As of 2016, what sports item has been sold for the most money?

It simply had to be Babe Ruth who topped this list didn’t it. The man who dominates the list constituting just shy of half the entries, Ruth also takes top spot, with the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold. The record was set when the item was sold at auction in 2012, eclipsing the fee paid for Naismith’s rule book which had been set two years earlier. The item, described as ‘the most desirable baseball artifact’ in history, had previously been kept at the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum.

The incredible price is said to be because the jersey is the oldest known New York Yankees jersey worn by Ruth. Its significance in the power-shift of baseball, as well as its cultural impact on New York outside the world of sport, is massive. The jersey which was first worn in 1920, sold for $4,415,658, and far exceeds even the second most expensive item of Babe Ruth memorabilia.