Rare Honus Wagner Baseball Card Is A Boon For Nuns

Whenever a Honus Wagner baseball card comes up for sale it always makes news. This time the sale of a version of the rare card is even more intriguing because of who is selling, the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame. In February 2007, a 'near mint-mint' Honus Wagner sold for $2.8 million. The card that the Roman Catholic nuns are auctioning off is in poor condition and so it is only expected to bring in between $150,000 and $200,000. Money earned will benefit their ministries in 35 countries around the world.

The card is part of the T206 series, produced between 1909 and 1911 and only around 60 Wagner cards. The T206 Honus Wagner, was made by the American Tobacco Company in 1909. Part of the mythology surrounding this legendary collectible is that Honus Wagner himself didn't want his image to be used to sell tobacco and stopped production of his card.

The nuns came into possession of the card because the brother of a nun who died in 1999 left all his possessions to the order when he died earlier this year. The man's lawyer told the nuns that he had a Honus Wagner card in a safe-deposit box. Inside the box they found the card along with a note that said: "Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!" The man had owned the card since 1936.

The card has a large crease in the upper right-hand corner, and three of the white borders have been cut off. The card was also laminated. But even in this condition the card will be very attractive to sports memorabilia collectors. Wagner played for 21 seasons, 18 of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was one of the five original inductees into baseball's Hall of Fame.

As the stories of the nuns and their find have circulated around the internet over the last few days, the bids on the auction have steadily climbed. As of Wednesday afternoon, bidding at Heritage Auction Galleries was up to $160,000. The card is up for auction on November 4 and it is looking like it may sell for above the estimate.