Someday they may be worth Big Bucks.
Rare Honus Wagner 1909 baseball card sold for record $2.8 million: "(09-06) 15:54 PDT Mission Viejo, Calif. (AP) -- A rare Honus Wagner baseball card has been sold for a record $2.8 million, just over six months after it was bought for a then-record $2.35 million.
Referred to as the 'Mona Lisa' of baseball cards, the almost mint-condition collectible — released in 1909 by the American Tobacco Company — was sold by Brian Seigel of Las Vegas to an unidentified Southern California collector in February. SCP Auctions was a minority owner, but David Kohler, the company's president and CEO, said that's no longer the case.
Kohler said the new owner wishes to remain a private collector for now, but might identify himself at a later date. The sale was completed last week and announced Thursday.
The T206 baseball card features a youthful Wagner in his Pittsburgh Pirates uniform. At the time of the February sale, it was displayed at a Dodger Stadium news conference."
12 comments:
I'm afraid my mother threw mine out long ago.
Now you'll never cash in.
I just finished reading the new book titled The Card that focuses on the history of this Wagner card. It's fascinating reading as many experts believe the "card" was trimmed before it was sold to Gretzky and McNall. The thought is that it may have been part of an uncut sheet and never was circulated in a cigarette package. Of course, no one who has ever owned the card would agree with that position because the value would go down not up. After Gretzky and McNall bought it, it was the first card ever graded by Professional Sports Authenicators (PSA) and placed inside a sealed slab where it remains to this day.
Kent Morgan
Great info. Thanks. I hung onto my cards and have posted a few of them now and then. No Honus Wagner card among them, though.
"I'm afraid my mother threw mine out long ago."
Sue your mother.
McNall was a coin collector, was he not? He was also sentenced to prison, I believe. Any relation between the two?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I don't know, but it sounds like a good plot for a novel.
You can read McNall's story in his autobiography titled Fun While It Lasted written with Michael D'Antonio. The subtitle is My Rise and Fall in the Land of Fame and Fortune. He began collecting coins as a youth and later got into horse racing and movies and owned the LA Kings of the NHL. He, Gretzky and comedian John Candy also owned the Toronto Argos of the Canadian Football League and I remember all the publicity when they came to Winnipeg for the Grey Cup in 1991. McNall had to borrow huge amounts of money to keep his business afloat. He eventually was sent to prison for bilking banks out of more than $200 million.
He must have been pretty smooth!
Somebody should write a crime novel that centers on a valuable baseball card.
VG
And call it, oh, I don't know, maybe SQUEEZE PLAY.
I think that Suicide Squeeze would be a better title. Squeeze Play was used by Paul Auster for the baseball PBO that he wrote under the name of Paul Benjamin.
Dan Gutman wrote a young adult novel titled Honus and Me where a boy finds a T-206 Wagner card and is transported back to 1909 where he comes in contact with Wagner at the World Series.
In 2003, a company was in Winnipeg to film a TV movie based on the book and I was asked to meet with the producer about working with them as a consultant on the baseball scenes. I reviewed the script and suggested some changes that should be made to ensure it was historically correct, but told them I wasn't the right person to handle the on-field stuff.
A couple of weeks later they were filming at CanWest Global Park, the home of our independent Northern League team, the Goldeyes. The park had been turned into a 1909 park with signage, etc. We also had it booked one night for two celebrity games to promote the US Senior Slo-Pitch World Championship the following week.
I was the playing manager of the media team and was appraoched by the movie people to see if Honus Wagner could play for us. I agreed and it was fun to tell Honus that he wasn't in the starting lineup. He got a big cheer when he was introduced. I can't remember tha name of the actor, Michael ??, but he was a good guy and not a bad player. They had worked him hard in practice for a couple of weeks before he arrived in Winnipeg.
I've since read the book and it's not bad.
Oops. Senior moment.
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