This past weekend, a piece of cardboard approximately two-and-a-half inches by one-and-a-half inches sold for $5.124 million by Goldin Auctions. It was a Honus Wagner baseball card from the T206 set, previously owned by Dennis and Douglas Shields, brothers with Los Angeles and Marin connections.
Dennis lives in Los Angeles and Douglas lives in Inverness. Their nephew, Mathew Salter, lives in Ross.
The card, encapsulated by the PSA grading service with a grade of 1 (out of 10), is one of approximately 55 known examples of the T206 Honus Wagner. This decade, two higher-graded T206 Honus Wagners have sold for more: $6.6 million, and $7.25 million.
The T206 set was produced by the American Tobacco Company in 1909-11, and inserted in cigarette packs. Honus Wagner, the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop — who is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time — disliked that his image was being used to entice kids to try tobacco, and so asked that his card be withdrawn, leading to its scarcity, and legend.
Regarding the auction, Salter — speaking from a moment of downtime between his sons’ Little League and travel baseball practices — noted that his uncles were happy with the price. “The family was watching the auction, and were on a text string. We saw it going up, up, up.” Salter said the fact that the card has departed the family is, “bittersweet.”
When asked, he said that he and his immediate family are not direct participants in the proceeds, and he doesn’t know what his uncles, the Shields brothers, are going to do with the money. “Neither of them are big spenders.”
Everyone in the family was excited. “My kids can’t believe that a card can be worth that much. It’s hard to explain to them why their Shohei Ohtani cards aren’t worth anything near that.”
Mr. Salter said that the family is gratified that the card will forever be known in the sports card hobby as the Shields Wagner, as the PSA grading service label states abovethe card in its clear plastic slab: “Shields Family Collection” under “Honus Wagner.”
“I’m happy that the name will forever be associated with baseball history,” he said.
Bobby Michener, longtime owner of Diamond Sports Cards on Fourth Street in San Rafael, commented, “the card set a new record for that grade (PSA 1). It’s a solid price that will be encouraging to those who are auctioning off six-figure cards, which are filling auction house catalogues every cycle, for vintage and modern cards.”
Before the auction, Michener, who helps customers strategize about picking auction houses to sell their cards, estimated what the final price would be, and was accurate to within a few percentage points.
The publicity generated by the sale of the Shields Wagner has bled into the broader culture. Corte Madera resident, and T206 collector, Cris Taylor said that acquaintances not formerly interested in sports cards have called him up to marvel at the price of the Shields Wagner.
“People love this story because they think there might be one in their grandfather’s attic,” said Taylor. As person who loves baseball history, he’s tickled by thenotoriety. “It’s amazing to me that people are talking about Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, guys who played 120 years ago.”
Taylor estimates that a T206 Honus Wagner in a grade of 5 or 6 might command $12 – $15 million.
With private equity consortiums swooping in to invest in rare sports cards, prices continue to astound, with recent sales of a 1952 Mickey Mantle (graded SCG 7.5) for $750,000, a signed 1933 Babe Ruth card for $1.4 million, and a rookie card of football star Jim Brown (PSA 8.5) for $219,000.
Sports cards have settled alongside rare wine, coins, stamps, and comic books as investible commodities. Whether or not values continue to rise, or collapse — like Dutch tulip bulbs in the 17th Century, or Silicon Valley NFTs in the 21st — only time will tell.
Meanwhile, Salter said that this summer, he plans to take his kids to play in a travel baseball tournament in Cooperstown, New York, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, which has two iconic Wagner cards.
“It’s going to be so exciting to see a T206 Wagner in the Hall.”
