Steve Christoff’s “Miracle on Ice” Gold Medal and Jersey Auctioned

An established Rhode Island professional, Peter Bria provides systems engineering support that employs leading edge technologies. A longtime ice hockey player and coach, Peter Bria is also an avid sports memorabilia collector.

A recent Goldin Auctions online auction witnessed the sale of a gold medal from the American team’s “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union ice hockey team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. At this event, a US team made up largely of amateur players defeated a Soviet squad composed mostly of professionals.

Steve Christoff’s medal was the third ever placed on auction and achieved a winning bid of $319,800, with the auction taking place on the 40th anniversary of the victory. This surpassed the $310,700 garnered by Mark Wells’ medal in 2010 and $262,900 obtained from the sale of Mark Pavelich’s medal in 2014. The recent auction was the second time that Steve Christoff’s medal had been placed on the auction block, with a 2017 auction failing to hit the $250,000 reserve price.

Also auctioned was the jersey Christoff wore during America’s final match of the Olympics against Finland, which earned the US team the gold medal. During that game, Christoff had an assist and goal that propelled the team to a 4-2 victory. The jersey brought in $116,850, which was significantly less than the $325,000 it had achieved at auction previously.

Legos as a Fun and Nostalgic Hobby

Systems Engineer Peter Bria of Barrington, Rhode Island has been in the engineering field for over two decades. Outside of his job at Sea Corp, Peter Bria enjoys playing with Legos.

In recent years, the popular Danish game has seen a resurgence in popularity with Gen Xers. Legos are block toys that could be easily attached to build structures. Legos’ popularity waned in the late 1990s as children began to move away from toys to video games. By 1999, though, a licensing deal with the Star Wars franchise revived the company.

While the game might hold a certain nostalgia, playing with Legos is a stress reliever, one that returns the person to a time when play occupied their time in childhood. The key to relieving stress is the concept of mindful play, which facilitates the person focusing on the act of connecting the blocks. Many adults who own adult Lego sets report the activity helps increase their ability to concentrate while unwinding after a hard day’s work.

The manufacturer is also reaching out to this audience in response to this renewed interest. The Architecture and Star Wars designs are popular. However, Central Park Café from Friends and the Eiffel Tower are two designs created for just for adults.

Highly Collectible Baseball Cards of the Early 1990s

A longtime systems engineer, Peter Bria has a passion for sports and coaches ice hockey. An avid collector of memorabilia, Peter Bria is licensed as a Professional Sports Authenticator and has an interest in everything from sports cards to game-worn uniforms.

For many in the card collecting sphere, a peak came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the extreme values of cards from the 1960s and earlier led many investors to purchase whole cases of cards. Unfortunately, the ensuing production ramp-up and oversupply meant that the current value of most cards from the era is lower than when they were first released.

There are some noteworthy exceptions, however, including the iconic 1989 and 1990 Upper Deck issues featuring future Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr. With 1990 rookies of power hitter Frank Thomas also sought after, one “slow burn” card of value is the 1992 Bowman rookie card of Mariano Rivera. Initially ignored, it held relatively little value until the late 1990s, when Rivera began his run as a New York Yankees’ closer who earned perennial All-Star Game selection and set the record for most saves in a career, with 652. In mint condition, the price of this card can exceed $500.

One highly sought-after issue is the 1991 Topps Desert Shield Chipper Jones rookie, which features a gold logo imprinted under the #1 Draft Pick graphic. This “shield” indicates that the card was only distributed to U.S. troops serving at the time in Iraq, and boosts the mint value of an otherwise common card to hundreds of dollars.

Lego Sets and Minifigures Sought after by Collectors

Residing in Rhode Island, Peter Bria is a systems engineer who is active with the Naval Submarine League. A longtime sports memorabilia and coin collector, Peter Bria also has a strong interest in Lego offerings over the decades, many of which hold high values among collectors.

Among the most sought after sets are those that are Star Wars themed, including the first edition Millennium Falcon, which originally sold for $450 and has reached prices in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. With a 2017 re-release version, the original Millennium Falcon has since dropped to a more accessible $1,700 value. Similarly, the first edition Taj Mahal reached prices in the $3,000 range, before plummeting to the $450 range following its re-release.

Other sought-after Lego sets include the 1984 600-piece King’s Castle, which represented one of the largest sets of the era and is worth as much as 10 times more when in the original still-sealed box. Produced in the early 1990s, the LEGO Airport Shuttle is a 730-piece monorail set that had limited production, due to a track outsourcing agreement with a manufacturer that later went bankrupt. With the tracks’ tooling components lost, monorail sets were abandoned for good.

Another group of collectible Legos is rare Minifigures, which are blind-boxed within sets and can dramatically increase in value. One unique piece from 2013 is Mr. Gold, which was initially sold individually for $2.99 and has since increased to a value of around $1,500.