JULY 16, 2025
HERITAGE AUCTIONS
Resets the Market for John Wayne mugs.
On July 16, 2025, Heritage Auctions held their Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction. The auction included 7 John Wayne cast and crew mugs. The first one on the block was a Rio Bravo mug that sold for $6,875. Next up was from Trouble Along the Way and it sold for $5,250. This was significantly more than we have ever seen paid for this mug so things were getting very interesting. Next was The Alamo. An Alamo mug in 2022 sold for $7,600 at a fund raiser for the John Wayne Birth Place Museum. We were surprised when that record was broken at $12,500. The War Wagon mug was next and the most we’ve ever seen paid for one was $6,400 in 2022, it was a day for records as the mug given to Frank sold for $13,750 more than doubling the record. Next was Chisum, previous record, $3,250. New record, this mug actually sold for $18,000 more than four times the previous record. Then a mug from The Cowboys sold for $13,750 more than tripling the previous record. But things were just heating up as the final mug a The Train Robbers mug hit the block. This mug was not given to a star, it was a “Good Luck” version. The most we had ever seen paid for one was $4000 in 2020. As the bidding progressed it became obvious the John Wayne Cast and Crew mugs were resetting the market as record after record was being broken. But what happened on this mug was truly incredible, when the smoke cleared and the hammer fell, someone paid $57,500.00 the new all time record for one of Duke’s mugs.
The Official John Wayne Collector’s Edition features a johnwaynemugs.com image
on page 44 in their 40th edition!
What a great name for a great coffee!
https://www.goldhandle.com
John Wayne
Birthplace Museum Auction
May 28, 2022
The John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset Iowa is incredible. On the weekend to celebrate Duke’s birthday, among many great events was an auction to help support the museum. The auctioneer on the left is holding one of the prize items, a genuine Cast & Crew mug from The Alamo. Jeff from Ohio(on the right) is the proud new owner, with a winning bid of $7,600.00. Congratulations Jeff!
Great information from Jeff J. in Pennsylvania. May 2019
Jeff sends us photos of several John Wayne mugs new to our site. The first has “UCLA Coach Sanders” on the front with “Luck from Bob and Duke(except against U.S.C.)” on the back. Jeff tells us he believes the Bob on the back refers to John Wayne’s brother. Of course Coach Sanders is the legendary Henry Russell Sanders who coached the Bruins football team from 1949-1957. He won a national championship at UCLA and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1996. John Wayne played football for U.S.C., 
thus the exclusion.
The next mug, another version of a Wild Goose mug features a black and white image of the ship on the front and is blank on the back. The bottom is stamped “Corona Del Mar Mug Shop… Wild Goose Arrives Newport Beach CA. 1963.” This mug was purchased from the guy that made them, he said John Wayne ordered them but never picked them up because he became very sick and died. He said he made about a dozen of them. The last mug, has “John Wayne Dukes” on the front with “Champs 1957”. On the back is “Alan”. Jeff tells us these were made for a little league team he sponsored.
Thank you so much Jeff!
If you have any additional information about this mug, or any other John Wayne mug, please hit the "Contact" link and let us know. We want to make the John Wayne Internet Mug Data Base (JW-IMDB) even better...
THANK YOU!