Earlier this month Brad Daugherty, 1991 WSOP Main Event Champion, put one of his most prized possessions up for sale on Ebay.com, his 1991 WSOP Main Event Bracelet.
Under the Ebay handle “Ratster”, Daughterty offered his 1991 WSOP Main Event bracelet to the highest bidder. With only 41 WSOP Main Event bracelets in existence, this looked to be a great opportunity for a collector of poker memorabilia to score a valuable piece of poker history.
One year ago Peter Eastgate, the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion, sold his Main Event bracelet on Ebay for $147,000 towards charity. This now inspired Daugherty to make a similar move, posting his Main Event Bracelet on Ebay at the beginning of this month in hopes of reaching a similar sale price.
Daugherty’s bracelet is simple gold, with his first name “Brad” etched into the center piece. All in all, when his auction ended July 5th Daugherty’s bracelet attracted a grand total of 54 bids, the highest of which being $28,100. This bid however did not meet the reserve price, the lowest price Daugherty was willing to sell at, so the bracelet was not sold. This was the second time Daugherty had attempted to sell his WSOP bracelet on Ebay and failed, the first being in December of 2010.
The scrap metal value of Daugherty’s bracelet alone is roughly $2,500, and very few of these bracelets are in existence, but apparently Daugherty’s bracelet lacked the historical importance, or collector’s value, to bring it anywhere near the $147,000 paid for Eastgate’s Main Event bracelet. Safe to say other Main Event bracelets, like those won by Helmuth, Chan, or Nguyen, would sell for considerably more should they ever for some strange reason end up on Ebay.
When news of Daugherty’s attempted bracelet sale broke the immediate question that came to everyone’s mind was, “Why sell your bracelet?” Theories swirled online about financial difficulties on Daugherty’s part, but interviewed recently Daugherty explained his reasoning as something different entirely.
Currently residing in the Philippines, Daugherty described the sale as a way to raise money for a meaningful cause, poverty, which grips much of the Philippines.
“As anyone that has been here knows, there are lots of homeless kids and people living in poverty. I am always helping kids and families that I see in need. I thought, why not just auction the bracelet off and use it where it could do some good, rather than just let it sit in the US in a safe deposit box.”