When the World Series of Poker first kicked off in 1970, winners weren’t awarded bracelets. Instead, they got a cup and a fairly common-looking plaque.
It was a nice trophy to have, but it wasn’t unique in any way.
Then, in 1976 Benny Binion — the man who came up with the WSOP concept — thought of the idea to start awarding bracelets instead.
Benny figured that introducing bracelets for tournament winners would help set the game apart and make it different.
Additionally, bracelets were something players could actually wear while playing, so their competitors could see they were up against a WSOP champion.
Albeit somewhat unusual, the concept was well-received by the players at the time and WSOP bracelets were adopted for the years to come.
During those initial years, the number of bracelets awarded every year was fairly small.
However, as time progressed and poker became more and more popular, the number of bracelet-awarding events increased as well.
How much is a WSOP bracelet worth?
The World Series of Poker bracelets are probably the most coveted trophies in the poker community, so it’s hard to put a fixed value on them.
As well as this, over the years the design of bracelets has changed quite a bit, and so has its monetary value.
The first bracelet that Benny Binion came up with in 1976 was worth around $500.
For the sake of discussion, it’s worth mentioning that $500 was worth quite a bit more back then than it is now.
The WSOP bracelets of today look quite different, and the ones awarded in most events are probably worth around $1,500.
This is not accounting for the bracelet’s sentimental value or prestige but simply looking at the value of materials used to make them.
However, not all WSOP bracelets are created equal.
Bracelets awarded for the Main Event winners are much more valuable and much flashier.
Year after year, they’ve become nicer and more expensive, really setting them apart from all other bracelets.
Some of the modern Main Event bracelets have been estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands based on the value of the materials and the design.
These WSOP bracelets contain gold and precious stones, making them fairly expensive pieces of jewelry. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Can you buy a WSOP bracelet — and for how much?
When it comes to sports memorabilia, the value of an item often doesn’t have much to do with its physical value.
Usually, it comes down to what someone is willing to pay for it, and over the years, there have been several examples of WSOP bracelets being bought and sold online.
In 2019, a WSOP bracelet won in a $2,500 Limit Omaha event was put up for an auction on eBay. It reached the final price of $50,000, which was quite a hefty sum for an “ordinary” bracelet.
Perhaps the most famous case of a WSOP bracelet being put up for sale happened in 2013.
In that year, the 2006 Main Event bracelet popped up on an auction site. It was the largest Main Event in history that was won by Jamie Gold, who banked $12 million for his efforts.
The bracelet was eventually sold for more than $65,000, but later on, Gold went on record to say he had nothing to do with the auction, and it was out of his hands. He said that if it were up to him, he’d never give up on it.
Bracelets awarded for the Main Event winners are much more valuable and much flashier.
Another fairly notorious WSOP bracelet auction happened in 2010, when Peter Eastgate, another Main Event winner, put up his bracelet for sale.
Unlike Gold, Eastgate was happy to sell his bracelet, with all proceeds going to charity. It went for $147,500 and the money went to UNICEF.
But, not all bracelets sold on eBay reached five-figure amounts. For example, TJ Cloutier sold his 2005 Hold’em bracelet for a mere $2,500.
All in all, WSOP bracelets pop up on eBay and other sales sites from time to time.
How much you’ll have to pay for one will depend on how much interest there is. You can probably get your hands on a “regular” bracelet for a few thousand dollars.
It’s also worth noting that the number of bracelet-awarding events has been growing every year, so there are more and more bracelets floating out there.
In 2020, the World Series of Poker took place entirely online, making bracelets even more accessible.
This is to say that we could see an increased number of WSOP bracelets sold online in the years to come.
With more of them being available, average prices might drop down as well, so don’t be surprised if you see one of them with a starting price of just a few hundred.
If you take a look at discussions on Reddit, you’ll see there’s a lot of debate surrounding their worth, which shows that it’s hard to pin a value on a bracelet.
Who makes WSOP bracelets?
If you check out a WSOP bracelet, especially the ones awarded for Main Events and other major tournaments such as Players Championship or Big One for One Drop, you’ll notice that they’re fine-crafted pieces of jewelry.
There’s quite a bit of work that goes into making them.
So, who actually makes these WSOP bracelets?
Over the years, the World Series of Poker has worked with several companies, each of them putting their own touch into crafting the finest and most-coveted poker jewelry to attract players from all over the world.
In recent years, the WSOP has been working with a company called Jostens to design and create bracelets for the tournaments.
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