Rare Honus Wagner Cafe Charlie Sheen All Star Baseball Card Goes Up For Auction

There are only 60 Honus Wagner baseball cards left in the world, ESPN estimates and the last time a card hit the market – in August 2021 – it sold for $6.6 million, making it the most expensive sports card ever purchased.

this However, the Wagner label was never part of the famous tracksuit history of the 1990s, nor was it ever the subject of a presidential pardon. But next month, an auction will open for a one-of-a-kind Honus Wagner baseball card with a story as completely wacky as a precious cardboard treasure.

“[Cette carte] Brian Drent, president of Mile High Card Company, which will manage the card auction, said.

The origin of the Honus Wagner T206 card begins with the gamers themselves. Wagner, born John Peter Wagner, began a 21-year career in League Baseball in 1897, playing primarily with his hometown team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. The ‘Flying Dutchman’, nicknamed the short-distancer, won eight National Rugby League titles and was one of the first players inducted into the Hall of Fame. But before his legacy was preserved as a Hall of Famer in 1936, he was printed in 1909 when his image was put on a baseball card.

The map was only in print for two years, making it a treasure trove for collectors, including actor Charlie Sheen. An avid baseball player, Sheen had a valuable Wagner card in the 1990s when he was recruited to help open All Star Cafe, a growing food company in New York City.

« [It was] Drent told the Daily Beast. Planet Hollywood pitched the idea and brought in celebrity investors like Wayne Gretzky, Andre Agassi, Tiger Woods, Ken Griffey Jr. and Shaquille O’Neal.

Upscale sports bar launched in the heart of Times Square in 1995. Theo Sports Illustrated, The restaurant measures 34,000 square feet and hosted Mayor Rudy Giuliani, then real estate mogul Donald J. Trump, Stevie Wonder, Whoopi Goldberg and, of course, Charlie Sheen on opening night. Diners sit in booths selling baseball gloves surrounded by prized sports memorabilia – signed jerseys, pennants, used bats and at least one rare baseball card: Sheen’s Wagner.

Along with well-known investors and patrons, All Star employees have remarked on how remarkable it is to have such a valuable object within their reach.

Thomas Gartland, the executive chef of the All Star, admitted sports Illustrated In 2020, “jealousy” and “greed” motivated him and his colleagues to start planning a card snatching. After concocting something that seemed real, restaurant thieves traded Sheen’s Wagner for a fake in 1998. Gartland’s grandson, Benny Ramos, helped by delivering the contraband to a collector for $18,000. .

“I should have known better,” Ramos said AND decades later. “I know it was wrong.”

The crooks could have gotten away with this scheme if the theft had satisfied their greed. Based on ANDA month after swiping a Wagner card, they attempted to steal Sheen’s loaned memorabilia from the cafe and were eventually arrested.

The gang pleaded guilty to major crimes, following them long after the All Star Cafe closed in 2007, and after Charlie Sheen sold his restored Wagner in 2001 for $75,000, a record at that time. But nearly 20 years after the Wagner card simply became “Charlie Sheen All Star Café Honus Wagner,” President Barack Obama has called on Ramos to cut crime — and grant the All Star thief a presidential pardon.

As for the card, Drent told The Daily Beast, “We expect it to sell for around $3 million.” The auction starts on March 10 and digital will drop on March 31.

However, Greed failed to convince Wagner to transfer this time. The anonymous seller, who Drent will only describe as an Oklahoma sales manager who purchased the card for $400,000 more than a decade ago, is donating the proceeds to the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma.