Saturday, April 21, 2012

Holy Grail For Sale

Honus Wagner card sells for $1.23 million


By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor

An SGC 40 specimen of the hobby’s most-famous baseball card sold for more than a million dollars on Friday morning at auction.

It’s a Honus Wagner T206 tobacco card (Sweet Caporal back), and it sold for $1,232,466.34 after 14 bids through St. Louis-based Goodwin & Co.

According to Beckett sales data for the card, a PSA 8 was sold for a record $2.8 million in 2007. A PSA 2 typically sells for $500,000 or less, but with an estimated total of just 50 known to exist — many of those in worse condition — there aren’t too many alternatives for a prospective buyer when one comes to market. This is just the fifth time Beckett has tracked a sale of more than $1 million for the card (in any condition).

This one blasted prices previously paid for cards in similar condition as a GAI 3.5 (Very Good+) sold for $456,057 through Mastro Auctions in late 2005.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

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