Rare T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for record $7.25 million in private sale
Collectibles marketplace Goldin announced on Thursday that a T-206 Honus Wagner has sold in a private sale for $7.25 million, a record amount for a sports card.
The figure eclipsed the $6.606 million fetched for another T-206 Wagner almost a year ago to the day.
The version of the Wagner that sold recently was graded a 2 out of 10 by Sportscard Guaranty Corp., or SGC; the 2021 record-breaker received a 3 from SGC.
"There is nothing on this earth like a T-206 card," said Ken Goldin, executive chairman and founder of Goldin, in a statement. "There's a reason why no Wagner card has ... sold for less than it was previously purchased for -- the card is art, it's history, it's folklore."
The folklore of the card hinges on its uber-rarity (somewhere between 50 and 60 copies exist) and multiple theories on why so few Wagners exist, including:
No matter the reason(s), so few copies have made it to 2022 that the Wagner is routinely called the holy grail or Mona Lisa of trading cards.
"The T-206 is one of the reasons I do what I do," Goldin concluded.
While the sale is currently the overall record, there is a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card consigned to Heritage Auctions that closes in just over three weeks; it is sitting at $7.08 million with buyer's premium and is expected to near or eclipse $10 million at close.