At this point anything that is associated with Michael Jordan—whether that be a coveted pair of his signature sneakers or even a pair of 'heavily used' boxers, it's almost a sure thing that it will sell for a lot of money. The most recent MJ collector's item that went up for auction was a ticket stub from his NBA debut between the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Bullets—selling early Friday morning for a record-setting $264,000.
According to ESPN's Dan Hajducky, the ticket stub, which was graded a 6-out-of-10 by Professional Sports Authenticator, breaks the previous record for collectible sports ticket, which was from Game 3 of the 1903 World Series (the first 'modern' World Series) featuring the Boston Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates for $175,000, which sold back in October. A stub from Mickey Mantles' debut in 1951 stub moves to third, having sold for $141,395.
This is just another blip in what has been a skyrocketing market for sports memorabilia during the COVID-19 pandemic—especially for collector's items from all-time greats like Jordan and Tom Brady.
Jordan was the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA draft, tallying 16 points, seven assists, six rebounds, four blocks and two steals in 40 minutes to help the Bulls 109-93 win over the Bullets.
Despite the hype surrounding Jordan coming to Chicago, attendance for his first-ever game at the old Chicago Stadium was well below a sellout. Only 13,913 fans were in attendance, which was well below the venue's sellout capacity of 17,374.
As we all know, Jordan would become arguably the greatest player to ever play in the NBA and transformed a rather mediocre Bulls franchise into one of the most successful teams' in NBA history—winning Chicago six NBA championships while adding five Most Valuable Player Awards and 14 All-Star selections along with numerous other team and individual accolades.
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