guess Buckey got a couple of winners...
Bids for storied Paul Henderson ‘72 jersey top $300K as auction nears end
Published On Tue Jun 22
The Canadian Press MONTREAL—Much like his celebrated series-clinching goal, the bidding for Paul Henderson's legendary hockey jersey could go down to the final moments.
There has been a last-day bid in the auction to own the famous Team Canada jersey — which is now believed to boast the highest price tag for any hockey memorabilia item even auctioned off.
Potential buyers have until 9 p.m. Tuesday to place bids for the jersey, worn by Henderson when he scored Canada's deciding goal of the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.
They'll have to cough up at least $374,000 to have a chance of owning the scuffed-and-stained sweater.
The sale price of the game-worn jersey, which has created an impressive buzz since bidding began last month, stood at $340,147 after a new high bid appeared Tuesday from an unknown buyer.
That surpassed the previous high bid of $309,224 put forward by The Jim Pattison Group, a B.C.-based company, which wanted to take the jersey on a Canada-wide tour before donating it to this country's sports hall of fame in Calgary.
As of Tuesday morning, 30 bids had been tendered for the white No. 19 jersey worn during what is arguably the most famous goal in Canadian history.
The new minimum bid stands at $374,162.
The jersey passed from Henderson, then to Canada's trainer Joe Sgro as a gift, and then into the hands of an unidentified private American collector.
“(The buzz) is more than we expected, but as far as price we had an idea of what it could fetch,” said Marc Juteau, president of Classic Auctions, the Montreal-area company in charge of selling the jersey.
“The attention that was given to the jersey has exceeded by far what we thought it would do.”
Juteau said the final hours of an auction could be very hectic and he added that new bids could come at any minute.
The Team Canada sweater went up on the Classic Auctions website last month with an opening bid of $10,000.
Since then, other Canadian-based companies, including Molson, The Forzani Group Ltd. and B.C. billionaire Jim Pattison have waded into the auction.
Canadian Tire initially bid $200,000 with plans to use it as a store-to-store attraction for customers, but has since dropped out.
It's likely that the owner of the coveted jersey won't be known until the wee hours of Wednesday.
“To know 100 per cent for sure, you'll have to wait until the auction process is over,” Juteau said.
The sweater's owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, is a cancer survivor who plans to donate some of the proceeds of the eventual sale to charity, Juteau said. Henderson himself was diagnosed with cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, last fall.
The jersey has already set a record for the highest price ever to be paid for a hockey item via auction, eclipsing a Bobby Orr rookie jersey that sold for $191,200.
It's also gotten more than a few Wayne Gretzky jerseys sold privately for about $250,000, believed to be the most expensive pieces in the history of hockey memorabilia.
Juteau said the Henderson item has generated about as much interest as the personal souvenir collections of Jean Beliveau and Maurice Richard, when those went on sale.
“But for one given piece,” he said, “(this is) the most attention we've ever gotten.”
Henderson, 67, who donated another Team Canada jersey and a stick to the Hockey Hall of Fame, has said he'd like to see this one go to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
Henderson was inducted into that hall in 1995.
AI
