In the world of sports card and memorabilia collecting there are a few sought
after pieces that hold a tremendous monetary and historical value to them. One
of these cards is the T206 Honus Wagner vintage baseball card, considered to be
the Holy Grail of all sports cards by some collectors. The main reason for this
is due to the rarity and age of the card. It is rumored that there is possibly
between 50 to 200 cards in existence only, and a few of them may still be
lurking out there in the market place.
Honus Wagner, as depicted in the card itself, was a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates during what is referred to today as the 'dead ball" era. Considered to be one of the greatest players of the game, it is no surprise that between the years of 1909-1911 the American Tobacco Company (ATC) wanted to have Wagner's image put on a card as incentive for people to purchase their particular brand of tobacco. Wagner's picture was to be apart of the T206 series, but certain issues arose surrounding the authorization to use his image, which is what led to the low print numbers of his card.
There are two theories floating around that could explain the reason as to why Honus Wagner stopped production of his card. The first school of thought was based on Honus Wagner's personal ethical feelings about having fans that were children, purchasing cigarette packs in order to obtain his card; he did not feel that was right. The second school of thought has to do more with the fact that Wagner was said to be a very shroud negotiator and he did not like the compensation that was being offered to him by the ATC.
From January of 1909 the ATC looked for permission from the player themselves, in order to be included in the T206 series of cards, I believe the whole set had about 524 major league players at the time and roughly 76 of these players then went on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. The ATC was anxious to get Honus to be apart of their Ad campaign, seeing as he was rated one of the best players in the league at that time. Wagner had done previous Ad work with other companies such as, a gunpowder company, a soda drink company, as well as a chewing gum company. Whether it was his strong moral feelings, or his tough as nails negotiating skills, no one knows for sure why he actually put a stop to the printing of his cards, but it has kept his cards to a small number, which has now rocketed it's price value sky high.
One of the most notorious of all the Wagner cards has to be the "Gretzky T206 Honus" Card, mainly because of the story of how this particular card traded hands from an average collector, to a sports memorabilia shop, to a top sports memorabilia dealer; who later founded Mastro Auctions. The card then again changed hands to another prominent business man who was affiliated with George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees, long story short the Honus card ended up with a memorabilia collector named Copeland who eventually decided to sell off his entire personal baseball collection which consisted of around 873 pieces.
The Wagner card being apart of this collection, Mastro Auctions contracted Sotheby's New York, to take the collection on consignment. There was a lot of publicity surrounding this collection going up for sale, and it brought out a large number of hobbyist and curious a like. Many of the items that were up for sale went for much more than the estimated pre-auction price. The initial pre-auction price for the Honus card was set at around $114,000.00 but within minutes of the opening bid it had swelled to a whopping $451,000.00, which was paid by Mr. Wayne Gretzky and Mr. Bruce McNall who was the owner of the NHL team the L.A Kings, the pair purchased the card via phone in bidding. After this the card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Honus."
It was determined that the purchase of the card was orchestrated by Mr. McNall. He stated that if you purchase the best in the world, there will always be another buyer who would want to purchase the best as well, so it was bought as an investment for both individuals. Gretzky did eventually resell the card, and he of course made a profit, so I suppose in the end Mr. McNall's thoughts regarding the purchase of the Wagner card were correct. None of the other Wagner cards have been quite as successful in terms of having such a story to tell. The publicity that the Gretzky T206 drew to the existence of the card propelled the card even further into the collecting stratosphere. While the Gretzky card has great entertainment value, it is not the most expensive card to be sold. In fact, the most expensive card to be sold was indeed a Honus Wagner T206, and that took place on an eBay online auction put up by Robert Edward Auctions. The card sold for an insane $1.265 million! So in closing this card currently holds the world record for the most expensive baseball card
Honus Wagner, as depicted in the card itself, was a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates during what is referred to today as the 'dead ball" era. Considered to be one of the greatest players of the game, it is no surprise that between the years of 1909-1911 the American Tobacco Company (ATC) wanted to have Wagner's image put on a card as incentive for people to purchase their particular brand of tobacco. Wagner's picture was to be apart of the T206 series, but certain issues arose surrounding the authorization to use his image, which is what led to the low print numbers of his card.
There are two theories floating around that could explain the reason as to why Honus Wagner stopped production of his card. The first school of thought was based on Honus Wagner's personal ethical feelings about having fans that were children, purchasing cigarette packs in order to obtain his card; he did not feel that was right. The second school of thought has to do more with the fact that Wagner was said to be a very shroud negotiator and he did not like the compensation that was being offered to him by the ATC.
From January of 1909 the ATC looked for permission from the player themselves, in order to be included in the T206 series of cards, I believe the whole set had about 524 major league players at the time and roughly 76 of these players then went on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. The ATC was anxious to get Honus to be apart of their Ad campaign, seeing as he was rated one of the best players in the league at that time. Wagner had done previous Ad work with other companies such as, a gunpowder company, a soda drink company, as well as a chewing gum company. Whether it was his strong moral feelings, or his tough as nails negotiating skills, no one knows for sure why he actually put a stop to the printing of his cards, but it has kept his cards to a small number, which has now rocketed it's price value sky high.
One of the most notorious of all the Wagner cards has to be the "Gretzky T206 Honus" Card, mainly because of the story of how this particular card traded hands from an average collector, to a sports memorabilia shop, to a top sports memorabilia dealer; who later founded Mastro Auctions. The card then again changed hands to another prominent business man who was affiliated with George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees, long story short the Honus card ended up with a memorabilia collector named Copeland who eventually decided to sell off his entire personal baseball collection which consisted of around 873 pieces.
The Wagner card being apart of this collection, Mastro Auctions contracted Sotheby's New York, to take the collection on consignment. There was a lot of publicity surrounding this collection going up for sale, and it brought out a large number of hobbyist and curious a like. Many of the items that were up for sale went for much more than the estimated pre-auction price. The initial pre-auction price for the Honus card was set at around $114,000.00 but within minutes of the opening bid it had swelled to a whopping $451,000.00, which was paid by Mr. Wayne Gretzky and Mr. Bruce McNall who was the owner of the NHL team the L.A Kings, the pair purchased the card via phone in bidding. After this the card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Honus."
It was determined that the purchase of the card was orchestrated by Mr. McNall. He stated that if you purchase the best in the world, there will always be another buyer who would want to purchase the best as well, so it was bought as an investment for both individuals. Gretzky did eventually resell the card, and he of course made a profit, so I suppose in the end Mr. McNall's thoughts regarding the purchase of the Wagner card were correct. None of the other Wagner cards have been quite as successful in terms of having such a story to tell. The publicity that the Gretzky T206 drew to the existence of the card propelled the card even further into the collecting stratosphere. While the Gretzky card has great entertainment value, it is not the most expensive card to be sold. In fact, the most expensive card to be sold was indeed a Honus Wagner T206, and that took place on an eBay online auction put up by Robert Edward Auctions. The card sold for an insane $1.265 million! So in closing this card currently holds the world record for the most expensive baseball card
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