One of the worst beats in memorabilia collecting history took place over the weekend.
Right before Tom Brady un-retired, an undisclosed collector purchased the ball from Brady’s final touchdown pass for $518,628.
The ball in question came from Brady’s 55-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans in the Buccaneers’ loss to the Rams in the second round of the NFL playoffs.
There were 23 different bids for the ball, which in all likelihood will not be the final touchdown pass thrown by Brady in his career.
The one silver lining for the collector here is that the bidding on the football only reached about half of the auction house’s estimate.
Jordan Gilroy, the director of acquisitions at auction site Leland’s, told USA Today that he thought the ball would fetch a million dollars.
Tom Brady’s final touchdown pass sold for over $500k just hours before he un-retired. Robert Gauthier via Getty ImagesThe collector had to have also known it was a risk that Brady would ultimately un-retire. He began equivocating and not ruling out a comeback almost the second he retired in the first place.
At the very least, this football will be a great conversation piece for a buyer who has little hope of recouping big money for it now.
