Could This Be The Most Expensive Card Ever?
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When it comes to the world of baseball collectibles, there’s nothing more significant than the “T206 Honus Wagner”, and anytime one hits the open auction marketplace, hearts are sure to race, and jaws are sure to drop. With that said, the latest “T206 Honus Wagner”, better known as the "Connecticut Wagner", was recently opened for bid through Goldin Auctions and early bids are sitting right around $3.2 million. Based on its early bid activity, and the fact that its auction doesn’t end until June 21st, we must ask ourselves whether this card could end up being the most expensive card ever.
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Originally issued between 1909 and 1911 as part of a tobacco card series by the American Tobacco Company, this card isn’t just rare, it’s one of the few that will forever retain the title of crown jewel.
Why’s that you ask? It's because there are only 54 examples of this card that are confirmed to exist, and of those 54, only 28 are graded with PR-FR (poor to fair condition) 1 by PSA, with only a handful containing higher grades.
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As of the first five inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, Honus Wagner was every bit a legend as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. He was a career .328 hitter who amassed 3,420 hits across 10,439 at-bats which included 600+ doubles, 250+ triples while knocking in just over 1,700 RBI. With that said, it’s not just his statistics that get collectors excited, but the lore and storied history that surrounds the card itself.
For example, it was widely believed, although never personally confirm by Wagner himself, that he refused to allow his likeness to be used in the promotion of tobacco products due in large part to his fear that it would influence children to engage in the use of such products. As a direct result of this perceived belief production of his cards was halted very early on and as a result the scarcity of his card reached mythical levels.
When it comes to the “T206 Honus Wagner” its journey is something straight out of a Jules Verne adventure. As the story goes, it all began in 1985 when a father & son were hosting a table at Connecticut card show during which they were approached by an elderly man offering a nearly complete 522-card T206 set that he himself had assembled over several decades. Among the 522 cards that the man had offered for sale, this was one of the cleanest specimens of the Honus Wagner ever encountered, and as a result, the father & son duo went on to purchase the near-complete set for $10,000 in the first of what would be several exceptional transactions.
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Once the “father & son” team acquired the card, they held onto for several years and then finally sold it in the spring of 2010 for $282,000 when such cards were selling for far less than the seven-figure numbers they command in today’s marketplace. After the $282,000 sale it was then sold again in a private transaction at which point Goldin had acted as the consigner to facilitate the deal.
Let’s now fast forward back to the auction that’s before our eyes. When it comes to auctions of this magnitude, there’s no doubt that Goldin pulls out all the stops and as a result attracts some of the highest-known private buyers in the world. Considered throughout the hobby to be “The Holy Grail of Sports Cards”, the “Connecticut Wagner” isn’t just a card, it’s one of the hobby’s greatest treasures and will be sure to break records once the auction ends on June 21st.
And for those of you keeping score at home, I personally think this card breaks the previous record of $7.25 million but falls short of ever-elusive $8 million dollar mark.
Passionate sports card collector and writer based in Queens, NY. Lifelong fan of the New York Mets, Jets, and Rangers. Covering sports cards and collectibles with deep industry knowledge and enthusiasm, while bringing a fresh perspective to the ever-evolving hobby world on http://SI.com/collectibles.
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