The Honus Wagner Card

Considered the “Mona Lisa” of baseball card collectors, the T-206 Honus Wagner is the most sought after baseball card to ever be printed. One card, sold over ebay, netted over a million dollars for the lucky seller, making it one of the most valuable cards in history. Mention Honus Wagner to any baseball card enthusiast and watch their eyes light up. Average baseball fans, especially younger ones, probably won’t be familiar with the name, and they almost certainly won’t know that he was a .322 slugger and superb fielder for the Pittsburg Pirates. Baseball fans who can't afford a $1m baseball card can still show their love for a classic player with a framed Honus Wagner photo, or a cool replica Honus Wagner card.

But what makes the original card so special?

The T-206 series was created by the American Tobacco Company in 1906. This now-legendary set was made up of collector-friendly, color-tinted cards and featured some of the greatest players of the era, including Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Wagner himself. All of these cards are rare and today just about the only way for a new collector to get their hands on a Ty Cobb card is as a replica. Wagner was a tremendous athlete and a superstar in his time, but the allure of the card comes from the adamant refusal of Wagner to allow his image to be used on the ATC’s products. Wagner was violently against the entire tobacco industry and had no desire to be associated with there products. Wagner’s refusal was documented in an issue of The Sporting News. He requested his card be taken out of the T-206 set soon after the set’s creation. American Tobacco pulled the card. The card immediately became one of the first rare collectors’ items and one of the most intriguing stories in sports memorabilia history. By the 1930s, the price of the other cards in the T-206 averaged around thirty-five cents, according to American Card Catalogue; by contrast, the Wagner card was priced at a then-staggering $50. Just an indication of what was to come of the king of cards.