Some notable pieces of Michael Jordan memorabilia from his college days at North Carolina used to be on the walls of his "23" restaurant in Chapel Hill. But the establishment closed in 2003, and the items went into a storage locker.

Now those items -- including a recruiting letter from Dean Smith to Jordan sent in the summer of 1980 -- have surfaced in an auction. Whether it's sales hype or a legitimate first in the industry (or maybe both), Goldin Auctions founder Ken Goldin says this is a historic opportunity.

"A recruiting letter to a major high profile athlete has never been available for the public to buy," Goldin told ESPN.

The auction began Friday and will run for four weeks at GoldinAuctions.com.

The letter from Smith had a starting price of $5,000, and by the end of Friday, the top bid was nearly $8,900.

Jordan left for the NBA after his junior season in 1984. But he continued to his degree and received it in December 1986. (His major was geography.)

If you happen to be interested in which academic courses Jordan took, you're in luck because his student transcript is also part of the auction. And if you ever bump into Jordan and are fluent in Portuguese, see how much of the language he remembers from his two terms studying it at UNC.

In December, Jordan's autographed sneakers from the famous "Flu Game" of the 1997 NBA Finals sold for $104,765.

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