DALLAS, TX.- Patrick Mahomes is “the future of football,” his Kansas City Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce told Time in April when the quarterback was listed among the magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024. That’s especially true when you consider Mahomes’ recent past: three Super Bowl wins by age 28, with three MVP awards to go with those rings. His present isn’t too bad, either, as the Chiefs stand alone as the sole undefeated team more than midway through the NFL season despite a few hitches in the team’s giddy-up toward laying claim to one of sports greatest dynasties. Said Kelce, “Pat is clearly the biggest name in football right now.” And, likely, for a long time to come.

That’s one reason among many that Mahomes’ game-worn jersey from a five-touchdown game in 2021 stands especially tall in Heritage’s December 5-7 Winter Sports Catalog Auction replete with nearly 3,700 (!) timeless treasures. Among their estimable ranks: the only known sealed case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards alongside one of two highest-graded 1915 Cracker Jack Shoeless Joe Jackson cards, a near-mint Mickey Mantle rookie card from the 1951 Bowman set and the world’s best example of Jackie Robinson’s iconic 1949 Bowman card.

Here, too, are enough photo-matched and game-worn jerseys to fill a walk-in closet, including one of Reggie Jackson’s from his legendary tenure as an Oakland Athletic and a Wayne Gretzky sweater worn and signed while he was a King among men. And to close out a year when Babe Ruth’s “called shot” jersey from the 1932 World Series became the most valuable sports collectible in the world, here’s one of the Babe’s game-used bat from the season prior gifted to fellow Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, alongside some lumber used by Ted Williams during his Triple Crown season of 1947.

“This auction goes beyond just collecting to honor some of the most unforgettable moments and legends in sports,” says Chris Ivy, Heritage’s Director of Sports Auctions. “From Mahomes’ game-worn jersey to the only known sealed case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, each item tells a deeply meaningful story to fans and collectors. These are more than artifacts; they’re pieces of history that invite us into the incredible legacies of these players and eras. For anyone passionate about sports, this auction is a chance to hold that history in a personal and lasting way.”

Mahomes’ Chiefs jersey has been photo-matched to one of his top-20 all-time performances: the Nov. 14, 2021, game against the Las Vegas Raiders, during which Showtime threw for 406 yards and five touchdowns while accruing a 127.6 quarterback rating. This jersey never saw the turf, as Mahomes escaped without a sack during the Chiefs’ 41-14 thumping of the Raiders in their new home in the desert.

Mahomes gifted the jersey to the Raiders’ Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson, to whom he left the following inscription inside the No. 5 on the back of the jersey: “To D Jac, Keep inspiring guys to have they own swag on the field! Patrick Mahomes #15.”

One of the most covered and coveted items in Heritage Sports’ long history returns in this auction: a cardboard case of 16 unopened boxes containing some of the most coveted cards in history: the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards. Who knows how many Wayne Gretzky rookie cards reside inside the 768 packs spread across these 16 boxes? And will anyone ever find out whether this case contains the most valuable card on ice?

The case’s consignor, who hails from the Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, was a rabid collector in the 1960s and ’70s who snatched up endless amounts of Canadian-made cards to trade with fellow travelers in the United States. He bought endless boxes and cases of cards, so many his family long ago lost count — and lost track. Ultimately, the consignor’s son found this case behind “stacks and stacks of other stuff,” says Heritage Sports Card Specialist and Consignment Director Jason Simonds.

Baseball Card Exchange’s founder, Steve Hart, authenticated the case as the only known example.

In February, the case was the subject of a spirited bidding war that ended at a final price of over $3.7 million, befitting its status as the only known original 1979 OPC Hockey wax box case. Following the auction, the winning bidder went to the media claiming that he was no longer “passionate” about his purchase, among other things. When he ultimately failed to pay for the case, Heritage discussed the situation with our consignor and decided to reoffer the case to collectors in this auction.

No other cases have appeared in the months since this historic discovery, confirming the belief that this remains the only known case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards.

Experts are certain there are just two 1915 Cracker Jack Shoeless Joe Jackson cards graded SGC Mint 9 (with none higher), and one appears in this auction. It’s quite the prize inside this auction, as the baseball cards produced by Cracker Jack in 1914 and 1915 are among the most beautiful and identifiable baseball cards ever made — and, more than a century after their debut, among the rarest, according to Erik Varon in his history book Base Ball & Cracker Jack: A Prized Story. And these radiant-red “surprise inside” renderings “had the most eye-appeal of any card issued to date,” wrote John McMurray, Society for American Baseball Research’s Deadball Era Committee chair. There were myriad reasons for this, he wrote, among them: The Cracker Jack cards were nearly twice as large as the tobacco-card offerings, and they provided fans with brief, pointed biographies, while the backs of their cigarette counterparts featured only advertisements for the product.

“But it is the detailed artwork and many action poses which make this set a perennial collector favorite,” McMurray wrote in 2018. “In some sense, these are baseball cards doubling as art.”

The same could be said of any number of cards in this auction.

Like, say, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded PSA Near Mint+ 7.5, which PSA calls “the most recognizable baseball card ever made.”

Or the world’s sole finest example of the 1933 World Wide Gum Babe Ruth card graded PSA NM-MT 8, the limited-run Canadian iteration of the beloved Goudey set and among the rarest Ruths. It has been reprinted and imitated more often than Ruth’s called shot.

Or the 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson graded PSA Mint 9, another best-of-the-best of a card so beautiful and beloved it has been endlessly turned into paintings and posters.

There are entire sets of them, too, some among the highest-graded on PSA’s set registry, such as this complete set of PSA-graded 1922 E120 American Caramels. The 240-card collection is historic for numerous reasons, among them the players (Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker) and its impact on resurrecting interest in collecting following the end of World War I. And it’s ranked No. 2 among the current finest on the PSA Set Registry.

The complete set of 1934 World Wide Gum cards is ranked at No. 1 among the current and all-time finest on the PSA Set Registry. And it’s easy to see why: This Canadian version of the iconic American Goudey Gum Company’s ’34 set mirrors its U.S. counterpart, save for the biographies en français on the back. A Ruth swings through this set, though he didn’t appear in the 1934 Goudey collection; the Canadians used his 1933 Goudey instead. He’s joined by a grinning Lou Gehrig, whose card one artist has declared “the happiest card ever made.”

The 1941 Play Ball complete set of baseball cards is no less stunning or historic, ranked No. 6 on the Current Finest List on the PSA Set Registry. These colorful slices of cardboard were among the last issued before Americans joined World War II, after which every available scrap of paper went toward the war effort. The previous iterations of the Play Ball cards were black-and-white; by comparison, the 1941 collection was in Technicolor (and influenced by the Goudeys that had come before). It’s notable for numerous reasons: This is the sole set to contain the true Pee Wee Reese rookie — and it features all three DiMaggio brothers.

One of the most stunning jerseys in this auction is that bright yellow pullover worn by Reggie Jackson during his days as an A — 1973, specifically. That’s when he secured the American League MVP Award for the regular season and the World Series MVP Award after he smashed three doubles, a triple, a home run and six RBI against the New York Mets in the Fall Classic. This jersey has been photo-matched to, among other things, batting practice before Game Three of the World Series at Shea Stadium. Jackson might have been Mr. October, but this stunning gamer will have a December to remember.