Heritage Auctions Tops $1.4 Billion at Midyear as Collectibles Keep Expanding
Heritage Auctions said it has already surpassed $1.4 billion in sales through June 2026, a midyear total that marks the strongest first-half performance in the company’s history. The Dallas-based auction house also said it is on pace to exceed its 2025 annual record of $2.15 billion, underscoring how deeply collectibles now shape the upper end of the market.
The numbers point to a broad appetite that stretches well beyond traditional fine art. Heritage credited the surge to video games, comics, coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other categories that have become increasingly global and increasingly competitive. A sealed copy of Nintendo’s 1985 Super Mario Bros. sold for $3 million, setting a new auction record for a video game. A 1911 Chinese coin brought $4.88 million, placing it among the three most valuable world coins ever sold at auction.
Other results were equally telling. A 1909 T206 Honus Wagner trading card realized $3.5 million, while Hulk Hogan’s match-worn yellow boots sold for $1 million, a record for a wrestling object at auction. Heritage also brokered the $13 million private sale of Superman No. 1 and Batman No. 1, two cornerstone comic books that continue to draw serious money from collectors who move fluidly between categories.
That cross-category behavior is central to Heritage’s current run. Aviva Lehmann, the house’s deputy chairman of fine art, said the company is seeing a younger and more diverse client base than in the past, with collectors who may arrive through coins or comics and then branch into other areas. Nick Nicholson, deputy chairman of decorative art, described the appeal as a matter of taste and distinction as much as price.
The house’s American art results also reflect that dynamic. In May, 18 works on paper by Norman Rockwell sold in full, led by a study for Cheerleaders (1952) that brought $600,000. Heritage said its sale of historic Americana tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary added another $8.4 million, including a 1776 letter signed by George Washington that sold for $275,000.
Founded as a numismatic business, Heritage has long had a foothold in coins. But its latest figures suggest that the market for collectibles is no longer a side story to art auctions. For Heritage, it is the engine.
