In the world of sports card and memorabilia collecting, there are some sought after pieces that have tremendous monetary and historical value to them. One of these cards is the vintage T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, considered by some collectors to be the Holy Grail of all sports cards. The main reason for this is due to the rarity and age of the card. It is rumored that there may only be between 50 and 200 cards in existence, and some of them may still be lurking on the market.

Honus Wagner, as depicted on the card itself, was a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates during what is now known as the “dead ball” era. Regarded as one of the game’s greatest players, it’s no surprise that between the years of 1909-1911, the American Tobacco Company (ATC) wanted Wagner’s likeness put on a card as an incentive for people to buy their particular brand of tobacco. Wagner’s image was to be part of the T206 series, but issues arose around permission to use his image, which is what caused his card print numbers to be low.

There are two theories that could explain why Honus Wagner stopped production of his card. The first school of thought was based on Honus Wagner’s personal ethical feelings of having fans who were children, buying packs of cigarettes to get the card from him; he didn’t feel that was right. The second school of thought has more to do with the fact that Wagner was said to be a very shrouded bargainer and did not like the compensation that ATC was offering him.

From January 1909, the ATC sought permission from the players themselves to include them in the T206 series of cards. I think the whole set had about 524 major league players at the time and about 76 of these players later went on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The ATC was eager to get Honus a part of their publicity campaign, as he was rated one of the best players in the league at the time. Wagner had done previous advertising work with other companies, such as a gunpowder company, a soft drink company, and 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 stopped printing his cards, but he has kept his cards to a small number, which now has been shot. Price value through the roof.

One of the most notorious of all of Wagner’s cards has to be the “Gretzky T206 Honus” card, mainly due to the history of how this particular card changed hands from an average collector to a sporting goods store to a major dealer. of sporting goods. ; who later founded Mastro Auctions. The card then changed hands again to another prominent businessman 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 ultimately decided to sell his entire personal baseball collection which consisted of around 873 pieces.

As Wagner’s card was part of this collection, Mastro Auctions contracted Sotheby’s New York to take over the collection. There was a lot of publicity surrounding this collection that went on sale, and it attracted a large number of fans and onlookers. Many of the items for sale cost much more than the pre-auction estimated price. The initial pre-auction price for the Honus card was set at around $114,000.00, but within minutes of the initial bid, it increased to a whopping $451,000.00, which was paid for by Mr. Wayne Gretzky and Mr. Bruce McNall, who was the owner of the NHL. team the LA Kings, the couple bought the card over the phone in a sale. After this the card became known as the “Gretzky T206 Honus”.

It was determined that the card purchase was orchestrated by Mr. McNall. He stated that if you buy the best in the world, there will always be another buyer who will also want to buy the best, so it was bought as an investment for both people. Gretzky eventually resold the card and of course made a profit, so I’m guessing Mr. McNall’s thoughts regarding the Wagner card purchase were correct in the end. None of Wagner’s other cards have been as successful in terms of having a story to tell. The publicity that the Gretzky T206 brought to the card’s existence propelled the card even further into the collector stratosphere. While the Gretzky card has great entertainment value, it’s not the most expensive card sold. In fact, the most expensive card ever sold was an Honus Wagner T206, and it was held in an online eBay auction hosted by Robert Edward Auctions. The card sold for a whopping $1.265 million! So, in closing, this card currently holds the world record for the most expensive baseball card ever sold.