Sporting Memorabilia & Equipment

At the time, Gary Lineker’s promise to present the new season’s first Match of the Day in his underpants if Leicester City won the Premier League didn’t seem like a rash pledge to make.

How times change. The British cycling roll of honour now features such illustrious names as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton.

The auction of Pelé’s personal collection became most lucrative sale of football memorabilia in history with the 2000 items totalling £3.6m including premium with 100% of the lots sold.

An auction record was set for any football medal as Pelé’s 1970 World Cup winner’s medal was knocked down at £280,000 in London this evening.

The auction of Pelé’s vast collection of memorabilia concludes in London today where the highlight on offer at the third and final day of the sale will be the Brazilian legend’s winner’s medal from the 1970 World Cup.

In 1996 Frank Skinner, David Baddiel and the Lightning Seeds sang about ‘30 years of hurt’. Sadly for English football fans, it is now ‘50 years of hurt’ since the national team actually won something. Or have even reached a final.

An early printed copy of the laws of rugby appeared at Rogers Jones in Cardiff as part of a themed sale titled Sweat, Mud & Blood. Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said: ”In 25 years of our business, it is the most valuable book we have sold and probably the smallest.”

Football Sport Auctions Limited, a Merseyside company specialising in auctioning football memorabilia, ceased trading in April owing large sums to a long list of consignors.

As West Ham and Manchester United prepare to play the final match at Upton Park tonight, the East London club have announced that fans will have the chance to buy their own slice of Hammers’ history with an extensive auction of memorabilia, including fixtures and fittings from the stadium itself.

Now in its 12th year, the annual 40-dealer National Vintage Fishing Tackle Fair is increasingly attracting visitors, some from Germany, Italy and Denmark, to have their vintage tackle valued by dealers, particularly by Neil Freeman of event sponsors Angling Auctions.

Cased fish, once the only acceptable face of the taxidermy market, have cooled since the 1990s when prices in excess of £3000 were commonplace.

A new auction high for a ski poster was established at Christie’s South Kensington’s annual Ski sale, held on January 21, when this 1934 colour lithograph advertising the attractions of the Swiss resort of Gstaad sold for £62,000 (plus premium).

Lot number one in Rogers Jones’ latest sale provided both a world record result and a house record for the Welsh auctioneers.

The 1864 Ascot Cup, an impressive Victorian silver racing trophy by Garrard, led proceedings at the three-day sale of the Felix Dennis (1947-2014) collection. It sold at £67,000.

An embossed brass belt buckle discovered in the back garden of an old English cottage is a reminder that the very first Australian side to tour England was one made up entirely of Aborigines.

Timing is everything in sport and at auction. With New Zealand firm favourites to retain the Webb Ellis Cup on October 31, this is surely the moment to sell the jersey of a legendary All Black.

Sports specialist Graham Budd struck gold in his latest sale by setting an Olympic torch auction record.

A new twist has emerged in the long-running story of the ‘six sixes’ cricket ball.

Two large 18th century gold medals depicting events from the reign of Catherine the Great sold for spectacular sums at Duke’s latest auction in Dorchester.

Sales of coins and medals at UK auctions have doubled in value over the past decade to £44.7m.