Who is the person behind the item?
The person behind the item is Honus Wagner, sometimes known as “The Flying Dutchman,” a dead-ball-era baseball player universally known as one of the star players of all time. The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card manufacturer is the American Tobacco Company (ATC) as part of its T206 series from 1909 to 1911.
What makes this item so rare?
This item is so rare because Wagner himself asks to stop the manufacturing and release of this card.
It’s unclear why Wagner opposed the continuation of his sports memorabilia manufacturing. Perhaps he didn’t want youngsters to buy tobacco products to receive his card, or maybe he wanted more money from the ATC for it. In the end, the ATC stopped making the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card and just made the company give around 50 to 200 copies of cards to the general public (precise number unspecified).
How much is it worth today?
The T206 baseball card series has a long history as the most valuable card in baseball, and it has remained such for most of the hobby’s history. However, when one of these cards hit $3.12 million in 2016, the Wagners were surpassed in August by a one-of-a-kind card showcasing modern-day superstar Mike Trout, which hit $3.93 million, and a Mickey Mantle rookie card, which hit $5.2 million in January.
Wagner, a renowned Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop who played his final big league match in 1917 and was one of the first five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1936, now holds the record once more.
The auction, held by Robert Edward Auctions, began on July 23 with a $1 million reserve price, but the bidding swiftly surpassed it.
After just a $4 million bid on July 28 stalled for a while, the escalation started again as the deadline neared, the 26th and highest bid arriving just before midnight with a final price of $5,505,247.
Their official sale price rises to $6,606,296 when REA receives a 20% buyer’s premium.
The buyer, as well as the seller, remain nameless for the time being.
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