Are Game-Worn Jerseys the Most UNDERVALUED Assets in Sports?!
Collector Nation
In this episode of Collector Nation, host Ryan Alford sits down with Rob Gough, the owner of Michael Jordan's iconic white game-worn jersey from Game 3 of the 1998 NBA
Key takeaways
- Game-worn jerseys from iconic athletic moments are severely undervalued compared to traditional art pieces like Basquiat or Warhol.
- The emotional connection to sports history drives long-term value in memorabilia, surpassing the appeal of abstract art for many collectors.
Main topics
- Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Game 3 jersey
- Undervaluation of game-worn sports memorabilia
Notable quotes
"There's no reason why it shouldn't go for over $100 million."
Conclusion
Rob Gough's decision to auction his legendary Michael Jordan jersey underscores the rising cultural and
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:00) You hold a very recognizable piece from my favorite player, Michael Jordan. Speaker 3 (0:05) Game Speaker 4 (0:05) 3 jersey Speaker 3 (0:06) from the 98 NBA Finals that's been in the headlines. I don't understand why Basquiat or Warhol or Picasso... 20 years from now will be more valuable than this particular Michael Jordan NBA Finals jersey. The passion for sports is so strong and it continues to get stronger and it's a way for you to own a piece of that game. What do we Speaker 4 (0:27) think the jersey's going to go for? You got a number in mind? Speaker 3 (0:30) There's no reason why it shouldn't go for over $100 million. Speaker 4 (0:32) I'm Ryan Alford. Speaker 1 (0:33) And I'm Bella Schaefer. And Speaker 4 (0:35) this is Collector Nation. Speaker 1 (0:47) the content in the hobby just for you all in one place. All Speaker 4 (0:51) the videos, all the podcasts, all the reels, all those drops Speaker 2 (0:55) you want right here, right now. Speaker 4 (0:59) On today's episode of Collector Nation, I talked to Rob Goff, the owner of the 1998 Michael Jordan jersey from game three of the finals. Yeah, that one that's been floating around talking about $100 million. That's it. We talk about how he got it, what he's doing, what he's up to. Maybe pulled out a few collectibles or two that will get you dreaming. Let me tell you, big numbers, Speaker 2 (1:22) big conversation. right here, right now on Collector Nation. What's Speaker 4 (1:27) up, Rob? Welcome to Collector Nation. What's up, brother? Nice Speaker 3 (1:30) to meet you. Thanks for having me on. Speaker 4 (1:32) Yeah, man. Pumped Speaker 3 (1:33) to Speaker 4 (1:33) have you. You hold a very recognizable piece from my favorite player, one Mr. Michael Jordan. Game three jersey from the 98 NBA finals. That's been in the headlines lately for going to auction, as I understand it, man. How the hell did you get that piece? Speaker 3 (1:51) It wasn't easy. You know, the fun thing about, you know, collecting is finding the pieces that you want. And, you know, several years ago, this was something that I tried to hunt down. And, you know, I didn't know where it was, to be honest. And it's just one person led to this person, which led to this person. And, you know, which led to a middleman, a broker, and that particular. Broker got it done. Initially, he said, I'm only going to charge you X dollars. Then it comes to find out he made a lot more than that X dollar agreement. I got the piece and I've been thrilled to have it in my life for many years now. Speaker 4 (2:39) Yeah, man. What made you decide to put it up for sale? Speaker 3 (2:42) It was in the house. Speaker 3 (2:45) I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Friends would come over for dinner and they would obviously enjoy it and get a look at it and things. It's just been in the vault recently. I feel like you're kind of a steward of these things. If you're not enjoying it, maybe it's time to let somebody else enjoy it. Was it Speaker 4 (3:08) viewed as an investment too? In some ways? Yeah, of course. Speaker 3 (3:11) I think these things are all great investments. You know, buy what you buy, what you want. But for me, you know, I think if you buy the best of the best, in my personal opinion, you know, that's how I've kind of structured things. If you buy the best of the best and very rare pieces of of the most iconic players, then, you know, I've always thought of it from my my own personal portfolio is it's a good store of value for sure. Speaker 4 (3:36) Doesn't hurt that all this stuff is like going through the roof here lately. I mean, the values, it's just been this market. with the high end best of the best stuff in cards and merchandise and collectibles and game worn and all that stuff. I mean, what's your perspective? I mean, like everything can't go up forever, can it? Speaker 3 (3:57) You know, I listen, when I bought the Mickey, the 52 tops Mickey Mantle PSA nine in 2021 for 5.2 million, everybody thought I was absolutely insane. I got against the record for paying the most money and being the crazy one. And it's, you know, now looking back, everybody kind of says, oh, that was that was brilliant. So who knows? You know, I think for me, my own kind of thoughts are as, you know, governments print more and more cash. And and as things, you know, let's say Elon's correct and there's going to be a billion robots producing five times more productive than humans, then and everything is kind of. you know, able to be produced easily. I do think that rare items that are one of one and that can't be replicated, I think, you know, should go up in value. Who knows? But that's, that's kind of what my thoughts have always been. Speaker 4 (4:50) Yeah. It seems like the appetite has increased. We went, cause it was, you know, the collectors and then finally main street investors come along and go, wait a second. They can no longer call it. And with cards, at least, the cheap cardboard, because that was sort of the dig forever. But when you line up classic vintage Hall of Fame cards, the 30, 40-year history of their values, and they're, what, 8 or 9, 10x, even the incredible stock market that it's been lately, it's like they just can't. They couldn't classify it as a worthless cardboard anymore, right? Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:32) If you look at other collectible assets, let's look at art because art is, you know, obviously more expensive than, than cards or, or game use memorabilia have sold for. But, you know, I have, iconic pieces of art, Basquiat, let's use an example. And when you look at people that come to the house, they walk right past the Basquiat into the jersey. So if you think of it the way that humans kind of, that I've noticed, I don't understand why a Basquiat or a Warhol or a Picasso in 20 years from now will be more important or more valuable than this particular Michael Jordan NBA Finals jersey. The passion for sports. is so strong and it continues to get stronger. And it's a way for you to own a piece of that game, to own the jersey off of a guy's back. There's nothing that gets you closer to the game than that. So with art, there's really no passion. You didn't know the guy. You didn't watch him. You weren't at the game with your father. You didn't watch it on television. So I've kind of been wondering in my head, why are these things so valuable? I'm saying the art side. and so much more valuable than a, than a game use Jersey. And, and I'm, I'm, I'm seeing a big disconnect. I think that the game use jerseys, if it's an iconic moment and an iconic player, I think that they're highly undervalued. Now I think that, you know, if the player loses the game that I think. that's a bigger disc. I think that's, that's less valuable than a winning game Jersey. You know, it's cause I told a friend of the day it's, you know, if, if Jordan lost the game, I'm not going to point on the wall and say, remember that game that Michael Jordan lost, like even if it's his last game in Chicago, whatever, I'm just not like, I don't want that Jersey in the wall. I'm either talk about the excitement of the game and how important that game was and how exciting that, that moment was. That Speaker 4 (7:27) to me, I think is very important. This episode. is brought to you by Whatnot. I opened Whatnot recently thinking I was only going to look around for a few minutes. I jumped into a live sports card show, started talking with the seller and a few collectors in the chat, and then spotted a card I'd been looking for at a much better price than I expected. 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Search Whatnot, W-H-A-T-N-O-T in the App Store download, and you can start selling right away. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. When I first started building the collector station storefront, I definitely didn't have everything figured out. I knew I wanted to start a business, but there were still a lot of things I was learning along the way. That's exactly why Shopify made sense for me. Shopify is where you go to start your business with everything you need already there from day one. I was able to launch