Kenneth Goldin is a famous American auctioneer, collector of sports memorabilia and collectibles, and television personality. To date, he has sold history, pop culture, and sports memorabilia worth over $1.3 billion, mostly through his company Goldin Auctions. As of 2024, Ken Goldin’s net worth is estimated at $60 million – and it’s still growing.
The founder and CEO of Goldin Auctions is one of the most famous people in the sports collectibles market. As such, he’s appeared on many TV shows and was recently featured on Netflix’s King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch series.
If you want to learn more about the collector and auctioneer, keep reading this post.
Ken Goldin’s Net Worth Breakdown:
We’ve conducted thorough research into Ken Goldin’s financial standing. For the most part, the details about his earnings as CEO of his company, or through his TV appearances, remain undisclosed to the public. However, we’ve gathered enough data to narrow down the main sources and assets that contribute to his incredible net worth, and you can see the breakdown below:
| Asset or Income Source | Contribution to Net Worth |
| Goldin Auction sale, 2021 | $40 million |
| Goldin Auctions stake and salary | Undisclosed |
| Score Board earnings | Undisclosed |
| Total Net Worth | $60 million |
Ken Goldin Net Worth: Early Life and Education
Kenneth Goldin was born in Philadelphia on August 18, 1965. His parents Paul Goldin and Carole Goldin raised him in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He has a sister, Sharon Goldin, who shares the same passion for collectibles.
From an early age, Goldin started collecting cards from Major League Baseball, and by 1978, he was already making some cash selling the cards. He reportedly made enough money to cover his college education.
When his father recognized his passion for sports memorabilia, he brought Ken six or seven trash bags filled with cards he bought at a flea market for $70. Ken Goldin spent months sorting his collection, selling some of it, and keeping the best for himself. He started by taking out an ad in Sports Collectors Digest.
As for his education, Ken Goldin studied at Friends Select School in Philadelphia, after which he enrolled at Drexel University to study business administration. When he obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration, he enrolled at George Washington University School of Business to study Marketing.
In addition to collecting cards, Goldin was a great fan of computer games in his youth. When he was 20 years old, in 1985, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud after he used credit card numbers he found in the garbage to play the MegaWars online game, costing up to $12 an hour. He was sentenced to three years of probation and paid a $500 fine and $3,750 in restitution to the game’s provider CompuServe.
Personal Life
Ken Goldin has been married twice. He is married to his second wife Jennifer Goldin, a clinical psychologist who has operated the Palm Beach Women’s Counseling Clinic for almost a decade. The couple has three children: Laura, Paul, and Carleigh Goldin.
Ken Goldin Net Worth: Success in the Sports Memorabilia Industry
Ken Goldin has been interested in the sports memorabilia market since he was a kid. Since he already had success in the market and had the support of his parents, he and his father decided to start a new business focused on sports memorabilia. This is where it all began.
Score Board Inc.
In 1986, Ken and his father Paul Goldin partnered to found Score Board, Inc., a company for trading cards. Through this business, the two created autograph contracts with players to sell their autographed trading cards.
A year after its founding, Score Board went public and made $1 million in sales. In 1989, revenue was $20 million. In 1994, the company’s sales peaked at over $100 million when Ken Goldin regularly appeared on Don West’s nightly show on the Shop at Home Network.
In 1997, Ken Goldin stepped away from the family business Score Board. A year later, the company filed for bankruptcy, but this didn’t prevent him from following his passion. He continued to work in the sports memorabilia industry, making sales by appearing on television. He supplied sports collectibles to shopping outlets on television such as HSN and QVC.
However, for a couple of years, Ken Goldin didn’t earn much through his TV appearances. Interest started to dwindle and he had to find another job to support himself. For a while, he handled marketing for baseball superagent Scott Boras.
“It went from me going on the air and selling myself every couple weeks to less and less business,” he said about that period.
Ken Goldin as a TV Personality
Ken Goldin has been buying and selling cards since 1978. At the time, he traded electric racetrack cars for a friend’s collection of 5,000 baseball cards, including the ones featuring Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Nolan Ryan.
Over the next decades, Goldin became one of the most vocal ambassadors on the collectibles market, regularly appearing on Fox Business, Bloomberg TV, QVC, CNBC, HSN, and other stations. This is partly how the family company Score Board reached a point where it went public and made millions in sales, at a time when Goldin and athletes hawked signed photos, cards, and bats on TV.
Ken Goldin now streams live on his Instagram account at least once a week for around an hour. In his streams, he opens packs from a full box of cards, answering questions with his son Paul Goldin.
His success on Instagram has grown tremendously over the years, with his follower base growing from 1,000 to over 38,000 in the first year, and over 288k now. Some pro athletes have also joined the streams to discuss the market, including Bryan Shaw and Seth Curry.
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In February, Ken Goldin partnered with YouTube star Logan Paul to open a box of Pokemon cards.
Goldin Auctions
In 2012, after he had established himself as a major connoisseur of sports memorabilia, Ken Goldin was ready for a new challenge. He established a new company called Goldin Auctions and propelled it to great heights. By 2020, Goldin Auctions was worth $102 million.
The Growth of Goldin Auctions
In the first year of operation, Goldin Auctions made $800,000 in sales. The company reportedly kept 20% of each sale. In May 2021, it had $200 million in sales for the year. A year later, its profit surpassed $300 million in sales before it was sold to eBay.
In 2016, Ken Goldin hosted the Great American Trading Card Auction. At the auction, he got $312,000 for an Upper Deck LeBron James rookie card, which he believed was worth less than $100,000.
After the impressive sales figures of his business and his recent sales, Goldin started studying the contemporary market, focusing on the four main major leagues – NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. During this period, Goldin Auctions acquired some highly valuable collections, including the “Puerto Rico Find”, valued at $20 million.
In 2020, for instance, Ken Goldin sold a rookie card for Mike Trout from cardmarker Bowman making the record sale for a single card – $3.9 million. His company also sold a one-of-a-kind card featuring Luka Doncic, the NBA star, for $4.6 million in a private deal.
Sale of Goldin Auctions
In 2021, Goldin Auctions was sold to Collectors Holdings, a group owned by Steve Cohen, Dan Sundheim, and Nat Turner. While the details of the contract haven’t been confirmed, Yahoo Sports reports that it was most likely over $200 million. What we did manage to find is that, in February 2021, Ken Goldin sold a majority stake in the company for $40 million to different investors led by the Chernin Group including Dwayne Wade, Peter Chernin, Mark Cuban, and more.
After this sale, Ken Goldin was replaced as CEO of Goldin Auctions by Ross Hoffman, the former vice president for partnerships at Twitter. However, he would later return to this position after Goldin Auctions was sold to eBay.
In 2024, Collectors Holdings sold Goldin Auctions to eBay. The details of this deal were not publicly disclosed, and it’s unclear if Ken Goldin still had a stake in the business at the time of the sale. After the sale of Goldin Auctions, Ken Goldin remained with his company as its CEO.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity,” said Ken Goldin. “I look forward to introducing the Goldin brand name and the tremendous assortment of high-end collectibles that we have to offer to a whole new audience, and excited about the opportunity that lies ahead for both eBay and Goldin.”
An official announcement from @KenGoldin, Founder and CEO of Goldin, regarding agreement with @eBay 🤝 pic.twitter.com/o4n0OazDAw
— Goldin (@GoldinCo) April 10, 2024
At the time of writing, Goldin Auctions is a highly profitable auction house with a focus on rare and valuable items. The business is thriving under the leadership of its founder and has annual sales of over $300 million. It mostly focuses on collecting sports memorabilia, as well as entertainment collectibles.
Because of the success in the collectibles industry, the business is the official auction house for organizations like:
- Jackie Robinson Foundation
- Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association
- Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame
- Babe Ruth Museum
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Ken Goldin Net Worth: Other Investments and Assets
For the most part, Ken Goldin’s net worth has been accumulated through his work in the collectibles market. However, founding Goldin Auctions wasn’t the only thing that made him a millionaire. Ken Goldin was a prominent figure in the collectibles world long before he founded this business. Today, he also has a Netflix show that debuted in April 2023 and has been renewed for a second season.
Netflix Show
The Netflix show King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch debuted on April 28, 2023. It was soon renewed for a second season that debuted on June 12, 2024. This show was highly successful and peaked at no.4 in the United States, and no. 20 worldwide.
The show features Goldin and his staff handling high-end sports memorabilia and collectibles, including comic books, a signed Eminem record, a mummified hand of Cleopatra, and much more. The first season of the show provided viewers with valuable insights into how Goldin started working on the market and reached such financial prosperity.
However, the famous show brought legal troubles as well as fame and fortune to Goldin. Gervase Peterson sued him, alleging the show infringed on his copyright for a show he pitched to Goldin, which he called The Goldin Boys in 2019. In April 2024, the lawsuit was dismissed since the plot similarities Peterson talked about were scènes à faire and not protected by copyright law.
Philanthropic Endeavors
Ken Goldin isn’t only an auctioneer and TV personality, but also a major philanthropist, who has donated to many charitable organizations, both personally and through his business. He serves as the chairman of the Camcare Charitable Foundation, through which he supports various initiatives for the good of the community.
In addition to this, Ken Golding is a member of the board of directors at the Philadelphia Museum of Sports.
What Can We Learn from Ken Golding’s Story?
Ken Goldin’s story offers valuable lessons, particularly in the areas of passion, persistence, and most importantly, entrepreneurial prowess.
From a young age, Goldin demonstrated a keen interest in sports cards, sports memorabilia, and rare collectibles, which ultimately laid the foundation for his highly successful career.
Goldin’s early success in the collectibles world allowed him to build a business empire. He has done so by showcasing his passion and combining it with strategic thinking. This is proof that the right combination of the two can lead to financial prosperity in life.
Goldin’s journey illustrates the importance of adapting to market demands. His role as a leading figure in the collectibles industry, particularly through high-profile auctions, underscores the importance of being at the forefront of your selected field. He has demonstrated an ability to remain relevant, which is what helped him thrive in a very competitive market.