The World of Rare Baseball Cards: Honus Wagner Still Highest Priced

by Amey Stone (RSS feed)
Feb 3rd 2008 at 3:00PM

Wikipedia still reports it as one of the seminal moments in the trading card collecting field: In February, 2007, a 'near mint-mint' Honus Wagner sold for $2.3 million. At that point it was probably the highest sale a baseball card in history.

Then, in September last year, the same card was sold again. This time it went for $2.8 million to a private collector.

The card in question, a T206 Honus Wagner, was made by the American Tobacco Company in 1909. There are estimated to be fewer than 100 in existence. This card was once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky and has been called the 'Mona Lisa of Baseball cards.' It may be so rare because Honus Wagner himself didn't want his image to be used to sell tobacco and stopped production of the his card, or at least that's part of the mythology surrounding the famous card.

Honus Wagner was a shortstop who played in the major leagues from 1897 to 1917. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, receiving more votes than Babe Ruth. He is considered by many baseball historians to be the greatest shortstop of all time.

Tags: baseball, Honus Wagner, HonusWagner, Rarest, trading cards, TradingCards

Filed under: Sports

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mike Shay Feb 3rd 2008 2:01PM

I have the rarest photo in NASCAR history, With 30 laps to go in the 2001 Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt and his team were running 1,2,3&4. A request for the picture was made during an ESPN news conference the following week. To this day I am the only person to produce the photo that was requested. It has since been autographed by all 14 remaining drivers who were in the picture. It belongs in the hall of fame but they want me to donate it. I'm a struggling carpenter who can't afford to do that. Is there anyone out there that can help me cash out on this? For the past seven years I've been calling this picture the equivalent of a signed Honus Wagner baseball card.

andy Feb 3rd 2008 8:58PM

everyone wants to get rich by "luck" keep making cabinets.

jimmy Feb 3rd 2008 11:00PM

same here. what does it cost to donate -which could be tax deducted- nothing essentially. if you can afford the race track your not doing so bad.

HAYWOOD Feb 5th 2008 12:35AM

Hell no... hang on to that thing until you have to sell it or burn it in a fire.
NASCAR is cheap with it's history.
Really CHEAP.
They are only looking for THE NEXT BIG THING.
Trust me, they will never pay you a dime.
Put it on Ebay with a minimum.
E#3 FOREVER!

john buida Feb 8th 2008 6:50AM

I have a card from the 1909 T-206 set. Not the Honus card, but still pretty cool. Anybody interested ??

B Feb 10th 2008 3:23PM

How silly, shows your heart is in the wrong place..consider if you actually let go of the picture how much more you could be blessed..

Freddy May 9th 2008 4:56PM

Desiree Heyliger May 1st 2008 8:03AM

Hello, I have a few1910 Tobacco Cards featuring Honus Wagner, Eddie Plank, Lewis Boston and Sherry "Magie". I've also got two Cracker Jack Cards, 21 of 24 McGraw #69 of set 1915 and #88 of set 1915, 4 of 24 Mathewson.

In addition to those cards I also have Baseball's All-Time Greats featuring CY Young, TY Cobb, JACKIE Robinson, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth as well as a 1933 Goudey Gum card featuring Napoleon Larry LaJoie. What would these cards be worth, any idea. Thanks.