Honus Wagner Card Sets Record with $6.6M Sale

A T206 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $6.6 million on Monday, making it the most expensive sports trading card ever.  

Bids for the card opened on July 23 at $1 million and closed at $5.5 million, with a 20% buyer’s premium tacked onto the final sale price. 

The record-breaking card surpassed Alt Fund II’s purchase of a 51% stake in a 2009 Stephen Curry autographed National Treasures rookie card at a $5.9 million valuation last month.  

The sale also beat out a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card that sold for $5.2 million in January. A 2003-04 Upper Deck LeBron James autographed rookie card fetched the same price in April. 

The highly coveted Wagner card’s condition was the driving force behind its price tag. 

“There’s only about 60 of these,” Brian Dwyer, president of Robert Edward Auctions told ESPN. “Most are rated poor, authentic, or good, at best. It’s one of the best examples available.” 

The rapidly growing sports trading card market is projected to reach $98.75 billion by 2027. 

• Topps, a producer of sports cards, went public in April via merger with Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp II, a blank-check company, at a $1.3 billion valuation. 
• Goldin Auctions is being sold to Collectors Holdings — owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen — for an undisclosed sum. Goldin generated more than $100 million in revenue in 2020. 

Both the seller and buyer of the T206 Honus Wagner card prefer to remain anonymous.