BVG 1 Wagner Eclipses $317K, Smashes Records

May 5 2008 9:54AM

The legendary T-206 Honus Wagner card once again flexed its considerable muscle this weekend when the BVG 1 example from the "Beckett T-206 Find" commanded top dollar at a Robert Edward Auction that concluded Saturday night.

The Wagner, the cornerstone card of the 546-card T-206 find, sold for a staggering $317,250 – the highest price ever realized for a low-grade card example (besting the previous record by nearly $125,000). The sale also beat the record for a Grade 2 Wagner, which had previously been $294,337 in December 2006.

"Last year a Grade 8 Wagner sold for $2.8 million – that's more than the salary of any player on this year's Florida Marlins," said Beckett Media president Peter Gudmundsson. "The fact that a card on the low side of the grading spectrum still earned over a quarter of a million dollars is remarkable. The card continues to grow in value, no matter what. The Wagner card is a true piece of Americana that seems completely impervious to economic whims."

In 1979, when Beckett published its first Baseball Price Guide, the Wagner card in Mint Condition was valued at $4,800. A low-grade card would have been valued at approximately $900. The value of the card has steadily climbed in the three decades since, never once posting a decrease in value in recorded sales or in the annual Price Guide.

"The T-206 doesn't mark the birth of the sports trading card, but it comes close" said Dave Sliepka, manager of Beckett Select Auctions, who oversaw Saturday's auction on behalf of the seller. "Baseball cards date back to the 1880s. But the T-206 set has become the iconic set of those early years – and it can be argued that it really launched the mainstream sports trading card hobby. Combine that with scarcity -- there are only 50-60 known Wagner cards on the planet -- and the set has become strangely mythical."

According to Sliepka, the Wagner card that sold on Saturday has an especially unique backstory. It was among a new find of 546 T206 cards which the owner, a non-collector, had brought into Beckett Grading Services' Dallas headquarters in December 2007. Since the seller wishes to remain anonymous, the collection has come to be known as "The Beckett T206 Find."

The cards had originally belonged to the grandfather of the seller. The seller had inherited the cards from his father 20 years ago, who had in turn inherited the collection from his father 15 years prior. He was searching his house for things to sell, as he had fallen on hard times, when he remembered his grandfather's baseball cards, which had been stored in a box in the attic of his home, untouched for decades. Throughout all these years, no one in the family had given the cards any thought, especially with reference to value, and they remained all but forgotten. After the cards were submitted for authentication and grading, Beckett Grading Services immediately made him very aware of the great significance and value of the find.

You can review the complete results of the Robert Edward Auction event by clicking here.