Just Holy Grail after Holy Grail going up for auction in Texas

You might recall Texas hosted some soccer matches as part of an international tournament earlier this summer. We've previously discussed some of the big auctions at the Heritage Auctions house in Irving ranging from the Declaration of Independence to an autographed cassock worn by Pope Francis.

They're currently taking bids on the "Hand of God" soccer ball, the one Diego Maradona may or may not have used his hand to score a goal in the 1986 World Cup.

Heritage's director of sports auctions says the current owner of the ball had been waiting for technology to evolve to confirm this is the real ball. He says photography has advanced so they now have enough clarity to match the ball's marks to pictures from that match. The ball will come with letters of authenticity to show it was used for the "Hand of God" goal and then the goal voted "Goal of the Century" four minutes later.

Bidding continues through Saturday, and Heritage estimates the ball will sell for more than $10 million. Right now, though, you can join the fight for the low, low price of $2.7 million.

The soccer ball may be the headliner, but all sports are represented, and even if the ball does sell for $10 million, that would still be less than half the total for the most valuable collective ever auctioned. A couple years ago, Heritage auctioned the jersey Babe Ruth wore when he may or may not have called his shot. That ultimately sold for $24 million.

This time, they've got a ticket stub from Game Six of the 1923 World Series. That was the first World Series at Yankee Stadium and the Yankees' first World Series appearance. It was also signed by Babe Ruth, so that's expected to sell for $120,000.

An autographed picture of Mickey Mantle from his rookie season could sell for $100,000.

Mike Provenzale, Heritage's sports collectibles expert, says the ticket stub on the far right of that picture is from Mickey Mantle's debut with the Yankees on Opening Day in 1951. He says tickets like that often draw a lot of interest because sports collectors like "book-end" pieces.

On that topic, they've also got several game worn jerseys. One is from Roger Maris' first season in New York. That's on the right in this picture; the one on the left was worn by Mantle in 1964. Those have been photo-matched, too, and they both wrote their names on the tags.

"So what you're saying is Mantle and Maris were miserable walking around in wool jerseys all summer," I surmised.

Maybe you're not into baseball, either. You can own a pair of Michael Jordan's shoes from 1986.

Provenzale says these are a "holy grail" for fans of historic shoes. Jordan signed them, and the market for his stuff has gone up the past few years. Plus he signed these. Of course, these are just the holy grail for shoes. Heritage had previously auctioned off the actual Holy Grail a few years ago.

But they've also dipped their toe back into the world of professional wrestling.

For just $500,000, you can become a WWF World Heavyweight Champion. In an auction earlier this year, Hulk Hogan's boots sold for $1 million, setting a record for a professional wrestling item.

Provenzale says the million dollar boots "opened the floodgates" for wrestling auctions.

"Okay, I'm not crazy to bid five grand on a wrestling item."

He says wrestling fans pick out their favorites, and so bidding on something like the Hulkster's belt might be about living out a childhood dream or bring back memories of matches or promos.

Wrestling can be an example of what happens in a lot of sports auctions. They might know a particular soccer ball will get a huge bid, but other things might surprise them. A couple people might have particular memories of Hank Aaron or Roberto Clemente, so they might get into a bidding war and drive up the price of these jerseys.

But an auction like this can also show how memorabilia has changed. Provenzale says signed jerseys and cards are a relatively new hot-button item.

In the 80s and 90s, an autograph would be considered something that hurts the condition of the card. Provenzale says Mickey Mantle would even ask fans, "Are you sure you want me to sign this?"

That brings us back to soccer.

A 1958 Pele rookie card could fetch $350,000. Provenzale says Heritage does estimates all the time, but they try to time auctions to when items will get the most attention. This one continues through this week and can help you get stocked up for 2030, the next time America will spend several weeks caring about soccer.