected. On eBay the other night, jerseys signed by Brady were going for anything from $599 to $10,000; some of them came with COAs, others boasted holograms. Genuine articles? Made with a nefarious assist from China? Who knows? In this business, you pays your money, you takes your chance. Always.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Autograph dealer identified as man found dead in Indiana raid of fake memorabilia
The Hamilton County Coroner's Office identified autograph dealer Brett Lemieux, 45, as the man found dead when police executed a search warrant into a scheme involving fake sports memorabilia in Westfield, Indiana. In a release Thursday, the coroner listed the cause and manner of death as pending, but in a statement Wednesday, Westfield police attributed "a self-inflicted gunshot wound" as the cause of death. A Facebook post attributed to Lemieux on the "Autographs 101" group sent shockwaves through the sports autograph industry Wednesday morning. In the post allegedly written by Lemieux, he detailed a huge counterfeiting business that sold more than four million items and surpassed $350 million in sales. The crux of the autograph forging operation was based in faking holograms of the largest companies in the hobby, including Panini, Fanatics, Tri-Star, James Spence Authentics, Mill Creek Sports, GT Sports Marketing and others. Lemieux's primary business was called Mister Mancave, which says on its website that it offers 'the largest framed jersey inventory on the web.' A Facebook page for Mister Mancave says the business is located in Columbus, Ohio, but no records of a physical store there exist. Mister Mancave has been incorporated twice in Indiana between 2018 and 2023. In the post attributed under his name, Lemieux said after Kobe Bryant died in January 2020, his company put out 80,000 fake items 'into the marketplace.' Sources told cllct Lemieux upset many companies that had official autograph deals with players because Lemieux's outlet would offer prices that were much lower and yet still featured holograms of authentication. An Aaron Judge ball, for example, would sell on Fanatics for $699. Lemieux's website at Mister Mancave would offer a Judge ball, with a Fanatics hologram, for $399. A Fanatics spokesperson said the company made big changes to its hologram two years ago after receiving information its former holograms had been copied. The new hologram has not been replicated since, the spokesperson said. Fanatics is currently working with two other partners to make additional changes that will make its stickers more counterfeit-proof. Sources say Fanatics has worked closely with law enforcement over the past few years, including the Lemieux case and the fake autograph ring in McKinney, Texas, that was unraveled earlier this year. Fanatics also employs former FBI employees to aid in its fraud prevention. Cllct contacted many of the companies whose holograms Lemieux said he faked. No others immediately returned messages seeking comment. Industry insiders told cllct they were surprised by Lemieux's post, which offered details of the alleged scheme. 'He's trying to burn the industry on the way out of the door,' one autograph dealer said. 'It's clear he feels spurned and is trying to impress people.' That source said he thought the numbers Lemieux boasted about seemed completely unrealistic. 'If he made and sold that much, the autograph industry would have been crushed,' the source said. RELATED STORIES: Dead body found during police raid on fake sports memorabilia in Indiana U.S. border agents seize $1.43 million worth of fake sports merchandise Charges dropped against two defendants in Jason Kelce autograph fraud Thousands of fake memorabilia items discovered in Texas probe Why so many Michael Jordan autographs are fake: A cllct investigation Another autograph entrepreneur, whose company does millions in annual sales called the $350 million number "impossible," adding he would be surprised if it were 10% of that. Longtime autograph authentication expert Steve Grad says no matter what the numbers, "this guy did years and years of damage." Grad said it's harder and harder to catch criminals because the autopen process is getting more and more nuanced. "This might have an effect on the industry in the short-term, but people have short memories, it will bounce back," he added. It wasn't like what Lemieux was doing was a secret, another industry insider said. 'He had tons of autographs from guys that didn't do a signing in years,' one autograph dealer said. Lemieux named names in his manifesto. He said Indiana autograph dealer Dominique Ball of Authentic Sports Collectibles "was the sole person who put out 100,000 Tom Brady items into the market" and that Nicklaus Litcher (sic) funneled the items Ball produced. A call placed to Ball was not returned. Nickolas Litscher, a chef in Wisconsin who has an autograph business on the side that most often manifests itself in offering prizes (razzes) on Facebook, told cllct he was shocked to see his name. "I said five sentences to Brett my whole life," Litscher said. "He makes me look like I was part of the whole thing. I never talked to him on the phone and don't even know what he looks like." Litscher said he is hiring a lawyer. Sources said Lemieux and his associates have taken on various names on many selling platforms, including Ultimate Sports, Athletes One, Signature Dog and All-American Authentics. Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network. Kevin Jackson is the chief content officer for cllct.
New York Times
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Allen Iverson isn't writing about practice: What athletes won't sign at The National
Inscriptions spice up your average autographs from athletes and celebrities, and often make those penned items more valuable. At shows like this year's National Sports Collectors Convention, autograph seekers are often willing to pay extra for those added messages. For example, Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor will add an 'LT was a Bad Mother F—er' inscription to go along with a signature from the New York Giants legend for an extra $105 during The National in Rosemont, Illinois next week. Some of the other notable inscriptions being offered include this selection from former Boston Red Sox great David Ortiz: Former NFL running back and 1998 Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams is willing to provide 'one (1) cannabis related inscription up to 3 words' for an extra $49 given his public affinity for marijuana. And with a purchase of an autograph from two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, you'll receive a free autograph from each of his brothers Alex, Kostas, and Thanasis, who will also be signing and posing for photos at the event. Advertisement Conversely, some athletes signing at The National, recognized as the year's biggest sports card and memorabilia show, refuse to inscribe certain phrases or sign specific items and have made it known ahead of time. Allen Iverson isn't signing about 'practice.' You'll also receive a 'Bo No' response if you're looking for a 'Bo Knows' autographed inscription from Bo Jackson. Let's take a glimpse at some of the notable restrictions from signers at the five-day event: Allen Iverson The NBA Hall of Famer and former Philadelphia 76ers legend, won't inscribe 'practice,' referring to his famous 2002 press conference rant. Bo Jackson Jackson's list extends much deeper than the no go for 'Bo Knows.' The 1985 Heisman Trophy winner and former MLB and NFL dual-sport star also won't pen 'Bo Don't Know Diddley' as an inscription, pointing back to his Nike ad campaign featuring Jackson and musician Bo Diddley. Jackson also won't sign the following items: artwork, bat on shoulder pads cards or photos (the result of a lawsuit that was settled between photographer Richard Noble and Nike), Tecmo Bowl items (the result of his more recent deal with EA Sports?), jersey numbers, stat jerseys, Heisman Trophies, Cam Newton or Pat Sullivan (fellow Auburn alums and Heisman winners) items, Tampa Bay items (Jackson was drafted No. 1 overall by Tampa in 1986 but refused to play for them), or his unauthorized biography. Todd Helton The former Colorado Rockies first baseman will not inscribe 'Toddfather' or 'Mr. Rockie.' That said, he will include on all items outside of trading cards a free 'HOF 24' inscription with each autograph. Although Helton leaned into the Toddfather nickname in the past, there doesn't appear to be any examples of him inscribing it on items he's signed over the years. Julius Erving Dr. J won't sign items referring to his on-court fight with Larry Bird during a 76ers-Celtics game in 1984. Erving also won't autograph unlicensed ABA red, white and blue basketballs, either. Roger Clemens The seven-time Cy Young Award winner has no issue inscribing 'The Rocket' — for a fee — on items. But Clemens will not sign items surrounding the Mike Piazza bat incident when the then-Yankees pitcher caught the barrel of a broken bat and threw it back at the then-Mets catcher in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series. Advertisement Albert Pujols Pujols will not sign any type of Hall of Fame items. This includes HOF logo items and/or items already signed only by Hall of Famers. Pujols, a no-brainer HOF selection, will be eligible for the HOF voting in 2028. (Tom Brady doesn't share Pujols' patience. He started inscribing 'HOF 2028' with his autographs back in February, as reported by Cllct.) Roberto Alomar The Hall of Fame second baseman won't autograph any items related to his spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck in 1996. Steve Garvey His 1982 Fleer trading card is the lone restricted item the Hall of Fame first baseman will not sign. The reasoning is a bit of legend floating around the internet where Garvey supposedly signed the card for a charity auction and vowed it would be the only time he'd ever sign that particular card. Robin Yount The Hall of Fame Milwaukee Brewers slugger will not inscribe nicknames 'Rockin Robin' or 'The Kid,' a nickname he received when he first hit the Majors as an 18 year old in 1974. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.
