Marc Juteau, who likes to lace on the skates on a weekly basis at the Montreal Canadiens practice rink at the Dix30 shopping centre in Brossard, Que., is at the beer-league level when it comes to playing hockey.
But he has emerged as the undisputed champion in the feeding frenzy for hockey memorabilia, a phenomenon that his company Classic Auctions played a key role in creating when he engineered the sale of Guy Lafleur’s personal effects nine years ago. The company got a further shot in the arm when much of Jean Beliveau’s memorabilia went on sale in 2005.
And it reached a record high last month when Classic Auctions ignited a bidding war that saw Paul Henderson’s Team Canada jersey — the one in which he scored the winning goal against the Soviet Union in the last game of the 1972 Summit Series — sell for $1.275 million. The previous record for a hockey jersey was $191,200 U.S., which was paid for one worn by Bobby Orr. It was auctioned by a Dallas company earlier this year and the buyer was not named.
It’s a strange world in which collectibles such as jerseys, sticks and pucks can take on huge significance long after they were worn or used in classic confrontations on the ice, thanks to what Juteau calls “hockey freaks.” He has the e-mail addresses of close to 10,000 of them.
The demand for the items is driven by fanatical sports fans, many of them businessmen with deep pockets, who stay in the shadows, often shunning the spotlight.
Juteau has been on an upward trajectory since he became interested in hockey collectibles at the age of 13, when he accompanied his aunt, Lucie Favreau, to the flea market in Montreal’s Old Port.
“She gave me a little bit of space to sell sports memorabilia — mainly hockey cards, sticks and photos — and I did that for a few years before I began going to shows in Toronto,” he said of his aunt, who is still an antiques dealer and maintains a shop that sells hockey items, among other things.
He started Classic Auctions at the age of 21, warming quickly to the potential of online bidding as a way of expanding sales well beyond the limitations of the telephone.
“It’s the perfect age to start a business because you have no fear,” said Juteau, who studied business administration at CEGEP, but left after two years without a diploma to immerse himself full-time in the sale of hockey collectibles. Today, his company, which has eight employees, has annual revenues fluctuating between $3.5 million and $4.5 million based on three sales a year.
It’s entirely likely the annual revenue will be at the high end this year because the Henderson sweater netted Juteau’s company $200,000, which was the amount of the buyer’s premium of 19.4 per cent. The premium — that’s what Juteau’s company keeps — is attached to every sale and the Henderson sweater was one of 893 items up for grabs in the June sale that featured the Ted Kennedy collection, including Stanley Cup rings (he won four of them while captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs).
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