Are you a baseball card collector who can’t afford to shell out $12 million for a Mickey Mantle card or $7 million for a Honus Wagner card?
How about $105,000 for a Mark Zuckerberg Little League card, complete with the Meta Platforms (META) chief executive’s autograph?
That’s how much the card sold for Sept. 28, according to Stephen Fishler, chief executive of ComicConnect.com, which conducted the auction. With a buyer’s premium of 15%, the sale totaled $120,750.
The back of the card indicates that it dates from 1992, when Zuckerberg was 8 years old, and that the name of his team was the Red Robins.
His hometown was listed as Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and his experience as one year played—presumably that refers to his Little League experience.
Zuckerberg’s height was listed at 3’ 11’’ and his weight as 48 pounds. Apparently, he wasn’t yet built like Willie Mays.
Instagram/Mark Zuckerberg/TS
Zuckerberg Had a Stellar Batting Average
Zuckerberg had one home run, according to the card. But he batted an otherworldly .920, with 23 hits. Perhaps in the metaverse that would make him more than twice as good a hitter as Ted Williams. Presumably, the youngsters weren’t hitting off tees.
The future tech titan’s position was listed as infield and his team’s record as 8-0. He batted and threw right-handed.
Zuckerberg named the New York Yankees as his favorite team. But his favorite player was the star pitcher Roger Clemens, who then played for the Yankees’ archrival, the Boston Red Sox.
When he was still a child, Zuckerberg gave the card to Allie Tarantino, a counselor at his day camp in White Plains, N.Y., MarketWatch reported.
Tarantino asked Zuckerberg for his signature on the card to make him feel like a star, Tarantino told the news service. He’s now a fifth-grade teacher and still works at the camp.
Zuckerberg Supported the Sale
Tarantino held on to the keepsake, and with the card market exploding in value over the past two years, he thought it was a good time to sell.
Zuckerberg apparently agrees. He promoted the card and a nonfungible token created from it on his Instagram page. The NFT sold for 11 ethereum ($14,700) in another auction Wednesday.
With the collectibles market soaring, opportunities may proliferate to unload all kinds of celebrity memorabilia for large sums.
An NFT of Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet sold for $2.9 million last year. In April of this year, the purchaser had an auction to sell the NFT. But it’s unclear whether anyone bid more than $14,000 or that the owner sold it.
