With 2021 in the record books, Heritage Auctions reveals it raked in a record of its own: $1.4 billion in sales from everything from sports memorabilia, to comic books, to one of Elton John‘s pianos.
The 45-year-old institution revealed some of the year’s biggest sellers, including the sole best-known copy of Batman No. 1, which sold for more than $2.2 million at the start of 2021.
Not to be outdone, one of four known near-mint copies of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 — which introduced Spider-Man — sold in September for $3.6 million.
A rare first edition of J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone set a record last month for the highest price paid for any single modern novel, when the hammer fell for $471,000.
In more you’re-sure-to-be-mad-at-Mom-for-throwing-it-out news, vintage video games generated more than $26 million bucks through Heritage Auction sales in 2021, including “a magnificent sealed copy of Super Mario 64” that sold for $1,560,000 in July.
On that note, trading card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering generated more than $11.6 million at auctions throughout last year — including a single, sealed “First Edition Pokémon Base Set Booster Box” that sold for $408,000.
Heritage Auctions also revealed that more than $19.8 million in prized possessions also went under the hammer in 2021, including $4.2 million that a collection of Journey guitarist Neal Schon’s instruments fetched in the summer, and a touring piano played by Elton John for decades went for more than $915,000 in July.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
