An auction for a 1909 Honus Wagner Pittsburgh Pirates baseball card was a home run Monday fetching $5.5 million, the highest sale price of any baseball card in history.
With auction fees and a 20 percent buyer’s premium charged by Robert Edwards Auctions added, the total cost will climb to a smashing $6.6 million. The Wagner card topped the $5.2 million price tag of the auction previously recorded as the most expensive sports card ever sold, a Mickey Mantle card which was sold in January, according to Yahoo Sports.
The Wagner card sale is the third time in the space of a year that a sports card sold for north of three million. Before the Mickey Mantle card sale, a Mike Trout rookie card sold for $3.93 million last August.
Honus Wagner played from 1897 to 1917, just as baseball was developing into a national obsession. By 1909, baseball cards were becoming popular inserts in tobacco packages, and that is where the Wagner card first showed up on deck.
The card was produced by the American Tobacco Company and was part of its T206 series that featured most of the famous players of the time. However, where tens of thousands of cards were printed for others, the Wagner card saw only as many as 200 printings. So, it is scarce. Only 60 authentic Wagner T206 cards are known to exist.
There are several theories for why so few Wagner cards were printed. Some say the printing plate cracked before production could get into the swing, and others say that Wagner threatened legal action over a contract issue with ATC. But the Wagner family favors the tale — likely apocryphal — that Wagner demanded that ATC stop making the card because he did not want to be part of the advertising that would encourage young baseball fans to buy tobacco.
Whatever the reason for the low number of authentic Wagner cards, this T206 series card has reigned as the most expensive baseball card since 1939, when baseball card collectors started printing price guide books for their cherished collections. Other cards have briefly held the top spot for the highest auction sale, but Wagner always eventually slides into home, retaking the World’s title as the top card.
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