Rare Piedmont T206 Honus Wagner Sells for $5.856 Million at Heritage Auctions
One of just three known Piedmont-backed T206 Honus Wagner cards has sold for $5,856,000 at Heritage Auctions, turning one of the hobby’s rarest Wagner variations into another multimillion-dollar sale.
The SGC Authentic card closed Friday night during Heritage’s Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. The $5.856 million price includes Heritage’s buyer’s premium and easily cleared the auction house’s pre-sale estimate of $4 million and up. The 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner was already unusual even by Wagner standards. While virtually all known examples of the famous card have Sweet Caporal advertising backs, Heritage says only three Piedmont-backed examples are known.
That group includes the celebrated Gretzky/McNall Wagner, which became the first trading card encapsulated by PSA. The example sold Friday therefore belongs to an exceptionally small subset of what is already one of the most famous rarities in sports collecting.
SGC assigned the card an Authentic designation because of evidence of trimming. Heritage noted that all three known Piedmont Wagners began as printer’s scrap rather than factory-cut cards. The card retains rounded corners and scattered creasing, along with a faint image of another subject “ghosted” across Wagner’s portrait.
Its provenance also provides a remarkable look at how differently baseball cards were valued nearly 70 years ago. Included with the card is an April 17, 1958 letter from early baseball card dealer Charles Bray offering $25 for the Wagner if it was in clean, undamaged condition. The original postmarked envelope and a related flyer accompany the card. Bray ultimately did not purchase it.
“I have your letter regarding your collection of cards. The Honus Wagner card Pittsburgh Pirates National is worth $25 in good clean undamaged condition. In the same series (Piedmont) there is also a Wagner Boston American. This card is not Hans Wagner of the National League. The two players are sometimes confused. I would also pay $10 for Plank Phila Athletics. The rest of the cards are common. I will be glad to make an offer for the lot if you will send them for examination. Sincerely, Charles Bray.”
About 25 years ago, the family of the card’s original owner placed it and roughly 500 other tobacco cards into an auction, where the current consignor acquired it. Heritage said Friday night’s sale represented only the Wagner’s second appearance at auction.
The $5.856 million result also moves well beyond another major Wagner sale earlier this year. Heritage sold the SGC Authentic “Garagiola Wagner” for $3.599 million in its Winter Platinum Night auction, a price the company described at the time as a record for an Authentic-graded example.