The Value of a Triple Crown Ticket
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A winning American Pharoah ticket may be worth more to collectors than handicappers. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
There were 94,128 $2 paper-ticket win bets made on American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes. So far only 3,891 of those have been cashed. That’s most likely because people are holding on to those $2 win tickets as souvenirs of the first Triple Crown winner since 1978. Either that or they are hoping to cash in for more than the $3.50 the ticket is worth at the windows by selling them to collectors.
Despite the fact that there are over 90,000 of these tickets floating around, some sellers on ebay are listing the tickets as “rare.” The tickets are already selling on Ebay for anywhere from $10 to $30. If that doesn’t seem like a good enough price for you, then hopefully you’ve got the complete set. Entire sets of winning tickets from the Triple Crown (win tickets on American Pharoah from the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes) are being listed for anywhere from $275 - $400!
One horseplayer I spoke with at Belmont before American Pharoah’s victory told me that for the past several years he has made it a habit to buy 15 $2 win tickets on every horse in the Kentucky Derby, then 15 $2 win tickets on the Derby winner in the Preakness, and then in the years when there was a Triple Crown on the line bought 15 more at the Belmont. He said in all the prior years he usually broke even or better by cashing in the tickets. This year he finally hit the jackpot and plans to put his 15 sets up for sale on ebay. He estimates he will get $1,500 or more for each of them.
He might be right. Complete sets of winning tickets for Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner, are available on Ebay for around $1,750. But those are in much shorter supply. When Affirmed won the Triple Crown, nobody knew that it would be the last one in such a long time, so few people grasped the historical significance. There aren’t nearly as many sets available as there likely will be with American Pharoah.
MAN SELLING TRIPLE CROWN TICKETS
Photo courtesy of David Hill
If American Pharoah Triple Crown ticket sets are truly going to fetch $1,500 or more, it may take some time for the value to appreciate. And, sadly, some distance between Triple Crown winners as well. Just ask the guy above, who was posted up at the entrance to the paddock at Belmont all day on Belmont Stakes day trying to unload his own sets of Triple Crown betting slips. He’s had five sets of all three of the Triple Crown winners from the 1970s and he’s still unable to move the merchandise. His price? “Make me an offer.”