Honus Wagner Card Could Hit $1 Million

July 5, 2000 -- His contract with the Louisville Nationals in the late 1800s was worth $2,000, but Honus Wagner’s baseball card could fetch 500 times that at auction.

Bidding on the famous T206 Wagner card begins today over the Internet on eBay, which is working with Robert Edward Auctions on the 10-day sale. The card was sold for $640,500 to well-known collector Michael Gidwitz in 1996 and could earn much more this time around.

“I’d be surprised if it didn’t bring more than $1 million,” Rob Lifson, director of Robert Edward Auctions, said of the Wagner card, a specimen he calls the “Mona Lisa of all trading cards” for its international recognition.

Once just a youngster’s hobby, baseball-card collecting has become an expensive business in recent years. Since 1997, 23 cards have sold for prices ranging from $61,000 to nearly $224,000. The 1996 sale of the Wagner card, the exact same one that will be auctioned on eBay, was the most expensive ever.

Card’s Legend Gives It Value

A charter member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, Wagner is considered one of baseball’s greatest all-around players. He batted at least .300 in 17 straight seasons and led the league in stolen bases six times. After an 18-year major league career, he coached the Pittsburgh Pirates for 20 years. (See slide show on Hall of Fame inductees.)

But the value of his card is due less to Wagner’s stats as it is to the combination of the card’s scarcity, mint condition and legend, according to T.S. O’Connell, managing editor of the Sports Collectors Digest.

From 1909 until 1911, the American Tobacco Company issued its landmark T206 baseball card set, a collection of 523 different cards that featured nearly every baseball player of that time, including Wagner.

The cards were distributed with packs of cigarettes as a marketing ploy to sell tobacco. Legend has it that Wagner demanded the company to stop making his card because he didn’t want to encourage kids to smoke. Some dispute that theory, saying that Wagner wanted more money from the company to cooperate with the card business.

Regardless of the reason, the card was recalled, a move that limited its distribution to an estimated 50 or 60 worldwide and increased its value. Even in the 1930s, the American Card Catalogue recognized the value of the Wagner card, listing it at $50 while all the other cards from the T206 set were listed at 35 cents.

Once Sold to Wayne Gretzky

The online auction house has implemented special bidding rules on this piece of baseball history: Bids will begin at $500,000 and will be accepted only from pre-registered bidders in $50,000 increments. Approved bidders will be required to wire $100,000 to an online escrow account.

The card being auctioned on eBay has already twice earned honors of the most expensive card sold at auction.

Before its famous 1996 sale, it sold in 1991 for a then-record $451,000 to hockey star Wayne Gretzky and then-Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall. That sale has given the Wagner specimen its nickname, the “Gretzky” card.

Pafko Card a Legend, Too

As in the case of Wagner, the reasons behind a baseball card’s value can have as much to do with its quirky history as it does with its scarcity.

The 1952 Topps Andy Pafko card is an example of that. Pafko wasn’t even a Hall of Fame player. So why did it garner the 20th largest amount in history for a baseball card sold at auction?

“The Pafko card is what we call a ‘condition rarity,’” said Lifson. “It’s not rare by itself, but it is rare in top shape.”

The card, part of the legendary first-ever Topps collection in 1952, bears the No. 1. That meant it took a beating.

“Kids back then — in the 1950s and ’60s and ’70s — would tend to put cards in numerical order,” explained Lifson. “The No. 1 card would wind up on top and got a lot of wear.”

Therefore, collectors looking for an entire set of 1952 Topps cards in good condition had a rough go of it.

In 1999, a 1952 Topps Pafko card was discovered nestled in the center of a deck of trading cards, preserving it in mint condition. The rare find was immediately added as the last lot at auction, where it sold for $83,870.

Rare Lindstrom Card

Likewise, collectors looking to obtain a complete set of the 1932 U.S. Caramel baseball cards had a difficult search. Billed as a 32-card set, it actually was regarded as a 31-card set because the card of third baseman Fred “Lindy” Lindstrom was long considered missing.

U.S. Caramel, the company that created the set, offered prizes to kids who collected all 32 cards, according to Robert Edward Auctions. The legend goes that the company intentionally printed very few Lindstrom cards so as to make the prizes even more difficult to obtain.

The result? A Hall of Fame player in his own right, Lindstrom was not the kind of baseball hero whose statistics alone would inflate the value of his card, such as with Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle. But the scarcity of his card made it valuable, and collectors seeking a complete set of the Caramel cards were willing to pay top dollar for it.

A 1932 Lindstrom card found in 1988 sold at auction for $92,000 in 1999, making it the 14th most expensive card ever sold at auction.

That amount is certainly a sizable chunk of change, but it is a fraction of what the Wagner card — considered the most famous baseball card in history — is expected to fetch.

The card known as the “Gretzky” and the “Mona Lisa” may soon be known as the first-ever million-dollar card. Get your checkbook ready.