Heritage Auctions

Our annual highlights of the auction year reached a crescendo in this post-2021 coverage - the most explosive growth, the most ridiculous lots, and dozens of examples of the most expensive items in history ... not to mention the most bizarre lots we've yet seen. The most intriguing of them all was the sale by tender of (most of) the cars from the 2015 movie, “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Collectibles

Top 100 highlights of the 2021 auction year

The 2021 auction market was quite extraordinary, with unprecedented levels of participation and sales. From cars to colt revolvers to multi-million-dollar NFTs, this sweeping look at the highlights is full of fascinating tales and astonishing prices.

This Apollo 11 Vintage NASA "Red Number" Color 10" x 8" print sold for $125,000 at Heritage Auctions on 24 September 2021

Collectibles

Science and sci-fi memorabilia booming at auction

It would be reasonable to expect a slow year at auction for science, technology and science-fiction, but 2021 is on track for a record, with a slew of knowledge-related objects of note hitting the auction block in recent weeks.

The comic containing the first appearance of a superhero is pure gold at auction and the price records prior to today have been all held by comics produced prior to WW2 – Superman in 1938 and Batman in 1939. Spider-Man came along at the time of the baby boomers in 1962, and hence today's new record represents a changing of the superhero guard

Collectibles

Spider-Man surpasses Batman and Superman as world’s most valuable comic

The most valuable comic in the world has always been Action Comics #1 … until a few hours ago when a copy of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 sold for US$3,600,000 at Heritage Auctions, representing tectonic movement within the massive comic collecting industry.

The Apollo Guidance Computer is extremely rare, was very expensive to produce, and an example of state-of-the-art design and fabrication of the period - perhaps even more significantly, it is the common ancestor of every computer.

Collectibles

Space and sci-fi memorabilia breaking records at auction

Last week was a big week in space exploration, with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and some significant sales of space memorabilia, including US$746,000 for an Apollo Guidance Computer (the brain behind the Lunar landing).

The relatively recent ubiquitous nature of the games industry looks to have caught the marketplace unaware on the auction block. Just last Friday when a copy of the Legend of Zelda sold for $875,000, we wrote that “the first million-dollar game cartridge could happen this year, up from a $30,000 high just four years ago.” Little did we realise that we’d have seen that milestone disappear in the rear vision mirror before the weekend was out.

Collectibles

World auction record price for video games smashed twice in three days

The immense magnitude of the video games industry is beginning to be felt on the auction block, with the record price for a video game broken twice over the weekend, jumping from $660,000 to $875,000 on Friday, and then to $1,560,000 on Sunday night.

Babe Ruth whispers in Lou Gehrig's ear. No doubt they would both be amused to find their discarded bats, which they routinely gave away, would be worth more than a million dollars apiece one hundred years hence. When Babe Ruth made national front page headlines in transferring to the New York Yankees a century ago, the icon's annual salary was just $8000

Collectibles

Babe Ruth baseball bat sells for $930,000 as sports memorabilia market heats up

Despite the financial turmoil associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the sports memorabilia marketplace is hotter than ever, with two of the most expensive baseball bats in history selling in the last few weeks for near-record prices.

Two examples this week of concert posters selling for more than $100,000, despite a financial climate that would suggest otherwise

Collectibles

The imagery of youth becoming investment-quality art

It isn’t hard to see why artefacts of landmark cultural events are continually gaining value at auction, but it is becoming clear that the imagery of baby boomers' youth is increasingly morphing into investment quality art.

Alexander Raymond’s first Flash Gordon comic strip debuted on January 7, 1934, introducing the handsome “Flash Gordon, Yale graduate and world-renowned polo player” and his lovely companion, Dale Arden, who parachute out of a crashing plane and are ‘shanghaied’ by Dr. Hans Zarkov aboard his rocket ship launched to intercept the threatening planet Mongo hurtling towards Earth. Thus began the fantastical space opera that, by the late 1930s, was published in 130 newspapers across the globe, translated into eight languages, and read by over 50 million people.

Collectibles

Original Flash Gordon comic strip sells for $512,000

As we forecast in our recent extensive feature covering the 2019 science and technology auction year, science fiction memorabilia is getting hotter. This was validated with the $512,000 sale of the original comic strip artwork for Flash Gordon #1.

Collectibles

Duane Allman's Gibson SG and Graham Nash's Woodstock Martin D-45 sell at auction

Our top 100 most valuable guitars listing added two more famous guitars last week, when Duane Allman's 1961/1962 Cherry Gibson SG fetched US$591,000 and the Martin D-45 that Graham Nash played at Woodstock fetched $162,500.

Collectibles

30 landmark scientific artifacts heading for auction this month

The month of July, 2019 will be a bumper one for the number of landmark scientific artifacts heading for auction. Three Christie's auctions and a Sotheby's auction have a stellar array of landmark scientific items, some of them estimated to sell for quite affordable amounts.

Albert Einstein, science's rock star, is again prominent in our annual list of the most valuable scientific documents sold at auction

Collectibles

The 50 most valuable scientific documents of 2017

2017 was a spectacular year for the auction of historical and storied objects. The world's most valuable painting, gemstone, earrings, wristwatch and religious document changed hands, but as usual scant regard was paid to the landmark scientific texts which underpin mankind's understanding.

The second most valuable movie poster ever sold - the Italian Casablanca poster fetched $478,000. At right are the stars of the movie, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

Collectibles

$478,000 Casablanca movie poster bridges movie collectible and art genres

An Italian movie poster for the 1942 movie Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman sold for $478,000 on Saturday evening, becoming the (equal) second-most valuable movie poster ever sold at auction.