Newly discovered T206 Honus Wagner card auctioned off at $5M
A just lately discovered 1909 Sweet Caporal T206 Honus Wagner card, which had been pulled from a then newly launched tobacco pack and stored in the identical household for over a century, has been offered by way of Goldin Auctions for $5.124 million (together with purchaser’s premium). It’s the third-most costly T206 Wagner behind the copy bought for $6.606 million in August 2021 and the copy offered privately for $7.25 million in August 2022.
This Wagner obtained a 1 grade from Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA); the opposite two costlier Wagners had been graded by Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC) and obtained grades of three and a couple of, respectively.
“We are honored that the Shields family chose us to represent this historic card that has been in their family for 116 years,” stated Ken Goldin, CEO and founding father of Goldin in an announcement.
This Wagner belonged to Douglas and Dennis Shields, whose grandfather Morton Bernstein, the son of the founding father of The National Silver Company, collected and preserved buying and selling playing cards within the early 1900s. After Bernstein bought FB Rogers Silver Company in 1955 and expanded west, he framed his playing cards and adorned his companies with them; When the National Silver Company folded, the playing cards had been moved to a warehouse and ultimately bequeathed to Dennis and Douglas.
Goldin introduced the card in December, a discovery chronicled on Season 3 of Netflix’s “King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch.”
“Tonight, the Shields shared with me that they are thrilled with the sale — and we hope the new owner treasures it as much as they did,” Goldin continued. “The T206 Honus Wagner remains the Mona Lisa of sports cards.”
The lore behind the T206 Wagner is one in every of sports activities playing cards’ most revered, given the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop requested the American Tobacco Company to tug it from manufacturing in 1909. Theories behind its shortage vary from a printing plate mishap to Wagner’s (unlikely) purported disagreement over hawking tobacco to kids, to Wagner being considerably of an NIL pioneer and objecting to his likeness getting used with out correct compensation.
It’s not the one Wagner presently within the information. An SGC Authentic (grade under a 1) presently sits at $2.318 million with six days left at Heritage Auction.
