Auctions
Sale of controversial, restored T206 Honus Wagner card could set new precedent in hobby
The hobby has a handful of rare, ultra-valuable sports cards that are highly coveted by every collector.
The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle recently held the record for the all-time biggest sale at $12.6 million and draws big dollars in any condition. Babe Ruth’s 1914 Baltimore News Rookie has always held the attention of deep-pocket collectors, while Michael Jordan’s 1986 Fleer Rookie has been one of the most sought-after cards of the past three decades.
And now there are a host of modern, 1-of-1 auto patch gems that are setting records, including the 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Jordan/Kobe Bryant Dual NBA Logoman that now holds the sales record at $12.9 million and a 2026 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani Gold Logoman that just sold for $11 million.
But there is still only one holy grail.
Only one iconic card that stands alone on the mountain top of the most coveted cards in the hobby.
The rare 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner makes high-end collectors salivate and sends hobby enthusiasts dashing to any exhibit where it is displayed. Its legend has been told through books, movies and pop-culture references.
“This has been a card people have been chasing after for more than 100 years. This legend has gone on for more than 100 years,” said Al Crisafulli, the founder and auction director of Love of the Game Auctions. “No other card can match that. This is a card that you can talk about to people who are not in the hobby and they know what you are talking about. I don’t think any card will ever become as important as that one.”
“It’s the original,” said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions. “It is certainly on Mount Rushmore of the hobby. I think the T206 Wagner will always be a symbol of the holy grail for the hobby.”
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There are less than 70 copies of the 117-year-old card known to exist and most have a long, winding and fascinating tale.
There were three on display at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago and one has such an unusual and controversial history that it is creating quite a buzz in the hobby.
The mysterious “Die-Cut Wagner,” which has been graded Authentic Restored by CGC, is up for bid at Love of the Game Auctions through Aug. 8. It was on display at the CGC booth at The National.
The infamous card, which has a current bid of $1.1 million, has been almost completely restored and has sparked a debate over whether restored or reconstructed cards are legitimate collectibles and whether they should be sold.
“Once we started researching it and discovered this Die-Cut Wagner, it became really obvious that that was the card. And when we brought it here to CGC, they verified it and we knew, this is really a controversial card,” Crisafulli said. “It’s pretty amazing and beautiful. It’s a gorgeous card and it’s obviously going to have everybody talking about it, so it’s probably a good time to put it up to auction while everybody is talking about it.”
Memory Lane Inc. had a T206 Wagner card graded PSA Fair 2 on display at The National and had a steady flow of collectors stopping by to take a look and snap photos.
Heritage Auctions has a Wagner graded SGC Authentic with “evidence of trimming” in its Summer Platinum Night Sports Auction. It, too, has an amazing background.
The Heritage card is one of just three examples with the Piedmont back instead of the typical Sweet Caporal advertising. None of the Piedmont cards were officially released because they were considered printer’s scraps—instead of factory cut—thus the trimming designation.
Ivey says it’s origin and the trimming designation “makes it a little bit more interesting.”
“We know it was in the factory, and it has a little bit of that ghosting overlay from where it was wet and another card was over it,” he said.
It also has had only two owners. It had been with the original owner and his family until it was consigned to auction in 2000.
“That’s when the current owner picked it up and it’s only been with the original family and the current owner, so whoever wins this auction will be only the third owner,” Ivy said. “It is a bit unique that we know the provenance all the way back to when it originally came into the hobby.”
It also comes with a historic letter from noted collector Charles Bray, a hobby pioneer who was considered the first full-time baseball card dealer. In the 1958 letter, Bray was offered $25 for the card.
The Heritage card has an estimate of $4 million-plus, but Ivey believes it has a good shot to surpass that.
The Restored card at Love of the Game Auctions has an even more fascinating and controversial background.
RESTORATION PROJECT
Though no one really knows where the card originated, the LOTG card initially surfaced in a New Jersey card shop in 1975, where the owners bought it for $1. The owners then advertised the card in SCD in 1976 and sold it to young collector Rob Lifson for $200.
Lifson kept the card for a while before selling it to Richard Gelman, the son of Topps card director Woody Gelman, for $500. Richard kept it in his collection for a while before consigning it to REA and selling it for $12,000 in 1996.
Around the same time, longtime collector and ESPN sportscaster Keith Olberman became interested in card restoration and sent a card to be restored by a paper conservator who had restored other cards.
“The work was so impressive that he suggested that they do a high-profile card,” Crisafulli said. “So, the guy told him, ‘I have a lead on a Wagner, I can get a Wagner.’ So, Keith was ready and said, ‘let’s do it.’”
It took a few years for the conservator to restore the card, but when Olbermann finally picked it up, he was astonished by the work.
“He brings the card home and says, ‘My god, it is beautiful,’” Crisafulli said.
Olbermann eventually bought the card, paying for the card and the restoration.
“He had never seen the card, which makes the story even better,” Crisafulli said. “He bought the idea of having a restored Wagner. That’s kind of what he paid for.”
The original Wagner was so damaged that the entire background of the card, along with its three borders, had been trimmed away. All that remained was the head and torso that formed a silhouette of the familiar image of Wagner. The back of the card was also missing.
After being completely refurbished, the card had strong eye appeal. It is well-centered with the corners lightly worn and a few minor surface creases and blemishes. The background fades from yellow to orange near the bottom and the reverse features the Sweet Caporal advertisement a bit off-center.
Olbermann would eventually own three Wagners but the restored card was his first. He was so impressed by the restoration that he wanted to know more about how the conservator had reconstructed it. But he was suddenly unable to locate him.
“He reaches out to try to get in touch with the conservator and he has vanished, disappeared like a ghost,” Crisafulli said. “He says, ‘I don’t know what I have here.’ It’s crazy.”
Olbermann kept the restored card in a Lucite screw-down holder and “used it like it like an expensive paperweight” for the next 30 years.
“At one point he owned three Wagners and this one sort of became, until just recently, sort of an afterthought in his collection,” Crisafulli said. “He didn’t know what it was.”
“The objective here was not, ‘let’s make an undetectable Wagner; the objective here was, ‘let’s restore a high-profile baseball card and then show the hobby, ‘look at what paper conservators can do to a card,’” Crisafulli said. “In that respect, it’s a great example of a before-and-after because it such a dramatic before-and-after.”
THE CONTROVERSY
For decades card doctoring has been considered taboo and has at times been an epidemic in the hobby, with unscrupulous dealers selling trimmed and altered cards without disclosing the restoration. That may be changing with the “Die-Cut” Wagner.
“To be able to sell a card with full disclosure and still have the card be as high profile as this card has been is what everyone is talking about,” Crisafulli said. “Bidding is over $1 million now—the hobby is willing to accept the disclosure and they are willing to accept this work.
“The card obviously has an amazing story that goes with it and that’s part of what people are bidding on. But it shows me the hobby is willing to accept restoration that has been disclosed.”
Crisafulli hopes the sale of the card encourages dealers and sellers to disclose any doctoring, trimming or restoration to a card.
“Hopefully that sends a message to people that if you are restoring cards, disclose it. There’s still value there,” he said. “It’s not worth what a natural, uncut Wagner in that condition would be worth. That card, if that was natural and untouched, that’s probably a $40 or $50 million card, but the money that it is going for now is still real money. I think it speaks volume as to where the hobby has gotten to and where collectors have gotten in terms of their willingness to accept that kind of thing.
“To me, this isn’t so much a referendum on whether or not restoration is acceptable. The restoration is already done on this card. We can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, this happened 30 years ago. But what it does show me is that with full disclosure … the hobby is still accepting of it and willing to pay money.”
But what of the critics and collecting purists who frown at the sale.
“We totally understand that. We’re not trying to change anybody’s opinion; we are trying to sell a card as it is and, let the hobby decide where it is going to value that card,” Crisafulli said.
Some of the hobby’s leading card experts believe Crisafulli is right and that the sale of the restored card could set a new precedent in the hobby.
“It’s an interesting story and amazing that they can do a restoration job that looks that good,” Ivy said. “It’s an opportunity for someone to own a unique Wagner with its own story. I think a lot of collectors don’t like altered or restored cards, obviously, but then again, there’s a lot of people that can’t afford what authentic Wagners are going for.”
“I think people are so desperate to have something that is that rare in a PSA slab,” Goldin founder and CEO Ken Goldin said.
Goldin, for example, owns a complete set of T206 cards, but does not own a Wagner.
“So, somebody like me, I’m like, ‘you know something, I’m going to check something off my bucket list and complete my T206 set,” he said.
Goldin believes the sale of the restored card may persuade other owners of damaged or poor-condition Wagner cards to consider the same approach.
“I think that whoever owns that ripped in half card is probably looking at this to see what the final price is and saying, ‘you know something, I might make a whole card of mine too,’” he said.
Crisafulli hopes the sale sets a positive example for the hobby.
“I think restoration has a place, but I think it has to be openly disclosed,” he said. “I think once you start to get into that slippery weird area where you are doing work on a card and you are not letting the buyer know what they are buying, there is dishonesty involved there and there is fraud there, and that’s a problem. But if everybody is aware … what we have here is a card that was deteriorating and clearly very, very damaged and we were able to bring it back to a condition where it’s beautiful and restore that life to it that it had when it was made.”
He is not surprised the card has already topped $1 million.
“First of all, the card is beautiful. Second of all, the story is amazing,” he said. “How many Wagners are out there that you can tell the story? It’s a graded card, but how many of them do you know that has a real memorable, awesome story. This is one of the ones that has an awesome story.
“What card is more controversial? Right now, this is one of the most famous cards in the hobby and there is a very strong market for that combination of things in this hobby.”
Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD.
