Stone Cold Steve Austin’s signed, match-worn knee brace has sold for $225,700 at Heritage Auctions, according to ProWrestling-Collectibles, which says the sale makes it the most valuable Austin item ever sold at auction.
The brace was Lot 81947 in Heritage’s Fall Sports Catalog Auction, which ran October 23 to 25. Heritage’s lot page lists it as sold on Saturday, October 24, but the price sits behind a sign-in wall, so the $225,700 figure rests on the ProWrestling-Collectibles post. The lot carried a guide value of $30,000 and up, and Heritage charges a 22 percent buyer’s premium.
Heritage describes the piece as a circa 1999 Don Joy brace, 16 inches tall, that Austin signed in gold paint pen and dated 5-8-99. A WWF authentication sticker sits near the date, and the lot includes a WWE letter signed by Linda McMahon. The top button has broken off, which Heritage says probably ended the brace’s run in the ring.
The price is nearly double the $115,900 Heritage got for another Austin brace in May, which Heritage says was the highest price ever paid for a knee brace. That one had appeared on WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, where Mick Foley brought it to Austin for confirmation. The brace Austin wore at WrestleMania 38 sold for $58,045 in a Fanatics auction in March, according to a post from Fanatics Authentic, which makes Saturday’s result almost four times that.
Heritage’s description says very few Austin match-worn items have reached the open market and that his match-worn vests have never surfaced, which leaves collectors chasing the braces. The brace sold in the same auction as Conrad Thompson’s WrestleMania III Intercontinental title belt, which brought $716,750. Earlier this year, Hulk Hogan’s WrestleMania I boots sold for $1,037,000 at Heritage.
