One of the most-shared images of Argentina's 2022 World Cup win shows Lionel Messi lifting a trophy that was not the one FIFA handed him. A photograph from that moment is printed on a trading card, and on Nov. 7 a South Carolina auction house will sell a PSA 10 copy of that card together with the trophy in the picture.

Richmond Auctions announced the pairing on Oct. 14, 2026, as the centerpiece of its Premier Sports Card & TCG Auction. The release calls the sale the company's "expansion into sports collectibles." Until now its business has been advertising memorabilia, automobilia and petroliana.

What is being sold

According to the release, the lot has two pieces:

  • A replica World Cup trophy that "made its way onto the field after the official post-match presentation ceremony" in Qatar, was passed among members of the winning team for nearly 45 minutes, was signed by players, and was later exhibited at an Argentine museum.
  • A 2022 Panini Instant FIFA World Cup Qatar #118 Lionel Messi, graded PSA 10, which the release says shows Messi holding that replica during the celebration.

Richmond Auctions lists the trophy's documentation as notarial records, photographs and video, media coverage and exhibition records. Those provenance claims are the auction house's own.

The card in the release photo is PSA cert 98286431, GEM MT 10. Its front is dated December 18, 2022, the day of the final, and carries the caption "KING OF QATAR: MESSI FINALLY GETS HIS CROWN."

The trophy Messi paraded was a fan's

The release calls the piece a replica, and that matters. In January 2023, El País reported that the trophy Messi lifted in front of Argentina's fans at Lusail Stadium, in a post the paper called the most-liked photograph in Instagram's history, was "a handmade replica" made by a couple of Argentina fans from Buenos Aires and brought to Qatar as a talisman.

The couple, Paula Zuzulich and Manuel Zaro, told the paper that the trophy took six months to make. They said it weighs the same as the original and is made of resin and quartz under gold-colored paint. It went down to the pitch three times. On the second trip it stayed there for 45 minutes, "being passed from one player to another," and Lautaro Martínez signed it before bringing it back. According to El País, Messi carried it on his lap of honor without realizing it was not FIFA's, until Ángel Di María told him.

Analysis: Richmond Auctions' account of its replica follows El País's account closely: a trophy carried down from the stands, about 45 minutes on the field, passed among the players and signed by them, and finally in Messi's hands. If the card shows Messi with that trophy, as the release says, then Panini's "crown" photo shows the fan-made trophy. Selling the card and the object together sells the photograph along with the thing in it.

The card is not the scarce half

Sports Card Investor's card database lists the #118 Messi at a print run of 22,081.

PSA's own record for cert 98286431 shows a PSA 10 population of 4,036 for this card as of Oct. 15, 2026, with nothing graded higher. The same page logs five PSA 10 sales from Oct. 12 and 13, 2026, ranging from $552 to $845 across eBay and Fanatics Collect.

Analysis: On those figures, PSA 10s alone equal about 18 percent of the print run (this blog's arithmetic), and five changed hands in two days this week. Recent sales put this card in the hundreds of dollars; anything the lot brings beyond that is paying for the trophy and its paper trail. That makes this a provenance sale with a card attached, not a card sale.

The rest of the card sale

Richmond Auctions named five other highlights for Nov. 7:

  • 1916 M101-4 Gimbels "Shoeless" Joe Jackson #87, SGC 6
  • 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311, SGC 4.5
  • 2001-02 Upper Deck Michael Jordan Buybacks autograph, numbered 1/10, BGS 9.5 with a 9 autograph
  • 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Pick Autographs Blue Wave Refractor Aaron Judge, numbered to 50, BGS 9.5
  • 2020 Panini Contenders Championship Ticket Joe Burrow rookie autograph, numbered to 49, PSA 10

The sale runs live at 526 Congaree Road in Greenville, S.C., and online, with a public preview on Friday, Nov. 6.

Who is selling

Collectors Jordan Richmond and Mike McCandless founded Richmond Auctions in 2021. The company says it has passed $100 million in gross auction sales, meaning the total value of what it has sold, not its own revenue. Its best-known result is a 1929 MusGo Gasoline porcelain sign that sold for $1,552,500 including buyer's premium, which the company describes as a world record for an antique advertising sign.

"What drew us to this piece is the same point that draws us to exceptional collectibles across every category: rarity, provenance and a story that can't be recreated," Jordan Richmond said in the release.

Analysis: The lot is built to that pitch: the card supplies the image collectors know, and the object supplies the scarcity.

Verdict: a PSA 10 of the "King of Qatar" Messi is one of thousands. The trophy in its photograph is one of one. Richmond Auctions is entering sports cards by selling the card as a caption for the trophy, and anyone bidding should know which half they are paying for.

Confidence note: Lot descriptions, documentation claims, sale dates and venue, company history, gross-sales and record figures, the highlight list and the Jordan Richmond quote are from Richmond Auctions' Oct. 14, 2026 release on PR Newswire. The account of the fan-made replica, including the owners' quotes, is from El País (Jan. 4, 2023). Cert details, the PSA 10 population and the five sales are from PSA's cert page for 98286431, viewed Oct. 15, 2026. The print run is from Sports Card Investor's card database. Percentage arithmetic is this blog's own. Passages marked Analysis are this blog's interpretation, not findings in those sources.