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Rare 1910 Joe Doyle error card may be more valuable than T206 Honus Wagner
The famous T206 Honus Wagner has for decades been considered the most rare trading card in the sports collectible hobby.
But Robert Edward Auctions has a T206 card in its Summer Catalog Auction that it says may be even more rare and possibly just as valuable.
The 1910 Piedmont Cigarettes T206 Joe Doyle N.Y. Nat’l Hands Above Head error card, graded SGC VG+ 3.5, has no more than 10 examples in existence, making it one of the rarest cards in the world. According to REA, it’s even more rare than the T206 Wagner card, which REA sold for a then-record $6.6 million in a SGC 3 grade in 2021.
REA’s Summer Auction opens July 24 and runs through Aug. 13.
”Slow” Joe Doyle played just five years in the major leagues (1906-10), compiling a 22-21 record with a 2.85 ERA in 75 games for the New York Americans, or the Highlanders, who later became the Yankees. But when the card was first printed, it listed Doyle as playing for the New York Nationals, who later became the Giants.
According to REA, the error was understandable: since Larry Doyle played for the New York Nationals, the manufacturer simply got the two players mixed up, which resulted in the error card. When the printer discovered the error early in the print run, rather than correcting the league designation on the card (changing it from “Nat'l” to “Amer.”), the league designation was simply removed entirely from the printing plate. Because the error was caught early, most Joe Doyle hands-above-head cards are identified only with “N.Y.,” hence the extreme rarity of the “N.Y. Nat'l” variation.
The card coming to auction had been owned by a North Carolina collector born in 1900 and passed down through his family for generations. According to REA, the collector “would roam the streets of his hometown, gathering cards from smokers, newspaper men, and fellow adolescents.” As a result, he amassed a collection of more than 1,000 tobacco cards, ranging from T205 Gold Borders, T206 White Borders, T209 Contentneas, and T210 Old Mill cards.
The cards were passed down through his family to his daughters and grand-daughters until it eventually wound up in the hands of his great-grandson, whose mother, ironically, was not only the granddaughter of the collector but a descendent of the founding family of the American Tobacco Company that produced the popular T206 cards.
According to REA, only one example of the card has been offered for public sale since 2017. That example, graded PSA 2, sold in 2022 for $1,030,047.
According to PSA, only seven examples of the card have surfaced in its population report, with one PSA VG 3 selling for $550,000.
