QUITE A LOT

In 1744, Sotheby’s hammered down its very first lot at auction when founder Samuel Baker sold several hundred rare books of “Polite Literature” for £826 (or roughly $288,000 today). Here are the first items sold at other famed auction houses.

Stockholms Auktionsverk (founded 1674): The oldest in the world, Stockholm Auction House’s first recorded sales included Bibles and a black velvet saddle (worth $119 today).

Christie’s (1766): James Christie’s earliest sale featured home goods including a “beautiful needle-worked carpet” for 50 guineas ($13,000).

Heritage Auctions (1976): A $4 gold coin was the star lot at the Dallas house’s inaugural event, selling for $17,000 ($84,000).

eBay (1995): The first transaction on the site, known at the time as AuctionWeb: a broken laser pointer sold for $14.83, or about $28 in 2022 dollars.

Nifty Gateway (2018): The site started selling NFTs in 2020. The first “drop” included digital versions of L.A. artist Lyle Owerko’s depictions of vintage stereos, known as the Boombox Project, for as much as $2,500.