T206 Vintage Baseball Cards

Another of the rare T206 Eddie Plank cards has sold at auction--this one for well into six figures. Part of a high-grade rare vintage baseball card hoard-- the T206 Plank was graded PSA 6 and sold for $155,350.

The card was part of the Freedom Collection. A private collector with a concentration in rare and pristine Hall of Fame baseball cards chose Heritage Auction Galleries' Oct. 1 Signature Sports Auction to present 40 of the rarest and most valuable specimens to the collecting hobby.

"It absolutely ranks among the finest private collections of high-end cards in the world," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions for Heritage Auction Galleries.

A Ty Cobb Portrait Red Background PSA NM-MT 8 sold for $14,340 while a Walter Johnson Hands at Chest PSA NM-MT 8 brought $8,365.

Despite their age, T206 cards are relatively plentiful. Millions were printed and their unique, colorful nature made them a natural to collect, even in an era when baseball cards weren't in the mainstream.

Condition is another story. T206 cards are often found with creases because of their age and general lack of extreme care that was provided by those who handled them.

Thankfully, lower grade T206 commons can be purchased at baseball card shows or on sites like eBay for a reasonable price and many collectors choose to purchase cards in mid to lower grade.

The T206 Honus Wagner card is expensive in any grade. Less than 100 are believed to exist because they were pulled from circulation early in the process, perhaps because Wagner was opposed to the association between smoking and baseball cards.

A collector paid $317,250 paid for a PSA 1 (poor condition) T206 Wagner in an April 2008 sale conducted by Robert Edward Auctions. The card's story was fascinating. An Atlanta man needing money and looking around his house for items to sell, discovered a stash of T206 tobacco cards early this year. Amazingly, the group included a Honus Wagner--the first new Wagner to surface in the sports collecting hobby for years. The man sent them to Beckett card grading, which consigned them to REA for the original owner.

A PSA 8 Wagner, the first card graded by the company, sold for $2.35 million and is considered the "Holy Grail" of baseball cards, despite talk of it having been cut by hand from a sheet.

The Plank is rare for reasons that haven't been fully explained, while the two error cards--Magee and Doyle--exist in miniscule numbers as well.

A Plank card graded SGC 40 sold for $77,675 in the spring of 2008.

Collectors who don't want to tackle the set often chase the myriad Hall of Famers in the set. A Ty Cobb with Ty Cobb back, graded Fair by SGC, sold for $64,625 in REA's sale. The card had been purchased at auction by the consignor for $28,970. "He thought he was going to lose a few dollars because of the economy," said REA officials. "Instead it sold for more than double what he paid. That's a pretty big difference for such a major high-profile rarity."

A near complete mid-lower-grade set of T206 cards sold in August of 2008 (519 of 524 cards) for $33,600.

Many collectors prefer to have their cards graded and authenticated. Placed in a sealed plastic slab, they are protected and preserved with both sides visible. PSA grading is a one choice for vintage sports cards, but other vintage card collectors prefer SGC (Sportscard Guaranty) or Global Authentication (GAI).

The T206 set may be the most valuable baseball card set in existence, but it's not out of the reach for average collectors to own at least a few examples of this century-old favorite.

California sports auctioneer Memory Lane Inc. has announced the record-setting sale of a T206 Honus Wagner.

The professionally authenticated card rated a grade of 40 (very good) by Sportscard Guaranty and sold for $925,000. It is the highest price paid for a Wagner card in this condition and the third highest recorded price ever paid for a baseball card of any kind. The top two are also Wagner cards; a near mint version that sold for $2.8 million in 2007 and an excellent condition copy that brought $1.62 million at auction last year.

Memory Lane brokered the sale between two unidentified east coast collectors. The owner had kept it in his personal collection for about ten years before deciding to sell.

The Wagner card's scarcity stems from the American Tobacco Company's decision to pull the card from production not long after its release in 1909. It's believed Wagner did not want early 20th century kids to have to buy packs of cigarettes to obtain his picture and demanded the card be removed from the now-iconic set of cards now cataloged as "T206". Long-time collectors and dealers believe that fewer than 100 T206 Wagner cards exist, perhaps no more than 60. The story behind the card and Wagner's status as a Hall of Famer have made it the most popular and desired card of all time.

"The sales price is just another indicator that the demand for Wagner cards is still much greater than the supply," said Memory Lane Inc.'s J.P. Cohen. "When one does come up for sale, there are usually collectors standing two or three deep waiting to buy it."

The Wagner card has also proven to be a great investment for those who have had the resources to purchase one. "It just keeps appreciating, " Cohen said. "This sale just continues the trend and proves the market for rare vintage baseball cards is alive and well."

The SGC 40 Wagner card exhibits better eye appeal than most of the Wagner cards that have been sold in recent years, without the heavy creasing that has accompanied some of them.

"The buyer said he has wanted one all his life and we're glad we were able to help him buy a very nice one," said Cohen.

The "Charlie Sheen" Honus Wagner card has sold at auction. The poor-fair condition T206 'holy grail' brought $399,500 for Robert Edward Auctions. The card was once stolen while on display at New York. It was part of actor Charlie Sheen's collection back then.

The REA sale also included the transfer of the rarest card in the set the Doyle "NY Nat'l" variation. It brought an astonishing $329,000. The card is rare because of the incorrect "Nat'l" designation on the front, later removed in subsequent printings. Less than ten are believed to still exist today.

Both sales were record-setting prices.

The following article appeared in an issue of The Sport Hobbyist, a popular collecting mailer of the time.

(T206 cards) were issued in three separate series which overlapped each other. The exact release dates are very difficult to determine but after considerable research, I find many instances wherein the approximate dates can be found. For instance, Wid Conroy was transferred from the New York American League Highlanders to the Washington Senators on Feb. 17, 1909. This date can be safely stated as being the earliest issue date of the 150 series since conroy is shown as a Washington player in the 150 series. Had these cards been issued prior to Feb. 17, 1909, Conroy would have worn a New York unfirom.

There are two identical cards for G. Brown; one in the 150 series with the ChicagoImage Cubs and the other in the 350 series with Washington. Brown switched teams on May 12, 1909 so it appears that the 150 series did not extend much beyond that datae.

On the other hand, Neal Ball was also shown with two teams. Cards with a 'New York' were issued in both the 150 and 350 series. Ball was sent from New York to Cleveland on May 17, 1909 which certainly shows that the change from the 150 series to the 350 series was made before May 17, 1909. This is proved conclusively in the case of Bad Bill Burns of the Chicago White Sox who came to them from Washington in a trade on May 16, 1909. The card for Burns was issued in the 350 series showing definitely that the series could not have started before May 16, 1909.

We arrive at near certain evidence that the change from the 350 series to theImage 350-460 series was made by the same manner of deduction. On October 27, 1909, Bill Dahlen was sent from the Boston Rustlers to the Brooklyn Superbas. There are two identical cards for Dahlen also. The Boston card was isued in both the 350 and the 350-460 series which proves nothing new except that the 350 series was still in circulation on Oct. 27.

The earliest date of issue for the 350-460 series must be Dec. 16, 1909 since on that day Lake and Demitt were traded by the New York Americans to the St. Louis Browns for Lou Criger. To substantiate that fact, Lake of St. Louis was issued in the 350 series as well as the 350-460 series so more correct data would be somewhere during the early part of 1910 since we have found that the 350 series was still being issued on Dec. 16, 1909.

The 350-460 series was being issued as late as April 6, 1910 as witness the case of Harry McIntire (errooneously spelled McIntyre on the card) of Brooklyn as well as the card stating Brooklyn and Chicago. McIntire changed from a Brooklyn uniform into one of Chicago's on April 6, 1910.

As we sum up our findings my opinion is that the 150 series began very soon after Feb. 17, 1909 and continued until May 16, 1909 when the 350 series started. The latter ended in 1910 when the 350-460 series began. If my memory serves me right, the last two series were put into the Piedmont (cigarettes), Sweet Caporl and other brands as late as 1911.

In addition to the McIntire misspelling, there were a few others also. Willett spelled Willetts. Another error was Doolin of the Phillies. There was a player by that name in the majors. He was Mike doolin. The 1907 Reach guide also misspelled the name so the cigarette people naturally figured there was a Doolin.

The Montgomery team is generally thought of as being in the South Atlantic League. However, they were members of the Southern Association from 1903 until 1914 and during the issuance of these cards.

Yes, minor league ballplayers were included in the T206 set.

Here's a copy of a newspaper ad that appeared in newspapers across the south promoting the Southern League players that were included in the T206 set.

The T206 Wagner card offered in Robert Edward Auctions' spring 2008 catalog sale was the very same card that was once owned by actor Charlie Sheen and it comes with quite a story.

Sheen, a noted baseball memorabilia collector, allowed the card to be displayed at the All Star Café in New York. In a plot worthy of a TV episode, many years ago the card was stolen from its display case by workers at the All Star Café, and replaced with a copy! When the theft was discovered, the thieves were soon caught, and the Wagner card was recovered by the FBI! The card is a low-grade example but a T206 Wagner is extremely valuable in any condition. It has a minimum bid of $50,000 and is expected to sell for in excess of $100,000.

The highlight of the two complete sets of T206 cards being offered by REA was one of the finest T206 White Border sets ever assembled, the seventh highest-graded T206 set on the PSA registry, a total of 520 cards with a grade point average of 5.65 (on a scale of 1-10), offered as a single lot, including four PSA NM-MT 8, seventy-one PSA NM 7, 277 PSA EX-MT 6, 163 PSA EX 5, four PSA VG-EX 4 (est. $100,000+, res. $50,000).

In addition to two sets of 1909-1911 T206 White Border tobacco cards, many other rarities from the set was presented for individual sale. These include four examples of the rare T206 Eddie Plank (one graded EX-MT 6 by PSA); five T206 Magie error cards; and numerous extremely high-grade T206 examples.

Phillip Weiss Auctions of New York sold a T206 Honus Wagner card for $826,000 at its most recent sports card and memorabilia auciton.

The card had not been in the sports collecting marketplace before. It is graded SGC 40--a mid to lower grade example, but still very respectable. The latest addition to the publicly known collection of most valuable baseball cards was expected to sell for at least $500-800,000. The final bid was $700,000. With the 18% buyer's premium, the final bid topped the pre-sale estimate, indicating that the vintage card market remains quite strong. The price, however, was about half of what a slightly better grade Wagner sold for last summer in a Mastro Auctions sale.

The Wagner card sold by Weiss generated over 40 bids with bidding live, by phone or eBay Live.

Yet another Wagner card, once the subject of a robbery at the All-Star Cafe several years ago, will be offered by Robert Edward Auctions next spring. It's been in the hands of a private collector and is graded PSA 1 (poor-fair).

The final realized price for the Wagner sold earlier this year was $1.62 million. The buyer was John Rogers, a collector from Arkansas. The card graded PSA 5. That was believed to be the second highest price ever paid for a baseball card.

As we mentioned, the T206 Wagner tops any list of the world's most valuable baseball cards.

Eddie Plank PSA 3 $52,638.83

Frank Chance (yellow back) PSA 9 $48,522.80

Bobby Wallace PSA 9 $48,522.80

Hughie Jennings PSA 9 $48,522.80

George Mullin PSA 10 $47,853.05

Walter Johnson PSA 9 $47,853

Ray Demitt PSA 7 $29,563

Rube Marquard SGC 96 $27,010

134 different with 31 Hall of Famers $10,812