A single aluminum street sign that once hung along the Knicks championship parade route just sold for $35,531.36, after a Knicks fan won a two-week online bidding war for one of only 30 authentic “Champions Way” signs the city ever made. The winning bid itself was $30,500 before taxes and fees, according to the New York City Department of Transportation.
A Two-Week Bidding Battle Ends
The sign measures 36 inches by 9 inches, is made of durable aluminum, and was described by the city as being in like-new condition, according to Spectrum News NY1. Bidding started in late July and climbed steadily over the following two weeks before the auction officially closed. Per Time Out, the listing opened at $100 on July 29 at 9 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. on Wednesday via the government auction site GovDeals.
The sign was one of two posted at each intersection along the Broadway parade route during a two-week display period, part of a set of 30 that the DOT produced and installed to mark the occasion. The proceeds from the sale will go to the city, the station reports.
Why This Sign Was So Rare
The scarcity was the whole point. Despite manufacturing all 30 signs, the city offered only this one at auction, and it indicated in July that it had no immediate plans to sell the remaining 29, according to Time Out. That extreme rarity helped push the final price well past its $100 opening bid.
Demand for Knicks championship signage was already evident before the auction even opened. New York City had listed 200 replica Champions Way signs for $100 each on its official CityStore website, and the entire batch sold out in seven minutes, per 6sqft. Alongside those signs, the DOT also temporarily co-named 18 intersections along Sixth and Seventh Avenues, which border Madison Square Garden, after every player on the championship roster, the outlet notes.
From Maspeth Workshop to City Streets
The Champions Way sign was made at the DOT's Sign Shop in Maspeth, Queens, according to NY1. That facility relies on a 32-person team that manufactures more than 70,000 signs a year and manages over one million signs across 6,000 miles of city streets, per 6sqft's reporting on the shop's operations.
The signs went up to celebrate a moment two decades in the making for Knicks fans. New York beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on June 14, clinching the franchise's first championship since 1973. The team's ticker-tape parade through Lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes followed on June 18, drawing an estimated two million people, according to 6sqft.
A City With Practice Selling Its Streets
This is not the first time NYC DOT has turned civic infrastructure into limited-run memorabilia. In October 2024, the agency conducted a “shock drop” of 25 authentic Rivera Avenue signs, priced at $75 each, to mark the Yankees' World Series appearance, according to the Norwood News. Rivera Avenue is co-named for former Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera near Yankee Stadium.
Other city agencies got in on the championship celebration too. The MTA painted the 34th Street-Penn Station subway entrance blue and orange, and the Sanitation Department deployed 10 custom orange-and-blue trash bins along the parade route — one of which was briefly stolen during the festivities before being recovered, per 6sqft.
How the Sale Stacks Up
The Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which runs the city's surplus auctions, highlighted other notable recent sales this July, including a 114-foot oil barge that sold for $203,000 in July 2025 and 1,500 antique traffic-signal lenses that brought in $8,500 in April 2024, according to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. The highest price ever recorded at a city surplus auction remains $293,255, paid for a Sanitation Department hopper barge, per 6sqft.
For now, the fate of the 29 remaining Champions Way signs is unannounced. Whether the city plans another auction, another shock drop, or simply intends to keep them in storage has not been disclosed.
