The 20 most expensive graded ticket sales ever recorded

How the list is built, and what is deliberately left out

This is a ranking of tickets, not of sales. Each entry is one ticket (one event, in whichever form sold), placed by the highest price a single graded copy of it has ever fetched. That is why Jackie Robinson's debut appears once at $480,000 and not four times: the same ticket also sold for $366,000, $324,000 and $300,000, and on a list of sales those would take places two, five and six. One entry per ticket is what makes the countdown a list of twenty different things.

Every sale must sit on an exact PSA cert. The cert number is read from the sale itself, or from the slab in its photographs, and matched to our index of graded tickets, so the grade printed here is PSA's grade for that cert and never a number parsed from an auction title. This costs us some big sales: a lot that never showed its cert cannot be placed on a ticket and does not qualify. It also removes, for free, the card sets that name their cards after tickets, a Panini Contenders "Championship Ticket" being the single largest row in our whole sales archive at $1,113,250 and not a ticket at all.

Signed copies are eligible, and marked. A signed ticket is still a graded ticket, and two of the twenty are signed. They are flagged in the entries because part of the price is the autograph. The companion market-cap ranking takes the opposite view for the opposite reason: there, signed sales are kept out because they would misprice unsigned copies. Multi-item lots are excluded. A Wilt Chamberlain 100-point stub sold with a signed programme for $137,521 would otherwise rank ninth at a price that was paid for the pair, and a lot of Tom Brady tickets sold together would sit at $26,400 as if it were one. Withdrawn sales are excluded. Prices are in US dollars as the house reported them.

The universe. 24,669 cert-confirmed graded-ticket sales recorded to 16 September 2026, across Heritage, Goldin, Fanatics Collect, Lelands, Robert Edward Auctions, SCP, Huggins & Scott, Christie's, Clean Sweep and more, plus eBay. No private sales, and no house we do not yet track, so a record set privately or at a house outside that list is not here. The live version of this list, rebuilt after every day's sales, is at collectorstools.com/rankings. Counted down from 20 to 1.

20. Super Bowl III full ticket, $59,098

A PSA 6 yellow-variation full ticket from the Jets' 16-7 upset of the Colts, sold at SCP Auctions in January 2017, cert 30696266. The oldest sale on the list by date, and the third Super Bowl on the market-cap ranking, where Super Bowl III is seventh on 292 censused copies.

19. Michael Jordan's NCAA debut full ticket, $61,000

North Carolina 74, Kansas 67, 28 November 1981. A PSA 5 full ticket, the only one graded, sold at Heritage on 1 March 2026, cert 134118903. The first of three Jordan debuts on this list, and the earliest in his career. Thirteen copies of the game are censused.

18. Babe Ruth's first World Series home run, $65,880

Game 4 of the 1921 World Series at the Polo Grounds, Giants 4 Yankees 2, the game Ruth hit his first Series home run. A PSA Authentic stub, sold at Goldin in February 2026, cert 27960146. Four are censused. The first of four Babe Ruth tickets in the twenty.

17. Super Bowl I full ticket, $66,000

A PSA 8 full ticket to the first Super Bowl, sold at Heritage in February 2019, cert 06371519. The best-graded Super Bowl ticket on the list, and the one with the largest population behind it: 418 copies across stubs, fulls and passes, which makes it the fourth most valuable graded ticket by market cap.

16. Lou Gehrig's final game, $69,300

30 April 1939, Senators 3 Yankees 2, the last of the 2,130 consecutive games. A PSA 4 (MK) stub, sold at Christie's in October 2025, cert 120072803, the only Christie's sale in the twenty. Four are censused. Gehrig appears again at number three.

15. Kobe Bryant's NBA debut full ticket, $75,000

Lakers 91, Timberwolves 85, 3 November 1996. A PSA 2 full ticket, described at Heritage in May 2022 as the only known full ticket, cert 64387607. PSA has since censused two full tickets and 24 stubs of the game.

14. Babe Ruth's Called Shot full ticket, $75,030

Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field. A PSA 2 full ticket, sold at Goldin in June 2025, cert 14284992. Nine full tickets and 141 stubs are censused, and the ticket is third by market cap at $1.45 million; its record price is a full-ticket price, thirty dollars above Kobe's.

13. Larry Bird's NBA debut full ticket, $79,200

Celtics 114, Rockets 106, 12 October 1979. A PSA 1.5 full ticket, sold at Goldin in May 2022, cert 64064033. Sixteen copies of the game are censused. One of two 1.5s in the twenty; the other is Mantle's, three places up.

12. Michael Jordan's pro debut, signed, $91,500

Not the NBA debut: the preseason game against the Pacers on 5 October 1984, Jordan's first game as a professional. A period-signed stub, PSA Authentic with a PSA/DNA 7 autograph, sold at Heritage on 1 March 2026, cert 139794380. Signed. Thirteen are censused.

11. Tiger Woods turns pro, $99,000

The 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, Woods's first tournament as a professional. A PSA 9 full ticket, the highest graded, sold at Heritage in February 2022, cert 63595220. The only golf ticket in the twenty, with 96 copies censused across fulls, stubs and badges.

10. Babe Ruth's Yankee home debut, $102,480

22 April 1920, Yankees 8 Athletics 6, Ruth's first home game in pinstripes. A PSA 4 stub, sold at Goldin in June 2026, cert 129729990. Two are censused. The oldest event on the list, and the first of the six-figure sales.

9. Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, $107,828

Hershey, Pennsylvania, 2 March 1962, Warriors 169 Knicks 147. A PSA 4 stub, sold at Lelands in February 2022, cert 63938910. Twenty-nine stubs are censused, 23 of which have sold unsigned, which is why the ticket is also eighth by market cap at $972,469. A higher Lelands price exists for this game, $137,521, but it was a stub sold with a signed programme and is excluded as a lot.

8. Mickey Mantle's MLB debut, $115,200

Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, 17 April 1951, Yankees 5 Red Sox 0. A PSA 1.5 stub, sold at Goldin in February 2022, cert 22905431. The lowest numeric grade in the top ten, on a ticket with 25 censused copies that is eleventh by market cap.

7. Roberto Clemente's MLB debut, $121,334

The first game of a doubleheader at Forbes Field, 17 April 1955, Dodgers 10 Pirates 3. A PSA 4 stub, sold at Lelands in May 2023 as the only known example, cert 72448350. PSA's census agrees: one copy. A population of one cannot be ranked by market cap, so this is the highest-placed ticket here that does not appear on the other list at all.

6. Tom Brady's first touchdown pass, signed PSA 10, $144,000

Patriots 29, Chargers 26 in overtime, 14 October 2001. A PSA 10 full ticket carrying a PSA/DNA 10 autograph, sold at Heritage in November 2021, cert 42053497. Signed. The only PSA 10 in the twenty, and it is a dual-graded slab: the ticket and the signature both grade 10. Fifty-three copies of the game are censused.

5. The Babe Bows Out, $152,500

13 June 1948, Yankee Stadium's 25th anniversary and the day Ruth's number 3 was retired, two months before his death. A PSA 9 full ticket, pop one with none higher, sold at Heritage on 11 July 2026, cert 155722733. The most recent record on the list, and the highest price paid for a PSA 9 ticket.

4. Wayne Gretzky's NHL debut, $158,600

Chicago Stadium, 10 October 1979, Black Hawks 4 Oilers 2. A PSA 9 stub, pop one and none higher, sold at Heritage in October 2025, cert 42668324. The only hockey ticket in the twenty and the highest-graded unsigned ticket on it, shared with the Babe Bows Out and Tiger Woods at PSA 9. Eighteen copies are censused, and with seven sales the ticket sits just outside the market-cap top twenty at $463,975.

3. Lou Gehrig Day, the Luckiest Man speech, $280,600

4 July 1939 at Yankee Stadium. A PSA 4 stub with a marks qualifier, pop two with none higher, sold at Heritage on 1 March 2026, cert 133118134. It nearly doubled the previous record for the ticket, $164,700 for a PSA 1.5 in December 2025, and it took a ticket with ten censused copies to a market cap of $800,500, tenth on the other list.

2. Michael Jordan's NBA debut full ticket, $468,000

Chicago Stadium, 26 October 1984, Bulls 109 Bullets 93. The one full ticket known, graded PSA Authentic, sold at Heritage on 27 February 2022, cert 63958964. The stubs of the same game have their own records, a PSA 8 at $341,600 in December 2025 and another PSA 8 at $280,600, and it is the stubs, 78 of them, that make the Jordan debut the most valuable graded ticket by market cap at $4.27 million. On this list, one entry per ticket, the full ticket takes the place.

1. Jackie Robinson's MLB debut, $480,000

Ebbets Field, 15 April 1947, Dodgers 5 Braves 3. A PSA 2 stub, sold at Heritage on 27 February 2022, the same Platinum Night sale as the Jordan full ticket, cert 63803336. It has held the record for four and a half years, and the ticket has kept selling behind it: $300,000 for a PSA 3 in August 2023, $324,000 for a PSA 1.5 in August 2024, $366,000 for the same PSA 3 again in December 2025. Fourteen are censused, and no other ticket has four sales above $300,000. Second by market cap at $3.20 million, first here, and the highest-value-per-copy ticket on either list.

The full list of the most expensive graded ticket sales

What the twenty record sales have in common

Debuts, in low grades, mostly at Heritage. Eleven of the twenty are first games or first professional events: Robinson, Jordan three times, Gretzky, Clemente, Mantle, Ruth's home debut, Tiger Woods, Bird and Kobe. Four are Babe Ruth tickets and two are Lou Gehrig's. The median grade is a PSA 4; eight of the twenty are graded 2 or lower or Authentic, and the only PSA 10 is the signed Brady. Condition is not what sets a graded ticket record, the moment is, which is the same conclusion the grade-versus-price post reached from the whole archive.

Heritage sold eleven of the twenty, Goldin five, Lelands two, SCP and Christie's one each; eBay, the largest source by count in our archive, has none. Seven of the records were set in 2022, three of them on one night, 27 February 2022, when Robinson, Jordan and Tiger Woods all went at Heritage. And the list is still moving: six of the twenty records have been set in 2026, through September, the newest the Babe Bows Out full ticket in July.