The card was used as the grand prize in a promotional contest. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. [38] Inside the memorabilia community, there was speculation that the card had been cut from a printing sheet during the deal made with Mastro. My honus wagnor has a yellow box on the back that says it worth 20,000 then says why honus took his picture off tabacoo cards. The 1909-11 T206 card was graded in Good 2 condition on a scale of 1 to 10 from Sportscard Guaranty Corp (SGC). The version of the Wagner that sold recently was graded a 2 out of 10 by Sportscard Guaranty Corp., or SGC; the 2021 record-breaker received a 3 from SGC. [29] With Sotheby's 10% buyer's premium, the final price of the card came out to $451,000 (equivalent to $897,262 in 2021), nearly four times the pre-auction estimate. The story of the most famous and valuable baseball card in the world continues to be told. "[72], Card Collector Services graded the card and officially ruled that it was indeed a reprint. Gidwitz dropped out of the competition when the bidding reached the $300,000 mark. [47] The two companies intended to use the card as the grand prize in a promotional contest. A bidding competition between Mike Gidwitz, Mark Friedland and an unknown phone bidder ensued. [67] In 2020, a new Honus Wagner card was issued by the company (#45) as part of the second wave (of 5) released that year. http://goldinauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=1861 Three are also known to have the Piedmont backing, making it the rarest version of all. These individuals had to wire a $100,000 deposit to iEscrow.com in order to be pre-approved to make bids for the card. The folklore of the card hinges on its uber-rarity (somewhere between 50 and 60 copies exist) and multiple theories on why so few Wagners exist, including: Wagner's printing plate breaking during production, A copyright dispute between artist and tobacco company, The most popular theory, offered up by Wagner's family and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, is that Wagner didn't want to promote smoking tobacco to children and asked the card be pulled from production, The most logical theory is Wagner realized he wouldn't be compensated fairly for his name, image and likeness and objected. Wagner played baseball from 1897 to 1917. I guess the next step is to take it to a local baseball card place. Need help buying or selling cards or have a general question about the hobby? Having produced anywhere between 60 and 200 in total, it is remarkable that this manyof the cards have survived the test of time. "[80] The Roman Catholic nuns auctioned the card, which despite its poor condition was expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000. Hughes admitted to knowing that the card had been altered when he graded it. Home Baseball Baseball Cards T206 Honus Wagner Baseball History of the Worlds Most Famous Card. 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 . Linda (ID 58011) Once proven authentic, the card is potentially worth A LOT. The card was printed with the original 1909 orange color (#179), and also in blue (#307) and red (#456). The publicity the latest T206 Honus Wagner received proved, once again, that regardless of condition, deep-pocketed collectors and investors are willing to pay huge amounts for this rare card. This card has not changed hands as many times as some other Wagners but it has still sold for significant amounts each time: Charlie Sheen is a notoriously huge baseball fan and over the years he has accumulated quite a collection of different cards and memorabilia, including this Honus Wagner card in poor condition graded PSA 1. (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.) Let's take a look at some of the most famous: This is the finest known example of the T206 Honus Wagner card, having received a grade of 8 Near Mint - Mint from PSA in 1991. Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, set up a registration system in which they approved prospective individuals before they actually made bids. Just a short six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. A SCG 3 grade of the famous T206 Honus Wagner card is set to hit the open market and could set a new record for sports cards. ! Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. 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 . [21], The reasons for Wagner's strong negative reaction to the ATC's request have been the subject of much speculation. Honus Wagner in 1905 In 1901, the American League began to sign National League players, creating a bidding war, which depleted the league of many talented players. Additionally, many leading hobby experts regarded the card as a fake, including PSA president, Joe Orlando. Hopefully after reading through this you have a further appreciation for the rarity and value of this notorious baseball card. Click here to see a timeline of the sales history of the T206 Honus Wagner "Gretzky Wagner.". [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). [59] He sent the comparison of the two photos to both McNall and Sotheby's, but never received a response from them. eBay officials decided to remove the listing the day before the auction was scheduled to begin. After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to contact Gibbs, King's staff finally got through to her phone, and informed Gibbs of her prize. The March 1991 auction attracted nearly 800 collectors who were interested in purchasing some of Copeland's rare memorabilia. [29] Copeland received around $5 million for the entire collection. This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 22:41. "[73] Cobbs and Edwards later went to an Ohio paper industry consultant who confirmed that the card was from 1909. [17], Starting from January 1909, the ATC sought authorization from baseball players for inclusion in the T206 series, which would feature 524 major league players, 76 of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. This particular T206 Honus Wagner stands out from other known examples and therefore gives it placement as a top-notch specimen. And it is through the roof. Mr. Mangasarian said the card seemed authentic and stated he would attend the auction for the card later on if the card could be taken out of the thick lucite holder for a closer examination. That would be a problem for a modern card, but for a 110-year-old Wagner, VG 3 means the card is in exceptional condition, with relatively sharp corners, relatively light creasing and relatively good coloration. 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. help!!! It topped the price sold in August 2021. Half a Honus. Fantasy baseball pitcher rankings, lineup advice for Tuesday's MLB games, Seattle Mariners unveil City Connect uniforms. It should be pre-80s. This card is so famous that even individual specimens have their own unique names, individual stories and fame. Here's a look at some sales points of this card over the years: Because this particular T206 Honus Wagner card has an extra 1/16th of an inch of cardboard in its bottom border, it has been dubbed the "Jumbo Wagner". In August, a T206 Honus Wagner baseball card set the stratospheric record for most expensive sports card of all time when it sold for $6.606 million with Robert Edward Auctions. Additionally, he stated that he was not comfortable with the print process exhibited on the card's front. Then it has on the back the story about him not wanting his name associated with tobacco. Meanwhile, a number of card collectors who doubted the card contacted eBay and demanded that the card's listing on the website be removed. Similar to the All-Star Cafe / Sheen Wagner, this one also possesses rounded corners, creasing, and marking which is why it received the "MK" qualifier on its grade.. "There is nothing on this earth like a T-206 card," said Ken Goldin, executive chairman and founder of Goldin, in a statement. By comparison, there are hundreds of Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Cy Young, Walter Johnson and other Hall of Famers from the set whose cards have been professionally graded. In many cases going to a collector one would worry they might undervalue with the hope of buying the collection. 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. This is an amazing find!!!!!!! Elected to the Hall of Fame in its inaugural year, Wagner was truly one of the greats. In 2010, a PSA Authentic/Altered Wagner sold for $219,225. Connelly consented and took the card across the country to prospective buyers. [26] The ATC had already produced a number of T206 Honus Wagner baseball cards; the exact number is unknown, but is speculated to be between 50 and 200. No matter the reason(s), so few copies have made it to 2022 that the Wagner is routinely called the holy grail or Mona Lisa of trading cards. The expert ruled that the "paper stock was consistent with the time that card would have been made. Ross is the founder of Old Sports Cards and has been collecting sports cards for over 30 years. [47] On February 24, 1996 (the 122nd anniversary of Wagner's birthday), the grand prize drawing for the card was held on CNN's Larry King Weekend. To give you an idea, here are four of the most popular cards from the sets and their respective populations (number of them graded) by PSA currently: So, that should give you a good picture of how scarce Wagner's card is relative to others in the set. Honus Wagner 1914 Cracker Jack E145-1 #68 The beauty of the 1914 Cracker Jack set has not been forgotten. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. On April 20, 2012, an anonymous New Jersey resident purchased a VG-3 graded T206 Wagner card for more than $1.2 million. The way that the bid increments are structured, one more bid will push the price past $5 million. But nearly everyone agrees: The truly high-end cards will continue to rocket up, insulated from any broader stabilization or downturn. Upload your video Looking for specific info? "[46], In 1995, Gretzky sold the card to Walmart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000 (equivalent to $889,168 in 2021). 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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