T206 Honus Wagner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card
Baseball card
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on some type of paper stock or card stock. A card will usually feature one or more baseball players or other baseball-related sports figures...

depicts Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...

' Honus Wagner

Honus Wagner

-Louisville Colonels:Recognizing his talent, Barrow recommended Wagner to the Louisville Colonels. After some hesitation about his awkward figure, Wagner was signed by the Colonels, where he hit .338 in 61 games....

, a dead-ball era

Dead-ball era

The dead-ball era is a baseball term used to describe the period between 1900 and the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919. In 1919, Ruth hit a then league record 29 home runs, a spectacular feat at that time.This era was characterized by low-scoring games and a lack of home runs...

baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company

American Tobacco Company

The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company...

(ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206

T206

The tobacco card set known as T206 was issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company...

series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette pack

Cigarette pack

A pack or packet of cigarettes is a rectangular container, mostly of paperboard, which contains cigarettes. The pack is designed with a flavor-protective foil, paper or biodegradable plastic, and sealed through a transparent airtight plastic film. By pulling the "pull-tabs", the pack is opened...

s to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card and a total of only 60 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public. In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

50 in Jefferson Burdick

Jefferson Burdick

Jefferson R. Burdick was a trading and baseball card collector and cataloguer. He cataloged trading and baseball cards in The American Card Catalog, otherwise known as the ACC, which is still used today by collectors and dealers. The famed T206 baseball card set received its popularized name...

's The American Card Catalog
The American Card Catalog
The American Card Catalog is a reference book for American trade cards produced before 1951, compiled by Jefferson Burdick.It has become the de facto method in identifying and organizing trade cards produced in the Americas pre-1951. The book catalogues sports and non-sports cards, but is best...

, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time.

The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. The card has a controversial past, as some speculate that it was once altered, based on the card's odd texture and shape. The Gretzky T206 Wagner was first sold by Alan Ray to a baseball memorabilia

Sports memorabilia

The term sports memorabilia usually refers to anything that can be directly connected to a sports event or personality. These items are generally gathered by the fans of the particular sport, athlete or team that the item signifies or by collectors who find value in the rarity time-value of these...

collector named Bill Mastro, who sold the card two years later to Jim Copeland for nearly four times the price he had originally paid. Copeland's sizable transaction revitalized interest in the sports memorabilia collection market. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

figures Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...

and Bruce McNall

Bruce McNall

Bruce Patrick McNall is a former Thoroughbred racehorse owner, and a sports executive who once owned the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League .McNall claimed to have made his initial fortune as a coin collector, though...

for $451,000. Gretzky resold the card four years later to Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

and Treat Entertainment for $500,000, for use as the top prize in a promotional contest. The next year, a Florida postal worker won the card and auctioned it at Christie's

Christie's

Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...

for $640,000 to collector Michael Gidwitz. In 2000, the card was sold via Robert Edward Auctions to card collector Brian Seigel for $1.27 million. In February 2007, Seigel sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $2.35 million. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. In April 2011, that anonymous purchaser was revealed to be Ken Kendrick

Ken Kendrick

Earl G. "Ken" Kendrick Jr. is a baseball executive with the National League Arizona Diamondbacks. He became part-owner with the team's inception in 1995 and Managing General Partner in 2004, replacing Jerry Colangelo after a lengthy disagreement over Colangelo's role with the franchise he founded;...

, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...

. These transactions have made the Wagner card the most valuable baseball card in history.

Other T206 Wagners, both legitimate and fake, have surfaced in recent years. Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. One particular T206 Honus Wagner owned by John Cobb and Ray Edwards has attracted media controversy over its authenticity, with many leading hobby experts regarding it as a fake.

Background

The American Tobacco Company was formed as a result of an 1889 merger of five major cigarette manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons & Company, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company

Goodwin & Company

Goodwin & Company was an American tobacco manufacturer from New York City. Initially E. Goodwin and Brother, the company was founded before the American Civil War. It was known for its cigarette brands "Gypsy Queen" and "Old Judge"...

, F. S. Kinney Company and William S. Kimball & Company. Because the company came to monopolize the tobacco industry, ATC did not have to conduct advertising or promotions for its products. Since baseball cards were primarily used as a sales promotion, ATC removed them from its tobacco packs, almost driving the cards into obsolescence. During the presidency of trust-buster Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

, the ATC was subjected to legal action from the government, in hopes of shutting down the monopoly in the industry.

Thereafter, the ATC was back in competition with other tobacco companies, so it reinserted baseball cards into cigarette packs. In 1909, the company introduced the T206 series – also known as the "white border set" – of baseball cards of 524 players into its cigarette packs. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Two years later, the ATC was broken up into several major companies as part of the United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. American Tobacco Company, 221 U.S. 106

Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

(1911).

Physical attributes and production

The typical card in the T206 series had a width of 1 7/16 inches (3.65 cm) and a height of 2 5/8 inches (6.67 cm). Some cards were awkwardly shaped or irregularly sized, which prompted a belief that many of the cards in the series had been altered at one point or another. In his work Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set, Scot A. Reader wrote that "[i]t is not at all uncommon to find T206 examples that have been altered at some point during their near-century of existence." These discrepancies were taken advantage of by "card doctors" who trimmed corners and dirty edges to improve the appearance of the card. The front of all T206 series cards, including the Wagner card, displayed a lithograph

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

of the player created by a multi-stage printing process in which a number of colors were printed on top of each other to create a lithograph with the appropriate design. The backs of the cards featured the monochromatic colors of the 16 tobacco brands for which the cards were printed. The Wagner cards in particular advertised the Piedmont and Sweet Caporal brands of cigarettes and were produced at Factory 25 in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, as indicated by the factory stamp imprinted on the back of the cards.

Wagner's involvement

Starting from January 1909, the ATC sought authorization from baseball players for inclusion in the T206 series, which would feature 524 major league players, 76 of whom would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...

. Wagner had been at the top of his game throughout the decade, and was even considered to be the game's greatest player at the time. He had appeared on advertisements for a number of other products such as chewing gum, gunpowder and soft drinks. Unsurprisingly, the ATC asked for Wagner's permission to have his picture on a baseball card. According to an October 12, 1912, issue of The Sporting News
The Sporting News
Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...

, Wagner did not give his consent to appear on the baseball card. In response to the authorization request letter sent by John Gruber, a Pittsburgh sportswriter hired by the ATC to seek Wagner's permission, Wagner wrote that he "did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes." He threatened to seek legal action against ATC if they went ahead and created his baseball card.

The reasons for Wagner's strong negative reaction to the ATC's request have been the subject of much speculation. The most commonly told account is that Wagner rejected the deal because he did not want young baseball fans to purchase the tobacco packs for his baseball card. Wagner held high respect for many of his fans, most particularly his young fans. His granddaughter, Blair, remarked that "[h]e loved children. He wanted to teach kids good sportsmanship. When it came time for that card to come out, it wasn't that he wasn't paid. He didn't want kids to have to buy tobacco to get his card." However, Wagner chewed tobacco

Chewing tobacco

Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco (also known colloquially as hoobastank, backy, tobac, doogooos,Hogleg, chewpoos, chits, chewsky, chawsky, dip, flab, chowers, guy, or a wad, as well as referred to as dipsky, snuff, a pinch, a yopper, a Packing a bomb, a tobbackey or packing a...

, and he had previously appeared in advertisements for many tobacco products, including a cigar baseball trading card in 1899 and a newspaper ad for Murad cigarettes during the 1909 World Series

1909 World Series

The 1909 World Series featured the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Detroit Tigers. The Pirates won the Series in seven games to capture their first championship of the modern Major League Baseball era and the second championship in the club's history....

.

Another explanation surmised is that Wagner did not consent because he felt he was not receiving just compensation from the ATC for his baseball card. Wagner had a history of being a tough negotiator; he had announced his retirement from baseball in December 1907, but returned shortly before the start of the 1908 baseball season after receiving a $10,000 contract, double his salary from the 1907 season. This theory has its flaws, however, since Wagner sent Gruber a check for $10 to compensate him for the fee ATC would have paid him if Wagner had given permission to create his baseball card. Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson, authors of The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card, asked why Wagner would compensate Gruber for $10, a substantial amount of money at the time, if he refused authorization for monetary reasons. The ATC had already produced a number of T206 Honus Wagner baseball cards; the exact number is unknown, but is speculated to be between 50 and 200. They stopped production of the card, however, after Wagner denied authorization.

Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner

In 1985, a small-time Hicksville, New York

Hicksville, New York

Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 41,547 at the 2010 census...

card collector named Alan Ray contacted Bob Sevchuk, the owner of a local Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

sports memorabilia store, to arrange a potential $25,000 deal for his mint condition Piedmont-backed T206 Honus Wagner baseball card. Bill Mastro, a sports memorabilia dealer who later founded Mastro Auctions and became one of the most powerful figures in the industry, heard the news, and immediately jumped on the offer. Mastro, with the financial backing of his friend, sought to improve the offer and had Ray add 50 to 75 of his other T206 series cards, including the rare T206 Eddie Plank

Eddie Plank

Edward Stewart Plank , nicknamed "Gettysburg Eddie", was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He is the first left-handed pitcher to win 200 games and then 300 games, and now ranks third in all-time wins among left-handers with 326 career victories and first all-time in career shutouts by a...

, into the deal. Ray, who later stated he "had a money situation", agreed to Mastro's terms of the deal.

The circumstances regarding how Ray came in possession of the Wagner card have been shrouded in mystery. He tried to avoid answering any questions regarding the matter but, in a 2001 interview, claimed to have received it from a relative, whose name he did not disclose. Inside the memorabilia community, there was speculation that the card had been cut from a printing sheet during the deal made with Mastro. Mastro has told colleagues in the memorabilia circuit that he purchased the card from a printer, which was not Ray's profession. Ray personally stated that Mastro might have been doing this to prevent others from trying to trace the card. Some also claim that Mastro bought the card from Sevchuk, not Ray.

After the transaction was completed, Mastro went back to his car and showed the card to his close friend, Rob Lifson, who was Mastro's financial backer for the card deal. Mastro offered one of the T206 Wagner cards from his personal collection to Lifson, claiming that he could sell it for $30,000 and make a quick $5,000 profit. Lifson was skeptical, but he took his friend's word and accepted the offer. Within a week, he sold the card to a New Jersey businessman named Barry Halper

Barry Halper

Barry Halper was an extensive collector of baseball memorabilia who had been a limited partner owning about 1% of the New York Yankees...

for $30,000. Halper, a former limited partner of the New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

with George Steinbrenner

George Steinbrenner

George Michael Steinbrenner III was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership from 1973 to his death in July 2010, the longest in club history, the Yankees earned seven World Series...

in the 1970s and a renowned sports memorabilia collector, sold the card and 200 other baseball memorabilia items in 1998 to Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

for over $5,000,000. Mastro sold his card in 1987 to Jim Copeland, a San Luis Obispo, California

San Luis Obispo, California

San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...

sporting-goods chain owner, for $110,000. With that transaction, there was a sudden renewed interest in baseball card collecting. As Lifson commented, the Copeland deal revitalized the industry and "created an incentive to sell these great cards."

1991 Copeland memorabilia auction

Within five years, Copeland decided it was time to sell his card collection; he chose to sell his entire 873-piece collection in a single sale, through Mastro. Mastro contacted Sotheby's

Sotheby's

Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...

, the renowned New York auction house, and asked them to accept the Copeland memorabilia collection on consignment

Consignment

Consignment the act of consigning, which is placing any material in the hand of another, but retaining ownership until the goods are sold or person is transferred. This may be done for shipping, transfer of prisoners, to auction, or for sale in a store Consignment the act of consigning, which is...

. Sotheby's advertised Copeland's items as the "Copeland Collection of Important Baseball Cards and Sports Memorabilia" to attract hobbyists and other potential clients. The March 1991 auction attracted nearly 800 collectors who were interested in purchasing some of Copeland's rare memorabilia. The bidding prices far exceeded the pre-auction estimates, as a 1952 Topps

Topps

The Topps Company, Inc., manufactures chewing gum, candy and collectibles. Based in New York, New York, Topps is best known as a leading producer of baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards and other sports and non-sports themed trading cards.-Company history:Topps itself was...

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...

card sold for $49,500, more than three times the initial pre-auction price estimate. Pre-auction estimates placed Copeland's T206 Honus Wagner at a price of $114,000. Within minutes of the opening bid for the T206 Wagner card, the highest bidder had put down $228,000, twice the pre-auction estimate. A bidding competition between Mike Gidwitz, Mark Friedland and an unknown phone bidder ensued. Gidwitz dropped out of the competition when the bidding reached the $300,000 mark. As Friedland made each bid, the phone bidder would counter with a bid $5,000 or $10,000 higher. Friedland dropped out of the competition after the phone bidder countered with a $410,000 bid for the card. With Sotheby's 10% buyer's premium, the final price of the card came out to $451,000, nearly four times the pre-auction estimate for the card. The phone bidder, famed National Hockey League player Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky

, purchased the card, with some financial assistance from Bruce McNall

Bruce McNall

, the owner of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings

Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...

. Copeland received around $5 million for the entire collection. The publicity coverage of the Sotheby's auction renewed interest in the hobby of sports memorabilia collecting. Mastro worked with Sotheby's for the next four years to facilitate sports memorabilia auctions and established himself as a leading card dealer in the industry. Illusionist David Copperfield

David Copperfield (illusionist)

David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...

used the card as part of a magic trick on one of his TV Specials. Copperfield had Gretzky sign the card, then Copperfield proceeded to tear the card into four pieces, then restoring the card, and magically removing the signature.

Gretzky, who was not a big card collector, said he purchased the card because he thought "the market would remain strong", thus making for a valuable investment. McNall orchestrated the plan to buy the card. In a 2005 interview, McNall stated his "philosophy was, if you buy something that is absolutely the best in the world, you'd be okay because there is always another buyer for something at the top end." The card became known as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner" to the public. Soon afterwards, previously ignored allegations that the card had once been subject to alteration flared up again. The Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) company chose the T206 Wagner to become the first baseball card to be graded, and gave it a PSA 8 NM-MT grade (nearly the best possible grade that can be given), the highest grade given to a T206 Honus Wagner card thus far. Despite PSA company president David Hall's personal statement that the card was "superb" and a "fantastic card in every way," a number of people in the memorabilia industry were not convinced that the card had not been altered at some point.

Soon afterward, Alan Ray came back into the picture, claiming that he had proof the card had been doctored by Mastro at one point after the initial $25,000 trade in 1985. He had a photograph of the card taken before the transaction with Mastro and claimed that the card in the photo looked significantly different from the photo of Gretzky's card. He sent the comparison of the two photos to both McNall and Sotheby's, but never received a response back. Some memorabilia collectors have dismissed Ray's claims, saying that the photo hardly proves any doctoring was ever done on the card.

Card back on the market

In 1995, Gretzky sold the card to Wal-Mart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000. The two companies intended to use the card as the grand prize in a promotional contest. The card was sent all across the United States, as part of Wal-Mart's plan to rejuvenate the baseball card market. On February 24 of the following year, the 122nd anniversary of Wagner's birthday, the grand prize drawing for the card was held on CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

's Larry King Weekend. At around 9:00 P.M., Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson

Brooks Robinson

Brooks Calbert Robinson, Jr. is a former American professional baseball player. He played his entire 23-year major league career for the Baltimore Orioles . Nicknamed "The Human Vacuum Cleaner", he is generally acclaimed as the greatest defensive third-basemen in major league history...

, one of King's guests on the show, pulled out the name of one Patricia Gibbs, a postal worker

Postal worker

A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In the U.S., postal workers are represented by the and the American Postal Workers Union, part of the AFL-CIO. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and in the United Kingdom by the...

living in Hollywood, Florida

Hollywood, Florida

-Demographics:As of 2000, there were 59,673 households out of which 24.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.5% were married couples living together, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.2% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of...

. After spending hours unsuccessfully trying to contact Gibbs, King's staff finally got through to her phone, and informed Gibbs of her prize. Treat Entertainment and Wal-Mart gave the card to Gibbs a few weeks later at a Wal-Mart store in Miramar, Florida

Miramar, Florida

Miramar is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city was named after the Miramar district of Havana, Cuba. As of the 2010 census, the population was 122,041...

. Gibbs could not afford the taxes on the card, so she decided to consign the card to an auction later on. She consigned the card to Christie's, a New York-based auction house more notably known for selling famous artworks.

Michael Gidwitz, the same individual who battled with Gretzky and Mark Friedland for the card at the Copeland auction in 1991, won the Christie's auction with a bid of $641,500. Four years later, on July 5, 2000, Gidwitz partnered up with eBay and Robert Edwards Auctions to start a 10-day online auction for the card. Robert Edwards Auctions, a division of MastroNet, set up a registration system in which they approved prospective individuals before they actually made bids. These individuals had to wire a $100,000 deposit to iEscrow.com in order to be pre-approved to make bids for the card. On July 15, the card was sold to Brian Seigel, a collector from California, for $1.265 million. In February 2007, the Associated Press announced that Seigel had sold the card privately & directly to an anonymous collector from Southern California for $2.35 million. Less than six months later, on September 6, SCP Auctions announced that the card had been sold once again to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million.

Other T206 Wagner cards

Of the 50 to 100 Wagner cards still in existence, none have been as financially successful as the Gretzky card. Due to the publicity of the Gretzky T206 Wagner, the interest for the cards has significantly increased. In September 2000, a T206 Wagner that was given a two on the PSA's 1–10 grading scale sold for $75,000. Five years later, another PSA 2 card sold for $237,000 and, at the same auction, a PSA 1 card sold for $110,000. In May 2008, a graded

Third Party Grading

Third Party Grading is a term used to refer to coin grading, authentication, and encapsulation companies. Often abbreviated TPG, these companies will, for a fee, "slab" a coin. Some companies offer a guarantee covering the grade or authenticity of the coin.-History:As of 2008, there were four...

1 set a new record for such a low-grade card, selling at $317,250 at auction. A T206 Wagner owned by renowned collector Frank Nagy sold for $456,000 in December 2005, through Mastro's auction company. Many of the other cards in existence have been rated low on the PSA grading scale. As a result of the publicity generated from the Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner, a number of previously undiscovered legitimate and fake T206 Wagner cards have surfaced. On August 1, 2008, memorabilia dealer, John Rogers, of North Little Rock

North Little Rock, Arkansas

the city was 62.55% White, 33.98% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.18% from other races, and 1.26% from two or more races...

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

bought a 1909 T206 Wagner PSA 5 MC for $1.62 million in an auction in Chicago.
In November 2008, an SGC 3 graded Wagner card was sold by Philip Weiss Auctions of New York. The final bid was $700,000, but with an 13% buyer's premium added, the realized price was $791,000.

Failed water test

In 1976, three collectors discovered a T206 Wagner that featured Wagner in a different pose, never seen in any of the other cards. Although a Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

expert said the paper on the card dated back to 1910, the three men decided to submit the card for a . The card broke apart, and as a result, the card was dismissed as a fake. The three men were respected collectors and were cleared of any wrongdoing by the card collecting community.

Cobb-Edwards T206 Wagner controversy

Another T206 Wagner card owned by two Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

men was dismissed as a fake by Bill Mastro and PSA president Joe Orlando. The two men, John Cobb and Ray Edwards, have tried to prove that their Piedmont-backed card is not a fake and, due to its excellent condition, should fetch over $1 million in an auction. Cobb and Edwards also have alleged that they have been dismissed because they are working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s in a hobby that has been dominated by successful white men. Cobb, like Mastro back in the late 1980s, does not divulge the exact details of how he came to own the card. He has stated he purchased the card at an estate sale for $1,800 in 1983 or 1984, a bargain for the card even in those days. When Cobb and Edwards tried to sell the card on eBay in 2002, a Newport, Kentucky

Newport, Kentucky

Newport is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers. The population was 15,273 at the 2010 census. Historically, it was one of four county seats of Campbell County. Newport is part of the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio Metro Area which...

attorney filed a police report against the two men because he believed the card was a reprint that was stolen from his office months earlier. The police launched an investigation, but found no evidence of wrongdoing on part of the two men. An outraged Edwards dismissed the accusations as "bullshit," adding that they would not have been made "if we were white."

Card Collector Services graded the card and officially ruled that it was indeed a reprint

Reprint

A reprint is a re-publishing of material that has already been previously published. The word reprint is used in many fields.-Academic publishing:...

. Cobb and Edwards dismissed the findings and went to Integrated Paper Services (IPS), an independent paper testing and analysis lab, in February 2003 to have their card's paper tested. An IPS expert determined that the card dated back to 1910, which would be consistent to the time period when the card was distributed. The expert ruled that the "paper stock was consistent with the time that card would have been made." Cobbs and Edwards later went to an Ohio paper industry

Pulp and paper industry

The global pulp and paper industry is dominated by North American , northern European and East Asian countries...

consultant who confirmed that the card was from 1909. The consultant stated that a decent counterfeit of the card could only be produced from a "master pressman with 5-10 years experience, and would require a machine which would cost between $500,000 and $2 million." Afterwards, an appraiser named Bob Connelly valued the card at $850,000, based on the two previous paper analysis reports. In November 2005, Cobb and Edwards put the card up for sale on eBay. They had to shut down the sale, however, because Connelly only agreed to appraise the card if his report was printed in its entirety at the eBay card listing.

A few months after the sale, Edwards asked Connelly if he would accept the card for his auction. Connelly consented and took the card across the country to prospective buyers. Meanwhile, HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is a monthly sports newsmagazine on HBO that debuted on April 2, 1995. The show was "spawned by the fact that sports have changed dramatically, that it's no longer just fun and games, and that what happens off the field, beyond the scores, is worthy of some serious...

decided to cover the progress of Cobb and Edwards' struggles with the card. Connelly met a card dealer in New York City, Mike Mangasarian, who was sent on behalf of a prominent collector to check the card out. Mr. Mangasarian said the card seemed authentic and stated he would attend the auction for the card later on if the card could be taken out of the thick lucite holder for a closer examination of the card. A promise was made that this could be done the day of the auction in Binghamton, NY. After the auction and by not bidding on the card Mr. Mangasarian revealed to HBO that he felt the back of the card was indeed real but in his opinion that the front was not. He explained that all T-206's have dark brown letters printed for the team and players name and this one was black. Additionally, he stated that he was not comfortable with the print process exhibited on the card front. Meanwhile, a number of card collectors who doubted the card contacted eBay and demanded that the card's listing on the website be removed. eBay officials finally pulled the plug the day before the actual Connelly auction was to begin. As a result, a number of previously interested collectors decided not to bid for the card at the auction the next day. As Connelly pointed out, the collectors chose not to make bids because "[w]hen eBay pulled the card ... it raised too many questions about its authenticity."

Nuns auctioning T206 Honus Wagner

In 2010, a rare Honus Wagner was found in a box left by the brother of Sister Virginia Muller who left all his possessions to the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame

School Sisters of Notre Dame

School Sisters of Notre Dame is a worldwide order of Roman Catholic nuns devoted to primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Their life in mission centers on prayer, community life and ministry...

. The card came with her brother's handwritten note: "Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!" The Roman Catholic nuns auctioned the card, which despite its poor condition was expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000. On November 4, 2010, the final sale price exceeded the expectations of auctioneers at Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries and sold for $262,000 to Doug Walton, a collector and card-shop owner. Walton, however, never paid, and Heritage Auction Galleries subsequently contacted one of its longtime clients, Nicholas DePace (dee 'pahtch ee), a New Jersey cardiologist, who immediately agreed to buy the card for the same price. On December 20, 2010, after taking its 19.5 percent buyer's premium, the auction house sent $220,000 by bank wire to the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The religious order had already announced that the proceeds from the sale would go to its ministries in more than 30 countries.