27 Highest Recorded Sales of Significant Baseball Cards At Public Auction
1) T206 Honus Wagner * PSA 8 NM-MT 1996 $640,500
2) T206 Honus Wagner * PSA 8 NM-MT 1991 $451,000
3) T206 Honus Wagner ** VG-EX 1998 $223,992
4) T206 Honus Wagner VG-EX with scratch 1992 $220,000
5) T206 Eddie Plank PSA 8 NM-MT 1999 $203,000
6) 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle #311 PSA 10 MINT 1997 $121,000
7) T206 Honus Wagner Very Good with slight miscut 1997 $119,310
8) 1941 Play Ball #71 Joe DiMaggio PSA 9 MINT 1999 $109,250
9) 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle PSA 10 MINT 1998 $104,500
10) 1933 Goudey #181 Babe Ruth PSA 9 MINT 1999 $100,050
11) 1933 Goudey #106 Nap Lajoie PSA 9 MINT 1998 $95,700
12) 1953 Topps #244 Willie Mays PSA 10 MINT 1999 $94,000
13) 1953 Topps #82 Mickey Mantle PSA 10 MINT 1998 $94,000
14) 1932 US Caramel Lindy Lindstrom EX with cancellation 1999 $92,000
15) 1933 Goudey #106 Nap Lajoie PSA 9 MINT 1999 $91,466
16) T206 Honus Wagner VG 1997 $90,460
17) 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle PSA 9 MINT 1999 $88,217
18) 1933 Sport King #2 Babe Ruth PSA 9 MINT 1999 $85,174
19) T206 Honus Wagner Proof Fair 1999 $85,000
20) 1952 Topps #1 Andy Pafko PSA 10 MINT 1999 $83,870
21) 1914 Babe Ruth Baltimore News EX 1999 $79,500
22) 1952 Bowman #101 Mickey Mantle PSA 10 MINT 1999 $74,911
23) 1951 Bowman #253 Mickey Mantle PSA 9 MINT 1999 $74,000
24) T206 Honus Wagner PSA 1 PR-FR 1999 $67,290
25) 1933 Goudey #106 Lajoie PSA 8 NM-MT 1999 $64,515
26) 1933 Goudey #106 Lajoie PSA 8 NM-MT 1998 $61,226
27) T206 Honus Wagner Poor 1993 $55,000

* Both of these sales represent the same T206 Wagner, the famous “Gretzky T206 Wagner,” which is offered in this auction.

** This card was graded “PSA 4 VG-EX” after being purchased at Christies in 1998. Newspaper accounts reported that after PSA grading, this card was purchased in a private transaction by Pacific Cards CEO Mike Cramer for his personal collection for $325,000.

Note: When this T206 Honus Wagner was first offered at public auction in 1991 by Sotheby’s as the centerpiece of the famous Jim Copeland Baseball Card Collection it sold for $451,000. In the very same auction, the T206 Plank, grading NM-MT, sold for $26,400. In June of 1999 a T206 Plank grading PSA 8 NM-MT was offered at public auction with a minimum bid of $50,000. As noted above, this card sold for $203,000 (or 7.6 times its 1991 value). In presenting this information (as well as the additional historical pricing information in the table above) Robert Edward Auctions is not suggesting to potential bidders that the Wagner card should be valued at a similar (or higher or lower) multiple of its 1991 value. Perhaps the “laws of gravity” work differently at such lofty levels. While most collectors and dealers involved in any way in the vintage baseball card marketplace are already well aware of all of the historical pricing information presented above and the tremendous appreciation in value of all high grade significant baseball cards over the past several years, the interest in this card may well extend beyond those who are already intimately familiar with the field. This information is presented by Robert Edward Auctions as a potentially significant reference source in recognition of the fact that accurate pricing of the hobby’s most important and desirable cards in the very highest grades (as evidenced by the above list) cannot truly be found in any price guide currently available.

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