A legendarilly rare 1909 baseball card showing Pittsburgh Pirates player Honus Wagner has been sold for $1.98 million at auction.
The Wagner card is one of the most famous and sought after in baseball history and the set from which it comes is itself rare and contains several other collecting treasures. The card was sold by the Mile High Card company this Saturday, April 26.
Honus Wagner was a great of the game. He was one of the first five players to go into the sport’s Hall of Fame when it opened, and won a world series with the Pirates.
Another example of the Wagner card, worth far more than it’s weight in gold.
And these cards are very old. Baseball cards were aimed largely at children (though they were sold with cigarettes) and weren’t designed to last long.
Usually though they were issued in huge number.
But the T206 series was denied that status by Wagner who demanded his card be withdrawn.
It’s possible that he didn’t like the association with cigarettes. It’s also possible that – as he endorsed other tobacco products – that he wanted a better deal out of the American Tobacco Company which issued the set.
Either way, it’s thought that between 50 and 60 cards of the big, German-heritage player exist today.
Wagner as a coach in 1940. He remained a legend in Pittsburgh until his death, aged 81 in 1955.
Condition and authentication are vital to the value of these items, and the card sold this week was authenticated by PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) and given a condition grading of “restored”.
The cards were issued between 1909 and 1911. They are now assiduously collected and traded, sometimes for huge sums.
Reportedly, last year was the first time in 30 years that no T206 Wagner changed hands in a sale.
This card had previously sold in 2003 for just under $64,000. Before that it had apparently been tucked into a wallet for decades before going into a vault in the 1980s.
It had two previous sales over $1 million.
The most valuable example was sold in 2022 for $7.25 million and is the most valuable baseball card ever sold.
