The Holy Grail of sports trading cards set another record.
A Honus Wagner T206 baseball card from 1909-11 sold for a mind-boggling $7.25 million on Wednesday in a private sale brokered by Goldin Auctions, the New Jersey-based auction house announced.
The card, which has an advertisement for Sweet Caporal cigarettes on the back, was graded SGC 2 (out of a possible 10), or good, by Sportscard Guaranty Corp., a Florida-based card and memorabilia grading service.
The price tops the $6.606 million for a different T206 card of the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer that was sold nearly a year ago through Robert Edward Auctions. That card was graded an SGC3, Sports Collectors Daily reported.
[ Rare, mint condition 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card to go up for auction ]
“I’ve been in this business for a very long time and seen a lot of incredible trading cards and pieces of memorabilia,” Goldin founder and executive chairman Ken Goldin said in a statement. “But there is nothing on earth like a T206 card.
“There’s a reason why no Wagner card has ever sold for less than it was previously purchased for -- the card is art, it’s history, it’s folklore. The T206 is one of the reasons I do what I do and why serious collectors around the world love this hobby so much. To be a part of history and facilitate this record-breaking sale is an honor.”
The Wagner card had originally been authenticated and graded by Professional Sports Authenticator and sold for $294,338 through Memory Lane in 2006, according to Sports Collectors Daily. The owner then had the card regarded by SGC in 2007, the collectibles site reported.
[ Record breaker: T206 Honus Wagner baseball card sells for $6.606M ]
The T206 Honus Wagner and the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, one of which sold last year for $5.2 million, remain the two top cards in the collectibles hobby, according to The Athletic. The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the explosion in the sports collectibles business, as investors view cards like Wagner and Mantle as alternative assets, the magazine reported.
A T206 Wagner sold for $3.75 million in May 2021 before the $6.606 million bid three months later.
The latest record price is expected to fall later this month, when a 1952 Topps Mantle card graded 9.5 by SGC could top $10 million when bidding ends on Aug. 27 in a sale conducted by Heritage Auctions. According to Sports Collectors Daily last week, bidding on the 1952 Mantle had already passed $6.7 million with a buyer’s premium factored into the sale. This week, the bidding has driven the price up to $7.08 million including the buyer’s premium, ESPN reported.