During an auction of sports memorabilia at Grey Flannel last spring, Doug Reiser was looking to buy a game-used Wayne Gretzky stick.
He wanted one from early in Gretzky's career and was bidding on four separate sticks from the first few seasons of the Great One's time with the Edmonton Oilers.
None of them were attributed to a specific game, but three of them quickly got more expensive than Reiser wanted, so he settled on the cheapest, which was credited to the 1981-82 season.
Reiser paid $3,775 for that stick in June 2024.
Around a month later, much to his surprise, he was able to match the stick to a photo from the game in which Gretzky broke Phil Esposito’s single-season record of 76 goals.
Less than a year later, armed with this new information, he has consigned the stick to Sotheby’s, where it sold Tuesday night for $82,550.
“It was dumb luck,” Reiser told cllct.
Shortly after he won the original auction, Reiser decided he would try to photo-match it. Noticing the stick was not only signed by Gretzky, but also Gilbert Perreault, Reiser looked for photos of Grezky’s Oilers playing Perrault’s Sabres during the 1981-82 season.
Then he found an image from the Feb. 24, 1982, game that appeared to be a match.
“Man, all these marks line up,” Reiser said. “Then I googled the date … and I’m like ‘Oh my God.’”
Gretzky not only passed Esposito’s record, but notched a hat trick during the game against the Buffalo Sabres — all in the third period. Perreault also had a hat trick in the game, which the Oilers won 6-3.
Bidding on the lot, which does not have a reserve price, is currently at $20,000 with more than a week remaining in the auction.
Last year, Sotheby’s set a record with another Gretzky stick, used in the Oilers’ 1988 Stanley Cup-clinching game, selling it for $336,000 — the highest price ever paid for an NHL hockey stick at public auction.
The stick from Gretzky’s final game sold for $140,000 in 2022.
As Alexander Ovechkin closes in on Gretzky’s career goal record, the auction will test the market to see if interest in NHL memorabilia is peaking accordingly.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.
