Revered Honus Wagner Card Sells for Record-Breaking $7.25M

In 1908, Honus Wagner became the first baseball player to make a $10,000 salary. Now his card is breaking another record — at a slightly higher amount.

A T206 Wagner card, perhaps the most revered among all sports cards, sold for a record $7.25 million through a private sale run by Goldin. 

• The sale breaks the previous record for an individual trading card of $6.6 million, also for a T206 Wagner card.
• There are fewer than 50 authenticated T206 Wagner cards in existence, according to Goldin.

“The vintage card market remains incredibly strong and is continuing to grow,” Goldin founder and executive chairman Ken Goldin told Front Office Sports. “This is because supply of these iconic cards are so rare and because they are a part of not only American sports but American history.”

The record may not last long. A mint condition 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, purchased in 1991 for $50,000 is currently up for auction at Heritage Auctions. The bidding was up to $6.1 million as of Friday. The auction, which ends on Aug. 27, is expected by many to top $10 million. 

Collecting Cash

A report last month from Market Decipher estimated the total sports memorabilia market at $26.1 billion in 2021, with trading cards accounting for around $12.5 billion of that sum.

Ken Goldin told FOS in January that he expected to host $500 million in transactions on his platform this year, compared to $330 million last year and $100 million in 2020.