A sealed carton of hockey players’ cards that may have included Wayne Gretzky’s new card sold for $3.7 million at auction, Heritage Auctions said Monday.
An unnamed bidder will receive an unopened cardboard box filled with a 48-pack of O-Pee-Chee hockey cards from the 1979-80 season. Among his 10,752 cards – “made and preserved in Canada” – these may be the coveted Gretzky new cards.
“An unknown number … perhaps two dozen, give or take – present the Great One’s first skate as an Edmonton Oiler,” Heritage Auctions said in a statement.
The box, stored in a Saskatchewan basement for several years, inspired global headlines last month when its existence came to light, the Dallas-based auction house said.
“Our consignor had no idea he had this immense Holy Grail box until the recent report of a long-forgotten stack of boxes that had been gathering dust at his home in Saskatchewan since they were purchased in the late 1970s and early 1980s. them directly from the wholesaler,” Heritage said previous statement.
A company spokesman told The Associated Press that he does not expect the winning bidder to open the boxes because they are rarer than new cards.
Gretzky, 63, of Brantford, Ontario, began his professional career in earnest with the Edmonton Oilers during the 1979-80 season as he debuted with the Indianapolis Racers in 1978.
He traded his contract to Edmonton, where the future Great One would help the team win four Stanley Cups.
His career stats back up his all-time greatest claims: Gretzky scored 50 goals in 39 games and had three consecutive 200-plus point seasons in the mid-1980s, and he holds the career scoring record. At 2,857.