T206 Wagner Sells for $2.35 Million
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T206 HOFers in PSA 4
E93 Standard Caramel
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T206 HOFers in PSA 4
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LOS ANGELES -- The "Holy Grail of baseball cards," the famous 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has sold for a record-setting $2,350,000, the seller of the card said Monday.
The anonymous buyer has only been identified as a Southern California collector. SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sports memorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card. It is scheduled to be shown at a news conference at Dodger Stadium Tuesday.
There are about 60 of the tobacco cards in existence featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, one of the first five players to be inducted in Baseball's Hall of Fame.
The seller, Brian Seigel, paid a then-record $1,265,000 in 2000 for the prize card, which is in much better shape than the others.
"This particular one was preserved in spectacular condition," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach -- the company that certified the authenticity of the card. "It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards."
Still, the Wagner cards are so rare that even tattered ones will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Seigel said.
The others "you could stick in the middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card," said Seigel, CEO of Emerald Capital LLC, an asset management company, who lives in Las Vegas.
Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings, bought the card for $451,000 in 1991.
During his ownership of the card, Seigel displayed it at several sports collectible shows, showed it at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and brought it to opening bell ceremonies for the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York.
"The Wagner card gave me a tremendous amount of pride, excitement and pleasure," he said. "I hope the new owner will have the same satisfaction I enjoyed over the years."
The tobacco cards used to be included in packs of cigarettes. Collectors believe Wagner's cards are rare because he stopped allowing the American Tobacco Co. to use his image, fearing it would encourage children to smoke.
Nicknamed the "Flying Dutchman," Wagner was the National League batting champion in eight of his 21 seasons and finished his career with a lifetime .329 average. He retired in 1917 with more hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples and steals than any National League player.
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<< <i>Unreal. Whats the grade on this beast? >>
<< <i>PSA 8
<< <i>Unreal. Whats the grade on this beast? >>
>>
I would crack it and sent it to SGC!!
$451,000 in 1991
$630,000-ish around 1996?
$1.265 million in 2000
$2.35 million in 2007
How far can this continue???
<< <i>Wonder if the seller is getting out of cards, I though he was a T206 collector or something? >>
ahh he made over a million dollars on it! he may be a collector, but he is still human.....
<< <i>Wonder if the seller is getting out of cards, I though he was a T206 collector or something? >>
Brian has been concentrating over the past few years on his bat collection. He has one of, probably, the best five bat collections in the hobby. Talking about rarified air like vault-marked Ruth, Cobb, etc.
One may argue -- one of the good guys whose current bat collection is helping ensure that it does not get sliced up into ridiculous slivers for card manufacturers. And Brian has been one of the most outspoken people in promoting the hobby, often taking his card(s) and bat(s) to many places over the past few years trying to inspire kids to learn more about the history and fun of the hobby.
Definitely one of the good guys. And, for what it is worth, I think he owned the Wagner card longer than anyone else has over the last 15 years.
~ms
Who says the hobby is in bad shape?
I am sure with that kind of coin spent on the Wagner all the counterfeiters will just be re-energize and their printers will be working overtime.
If that was the first, then what was the second?
Shane
<< <i>I wonder who owns it now??? >>
<< <i>SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sports memorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card. >>
I don't know who else has a piece of it.
Scott
T-205 Gold PSA 4 & up
1967 Topps BB PSA 8 & up
1975 Topps BB PSA 9 & up
1959 Topps FB PSA 8 & up
1976 Topps FB PSA 9 & up
1981 Topps FB PSA 10
1976-77 Topps BK PSA 9 & up
1988-89 Fleer BK PSA 10
3,000 Hit Club RC PSA 5 & Up
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<< <i>Was that Wagner card the first graded by PSA? Its serial number is a bunch of zero's, then a 1.
If that was the first, then what was the second? >>
It wasn't actually the first, but I think they just hold back certain numbers for momentous / special cards. I remember last year they celebrated a milestone number of cards graded (x million cards), and the card was a 1954 PSA 10. Do you really think it happened that way? Sure it wasn't a 1987 Barry Larkin or something like that, but it'd look better if it was a Gem Mint oldie?
So it definitely wasn't the first, or else it'd have the old font on the label as well, which is a sure sign of an early-graded PSA card.
PSA was essentially formed over fifteen years ago at the time as a conduit to provide a third-party appraisal for the sale of the Wagner card. It was the first card ever graded -- although people at PSA from Orlando and David Hall seem to have foggy memories about the lore and legend of who actually graded the darn card.
I also heard that it was not the first card graded, Those were the 52s that david hall and a few guys spilt up.
I could be wrong, but thought i read that in a thread once.
Steve
edited typo
Shane
Lee
<< <i>Amazing stuff,
Who says the hobby is in bad shape?
q]
That was my first thought - OK, maybe not my first thought, that was "Damn, wish it was mine!" Remember a year back when several stories appeared that were written by people remembering collecting in their youth. They all contained a "Boy were we stupid to think baseball cards could ever hold their value" vibe. That may have given non-collectors an inacurate view of the current hobby. I guess this will remind people high grade old cards of superstars will always be in demand, and if you're lucky enough to own one of the legendary cards in the hobby, the sky is the limit.
The guys in Cinci are crooks, apparently they came up on the card by chance and then claim they paid big dollars to buy it, but will not tell anyone where or how much. These guys have been around the Ohio area as mid level collectors for years, my dealer said prior to Wagner they only had a collection worth about $50K. Quite a big jump to go from an entire collection of $50k to the top collectible in the hobby. They also cannot explain how they would have put the $$$ to purchase the card, as they are of modest means.
Anyway, the biggest glaring issue is that they refuse to let PSA or for that matter any credible authority on the Wagners look at it, obviously if it was real they would have no problem doing this.
Instead they are sitting on a card worth potentially 1 million? Right
<< <i>I would be interested in some details about how PSA got started and what some of the first few cards graded were. >>
PSA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look up PSA in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.PSA may refer for:
Public service announcement, a non-commercial advertisement, broadcast for the public good
Public Services Association, a trade union in Trinidad and Tobago
Public Servants Association of South Africa, a trade union in South Africa
Poultry Science Association, a poultry science association based in the United States.
New Zealand Public Service Association, a large union for workers in the public sector of New Zealand
Production sharing agreement, an agreement used to determine a company's share of natural resources extracted from a country
Professional Squash Association, the governing body for the men's professional squash circuit
Public Securities Association, the former name of the Bond Market Association
PSA prepayment model, a prepayment model developed by the Public Securities Association
Premier Soccer Alliance, the original name of the World Indoor Soccer League
"PSA", the planned title of the song and single "Bad Day" by R.E.M.
Professional Services Automation, refers to a suite of software enabling service organizations to manage people and skilled resources
Transport
PSA Peugeot Citroën, a French company which manufactures Peugeot and Citroën cars
Pacific Southwest Airlines, a former United States airline that flew passenger services in some Western states during the 1970s and early 1980s
PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of US Airways Group
PSA International, a port operator based in Singapore and an abbreviation for the now defunct Port of Singapore Authority
Science and medicine
Patient Safety Authority, a Pennsylvania state agency and Patient safety organization
Persistent sexual arousal syndrome, a spontaneous and persistent genital arousal
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, a professional organisation of Australian pharmacists
Pressure Swing Adsorption, a special method for purifying gases
Pressure sensitive adhesive, adhesive that is activated by pressure
Prostate specific antigen, a substance that can be detected in the blood of men and which helps to determine if there may be a prostate cancer
Polar surface area, the surface sum over of polar atoms, e.g. oxygen, nitrogen, etc
Prefixed Save Area, a common area of virtual storage from address zero through 8191 in every address space
Education and academia
Pacific Sociological Association, the professional association of sociologists in the Pacific Region of North America
Philosophy of Science Association, an academic organization which promotes further studies and free discussion from diverse standpoints in the field of philosophy of science
Political Studies Association, a hungry academic association in the UK
Public Schools Association, an association of seven independent boys schools in Perth, Western Australia
Peel Summer Academy, a Mississauga based overnight camp
1. 1991 - Gretzky and Kings owner McNall buy the card for 451K. They have it graded by PSA - card #1 - lands an 8. It goes on exhibition at the 1992 National in Atlanta. I was fortunate to see it back then.
I met Mike Baker there - he was very friendly and immensely well informed.
2. 1994 - McNall goes bankrupt and Gretzky buys out his half for 225K
3. 1994 - Gretzky sells the card to Treat Entertainment who does a repack Walmart promotion to raffle the card off.
4. The contest ends with the drawing - live - on the Larry King Show. Patricia Gibbs is the winner.
5. 1996 - Gibbs puts the card up at Christies and Michael Gidwitz buys the card for 640K.
6. 2000 - Gidwitz unloads it to Brian Siegel for 1.2 million.
This is how I remember the sale of the card - I may be off a bit but it gives ya a nice idea of where the card has been and what was paid.
mike
very impressive memory.
what's even more intriguing is the history that precedes the mcnall/gretzky aquisition in 1991!
ahhhhh...
now those were the days...
yf
1985: Sold privately for $25,000 (from Alan Ray to Bill Mastro of Mastronet Auctions)
1987: Sold privately for $110,000 (from Bill Mastro to James Copeland)
1991: Sold at Sotheby's auction to Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall for $451,000
1995: WalMart/Treat Entertainment purchased the Wagner card for more than $500,000 for use as a grand prize in contest
1996: Card is won in wal-Mart promotional contest by Florida postal worker who is forced to sell the card to pay taxes owed for the prize.
1996: Sold at Christies auction for $640,500
2000: REA sells the card on eBay in an auction ending on July 15, 2000.
By the way, the Sotheby's auction catalog where Gretzky and McNall bought this card listed the card as "trimmed" in their description. I wonder if PSA overlooked that or ruled otherwise.
Simsbury Taverneers
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<< <i>I wonder who owns it now??? >>
Mark, it's me -- but don't tell ANYONE, ok?
I can't believe how much I remember - I've read stuff on it so much - I think I'm gonna make a file on it.
mike
would love to see a scan of the rea "ad" (front & back)...
would you be willing to provide that for me?
thank you again!
Go Phillies
<< <i>Slice a little off one of the edges and that's easily a GEM or PRO 10.
Lee >>
Or a PSA 8 depending on the publicity
<< <i>I did not know that it was up for auction. I have been saving since 2000 to buy this and have $2.5 mill saved .
I got it covered...
If it's in Bundy K's!
Anybody know what ol' Bruce is up to these days?
<< <i>Didn't it go for well over the expected price when McNall, Gretzky and John Candy bought it? I seem to remember it that way.
Anybody know what ol' Bruce is up to these days?
Didn't he die a few years ago?
mike
michael o'keeffe is reportedly writing a book on this subject!
link
I remember when I was about 8 and I got a reprint of that card in one of those sports cards starter kits. It came with all the basics, T206 Cobb, 52 Mantle, 48 Leaf Jackie Robinson, Nap LaJoie & Gehrig Goudey's, etc. I thought they were real, and why not, I spent $10, I expected to get some good stuff.
Thank God those were reprints because I would be sick if I tore the hell out of the real things.
As for the Wagner, there's alot of talk about it being trimmed, sheet cut. It's more ammo for those that don't like grading (esp high grades). But does it even matter?
I think the publicity it gets the hobby far outweighs whether it's sheet cut (which is very different in my view, than if it was created from sratch in someones basement).
It even made the front page of todays LA Times sports section.
available in may!
<< <i>...more interesting reading...
michael o'keeffe is reportedly writing a book on this subject!
link >>
Great read, the only problem I saw with the article was this phrase:
"Keith Olbermann, himself a knowledgeable collector,..."
Olberman has an extensive pre-war card collection...from T204 Ramly's to E107's...to many of the scarce N-Series cards of the 1800's and even seen some pictures of some unbelievable cabinet photos from the 1870's.
I'd take his collection all day.
<< <i>Keith Olberman is actually very informed as a collector...as much as I hate to admit it...I'm not a fan of his.
Olberman has an extensive pre-war card collection...from T204 Ramly's to E107's...to many of the scarce N-Series cards of the 1800's and even seen some pictures of some unbelievable cabinet photos from the 1870's.
I'd take his collection all day. >>
Even so, there are FAR more collectors I'd rather see talking about T-206 Wagner than him. And he's an idiot.