your purchase may be eligible for eBay Money Back Guarantee if the return request is made within 14 days from delivery. Meanwhile, HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel decided to cover the progress of Cobb and Edwards' struggles with the card. [5] These transactions have made the Wagner card the most valuable baseball card in history. It is graded PSA 1. This card, which resides in one of the most popular sets of all time, features one of baseball's greatest players and it remains the symbol of trading card collecting. [85][86], President of PSA, Joe Orlando said "The PSA EX 5 (MC) 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner (serial number 15385994) is, without question, one of the top examples of this historic card known. With more than a week remaining for potential buyers to enter the fray, the bidding has leapt across 18 bids from a reserve price of $1 million all the way up to $4,005,519. [38], After the transaction was completed, Mastro went back to his car and showed the Gretzky T206 Wagner to Lifson. Many of the remaining T206 Honus Wagner cards in existence have rated low on the PSA grading scale. As a result of the publicity generated from the financially successful Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner, a number of previously undiscovered legitimate T206 Wagner cards have surfaced. Some memorabilia collectors have dismissed Ray's claims, saying that the photo hardly proves any doctoring was ever done on the card. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Surprisingly, the card's reverse has nothing to do with cigars or baseball, but instead features a poem, a parody of Joseph Bert Smiley's "St. Peter at the Gate," which promotes union labor and rails against . Authentic versions have a tobacco ad on the back. Burdick had his reason. [28], In 1991, National Hockey League player Wayne Gretzky purchased a mint condition 1909 T206 Honus Wager baseball card, with a Piedmont cigarette brand back, at a Sotheby's auction. One of theworlds rarest baseball cardswas sold for an extraordinary price last week. A slightly-damaged T206 Wagner card surfaced earlier this year when a man left it to the. This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 22:41. [70] Cobb, like Mastro back in the late 1980s, does not divulge the exact details of how he came to own the card. There are a couple of theories as to exactly why this was the case: Either way, there just aren't many T206 Honus Wagners to go around. The card is a T206 Honus Wagner -- one of the move coveted sports cards on the planet -- that dates back to 1909. As Lifson commented, the Copeland deal revitalized the industry and "created an incentive to sell these great cards."[41]. [81] On December 20, 2010, after taking its 19.5 percent buyer's premium, the auction house sent $220,000 by bank wire to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Hi, I am just asking a question for a friend from small town Nova Scotia. Turns out, half a Honus is still pretty valuable. Then, if a second dealer is an option, thats a good way to compare. My son has a T206 Honus Wagner card and we are trying to figure out if it is a reprint or what. However, this record was recently broken when a Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Superfractors series rookie card with a card count of 1 sold in August 2020 for a record setting $3.93 million, and pushed further back by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $5.2 million in November 2020,[6] making Wagner the third most valuable baseball card in the world. The old record price for a T206 Wagner was $3.75 million, set in May. Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. But the centering and overall eye appeal of the card are still fantastic. [47] The two companies intended to use the card as the grand prize in a promotional contest. If you hang around this hobby long enough, you'll find there are many quirks in how baseball card values are determined. And finally, we get to. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to legendary hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky and one-time owner of the Los Angeles Kings, Bruce McNall for $451,000, which again caught the attention of non-collectors and the mainstream press. It doesnt have his name on the front but the ink is brown on the team name. He hit .328 for his career in 2,794 games. [82] The religious order had already announced that the proceeds from the sale would go to its ministries in more than 30 countries. Thanks for any information. How do I contact the PSA or BVG for authenticity? Johannes Peter "Honus" "Hans" Wagner Born:February 24, 1874 - Chartiers, PA Died: December 6, 1955 - Carnegie, PA Batted:RH Threw:RH Position:SS Career BA:.328 Managerial Record:1-4 Teams: Louisville Colonels NL (February 24, 1874 - December 6, 1955) Pittsburgh Pirates NL (1900-1916; player-manager: 1917) It may not look like much, or even resemble what we think of as a baseball cardthe shortstop sits upright, expressionless, in a fuzzy image against an unnatural orange background, no cap upon his headbut the T206 Honus Wagner just might be the single most valuable baseball collectible on earth. The front and back of the T206 Honus Wagner being sold by Robert Edward Auctions. Ross is the founder of Old Sports Cards and has been collecting sports cards for over 30 years. One particular T206 Honus Wagner of suspect provenance is the example owned by John Cobb and Ray Edwards of Cincinnati. Belonging to the brother of Sister Virginia Muller, he left all his possessions to the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame convent. It was later revealed that the anonymous collector was former major league pitcher Tom Candiotti. The story of the most famous and valuable baseball card in the world continues to be told. The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. [20] He had appeared on advertisements for a number of other products such as chewing gum, gunpowder, and soft drinks. On April 20, 2012, an anonymous New Jersey resident purchased a VG-3 graded T206 Wagner card for more than $1.2 million. In his work Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set, Scot A. After years of refusing to have the card graded, the owners agreed to have the card examined by a fringe grading service, Card Collector Services, who also ruled that the card was simply a well-produced reprint. Courtesy SCP Auctions The damaged Wagner card sold at auction recently for $475,960. In 1939, for instance, a pioneering collector named Jefferson Burdick, who incidentally coined the T206 name for the series, valued the card at $50 (roughly $1,000 today, accounting for inflation); most other cards in his catalog were listed for less than $1. The T206 Honus Wagner is considered to be the Holy Grail of all trading cards. Despite PSA company president David Hall's personal statement that the card was "superb" and a "fantastic card in every way," a number of people in the memorabilia industry were not convinced that the card had not been altered at some point. When it came time for that card to come out, it wasn't that he wasn't paid. He has variously stated he purchased the card at an estate sale from "an old couple" for $1,800 in 1983 or 1984; he claimed not to know who Honus Wagner was at the time of purchase. Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, set up a registration system in which they approved prospective individuals before they actually made bids. Now, one of the hobby's most famous copies of the rare T206 Honus Wagner card is coming back on the auction block for the first time in nine years. In 2004, a PSA PR-FR-1 Wagner sold for $109,638. Within minutes of the opening bid for the T206 Wagner card, the highest bidder had put down $228,000, twice the pre-auction estimate. [27] They stopped production of the card, however, after Wagner denied authorization. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Only three existing Wagner cards received a PSA rating of EX [5] or better. I thought I was Lucky to own 3 52 Mantles. Wagner held his fans in high regard, particularly the younger ones. (Wagner demanded that the ATC stop printing his image, either because he and the company couldnt agree on his compensation or because, in the more apocryphal version of the story, he didnt want to encourage children to buy cigarettes and pick up a bad habit.) Update, August 16: The T206 Honus Wagner sold for a record $6.6 million. There are fewer than 60 authenticated Wagner cards in existence. They had to shut down the sale, however, because Connelly only agreed to appraise the card if his report was printed in its entirety at the eBay card listing. Its the most valuable baseball card ever sold. This is a sharp reprint of the famous T-206 Wagner card. Wagner was offered a $20,000 contract by the Chicago White Sox, but turned it down and continued to play with the Pirates. My sentiments exactly gentlemen..Very very unkikely if not a guarantee that not a single card of the 10 mentioned here are authentic. See questions and answers Very small. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to ice hockey figures Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall for $451,000. Its called the Jumbo Wagner. Additionally, he stated that he was not comfortable with the print process exhibited on the card's front. "[22] However, Wagner chewed tobacco, and he had previously appeared in advertisements for many tobacco products, including a cigar baseball trading card in 1899 and a newspaper ad for Murad cigarettes during the 1909 World Series. With a hobby so dependent on condition and rarity for determining value, it is remarkable that the Wagner gets such a pass on condition. [45] In 1993, illusionist David Copperfield used the popularity of the card as part of a magic trick which he performed during a TV Special. [39] (Halper sold that card and 200 other baseball memorabilia items in 1998 to Major League Baseball for over $5,000,000. To be a part of history and facilitate this record-breaking sale is an honor.. help!!! There are only 60 Honus Wagner baseball cards left in the world, ESPN estimates, and the last time one went to marketin Aug. 2021it sold for $6.6 million, becoming the most expensive sports . Let's look at some price estimates of the T206 Wagner at various condition levels as graded by Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) on a 1 to 10 scale. Here's a look at five different price points at which this card has sold over the years: This card was part of a large find of T206 cards that made its way into the hobby from a collector in the Chesapeke Bay area. By last count, there have been 57 known examples. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2008-2023 The Cardboard Connection. Stock photo shown. [29] The card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner" to the public. [50], Michael Gidwitz, the same individual who battled with Gretzky and Mark Friedland for the card at the Copeland auction in 1991, won the Christie's auction with a bid of $641,500 in 1996 (equivalent to $1,108,367 in 2021). The famous T206 Honus Wagner sold for a record $7.25 million in a private sale facilitated by Goldin. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. This is when Gretzky approached the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company to grade the card, resulting in the aforementioned PSA 8 NM-MT grading. As you can see, every time the card has sold, the value has risen significantly. A rare, century-old Hogus Wagner baseball card previously owned by actor Charlie Sheen will be auctioned later this month with an estimated value of US$3 million, according to . "[74] Afterwards, an appraiser named Bob Connelly valued the card at $850,000, based on the two previous paper analysis reports. An owner of a Long Island sports memorabilia store announced that a man named Alan Ray was selling his 1909 T206 Wagner for $25,000. Gretzky himself took cards, and their prices, into a new era in 1991 with his $451,000 purchase of a Wagner card that is now known to have been doctored; a different Wagner sold for $3.12 million in 2016, setting the record that the one-of-a-kind Trout card eventually broke. In 2010, a rare Honus Wagner was found in a box left by the brother of Sister Virginia Muller, who left all her possessions to the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame. Other notable authentic T206 Wagner cards, The PSA grades card based on a 110 scale. It topped the price sold in August 2021. Auction houses including REA saw their sales spike in 2020 and are projecting them to double again in 2021. The expert ruled that the "paper stock was consistent with the time that card would have been made. The T206 Honus Wagner card is not the oldest card ever. Fewer than 60 copies are thought to exist today, and even when the American Tobacco Co. was issuing the card from 1909 to 1911, not many more than that were in circulation. Contact him at [emailprotected]. He didn't like the idea of how it might encourage kids to use tobacco. "[66], Initially sold at auction for $1.62M in 2008, the 'Jumbo Wagner' was featured by Goldin Auctions in their 2013 Winter Auction, which closed on April 5, 2013. This is an amazing find!!!!!!! Widely considered the most valuable baseball card of all-time, the T206 Honus Wagner has been the subject of great debate and, at times, controversy. Thanks. A Honus Wagner baseball card, the most famous and among the rarest sports trading cards in the world, sold at auction Monday morning for a record $6.6 million. In February, 2007, Siegel then sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $2.35 million. History is just a couple of mouse clicks away. He helped the Pirates to a World Series in 1909 and won the batting title eight times. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats Red Back Honus Wagner T-206 - GD/VG at the best online prices at eBay! Copperfield had Gretzky sign a reprint of the card, then proceeded to tear the card into four pieces, after which he restored it and magically removed the signature. But the T206 Honus Wagner card he listed as the most expensive and valuable card of them all worth $50, about $1,000 in today's money. Learn more - eBay Money Back Guarantee - opens in a new window or tab. FREE shipping Add to Favorites RARE 1992 Honus Wagner "The Flying Dutchman" Framed Lithograph Print by Kelly Russell Studios, Inc. #1595 Cooperstown Collection 5 out of 5 stars (145 . On August 16, 2021, it was announced that a T206 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $6.606 million, which includes a 20% buyer's premium, breaking the record for highest-selling sports card of all time. [52] On July 15, the card was sold to Brian Seigel, a collector from California, for $1.265 million (equivalent to $1.991million in 2021). [11] Two years later, the ATC was broken up into several major companies as part of the United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. American Tobacco Company, 221 U.S. 106 (1911). The American Tobacco Company was formed as a result of an 1889 merger of five major cigarette manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons & Company, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company, F. S. Kinney Company and William S. Kimball & Company. The T-206 is one of the reasons I do what I do and why serious collectors around the world love this hobby so much. Do you guys have any information on the Honus Wagner card up that is up for auction now at Goldin Auctions? Fun fact:this particular card was the first card that PSA ever graded. Stay up to date on all the latest sports card and memorabilia news, articles, and products by subscribing to our newsletter below: i found 6 honus wagner cards they are not a reproduction they are the real thing what would be a good place to sell them at they are in mint condition, I just found 3 rare cards in mint condition, what do I need to do to get graded and put up for auction. 1? On May 28, 2019, it was announced that a PSA-graded 2 (Good) card was sold by private transaction to an unnamed buyer for $1.2M. The publicity coverage of the Sotheby's auction renewed interest in the hobby of sports memorabilia collecting. [71] When Cobb and Edwards tried to sell the card on eBay in 2002, an attorney from Newport, Kentucky (part of the Cincinnati metro) filed a police report against the two men because he believed the card was a reprint that was stolen from his office months earlier. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1992 Baseball Silver Card 1oz. Two PSA Grade 2 Wagners sold for $236,705 in 2005 and $294,338 in 2006. There's really no way of knowing for certain. The 1909-1911 T206 White Border set is the most valuable collection in the history of trading cards. Are you selling sports cards that were produced from 1868 - 1975? 999 Pure Silver Honus Wagner WHC403 at the best online prices at eBay! The majority of the cards seem to have been printed with a Sweet Caporal 150 Series-Factory 25 back. The famousT206 Honus Wagnersold for a record $7.25 million in a private sale facilitated by Goldin Auctions, the company said Thursday. 2) T206s are on thin, off-white card stock. T206 Honus Wagner Card: The Ultimate Collector's Guide It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards. Need help buying or selling cards or have a general question about the hobby? Otherwise, manually looking things up on eBay is also a good way to get a second opinion just pay particular attention to condition, which is very important for vintage stuff. Ranking MLB's radical City Connect uniforms: Which one's No. Sheen had loaned the card to the All Star Cafe where it was stolen and later recovered by the FBI. [51] Four years later, on July 5, 2000, Gidwitz partnered with eBay and Robert Edwards Auctions to start a 10-day online auction for the card. Another raw T206 Wagner can be found at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. With this proof as their claim to credibility, they proceeded to list the card on eBay but eventually had the listing removed due to the overwhelming number of questions the online auction marketplace received about the cards authenticity. And perhaps no card is as revered as a T206 Honus Wagner. A handful of other T206 Honus Wagner baseball cards have surfaced in recent years, some real and some not. Home Baseball Baseball Cards T206 Honus Wagner Baseball History of the Worlds Most Famous Card. This is an authentic reprint of the famous 1909 Tobacco Honus Wagner Baseball Card. Friedland dropped out of the competition after the phone bidder countered with a $410,000 bid for the card. He tried to avoid answering any questions regarding the matter but, in a 2001 interview, claimed to have received it from a relative, whose name he did not disclose. The short amount of time it has remained in the hands of a single owner is indicative of the commodity status the card has achieved. The T206 Honus Wagner card has been cataloged as having two different backs, Sweet Caporal and Piedmont. michael reardon If you have a local card shop, start there. [2] In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog (equivalent to $1,000 in 2021), making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time. The card was sent all across the United States, as part of Walmart's plan to rejuvenate the baseball card market. Just a short six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. [12][13], The typical card in the T206 series had a width of .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1+716 inches (3.65cm) and a height of 2+58 inches (6.67cm). The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman, a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. However, a handful are known to have the Sweet Caporal 150 Series-Factory 30 advertisement. He had a photograph of the card taken before the transaction with Mastro and claimed that the card in the photo looked significantly different from the photo of Gretzky's card. Ive been in this business for a very long time and seen a lot of incredible trading cards and pieces of memorabilia, but there is nothing on earth like a T-206 card, Ken Goldin, the Goldin executive chairman and founder, said in a news release. A fake T206 Honus Wagner card in a fake 'basement grading' deceitful card holder. The second, and more probable, is that Wagner felt entitled to compensation from the American Tobacco Company for the use of his name and likeness to market their product. Rare T-206 Wagner card sold for record $7.25M, Yankees put Judge on injured list with hip strain, Harper ready: 'Body has been very good to me', Braves OF Acuna (shoulder) day-to-day after HBP, Tatis fires up crowd in winning return to Petco Park, Giants place SS Crawford, OF Yastrzemski on IL, Astros' Urquidy lands on IL, Garcia exits start, What the longest game in MLB history says about baseball today, Mexico City's uphill climb toward landing an MLB franchise. Graded EX 5 (MC) on the PSA grading scale, the card has unusually ample borders due to a miscut. A T206 Wagner Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $6.606 million, which includes a 20% buyer's premium, early Monday morning, shattering the record for highest-selling sports card of all time . The card was used as the grand prize in a promotional contest. A PSA PR-FR 1 Wagner sold for $400,000 in 2009.