T206 Honus Wagner
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baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, s ...
depicts the
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'
Honus Wagner Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner ( ; February 24, 1874 – December 6, 1955) was an American baseball shortstop who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1897 to 1917, mostly with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Nicknamed "the Flying Dutc ...
, known as "The Flying Dutchman", a
dead-ball era In major league baseball, the dead-ball era refers to a period from about 1900 to 1920 in which run scoring was low and home runs were rare in comparison to the years that followed. In 1908, the major league batting average dropped to .239, and ...
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who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette packs to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card, and a total of only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public (the exact number is unknown). In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in
Jefferson Burdick Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) was an American electrician and a collector of printed ephemera, including postcards, posters, cigar bands, and other types of printed materials dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1960s. He is ...
's ''
The American Card Catalog ''The American Card Catalog: The Standard Guide on All Collected Cards and Their Values'' is a reference book for American trading cards produced before 1951, compiled by Jefferson Burdick. Some collectors regard the book as the most important in ...
'' (), making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time. The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. The card's odd texture and shape led to speculation that it was altered. The Gretzky T206 Wagner was first sold by Alan Ray to baseball memorabilia collector Bill Mastro, who sold the card two years later to Jim Copeland for nearly four times the price he had originally paid. Copeland's sizable transaction revitalized interest in the sports memorabilia collection market. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
figures
Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
and Bruce McNall for $451,000. Gretzky resold the card four years later to
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and Treat Entertainment for $500,000 for use as the top prize in a promotional contest. The next year, a Florida postal worker won the card and auctioned it at
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
for $640,000 to collector Michael Gidwitz. In 2000, the card was sold via Robert Edward Auctions to card collector Brian Seigel for $1.27 million. In February 2007, Seigel sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $2.35 million. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8million (equivalent to $ million in ). In April 2011, that anonymous purchaser was revealed to be Ken Kendrick, owner of the
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. A different card, named the "Jumbo Wagner", was sold at auction again in 2016 for a record $3.12million (equivalent to $ million in ). These transactions have made the Wagner card, at times, the most valuable baseball card in history. However, this record was first broken when a
Mike Trout Michael Nelson Trout (born August 7, 1991) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Trout is an 11-time Major League Baseball All-Star Game, All-Star, three-time American League (A ...
2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Superfractors series rookie card with a card count of 1 sold in August 2020 for a new record of $3.93million (equivalent to $ million in ), and pushed further back by a 1952
Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of Baseball card, baseball and other sports and Non-sports tradi ...
Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Mick" and "the Commerce Comet", was an American professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
card that sold for $5.2million (equivalent to $ million in ) in November 2020, until another T206 Wagner sold for $6.6million (equivalent to $ million in ) in August 2021, returning the T206 to the most expensive sports card. That is, until August 2022, when another 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sold increased the record to $12.6million to become the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia of any type in history. In October 2013, Bill Mastro, CEO of Mastro Auctions (the owner of Robert Edward Auctions) pleaded guilty to
mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...
in U.S. District Court and later admitted to the court that he had trimmed the "Gretzky" Wagner card to sharply increase its value. Other T206 Wagners, both legitimate and fake, have surfaced in recent years. Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. One particular T206 Honus Wagner owned by John Cobb and Ray Edwards has attracted media controversy over its authenticity.


Background

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. Because the company came to monopolize the tobacco industry, ATC did not have to conduct advertising or promotions for its products. Since baseball cards were primarily used as a sales promotion, ATC removed them from its tobacco packs, almost driving the cards into obsolescence. During the presidency of " trust-buster"
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, the ATC was subjected to legal action from the government, in hopes of shutting down the monopoly in the industry. Thereafter, the ATC was back in competition with other tobacco companies, so it reinserted baseball cards into cigarette packs. In 1909, the company introduced the T206 series – also known as the "white border set" – of baseball cards of 524 players into its cigarette packs. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.O'Keeffe and Thompson, p33. Two years later, the ATC was broken up into several major companies as part of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
ruling in '' United States v. American Tobacco Company'', 221 U.S. 106 (1911).


Physical attributes and production

The typical card in the T206 series had a width of and a height of . Some cards were awkwardly shaped or irregularly sized, which prompted a belief that many of the cards in the series had been altered at one point or another. In his work ''Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set'', Scot A. Reader wrote that " is not at all uncommon to find T206 examples that have been altered at some point during their near-century of existence." These discrepancies were taken advantage of by so-called "card doctors", who trimmed corners and dirty edges to improve the appearance of the card. The front of all T206 series cards, including the Wagner card, displayed a
lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
of the player created by a multi-stage printing process in which a number of colors were printed on top of each other to create a lithograph with the appropriate design. The backs of the cards featured the monochromatic colors of the 16 tobacco brands for which the cards were printed. The Wagner cards in particular advertised the Piedmont and Sweet Caporal brands of cigarettes and were produced at Factory 25 in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, as indicated by the factory stamp imprinted on the back of the cards.


Wagner's involvement

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 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
. Wagner had been at the top of his game throughout the decade, and was even considered to be the game's greatest player at the time. He had appeared on advertisements for a number of other products such as chewing gum, gunpowder, and soft drinks. Unsurprisingly, the ATC asked for Wagner's permission to have his picture on a baseball card. According to an October 12, 1912, issue of ''
The Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...
'', Wagner did not give his consent to appear on the baseball card. In response to the authorization request letter sent by John Gruber, a Pittsburgh sportswriter hired by the ATC to seek Wagner's permission, Wagner wrote that he "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes." He threatened to seek legal action against ATC if they went ahead and distributed his baseball card. The reasons for Wagner's strong negative reaction to the ATC's request have been the subject of much speculation. The most commonly told account is that Wagner rejected the deal because he did not want young baseball fans to purchase the tobacco packs for his baseball card. Wagner held his fans in high regard, particularly the younger ones. His granddaughter, Blair, remarked that " loved children. He wanted to teach kids good sportsmanship. When it came time for that card to come out, it wasn't that he wasn't paid. He didn't want kids to have to buy tobacco to get his card." 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. Another explanation surmised is that Wagner did not consent because he felt he was not receiving just compensation from the ATC for his baseball card. Wagner had a history of being a tough negotiator; he had announced his retirement from baseball in December 1907, but returned shortly before the start of the 1908 baseball season after receiving a $10,000 contract, double his salary from the 1907 season. This theory has its flaws, however, since Wagner sent Gruber a check for $10 to compensate him for the fee ATC would have paid him if Wagner had given permission to create his baseball card. Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson, authors of ''The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card'', asked why Wagner would compensate Gruber for $10, a substantial amount of money at the time (approximately equal to $325 in 2024), if he refused authorization for monetary reasons. 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. They stopped production of the card, however, after Wagner denied authorization.


Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner

In 1991,
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
player
Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...
purchased a
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1909 T206 Honus Wager baseball card, with a Piedmont cigarette brand back, at a
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
auction. The card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner" to the public. The Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company graded this card a PSA 8 Near Mint-Mint (NM-MT) on their 10-point scale, the highest grade given to a T206 Honus Wagner card. Bill Hughes was the official grader of the card, working for PSA at the time. Hughes admitted to knowing that the card had been altered when he graded it. The Gretzky T206 Wagner first came to attention in 1985, when small-time Hicksville, New York card collector Alan Ray contacted Bob Sevchuk, the owner of a
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
sports memorabilia store, to arrange a potential $25,000 deal for his T206 Honus Wagner card. Bill Mastro, a sports memorabilia dealer who later founded Mastro Auctions and became one of the most powerful figures in the industry, heard the news, and immediately jumped on the offer. Mastro, with the financial backing of friend Rob Lifson, sought to improve the offer and had Ray add 50 to 75 of his other T206 series cards, including the rare T206 Eddie Plank, into the deal. Ray, who later stated he "had a money situation," agreed to Mastro's terms of the deal. The circumstances regarding how Ray came into possession of the Gretzky T206 Wagner have been shrouded in mystery. 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.O'Keeffe and Thompson, p13. Inside the memorabilia community, there was speculation that the card had been cut from a printing sheet during the deal made with Mastro. Mastro has told colleagues in the memorabilia circuit that he purchased the card from a printer, which was not Ray's profession. Ray personally stated that Mastro might have been doing this to prevent others from trying to trace the card. Some also claim that Mastro bought the card from Sevchuk, not Ray. After the transaction was completed, Mastro went back to his car and showed the Gretzky T206 Wagner to Lifson. Mastro offered one of the other T206 Wagner cards in his personal collection to Lifson as payment for the $25,000 that Lifson fronted him for the Gretzky T206 Wagner—claiming that Lifson could sell the lower quality one for $30,000 and make a quick $5,000 profit. Lifson was skeptical, but he took Mastro's word and accepted the deal, successfully selling this other Wagner card to New Jersey businessman Barry Halper for $30,000. (Halper sold that card and 200 other baseball memorabilia items in 1998 to
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
for over $5,000,000.) In 1987, Mastro sold the Gretzky T206 Wagner to Jim Copeland, a
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, sporting-goods chain owner, for $110,000. With that transaction, there was a sudden renewed interest in baseball card collecting. As Lifson commented, the Copeland deal revitalized the industry and "created an incentive to sell these great cards."


1991 Copeland memorabilia auction

Within five years, Copeland decided it was time to sell his card collection; he chose to sell his entire 873-piece collection in a single sale, through Mastro. Mastro contacted
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
, the renowned New York auction house, and asked them to accept the Copeland memorabilia collection on
consignment Consignment is a process whereby a person gives permission to another party to take care of their property while retaining full ownership of the property until the item is sold to the final buyer. It is generally done during auctions, shipping, ...
. Sotheby's advertised Copeland's items as the "Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia" to attract hobbyists and other potential clients. The March 1991 auction attracted nearly 800 collectors who were interested in purchasing some of Copeland's rare memorabilia. The bidding prices far exceeded the pre-auction estimates, as a 1952
Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of Baseball card, baseball and other sports and Non-sports tradi ...
Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Mick" and "the Commerce Comet", was an American professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
card sold for $49,500, more than three times the initial pre-auction price estimate. Pre-auction estimates placed Copeland's T206 Honus Wagner at a price of $114,000. Within minutes of the opening bid for the T206 Wagner card, the highest bidder had put down $228,000, twice the pre-auction estimate. A bidding competition between Mike Gidwitz, Mark Friedland and an unknown phone bidder ensued. Gidwitz dropped out of the competition when the bidding reached the $300,000 mark. As Friedland made each bid, the phone bidder would counter with a bid $5,000 or $10,000 higher. Friedland dropped out of the competition after the phone bidder countered with a $410,000 bid for the card.O'Keeffe and Thompson, p47. With Sotheby's 10% buyer's premium, the final price of the card came out to $451,000 (), nearly four times the pre-auction estimate. The phone bidder was Wayne Gretzky, who purchased the card with advice and financial backing from his 'boss' Bruce McNall, the owner of the NHL's
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. Copeland received around $5 million for the entire collection. The publicity coverage of the Sotheby's auction renewed interest in the hobby of sports memorabilia collecting. Mastro worked with Sotheby's for the next four years to facilitate sports memorabilia auctions and established himself as a leading card dealer in the industry. In 1993, illusionist
David Copperfield ''David Copperfield''Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work; see is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to matur ...
used the popularity of the card as part of a
magic trick Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of close-up magic, parlor magic, and stage magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural me ...
which he performed during his
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''The Magic of David Copperfield XV: Fires Of Passion''. Copperfield had Gretzky sign the card, then proceeded to tear the card into four pieces, after which he restored it one piece at the time and magically removed the signature. Gretzky, who was not a major card collector, said he purchased it because he thought "the market would remain strong," thus making for a valuable investment. McNall orchestrated the plan to buy the card. In a 2005 interview, McNall stated his "philosophy was, if you buy something that is absolutely the best in the world, you'd be okay because there is always another buyer for something at the top end."


Card back on the market

In 1995, Gretzky sold the card to Walmart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000 ().O'Keeffe and Thompson, p204. The two companies intended to use the card as the grand prize in a promotional contest. The card was sent all across the United States, as part of Walmart's plan to rejuvenate the baseball card market. On February 24, 1996 (the 122nd anniversary of Wagner's birthday), the grand prize drawing for the card was held on
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's ''Larry King Weekend''. At around 9:00p.m., Hall of Fame third baseman
Brooks Robinson Brooks Calbert Robinson Jr. (May 18, 1937 – September 26, 2023) was an American baseball player who played his entire 23-year career in Major League Baseball as a third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1977. Nicknamed "Mr. Hoove ...
, one of King's guests on the show, pulled out the name of one Patricia Gibbs, a
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living in
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. After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to contact Gibbs, King's staff finally got through to her phone, and informed Gibbs of her prize.O'Keeffe and Thompson, p122. Treat Entertainment and Walmart gave the card to Gibbs a few weeks later at a Walmart store in
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. Gibbs could not afford the taxes on the card, so she decided to consign the card to an auction later on. She consigned the card to Christie's, a New York-based auction house better known for selling famous artworks. 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 (). Four years later, on July 5, 2000, Gidwitz partnered with
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and Robert Edwards Auctions to start a 10-day online auction for the card. Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, set up a registration system in which they approved prospective individuals before they actually made bids. These individuals had to wire a $100,000 deposit to iEscrow.com in order to be pre-approved to make bids for the card. On July 15, the card was sold to Brian Seigel, a collector from California, for $1.265 million (equivalent to $ million in ). In February 2007, the
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announced that Seigel had sold the card privately and directly to an anonymous collector from Southern California for $2.35 million (equivalent to $ million in ). Less than six months later, on September 6, 2007, SCP Auctions announced that the card had been sold once again to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The anonymous collector was later revealed to be
Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The franchise was established ...
owner Ken Kendrick.


Alteration

Shortly after Gretzky's 1991 purchase, previously ignored allegations that the card had once been subject to alteration flared up again. This is when Gretzky approached the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company to grade the card, resulting in the aforementioned PSA 8 NM-MT grading. 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. Soon afterward, Alan Ray came back into the picture, claiming that he had proof the card had been doctored by Mastro at one point after the initial $25,000 trade in 1985. 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. He sent the comparison of the two photos to both McNall and Sotheby's, but never received a response from them. Some memorabilia collectors have dismissed Ray's claims, saying that the photo hardly proves any doctoring was ever done on the card. On December 4, 2012, Mastro was indicted on federal fraud charges, and entered a plea of not guilty. In 2013, Mastro pleaded guilty, having entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, and admitted to trimming the Honus Wagner card in the mid-1980s to increase its value. Mastro's plea agreement was rejected by a judge. In August 2015, Mastro was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison under a new plea agreement. Mastro was released in May 2017. A similar but unaltered card, the 'Jumbo Wagner', also has a NM-MT grade quality for the majority of the card, but the lower quality edges have not been trimmed, lowering it from NM-MT to an overall grade of PSA 5 – one of only three (along with Mastro's trimmed card) rated PSA 5 or better – sold at a 2013 auction for $2,105,770.50.


Topps reissues

The Honus Wagner card was first reissued by
Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures trading cards and other collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of Baseball card, baseball and other sports and Non-sports tradi ...
in 2002, with variations on its background color. The card was printed with the original 1909 orange color (#179), and also in blue (#307) and red (#456). In 2020, a new Honus Wagner card was issued by the company (#45) as part of the second wave (of 5) released that year.2020 TOPPS 206 BASEBALL VARIATIONS GUIDE
by RYAN CRACKNELL on Beckett


Known controversies


Cobb–Edwards controversy

Another T206 Wagner card owned by two
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
men was dismissed as a fake by Bill Mastro and PSA president Joe Orlando. The two men, John Cobb and Ray Edwards, have tried to prove that their Piedmont-backed card is not a fake and, due to its excellent condition, should fetch over $1 million in an auction. Cobb and Edwards also have alleged that they have been dismissed because they are inner city black men in a hobby that has been dominated by successful white men. Cobb, like Mastro back in the late 1980s, does not divulge the exact details of how he came to own the card. 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. When Cobb and Edwards tried to sell the card on eBay in 2002, an attorney from
Newport, Kentucky Newport is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States. It is at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking rivers across from Cincinnati. The population was 14,150 ...
(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 police launched an investigation, but found no evidence of wrongdoing. An outraged Edwards dismissed the accusations as "bullshit," adding that they would not have been made "if we were white." Card Collector Services graded the card and officially ruled that it was indeed a
reprint A reprint is a re-publication of material that has already been previously published. The term ''reprint'' is used with slightly different meanings in several fields. Academic publishing In academic publishing, offprints, sometimes also known ...
. Cobb and Edwards dismissed the findings and went to Integrated Paper Services (IPS), an independent paper testing and analysis lab, in February 2003 to have their card's paper tested. An IPS expert determined that the card dated back to 1910, which would be consistent to the time period when the card was distributed. The expert ruled that the "paper stock was consistent with the time that card would have been made." Cobbs and Edwards later went to an Ohio
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consultant who confirmed that the card was from 1909. The consultant stated that a decent counterfeit of the card could only be produced from a "master pressman with 5–10 years experience, and would require a machine which would cost between $500,000 and $2 million."O'Keeffe and Thompson, p158. Afterwards, an appraiser named Bob Connelly valued the card at $850,000, based on the two previous paper analysis reports. In November 2005, Cobb and Edwards put the card up for sale on eBay. 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. A few months after the sale, Edwards asked Connelly if he would accept the card for his auction. Connelly consented and took the card across the country to prospective buyers. Meanwhile,
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's ''
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is an American monthly sports news magazine that aired on HBO from April 2, 1995 to December 19, 2023. The program was presented by television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. Overview Format Each ...
'' decided to cover the progress of Cobb and Edwards' struggles with the card. Connelly met a card dealer in New York City, Mike Mangasarian, who was sent on behalf of a prominent collector to check the card out. 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. A promise was made that this could be done the day of the auction in
Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...
. After the auction and by not bidding on the card Mangasarian revealed to HBO that he felt the back of the card was indeed real but in his opinion the front was not. He explained that all T-206s have dark brown letters printed for the team's name and player's name and this one was in black. Additionally, he stated that he was not comfortable with the print process exhibited on the card's front. Meanwhile, a number of card collectors who doubted the card contacted eBay and demanded that the card's listing on the website be removed. eBay officials decided to remove the listing the day before the auction was scheduled to begin. As a result, a number of previously interested collectors decided not to bid for the card at the auction the next day. As Connelly pointed out, the collectors chose not to make bids because " en eBay pulled the card ... it raised too many questions about its authenticity."


Other notable authentic T206 Wagner cards

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. There are fewer than 60 authenticated Wagner cards in existence.


The New York Public Library

An authentic card is part of the Leopold Morse Goulston Baseball Collection in
The New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
's George Arents Collection.


The Metropolitan Museum of Art

An authentic card is held by
The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...
in New York City.


Nuns auctioning T206 Honus Wagner

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 School Sisters of Notre Dame is a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic sisters founded in Bavaria in 1833 and devoted to primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Their life in mission centers on prayer, community life and min ...
. The card came with her brother's handwritten note: "Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!" The Roman Catholic nuns auctioned the card, which despite its poor condition was expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000. On November 4, 2010, the final sale price exceeded the expectations of auctioneers at Dallas-based
Heritage Auctions Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, mus ...
and sold for $262,000 to Doug Walton, a collector and card-shop owner. Walton, however, never paid, and Heritage Auctions subsequently contacted one of its longtime clients, Nicholas DePace, a New Jersey cardiologist, who immediately agreed to buy the card for the same price. 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. The religious order had already announced that the proceeds from the sale would go to its ministries in more than 30 countries. It is currently on display in the Rally Rd Showroom in the Soho section of New York City. In 2019, Rally Rd announced that it was going to begin selling shares in the card at $52 each. In May 2020, Gregorio Amor and a team of investors, purchased the card.


The 'Jumbo Wagner'

Many of the remaining T206 Honus Wagner cards in existence have rated low on the PSA grading scale. Only three existing Wagner cards received a PSA rating of EX or better. One such example is known in the industry as the 'Jumbo Wagner' hown on the right Graded EX 5 (MC) on the PSA grading scale, the card has unusually ample borders due to a miscut. These dimensions far exceed the standard size for a T206 baseball card, virtually preserving a Near Mint example within its boundaries.Don't put this in your spokes: 'Jumbo Wagner' card could fetch $3M Bidding to be Open February 25 for the T206 Honus Wagner PSA EX 5 (MC) 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. The technical grade includes the MC qualifier. The card was given this designation by PSA due to its oversized nature. This particular T206 Honus Wagner stands out from other known examples and therefore gives it placement as a top-notch specimen." Goldin Auctions Winter 2013 Auction Offers... 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. Jumbo Wagner Bidding to Start at $500,000 Historical price increases and the state of the sports collectible market contributed to projections that the auction could set a new overall price record for the sale of a T206 Honus Wagner. The card ultimately sold for $2,105,770.50, including the buyer's premium, a record price for a baseball card in a public auction.


The All Star Cafe Wagner

In April 2013, Robert Edward Auctions was scheduled to begin an auction of a T206 Honus Wagner that was once owned by actor
Charlie Sheen Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He is known as a leading man in film and television. Sheen has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award as well as ...
. Sheen had loaned the card to the All Star Cafe where it was stolen and later recovered by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
. It is graded PSA 1. It sold in March 2022 for $3,136,500, setting a record for a PSA 1 example.


T206 Honus Wagner sales since 2000

* A T206 Wagner given a two on the PSA's 1–10 grading scale sold for $75,000 in September 2000. * Five years later, in 2005, another PSA 2 card sold for $237,000. * Included in the above auction, a PSA 1 card sold for $110,000. * In 2004, a PSA PR-FR-1 Wagner sold for $109,638. * Another PSA PR-FR-1 brought $132,000 one year later in 2005. * A T206 Wagner owned by renowned collector Frank Nagy sold for $456,000 in December 2005, through Mastro's auction company. * Two PSA Grade 2 Wagners sold for $236,705 in 2005 and $294,338 in 2006. * In May 2008, a graded 1 set a new record for a low-grade card, selling at auction for $317,250. * Several months later, in November 2008, an SGC 3 graded Wagner card was sold by Philip Weiss Auctions of New York. The final bid was $700,000, but with a 13% buyer's premium added, the realized price was $791,000. * A PSA PR-FR 1 Wagner sold for $400,000 in 2009 * In 2010, a PSA Authentic/Altered Wagner sold for $219,225. * On April 20, 2012, an anonymous New Jersey resident purchased a VG-3 graded T206 Wagner card for more than $1.2 million. * On April 6, 2013, the Jumbo T206 card sold for a record for a baseball card on an online auction. It brought in $2,105,770.50 in an online sale by Goldin Auctions. * On October 1, 2016, the same Jumbo T206 Honus Wagner card sold in 2013 was again sold at a Goldin Auctions online auction, for a new record of $3.12M. * 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 same card was reported to have been previously sold in 2014 for $657,250 and 2016 for $776,750. * 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. * In February 2022, half of a torn T206 Honus Wagner card sold for $475,960. * On August 3, 2022, a SGC Grade 2 T206 Honus Wagner card sold for $7.25 million in a private sale, breaking the record for the most expensive card.


See also

* ''
Honus & Me ''Honus & Me'' is a children's novel by Dan Gutman, published in 1997, and the first in the ''Baseball Card Adventures'' series. It was rejected by many publishers before HarperCollins finally accepted. It became a bestseller and was adapted in ...
'', a 1997 children's fiction book about the card * ''
Swindle A swindle is a kind of fraud or confidence trick. Swindle may also refer to: People * Swindle (surname) Places * Swindle Island, British Columbia, Canada * 8690 Swindle, an asteroid Films * ''Il bidone'' (English titles ''The Swindle'' or ' ...
'', a 2013 children's fiction movie based on the card


Notes


External links


The T206 Collection – The Player & Their Stories
– biographies of every player in the T206 set as well, written by Tom and Ellen Zappala, Lou Blasi and Pro Sports Authenticators' Joe Orlando * {{Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball cards Major League Baseball controversies 1909 works $3,000,000,000