Collector: Et Goldin touche le pactole

As Episode 1 of "King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch" (2023 release; 6 episodes, ranging 27 to 41 min each) opens, we are at the "Goldin Auctions HQs, New Jersey" and it is "2 Days to Jackie Robinson Auction". And "Hobby Godfather" Ken Goldin and his team are feverishly preparing for the event. The auction's main item is a super-rare baseball jersey that Robinson wore in 1951. It is worth MILLIONS but the owner of the jersey sets a reserve of $10 million... At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: the film makers were provided seemingly unfettered access to Goldin and his team as they track down rare memorabilia which they auction off (and for which Goldin gets a 20% commission). The vast majority of these items are sports-related although they do try and branch out to other stuff (for example, the original 1976 Apple I computer in mint condition). Peyton Manning is credited as an Executive Producer of this mini-series, and of course he makes the occasional obligatory appearance. I will admit that it's fun to watch this for a while, but then (towards the end of Episode 2) it starts to feel repetitive, indeed very repetitive. This is not to diminish the work done by Goldin an his team, all of whom look to be very professional and very good at what they are doing. It just doesn't make for longtime compelling viewing (for my, anyway). Indeed, this reminded me of the long-running exotic cars auction show on NBCSN, Mecum Auctions. Fun for a while, but just a while.

"King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch" started streaming just recently on Netflix. If you are into collectibles, in particular the sports-related kinds, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

It feels forced in some ways along with the inability to really translate the connection people have to these items rather than the dollars attached to them. People only pay for these items because of how desired and or much they care about them and instead it seems to be more about the money and egos involved. There are some bright moments, but most of my intrigue was in the items more than the production or character development. I am unsure how much of this is a production and how much really goes on at the auction house, but it seems very much scripted and lacks authenticity in an industry which relies upon it.

This wasn't so much a documentary but something more like Pawn Stars. All of this is staged and for maximum exposure for Goldin auctions. Jake Paul and Payton Manning are both investors in his business so of course they make the obligatory on camera appearance. Now I was interested in seeing some of these private collectors collections but it seems so in-authentic especially the farther it goes into story. I think I said thats enough when in one of the episodes Rick Flair shows up at Goldins and on way out one of the employees donned a real wrestling outfit he even had the correct shoes. If your way into sports collectibles you do get a look at things that you will never get to own or get near in your life because you see who owns most of this stuff.

I gave this so few stars because of the deceptive title. If it had been "King of SPORTS Collectibles", it would have been different. And I would not have viewed it thinking I was going to get a fun variety of collectibles, not just sports memorabilia.

In all of the seven minutes I watched, it was a high pitched series that was informative about the topic of the moment. Some history of the object and the person involved with it was given which was interesting.

Goldin is a self-assured, high energy and confident man.

Am so glad I read the reviews and saved myself from continuing to watch this thinking I was going to get something that was of interest to me. (Not a huge sports fan.)

This is a reality TV series from Netflix all about a company that auctions sports memorabilia. I don't know why I started to watch this, it is not really the kind of thing that I like any more. I think the problem with this whole show is not connected to the show itself, it's connected to this market. These are really rich people, and they're spending a lot of money on things like Pokémon cards from the 1990s. The show also highlights different auctions of different sports memorabilia, and these are things like game worn jerseys and game worn shoes. These are just pieces of equipment, cloth or a little piece of rubber. The only meaning that's attached to it is what we give it. I don't understand why somebody would want some shoes that a basketball player played in once, or a jersey that they wore in one half of the game. It doesn't make any sense to me. They show an auction for a jersey that was worn by Jackie Robinson for one season, so we know that he wore this jersey during this season, and it's a very old school baseball jersey, thick cotton and there's like some blood of Jackie Robinson's on it, and it was being auctioned, and it could have been sold for 7.5 million. I understand why that particular piece of sports memorabilia is so expensive because it has a lot of history, it wasn't just worn one time and Jackie Robinson, of course, is a very historical figure in baseball. All of that makes sense but some random player? I think that's my problem with this whole industry, the false memorabilia creation versus what is actually memorable. If you like this kind of thing you could give it a watch, it has some very interesting personalities in it, but for myself I felt that it was kind of something to have on in the background.