Goldin collectables market announced Thursday that the T-206 Honus Wagner sold in a private sale for $ 7.25 million, a record sum for a sports card.
The figure exceeded the $ 6,606 million obtained for the purchase of another T-206 Wagner nearly a year ago to date.
The recently sold Wagner Edition is rated 2 out of 10 by Sportscard Guaranty Corp. or SGC; He broke the 2021 record.He got 3 SGCs.
“There is nothing in the world like a T-206 card,” said Ken Goldin, CEO and founder of Goldin. “There is a reason why Wagner paper is not sold at a lower price than it was previously purchased: paper is art, it is history, it is folklore”.
The folklore of the card depends on its extreme rarity (there are between 50 and 60 copies) and multiple theories as to why there are so few Wagners, including:
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The Wagner printing plate breaks during production
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Copyright dispute between the artist and the tobacco company
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The most common theory, advanced by the Wagner family and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is that Wagner did not want to promote tobacco smoking among children and demanded that the card be withdrawn from production.
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The most plausible theory is that Wagner realized that he would not be rightfully compensated for his name, image, likeness and objection.
Regardless of the reasons, so few copies were released until 2022 that Wagner is routinely called the Holy Grail or the Mona Lisa of trading cards.
“The T-206 is one of the reasons I do what I do,” Golden concluded.
Although the sale is currently the all-time record, there is a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card sent to Heritage Auctions that expires in just over three weeks; It stands at $ 7.08 million with a buyer’s premium and is expected to close or exceed $ 10 million at close.
