By Bill Finley
Everyone in racing understands that adding the Triple Crown trophy to your collection is about the most difficult thing that one can accomplish in this sport. But that's no longer the case. One can easily be yours. All you need is an eBay account and the willingness to part with $500,000.
The 1978 Triple Crown trophy given to the late trainer Laz Barrera after Affirmed swept the series is currently available on eBay where the seller is asking for $500,000 or 'best offer.” It's also been featured on the television show Pawn Stars and was the subject of a TMZ report in 2015.
The seller is a company called Memory Lane Inc.
“It's such an exciting piece of memorabilia within our industry and within the horse racing industry,” said Memory Lane owner Dan Wulkan. “Nothing like this has ever come to market before. So why not be part of the lineage of a Triple Crown winner, something that has only happened 13 times in history.”
How the trophy got from Laz Barrera, who died in 1991, to Pawn Stars to eBay remains a mystery. Wulkan probably knows some of the answers, but there's only so much that he's willing to divulge. He said the story begins when Barrera's family decided to sell the trophy because it needed help paying medical bills.
“The family sold it years ago because they needed money,” he said. “I don't want to get too personal with that because I know it's a sensitive subject. They needed the money. They sold it. Thank God they had this item that allowed them to raise the money for their medical bills. If they didn't, they would have been in real trouble.”
But who did they sell it to and who now owns the trophy? Wulkan said that his company does not actually own the trophy but is selling it on behalf of a client. He declined to name the person Memory Lane is representing.
According to a TMZ report written in 2015, the trophy was owned by a “famed sports collector” named Timothy Robins (not the actor) who was looking to sell the trophy for $1 million. It was listed briefly on the website of Heritage Auctions in 2018 and was offered for $225,000 with a reserve price set at $125,000, which was not met.
The trophy appeared in the public eye once again earlier this year when it was featured on a episode of the popular reality show Pawn Stars. Someone identified only as “Patrick” showed up at the Las Vegas pawn shop and asks for $500,000 for the trophy. Pawn Stars employee Corey Johnson calls in none other than Wulkan to help him appraise the value of the trophy and Wulkan reaches the same figure as Patrick, $500,000. There is an some attempt at reaching a price somewhere in the middle, but Johnson's best offer is $225,000. Patrick never budges from his $500,000 asking price and no deal is made.
Who is “Patrick” and is he actually Robins or just an actor? How did Wulkan go from someone brought in to advise a potential buyer of the trophy but now is representing the seller? Reality shows can be scripted. How much of what went on within that pawn shop was realistic or something thrown together to make for an interesting five minutes of television?
Again, Wulkan is reluctant to reveal much, if any, information.
“It went from the family to a couple of different people, and it's an iconic piece of memorabilia,” he said. “I don't think there's anything to be gained from knowing names, where the seller lives or how they got it.”
Wulkan's company sells a wide variety of sports memorabilia, much of it very valuable. He said that even with an item as rare as a Triple Crown trophy and something that has never, to the best of anyone's knowledge, been put up for sale, he has learned to come up with what he believes is a fair price.
“I think you get a gut feeling,” he said. “There's no formula out there to say, for example, it's got three corners and a bottom and it's so many inches, therefore it's worth $50,000. There may be no formula out there to appraise something like this, but it is very easy to appraise those types of things. I've been doing this since I was about 10 years old and we've dealt with trophies and cards and signed contracts, whether it's in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing or non-sports memorabilia. I have dealt with everything under the sun.”
Will anyone meet the $500,000 asking price or come anywhere close to it? That remains to be seen. Wulkan said many of the people acting as potential buyers make unrealistically low offers or chide him that the trophy's owner will not simply donate it to a museum.
“It's easy for someone to say you should donate it,” Wulkan said. “That's like saying that the people who live in the house where Honus Wagner grew up should donate it so that it can be turned into a landmark, then just move out and get nothing. No one would do that. You already live in that home and that's where your bed is.”
While Wulkan is adamant that the trophy's owner will not just give it away, he does agree with those who believe its final landing spot should be a place like the Kentucky Derby Museum or the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
“I think what I'd love to talk to my client about is a scenario where an individual comes forward and they want to donate it to a museum,” he said. “I think he'd be willing to listen if an offer came in from someone who had that in mind, even if it wasn't for $500,000. It would still have to sell for something substantial enough so he could recoup his investment to earmark it into other collectibles. I think if the public really wants that trophy to go to a museum then someone or a group of people should come together and buy it and donate it so it's somewhere where everyone can see it.”
In the meantime, the 1978 Triple Crown trophy can be seen on cyberspace, with a for sale sign hanging over it. It is a racing treasure still looking to find a home.
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