When Pharrell Williams looked to sell some of his personal possessions in 2022, he couldn’t find an auction house he felt was suited to market and sell some of his non-traditional items — such as his Jacob & Co. N.E.R.D. Character Pendant Chain and an 18k gold Blackberry.
The Grammy-winning musician's solution was to found JOOPITER, a new-age auction house built for storytelling and modern collectibles.
“What we do well is storytelling,” Caitlin Donovan, JOOPITER global head of sales, told cllct. “We kind of take non-traditional items and we storytell them and explain why they're so valuable, and then we target them to the right buyers.”
In its inaugural auction featuring Pharell’s collection, JOOPITER blew by its estimates and brought in $5.25 million.
In the first few years, the auction house was largely defined by provenance-forward sales — with sales highlighting items from celebrities such as NIGO and Jackson Wang — fusing familiar staples of the luxury auction world with storytelling that tied the pieces to famous names.
Since then, JOOPITER has moved a bit more toward the classics, employing a team of former experts and specialists from the likes of Christie’s and Sotheby’s (Donovan started her career at Heritage and later headed up luxury and sports sales at Christie’s) and imparting a more traditional ethos into the still-somewhat novel concept.
“We want a happy medium of these exceptional provenance sales for these celebrities … and also we want to do the more traditional auction categories in a bit of a more modern way,” Donovan said.
Up next is sports, beginning with a single-lot sale of a autographed Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer rookie card, which opens for bidding Tuesday with a starting bid of $2 million and a high estimate of $3 million.
The card will be familiar to many familiar with the high-end card market, as it was one of the nine copies of 1986 Fleer rookie card signed in a secret session by Jordan in Florida last year. Graded PSA 9 with a 10 autograph grade, it’s one of less than 100 such copies graded by PSA/DNA, and one of six featuring a 10 autograph grade.
In March it was listed as a preview for auction at Sotheby’s and subsequently removed from the site. A spokesperson for Sotheby’s told cllct at the time the card was withdrawn prior to the start of bidding at the request of the consignor.
The $2 million starting bid is surely ambitious. Only three Jordan cards in history have ever surpassed that mark. None have ever hit the $3 million high estimate
Much like some of the incumbent houses which have embraced modern collectibles in the hopes their clientele from other categories such as art would convert, JOOPITER is charting a similar path.
“I saw some really big post-war [art] clients that were some of the biggest buyers across post-war and watches participate in my sneakers auctions,” Donovan said of her time introducing new categories at Christie’s. “But I also think this includes an entirely different clientele.”
In addition to the old-school clients, Donovan says the emotional and nostalgic appeal of sports brings a new demographic to the table. “We’re seeing people who wouldn’t necessarily buy from auction start buying and participating,” Donovan said.
As for the decision to go with the signed Jordan card for JOOPITER’s sports debut — a category which the auction house has a two-year plan to expand into with future sales — Donovan pointed to the card’s rarity and exclusiveness, in addition to the popularity of Jordan collectibles.
The card will be on display this month in Paris at Pharrell’s exhibit for Louis Vuitton.