Baseball Card Auction Record

Bloomberg is reporting that a Honus Wagner, 1909 T206 card sold at auction for $2.1 million, an auction record for a baseball card. In 2008 there was a private sale of a mint condition Wagner card sold in a private sale for supposedly $2.8 million.

Bloomberg reports

A Honus Wagner trading card that the National Baseball Hall of Fame calls the sport’s “most famous collectible” sold yesterday for $2.1 million, a record for any baseball card at public auction.

Bidding on the 1909 T206 card of the shortstop closed yesterday at the price that includes a buyer’s premium, Goldin Auctions said in an e-mailed statement without identifying the purchaser. The price eclipses the $1.62 million the same T206 Wagner sold for in 2008, the previous record for a public sale of a card, according to the New Jersey-based company.

Also in the Goldin collection, a 2009 World Series ring that New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez gave his cousin Yuri Sucart sold for $50,398, according to the Goldin statement. The ring was one of many copies Rodriguez says he made.

Rodriguez said in 2009 that he used performance-enhancing substances as a member of the Texas Rangers and said Sucart helped him obtain and inject the drugs. Sucart is banned by Major League Baseball from the Yankees’ clubhouse, charter flights and other team-related activities.

Scarce Card

The Wagner card, graded Excellent 5 by Professional Sports Authenticator, is part of the T206 series released in 1909 by the American Tobacco Co. for distribution in cigarette packs. It’s known as the “Jumbo Wagner” because its dimensions are larger than most other T206 Wagner cards.

Source: Bloomberg