Lawsuit's on Ice! Let's Sell That Ball!

Hey, Collectors,

Remember this tussle from last month?

Unsurprisingly, Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball was embroiled in a legal battle faster than it took him to round the bases, with three individuals claiming the prize was theirs. For a minute it even looked like the auction, which is being run by Goldin, was in jeopardy. But on Monday Goldin announced that a deal was reached between the parties to let the auction continue, and bidders won’t need to worry about the dispute. However, the legal conflict is only on hold, not over, and once the auction wraps, the fight for who will get to keep the proceeds will resume.

Bidding for the Ohtani 50/50 ball is north of $1.8M, with 12 days left in the auction taking place at Goldin. 

If the Ohtani ball is out of your price range, you might want to consider a box of 2024 Topps 50/50: Shohei Ohtani instead. Topps sold out of the product pretty quickly on launch day, but plenty of resellers have listed their boxes pre-release. Our own JR Fickle debated the set’s value in this week’s Mail Day, which you can subscribe to here: 

Another Week, Another $$ Goodwill Find

Nobody can blame Above the Mantel readers for thinking every other Goodwill shopper has found priceless collectibles on store shelves, given how often we surface stories of “once-in-a-lifetime” thrifting scores. Well here’s another one. Collector Beau Thompson recently purchased a Goodwill pallet for $700, and after combing through thousands of mostly worthless cards, he hit the jackpot, uncovering a 2009 Bowman Chrome Mike Trout Blue Refractor Autograph /150, likely worth between $10,000-$20,000. Maybe the problem is we’ve been looking at the shelves, not the pallets…

SI Collects has the (enviable) story. 

It’s A Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s Every DC Comic Ever!

Mega collector Christine Farrell once told the Associated Press that “everybody needs an outlet of some kind or other.” For Farrell, who died in April, that meant collecting every issue of DC Comics ever published. Her full comic book collection, comprised of more than 30,000 titles (including more than just comics from DC) was so comprehensive, that industry execs would reach out when they needed to source missing issues for company archives. Now the DC collection, including a copy of Superman #1, is heading to Heritage Auctions, and should comfortably fetch seven-figures.

Artnet News has more on the greatest collection of DC comics ever.

Making Coin Selling Coins

WhatNot isn’t only for sports card breaks, and coin collecting isn’t only for Baby Boomers. Witter Coin, a shop in San Francisco, has been hauling in more than $100,000 a week selling currency on the live shopping app, and the store is on pace to bring in more than $5M on the platform this year. That’s a lot of coin to make on an app Witter’s owner describes as “if QVC and Instagram had a baby.”

The San Francisco Standard breaks it all down.