Most Expensive Baseball Card

Most Expensive Baseball Card

Updated: On Monday, February 26, 2007 it was reported that a 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card, formerly owned by Wayne Gretzky, sold for $2.35 million US to an anonymous Southern California collector. This makes the card the most expensive baseball card ever purchased.

Originally issued as novelties for baseball fans and as a marketing technique by tobacco dealers, baseball cards have grown into a large industry of vintage collectors and resellers and new market dealers. They are available in most toy and big-box chain stores such as Target, across the nation at independent storefronts and through vendors online.

A relatively volatile market, the baseball card industry has prominent pieces that have and likely will always be quite valuable, but has seen instability in the last two decades. In the 1980s, a market of reselling vintage cards developed, and soon became oversaturated with newly issued and reissued cards as card makers and collectors alike sought to cash in on these hot commodities. It became quickly apparent that the majority of cards have little or no value in a resale market, and specially issued rarities were included in sets to entice buyers into purchasing bulk packages in the hopes of finding that gold nugget. While effective at generating sales, many of these specially issued cards lacked a rarity or even a demand that would be necessary to keep artificially inflated prices high for long. Even so, the card collecting industry, which has expanded beyond baseball and even sports in general, remains vibrant.

 Honus Wagner T206

This may lead one to ask, what is most expensive baseball card in the world? Since the 1980s, the Honus Wagner T206 white-rimmed tobacco baseball card has been regarded as the most-highly sought after baseball card available. Issues in 1 in a run limited to about 60 cards, several are still on the market, and one was purchased on eBay for $1.27 million USD in July 2000 making it quite possibly the world’s most expensive baseball card. Wagner prevented his image from being used on tobacco cards produced in later years, hoping not to encourage kids to smoke.

Similarly lauded baseball cards include the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card, regarded to be worth over $300,000, virtually any card featuring Babe Ruth (his oversized 1914 Baltimore News card the prize of the bunch) or other legendary baseball icons such as Shoeless Joe Jackson.

The Honus Wagner card is considered so valuable that it may be worth a second check through your grandparent’s old collection and a trip to your local card shop, even a severely damaged Wagner card would potentially sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

27 replies on “Most Expensive Baseball Card”

  1. Extravagance « shofar, so good
    says:

    […] the collectors among us: the priciest stamp, baseball card, comic book, even […]

  2. sticky fingers
    says:

    who on earth would be stupid enough to spend three mill on a piece of cardboard that doesnt even have a definitive value

    1. the illuminati 🙂

  3. What a good deal only 2.35 Million

  4. xenonphon
    says:

    wwweeeee i threw my pants out the window and kyles baseball coach ate his jerseys

  5. I actually held that card! WooHoo!

  6. I have over 200 cards easily that are aged and want to find out the value of these cards.

    Can you help me?

  7. LMAO! That’s so sick!!

  8. imagine what I could do with that money

  9. my opinion is what a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere but to each his own… want to buy my baseball cards?! seriously. i might have some golden oldies but don’t know whats valuable and whats not.

  10. my dad has 2 of those cards and peed his pants when i told him now i liv in a high top house in the hills life is good my friends

  11. If he didn’t like being associated with tabacco why did they make reprints of this card in 1995?

  12. HOLY CRAP MY FRIEND HAS 1 of these cards it blows my mind he doesnt want to sell it

  13. Thats great, I have the exact replica of that same card. I have it framed and on the wall in the den.. =) I wonder how much mines worth.

    1. Its worth nothing… You say '' Exact replica '' therefore it is not the real product… SUCKER!!! x D

  14. Dental Jobs
    says:

    I never really understood the whole baseball card phenominem, lucky if you owned a few expensive ones though

  15. rc10024b5
    says:

    I am a collector. would love to find a card like that!

    1. Ill sell it to you if you want to?

    2. legoandsprit
      says:

      If I print an image of it I found off of Google, will you pay me?

  16. It seems funny to me that lots of you "have" this card because there are only twenty six in the world.

    1. THANK YOU!!! Everyone saying they have it are so lying
      And most of the 26 cards are owned by rich people or in museums

  17. OMG! im holding it right now i bout to fant $1.27 million is mine im only 12

  18. I had 26 of those cards. i sold em all and now im freakin rich!

  19. This is soooo funny, more then like 20 people have claimed that they '' Own this card '' Meanwhile there are only 30 produced in the entire world. And half of them are in crap condition and the other half you can barley see any of it. There is only 1 in the world that can actually be worth 2.35 million dollars, and that is due to it being in perfect condition.

  20. Cody Stiles
    says:

    Gee I could use some spending cash. Who wants to buy my box of 1909 baseball cards my grandpa left me in his will?