Nuns auctioning holy grail of baseball cards
Update: The card sold for $262,000.
By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor
The Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame received an unexpected gift – 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card.
Yep, the Holy Grail of cards.
The card is being auctioned off to raise proceeds to support the Roman Catholic order worldwide, according to The Associated Press.
Although the Wagner card is not in great condition with a crease on the upper right hand corner and obvious flaws, the card is expected to sell for more than $150,000. It’s being auctioned off by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas.
“The T206 set is known as ‘The Monster’ among collectors. It’s just really tough to complete the entire set,” Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage told the AP. The Wagner card is “one of those that’s always sought-after, always desirable, and there’s not a big population of them. Even in a lower grade, they do have quite a bit of demand and command a strong price.”
The Sisters received the card when a brother of one of the nuns died in 1999. The card was in a safety deposit box with a typewritten note: “Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!”
A near-mint T206 Wagner card sold for $2.8 million in 2007, the highest price ever paid for a baseball card. Considering the condition of the current card, it won’t sell for that much, but the auction has gained tremendous publicity already.
The auction is set to end Nov. 4 and as of Wednesday afternoon, the Wagner card is at $65,000 with more than 11,000 page views.
You can view the auction here.
“The money that we receive from this card will be used for the many School Sisters of Notre Dame who are around the world, who need support for their ministries for the poor,” Sister Virginia Muller said.
Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.
great card 150,ooo id go with 200,ooo