NFL Draft Day Special

It’s draft day, Collectors.

A day of new beginnings, nervous cheers, and inevitable boos from Jets fans… all fueled by speculation. 

Given the team at Mantel spends all day focused on collectibles, we know a thing or two about speculation, but we’re going to leave the guessing game to the NFL pundits. 

For today’s Above the Mantel, we wanted to mix things up with a rapid-fire look at the news and nuggets that caught our attention this week like a D-lineman with a 3.4-second 40-yard dash. 

So lace up your cleats and let’s get into it.

• Tom Brady is in the news for a rare public blunder at a Miami business conference, where collectors paid $3,600 per ticket for him to sign memorabilia. Eyewitnesses claimed Brady was rushed to sign the items, causing illegible signatures. Brady’s camp says they were never supposed to sign anything in the first place, and that the blame lies with the event organizer. Now, many collectors are asking for refunds, and scrubbing their items of his penmanship.

• US Customs and Border Patrol agents at the Port of Rochester confiscated more than $400,000 in counterfeit goods this week, including bogus copies of Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama’s Prizm rookie card. News of the discovery comes less than a week after a 1/1 Black Shimmer Wemby card sold for $516,000 at auction, setting a new high watermark for the rookie’s cards.

  

  via Sky News

• 50 years ago, the 12-string guitar John Lennon played in the “Help!” movie was deemed lost. But this week, a couple in the UK discovered the legendary instrument in their attic during a move – and experts are predicting it will set sales records for Beatles instruments. The guitar, which was also played on recordings for “I’ve Just Seen A Face” and “Norwegian Wood”, was initially in the possession of 60s rocker Gordon Waller, who gifted it to one of his band’s road managers in the 70s, and it’s estimated to sell for $500,000 - $750,000.

• Four abstract paintings by Joan Mitchell – all from different eras – are headed to auction with Sotheby’s, and could tally a combined $50M. Mitchell’s work has seen a number of astronomically high sales recently, including individual November sales for $29M (Christie’s) and $28M (Sotheby’s), both of which far exceeded their initial estimates. Sotheby’s noted that the pieces are best viewed together, in order to truly appreciate the arc of Mitchell’s career.

  

  via Robb Report

• A Rolex split-seconds watch was auctioned off for a record-breaking $3.5M this past weekend. Originally produced in 1942, these watches were never sold, and instead were gifted to Italian racing teams. Similar watches sold in the $2M range in the 2010s, suggesting significant growth in the market since 2020.

• If you’re like us, you might be scouring the Arizona Coyotes team shop to pick up some discounted Kachina items before they officially fold. Soon, the Yotes will join a slew of teams in the “throwback” section of the NHL Shop, with the franchises relocating to Utah. But we doubt this will be the last we see of the Coyotes, even if the team no longer exists. Check out the other thriving “defunct” teams we wrote about, and you’ll see why the Coyotes could continue to sell.

• Collectors are looking to capitalize off of O.J. Simpson’s recent death, and the items making the rounds even include an expired credit card. Simpson’s old credit card was first sold on eBay last year for $70 to collector Jonathan Lepore. Although Lepore intended to give the card to his father, he decided to put it up for sale after Simpson’s death on April 10th. Bidding wraps today, and the final sale will exceed $2,000.

• Signed sports collectibles spotted at Costco have been a hot topic for weeks on Mantel. The folks at Yahoo also joined in on the fun, discovering a number of discounted collectibles being sold on the Costco website. When compared to Fanatics, Yahoo found that Costco items were several hundred dollars cheaper, and still managed to include high-profile names like Derek Jeter and Tom Brady.

Here’s hoping Brady put a little more effort into those signatures.

If you love diving deeper into the endless world of collectibles, let your friends know about Mantel and share this newsletter. Readers can sign up to get Above the Mantel here: https://mantel.beehiiv.com/subscribe.