1911 T206 Honus Wagner Card

[detroitpistons]

By: Peyton Lombardo or "detroitpistons"

When Honus Wagner comes to mind, many, if not most, of all baseball card collectors immediately think of the 1911 T206 Honus Wagner. They think about the possessor of one of these cards at one time, Mr. Gretzky. They think about Wayne’s card’s value (it was sold for $2.8 million at an auction in 2007). Many don’t think about the “Flying Dutchman” himself but the extremely valuable card he’s featured on.
Also, many do not understand the value of this card. There had only been 57 ever produced. The main reason this card is so valuable is because these were the last cards Mr. Wagner was ever featured on. He halted anymore production of cards featuring him because of either two theories. He wanted more compensation for the American Tobacco Company or he didn’t want children to have to buy cigarette packs to get his card.
If you had that kind of money, would you actually buy the “Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner” card? You could spend it on your children’s college fund, a new house, a car, and many, many other things before that huge sum of money came to end. Many would love to have this card in their hands if they had the money, while others think it's a huge waste of money, and the money could be used for much better things. Either way, the T206 Honus Wagner card is the most valuable card out there.

[Jesse011]

It's different for a guy with Gretzky's money. If I was to buy the card it would mean giving up much more than anything I have financially, but for a guy like that it's probably 5% of what he has in his savings account.

At his level it's about prestige and having "the best". For $2.8 million he gets mentioned every time that card is so I guess for him it's well worth it!

[booyahlaw]

If you want to read a great book on this very subject, read The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True History of Baseball's Most Desired Card by Michael O'Keefe.

[nbatoppspoker]

hi

so what is the verdict with the cobb/edwards t206 wagner, are they going to do
more test to see if its legit/real or are they just waiting for offers?

[booyahlaw]

hi

so what is the verdict with the cobb/edwards t206 wagner, are they going to do
more test to see if its legit/real or are they just waiting for offers?

You know, since I read the book and saw the ESPN story, I have not heard anything about Cobb/Edwards. I tend to fall on the side of believing the card is a well-crafted fake. I find it suspect that they will not let the card out of their hands to let PSA grade it. I think they are trying to kick up enough dust to promote the card into the hands of a buyer before its authenticity is completely disputed.

Also, some of the facts of Cobb/Edwards acquisition story seems dubious at best.

[RichSlyFox14]

btw, the card is from 1909 not 1911