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A T206 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $ 6.606 million – which includes a 20% buy-in bonus – early Monday morning, breaking the record for the best-selling sports card of all time.
The previous record belonged to a 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps card that sold for $ 5.2 million in January, a record later tied by a 2003-04 rookie jersey card from the Upper Deck Exquisite LeBron James collection. autographed by LeBron James in April.
The seller of the Wagner Card is an “East Coast Collector”. The seller and the buyer prefer to remain anonymous.
“This Wagner is distinguished by his condition,” said Brian Dwyer, chairman of Robert Edward Auctions, which negotiated the deal. “There are only about 60 that we can confirm through various population reports and available ranking data. Of these 60, most are rated poor, genuine, or good at best. This card is one of the best one of the best examples available. “
This Wagner card received a rating of 3 from Sportscard Guaranty Corp. (SGC). According to population reports from the three largest card ranking companies – Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), Beckett Grading Services (BGS) and SGC – only four Wagner T206s were ranked above 3, combined, all in collections. private.
The card was on display at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill., In July. Almost 100,000 people attended the conference – the second largest attendance in its history – with 46.4% of participants reported as beginners.
Aside from the T206 set printed from 1909 to 1911, there is a tradition of division behind the early stopping of production of Wagner’s map, another reason why there are so few.
“Didn’t he get enough money from the American Tobacco Co. or didn’t he want to be associated with cigarettes? Dwyer hypothesized ESPN. “These are theories that [have made it] remarkable for over a century. “
Wagner was one of the early pioneers in sponsorship, lending his name to Louisville Slugger as the first professional athlete to receive sponsorship money. He also peddled gum, soda, gunpowder, razors and lent his image to cigar groups, only strengthening Wagner’s claim as a pioneer of NIL rights a century ago. .
Dwyer also noted that it doesn’t hurt that the Wagner – since 1939, when Jefferson Burdick valued the Wagner at $ 50 in his first “Catalog of United States Card Collectors,” later known as “The American card catalog” – has long been the centerpiece of the card industry.
“We go back 80 years, people knew it was precious,” Dwyer told ESPN.
“In 1973, this Wagner card was the first Wagner card ever sold at public auction,” said Andrew Aronstein, son of Mike Aronstein, a late 20th century card industry pioneer who discovered the card this year. -the. “My dad knew what was going to happen in the hobby, but I don’t think he imagined the card would sell for $ 6 million.”
Fred McKie, a friend of elder Aronstein, was also blown away by the transformation of the industry he grew up in.
“In [the early days], the card conventions were just collectors who had tables – no one was leaving the street, “McKie told ESPN.” There were no autograph guests – we all had our own space. , traded and bought things back and forth. “
At one of these conventions in Detroit, Mike Aronstein found a coup for McKie: a T206 Wagner up for auction.
“I had just got my tax refund and sold my whole table,” McKie recalls. “I won it that night.”
McKie paid $ 1,100 for the Wagner T206 in 1973. In 1976, he sold it for $ 2,500. Early Monday, McKie watched the rare card he once owned take the record.
“I know the exact card that sold for $ 1.2 million in 2012,” McKie told ESPN. “Every time it goes, it gets better and better.
“As much as I would love to get the card back – and I certainly would – there’s good and bad. You have mixed emotions.”
McKie opened a shoe store with money from the sale of his Wagner and other cards from that time. He says he’s thankful that the money helped him start a business, which gave up several locations, and that he was able to retire at age 55.
“I owned it at one point, [was] part of its story, ”McKie said.
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