The paddle Tom Hanks used to help repair U.S. relations with China in "Forrest Gump" just sold at auction ... and it fetched a whopping $25,600!!!
The ping pong bat the famous actor grabbed for his role as Gump hit the block a few weeks ago ... and the gavel just dropped for the final sale on Thursday morning, TMZ Sports has confirmed.
The price is far more than the experts at Julien's Auctions estimated it'd go for ... initially, they believed it'd sell in the $1,000-$2,000 range.