Soccer

Lionel Messi Record-Breaking Shoes Auction Sets a New Bar

The business of buying and selling sports cards and collectibles has grown and grown. In fact, it is now undeniable that collectibles have become an alternative asset class of their own. Many investors would now rather own specific collectibles over most stocks and bonds. Where sports collectibles investing becomes unique is when certain game-used items come up for sale. Historic game-used items can be highly subjective in pricing.

Lionel Messi is currently among the world’s top soccer players of all-time. Modern fans may even consider Messi to be the greatest player of all-time. Certain Lionel Messi rookie cards have seen their prices rise exponentially in recent years to prices in the tens of thousands of dollars when graded in pristine condition.

Collectors Dashboard wants to know about a very specific pair of game-used Messi soccer shoes. What about his “boots” that he was wearing when he recently broke Pele’s record?

Soccer cards and soccer collectibles have become much more widely sought after in the United States. Soccer is the sport of the world, but until recently the United States has been much more interested in baseball, football, basketball and hockey. Add in some key demographic changes and soccer’s popularity is becoming much more mainstream.

You can now add Lionel Messi’s game-used items as collectibles with price tags well above $10,000 to that list. In fact, now you can go well over the $100,000 mark for the record.

Lionel Messi was raising funds for the Hospital Vall d’Hebron’s Art and Health program by offering his boots (Adidas soccer cleats) he wore during his record-breaking performance where he broke Pele’s record with 644 goals for the same club. The match took place on December 22, 2020 and this was Messi’s 749th game for FC Barcelona. In his prior match, he had tied Pelé’s long-standing goal scoring record for a single club.

Christie’s just completed an auction where the historic Adidas boots used to score this record-breaking goal. As for the provenance, the shoes have been dual signed and were donated by Lionel Messi himself. The boots had also previously been displayed at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.

This Christie’s item to soccer collectors and investors alike would in many ways be no different than the record-breaking home run balls or bats of Hank Aaron and other great baseball players who have broken key records that stood for decades. That said, the Christie’s sale price of 125,000 British pounds was the equivalent of about $173,000 at the time.

What sports collectors and investors alike will want to know is how this unique pair of Adidas shoes compares to the rookie and other rare Lionel Messi soccer cards that have become so popular and valuable.

Goldin Auctions has seen three recent Lionel Messi cards sell for very strong prices. The company sold a 2004-05 Mundicromo La Liga #617 Lionel Messi rookie card in April 2021 graded by PSA as a GEM MT 10 grade, and its price after 27 bids was $59,040.00. Another item was a 2014 Panini Prizm World Cup Green Crystal Prizm #12 Lionel Messi (#06/25) graded by PSA as a GEM MT 10 grade in March of 2021 for a final price of $61,200.00 after 7 bids. And another item sold in the March 2021 auctions was a 2004-05 Panini Megacracks #71 Lionel Messi La Liga rookie card graded BGS GEM MT 9.5 for $91,200.00 after 22 bids.

Lionel Messi rookie and limited edition cards, like so many other sports cards, now sell for multiple times their selling prices at the end of 2019 in high-end samples. Valuing this pair of game-worn and record-breaking boots may be very subjective in the years ahead, and what these will sell for again, assuming they are ever up for grabs, would be a guessing game at this time.

Categories: Soccer, Sports

Tagged as: , ,