John Astor watch from Titanic

We’re privileged to work in the collecting business.  

There are ups and downs, as there are in every market. But, it’s never boring.

And 2024 was no exception. We found ourselves celebrating records all year. 

Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers

A sparkling finish to the year came with the record-setting sale of these ruby slippers. Image courtesy Heritage Auctions. 

And 2024 goes out with a bang - or a sparkle - as Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers come home to fly away again for a record price of over $28 million. 

Babe Ruth hit another monster, well over 70 years after his death, when the Called Shot Jersey was auctioned in a $24 million sale in August. 

“Bond King” Bill Gross’s advice on the economics of the upcoming Trump presidency is big news right now, but in July it was his stamp collection in the headlines when it set a US record of $19 million.  

And he got “Z-grills” into the news headlines. Quite an achievement. 

Here’s a walk through the highlights of 2024. 

January

Americans raise the sign of revolt 

Stamp Act placard

Ready for action, the people of New York were threatening violence to those who dealt with the tax authorities. 

A placard that is the earliest written evidence of American unhappiness with the British authorities sold for over $4.5 million in New York on January 17. 

That’s about $163,000-a-word for the Stamp Tax protest sign, attributed to “Vox Populi”, the voice of the people.  

Christie’s called it “one of the most dramatic and evocative survivals from the beginning of the American Revolution,” and gave it a $4-million to $6-million estimate.

Global guitar hero 

Gibson Les Paul owned by Mark Knopfler

A Les Paul played by one of the greatest modern guitar players was worth a record amount.

This 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard hammered for just under £700,000.

The reason it set a record for the model? 

Mark Knopfler owned and played it. 

The Dire Straits leader put 120 bits of gear up for sale and brought in over £8 million, including a £2 million charity donation from the proceeds. 

"To you fellow players, enthusiasts and collectors, I wish you all good things," said the Geordie star with typical generosity, kicking off a bumper year for guitar sales. 

February

Yes, but can they sing? 

Images of a Woman by The Beatles

Outside their songs, this painting is one of the best-known jointly made Beatles works of art. 

John, Paul, George, Ringo, Picasso! 

Well, maybe not, but the Beatles’ Images of a Woman painting has long been a legend in fan circles. 

Painted while all-but imprisoned in a Tokyo hotel room, the psychedelic picture has been climbing steadily in value since it was sold for $191,000 in the 1990s. 

In February this year, it went for $1.7 million, around three times its top estimate. 

Every inch a hero

Winston Churchill's false teeth

Collectors want every part of Churchill. Even his teeth. 

Winston Churchill’s legend looms long over British history. And sends prices soaring in auction rooms. 

The most collectible British political figure by some distance, anything to do with Churchill - his art, his writing, even used cigars - is worth money. 

Including his false teeth, a pair of which surpassed estimates by a factor of two to realise over £23,000 at a Gloucestershire, UK sale. 

Big feet to fill

Michael Jordan Dynasty Collection of Sneakers

Air Jordans worth a fortune. 

A set of Michael Jordan trainers sold for over $8 million to set a new world record for game-worn sneakers at auction. 

March 

Actor sells own head

C-3P0 head

The unblinking stare of C-3P0 was a constant in the original Star Wars series. 

Anthony Daniels is better known as C-3PO, the picky, pedantic protocol droid who awkwardly walked his way through the Star Wars series. 

C-3PO's head was part of Daniels’ large personal collection of Star Wars treasures. Much of it has been auctioned in the past couple of years. 

The prop, from Return of the Jedi, is one of the jewels in the crown for Star Wars collectors and made $843,750 at auction in the United States.

“Nobody was looking at it, nobody was treasuring it, if you will. And it was too good to throw away,” Daniels told the Hollywood Reporter. 

The last supper of Tony Soprano 

Tony Soprano diner booth

The final seat for Tony Soprano was removed and sold online. 

It’s easy to see the visual appeal of displaying most film and TV props, but what do you do with a whole diner booth? 

One buyer has that problem after paying $82,600 for the table and seats in which Tony Soprano sat for his - probable - final meal. 

It was bought after more than 200 e-Bay bids shot the price up from just $3,000. And the buyer had to get to Holsten’s ice cream parlour in Bloomfield, New Jersey to pick it up. 

It shows that anything will sell with the right links. 

You’ve got me on my knees

Derek and the Dominos Layla cover

Pattie Boyd's collection linked two of the greats of 60s rock. 

Pattie Boyd was Something to George Harrison, and Layla to Eric Clapton. 

The sale of her personal collection in March opened a goldmine to rock collectors, and the star item was this picture, painted by Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg, gifted by Clapton to Boyd and featured on the cover of the album, Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. It found a new home at a price of  £1,976,000.

And a lovelorn telegram, valued at £12,000, told the story of rock's most famous love triangle. 

April 

Superman is super seller still 

Action Comics #1

Superman was a hopeful and defiant figure for Americans coming out of the Great Depression and facing a war with fascism.

Collectors love the rags-to-riches stories of cigarette and bubble gum cards and comics. 

Made in their millions and expected to be chucked away in their millions, these cheap and cheerful mass-produced, pop-cultural disposables are the proverbial haystack in which a few precious needles hide. 

One such needle is Action Comics Number 1, best known as Superman’s debut. 

One of 78 known copies, a “Very Fine+” condition example sold in April for $6 million to set a new comic book record. 

Titanic record ticks up again

John Jacob Astor Titanic victim

Astor's family was one of America's richest and most powerful. 

The richest man to go down with the Titanic left behind its most valuable artefact. 

John Astor’s gold watch was sold for £1.2 million on April 27, surpassing the price earned by bandmaster Wallace Hartley’s legendary violin. 

Astor, whose family owned the New York hotel of the same name, would be valued in his billions today. 

He reportedly conducted himself with courage during the chaos of the Titanic’s last hours, seeing his pregnant wife into a lifeboat. 

May

Most precious job application ever 

Petition Crown

Simon's work is considered perhaps the best in British monetary history.

In 1663, Thomas Simon wanted King Charles II to employ him as a coin engraver. 

His application came in the form of the Petition Crowns, showing off his work. 

Simon didn’t make many, and only 16 are known to survive. 

One became the most valuable British silver coin ever in May when it auctioned for $1 million (over £800,000). 

Help! guitar was attic treasure trove

John Lennon's Help! guitar

The sound of this 12-string - in the hands of John and George - is all over the Beatles' middle-period work.

A Beatles guitar is always going to be valuable. 

This one was special even in that company though. The Framus acoustic strummed through You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away on a sofa in Help! took in $2.8 million at auction. 

It immediately became the most valuable Beatles guitar ever sold and the fifth most valuable guitar in history. 

Not bad for an instrument that had spent decades in a Scottish attic. 

Messi? You need a napkin! 

Lionel Messi napkin

Messi was about to walk away from Barca when this napkin promise was made. 

Lionel Messi was promised to Barcelona via ball point pen and a napkin. 

The pre-contract agreement between Barca and Lionel’s agents was signed in 2000.

The great man himself - who the Catalan club were worried was too short to make it big - didn’t even sign the paper, which was auctioned after years on loan at the Nou Camp museum for £762,000.

June

Potter picture dwarfs estimate 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone cover art

This image fixed the picture of the world's favourite wizard for millions of children.

Kids who grew up reading Harry Potter are now older, and maybe richer. 

We don’t know who bought the original painting that introduced Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone to many a bookshop browser. 

But they were keen to get it, paying $1.9 million for a piece (done by then 23-year-old Thomas Taylor) that went to auction with a $600,000 top estimate.

$5 million for Stallone Chime 

Sylvester Stallone Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime

Barely touched and still in its packaging. Sylvester Stallone proved a model watch owner. 

Sylvester Stallone sold the best pieces from his watch collection in June. 

The star of this star’s constellation was a Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime that realised $5.4 million. 

Sly was a careful owner, even keeping the plastic bags the watch - made in 2021 by the legendarily technical Swiss makers - came in. 

The price made the Stallone watch the third most expensive of its make ever sold. 

Yes, it’s the Z Grill 

Benjamin Franklin 1 cent blue 1868 z grill

A humble appearance masks the greatest treasure in American stamp collecting.

A $4.4 million stamp was enough to give philately some rare mainstream coverage in June. 

The Bill Gross collection sold for over $18.1 million, a record for a US stamp collection. 

And the star item, as predicted, was the 1868 1 cent blue, Benjamin Franklin stamp with Z Grill. 

The grills were an experimental anti-mail fraud measure that lasted just four years and produced many of the rarest American stamps of all. 

Just two Z Grills are known to exist and the other is in the New York Public Library. 

July

Paris Olympics torch - brand new 

2024 Paris Olympics torch

There's a lot of Parisian style to this torch. Olympic torches are designed uniquely for each Games and always attract buyers, even when brand new. 

If you imagine collectibles must be old to have value you’re wrong. 

A Paris Olympics torch - from 2024 not 1900 - was auctioned in July, before the Games had even begun. 

As well-made and beautiful as you’d expect, the torch by Mathieu Lehanneur sold for $45,000.

The Helsinki Games has the most valuable torches (very few were made).

The most controversial movie ever made? 

Freaks original poster

Now much appreciated, Freaks was banned in the UK for 30 years. 

A poster from Freaks, one of just two of its type, sold for $112,500 in July. 

Freaks was a passion project for director Tod Browning. Audiences expecting something in the line of his big hit Dracula ran screaming from test screenings. 

The picture has since been reassessed and is coming out of decades of cult appreciation into more mainstream circles. 

This poster was discovered in suitably bizarre circumstances, sold after being found preserved among the contents of a Wisconsin movie theatre that burned down in 1932. Freaky! 

August 

Tragedy behind the most treasured toy Kenner Boba Fett rocket prototype

Paperwork is always a plus with any collectible, and this record-setting action figure has the full set.

A terrible accident created this great rarity that is now the most valuable toy in history. 

A small part in a Battlestar Galactica toy by a rival company caused a child to fatally choke. 

With no mechanical solution to the problem, Kenner Products had to withdraw a Boba Fett figure with a rocket. 

Withdrawals are great for collectors, and this Boba was sold in August for £1 million. 

It was a prototype, but lots of other versions of the toy are valuable, including one that sold for over $500,000 in May.

“Called Shot” makes another home run 

Babe Ruth Called Shot jersey

It comes with a great story that might even be true. 

A NY Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth in perhaps the most celebrated moment in baseball history became the most valuable sports collectible ever in August. 

Ruth wore it in a 1932 World Series game in which he seemed to indicate where he would hit the next pitch, and then hit it there. 

It realised $24.1 million at auction thanks to some state-of-the-art film matching; it made under $1 million in 2005. 

September

$16.5 million for Scandi coin hoard

Danish historic coin

L. E. Bruun was so shocked by the destructive power of modern war that he set about saving some of his nation's treasures. 

A Danish dairy tycoon’s coin collection was sold for $16.5 million in September.

L. E. Bruun started collecting coins when he saw Denmark brushed aside on the 19th-century battlefield by its big German neighbours. 

What started as a potential back-up national collection became one of the most important Scandinavian assemblies anywhere, and according to its auctioneers, the “most expensive international collection ever sold”. 

It was protected from sale for 100 years by Bruun’s will, and impatient collectors celebrated the passing of a century since his passing this year. 

A 1496 Danish King Hans Gold Noble - isn’t it beautiful! - made $1.3 million. 

Look out for the next sale in the Bruun series expected in Spring next year. 

October 

Big bang sale for big bang letter 

Albert Einstein nuclear warning to FDR letter

A neatly typed message that changed the world and ushered in a new age.

Albert Einstein helped create the nuclear bomb. 

And in 1939 he wrote to US President Franklin D Roosevelt to warn him that German scientists could well be on the road to creating a super weapon. 

The result was the Manhattan Project, recorded so memorably in Oppenheimer. 

A draft of his letter was sold in the series of auctions of the collection of Paul Allen, one of Microsoft’s founders. 

It made $3.9 million. 

The million-dollar throne 

Iron throne

Nobody died, but a model Iron Throne inspired a bidding war to go over $1 million.

Game of Thrones is in the collecting big leagues now. 

A replica of the Iron Throne from the show was auctioned for $1.5 million in October. 

It was one of many big lots in a massive sale dedicated to the HBO show that made over $21 million. 

Dragon eggs, suits of armour, swords… all were up for grabs and many surpassed their estimates. 

This throne isn’t even an on-screen prop. It was made to travel with exhibitions and shows, though it is cast from the original. 

Hurricane slows sale but can’t stop $9 million constitution 

The United States Constitution

"We the people" remains a compelling message and one collectors want to celebrate.

It was kept in a filing cabinet for decades. Then, when it was due to sell, the tragedy of Hurricane Helene crashed into North Carolina and postponed the auction. 

Delayed, but not put off, a bidder put down a $9-million winning bid for the copy of the US Constitution printed in 1787 to send round state authorities for ratification. 

Election years are always a good time to sell US founding documents but the most valuable ever was an original copy that sold for $43.2 million in 2022.

November 

The legendary Queen's necklace nabbed again

Marie Antoinette

The name of Marie Antoinette adds value to an already outstanding piece of jewellery. 

As the Anglesey Tassels they're a wonderful piece of rare jewellery, but it was the story that added allure to push a necklace up to $4.8 million in November. 

The story is a French scandal of fraud and deception that helped destroy the reputation of Marie Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.

Although the jewellery was not in fact attached to the Queen, its 500 diamonds weighing 300 carats are every inch regal and magnificent. 

But is it art?

The Comedian banana art

The fruit in this picture is long gone, the buyer just gets the tape and the assembly instructions.

A piece of fruit taped to a wall for $6.2 million?!

It's a classic Modern Art is Going Crazy story. 

But, all those saying "I could have done that", didn't..., Maurizio Cattelan did. 

The work, called Comedian, was bought by a crypto investor, and perhaps that's the joke. 

Sotheby's and the sellers were laughing with a $1.5 million estimate proving extremely conservative in the end. 

December

Feds needed for ruby slippers' fairy tale ending 

Wizard of Oz ruby slippers

Perhaps the best known shoes in modern history and now certainly the most expensive. 

A pair of Judy Garland's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz are now history's most expensive film prop after auctioning for $28 million. 

They had a great story too, including a theft and recovery by the FBI. 

But the magic of Dorothy clicking them together saying "there's no place like home" is the perfect Hollywood ending for 2024.

It's always exciting in collecting 

It's been an exciting year for collectors. 

And, post pandemic collecting still looks a great investment. 

As Paul Fraser, chairman of Paul Fraser Collectibles, says: "Everything that first attracted me to collectibles is as true in 2024 as it ever was. 

"Passion investments in real, historic artefacts provide returns that few financial products can.

"What's coming next? Nirvana, Lady Diana, Star Wars, big streaming shows, Apple computers... all of these have performed brilliantly this year and the collectors market will no doubt bring more surprises in 2025." 

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