A $3.12 million dollar card
1909 T206 Honus Wagner
Honus Wagner may be the most skilled, least famous athlete in history. Within the collecting community his card is rarest and most valuable in existence. But ask the general public and few people would recognize his name.
Wagner was born on Feb 24, 1878 in Pennsylvania. Throughout his childhood he played sandlot ball with his brothers between helping his father in the coal mines. He bounced around the minor leagues for a while and eventually debuted professionally for the Louisville Colons in 1897. After the 1899 season the team was dissolved, and Wagner moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates where he would spend the rest of his 21-year career.
Although he was primarily a shortstop, Wagner could play any position on the field. No matter where he was on the diamond, he was often the best player on the team. For a short time, Wagner even pitched before reaching the pros. He had all the skills you would want in a ball player, a contact hitter who could also hit for power, an electrifying baserunner, widely thought of as the best fielder in the league, and a player who always outsmarted opponents.
During the first decade of the 20th century, no player was more dominant. Honus Wagner led the majors in hits, runs, doubles, total bases, extra-base hits, RBIs, stolen bases, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. From 1899–1909, his season batting average never fell below .330 He ended his career with a .329 batting average and 3,430 hits. His career accomplishments include leading the Pirates to a World Series Championship in 1909, being selected to the MLB All-Time Team, and being voted in to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of the five original inductees.
Wagner played into his early 40s. He was 41 when he got his 3,000th hit and became the oldest player at the time to ever hit a grand slam when he was 42. After retirement, Wagner was the Pirates coach for 39 years. Since Wagner played before individual players wore numbers, the number 33 he wore as a coach was retired by the Pirates in 1956.
All the evidence points to Wagner being one of the most prominent players of the 20th century, so how it that few people today know his name? One explanation is that he just played too long ago for a lot of fans to care. Back in the day, the rules were so different that baseball was essentially a completely different game. Another explanation is that there isn’t much to talk about other than his talents on the field. He never threatened to fight fans like Ty Cobb, or drank in excess like Babe Ruth. In other words, fans might have found him too much of a nice guy and a little too boring to talk about.
Despite all this, it is Honus Wagner whose on the most valuable baseball card in the world. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of their T206 series. However, when the company asked Wagner if they could use his likeness on their cards, he refused. It is thought that either Wagner didn’t want kids buying cigarettes to get his card, or that he wanted some compensation from the company. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card, but not until after there were anywhere from 50 to 200 already made (the exact number is unknown). Compare this to the tens or hundreds of thousands of T206 cards for any other player and the T206 Honus Wagner was one of the rarest baseball cards even back then.
Over the decades, variations of the Wagner card have generated a fair bit of publicity. The famous “Gretzy T206 Wagner” (which got its name when Wayne Gretzky purchased it 1991) was swirled in controversy as many suspected that it had been tamped with. It came out later that Bill Mastro confessed in Federal court to “trimming” the edges to bolster its condition and value. Before that however, the card sold for $2.8 million in 2007. There is also the “Jumbo Wagner,” named as such because of its unusually ample boarders as a result of a miscut. These borders are the reasons that the image contained inside has remained near mint. This card is considered to be the purest of all the T206 Wagners. It sold at auction for $1.6 million in 2008, for $2.8 million in 2007, and then sold for $3.12 million (including buyer’s premium) in 2016. There are only 60 authenticated Wagner cards in existence. Many remaining cards have a very low PSA rating, but even the most beat up copies of authentic T206 Wagners sell for at least six figures.
The anniversary of Wagner’s birthday is February 24. He should be celebrated and remembered for what he brought to the game of baseball. Both statistics and first-hand accounts have attested to how great a player he was during his time. Arguably though, Wagner’s most significant contribution was to the hobby. His card is the Holy Grail of all collectibles, a true baseball treasure.
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Riley Poole
Baseball Treasure
Riley Poole
