Honus Wagner has set another personal best. A Goldin Elite Auction from May 22 to May 23 has brought a gavel price of $3,751,500.00 for a T206 PSA 2 sample. The card was said to be new to the hobby and that price reflects the buyer’s premium. All in all, there were 23 bids in all after the first bid started at $1 million.

It has become undeniable that collectibles have matured into an alternative asset class. This record price for a Honus Wagner card should easily prove the point.

What should also stand out about this sale is that the PSA 2 with a Sweet Caporal back sale trumped the prior record held by the T206 Wagner that had been a $3.12 million sale by Goldin Auctions in 2016 for the so-called “Jumbo” Honus Wagner that is graded as a PSA 5. Goldin had also sold that exact same “Jumbo” Wagner for $2.1 million back in 2013.

If the price of the nicer sample has sold for less in the last, that only implies that the values would now be even higher if they came to auction.

Scarcity is what drives the value of the Honus Wagner in this instance. We’ll leave the debate up to you to decide if this was an anti-tobacco stance for kids or whether it was over a contract dispute with the American Tobacco company which created the scarcity here.

According to Goldin’s own auction site, it has been estimated that there have been less than 200 of the T206 Wagners printed and that there are less than 50 of the cards that have been graded. PSA counts just 33 base case graded samples of the T206 Honus Wagner, followed by 1 “+” graded sample and two qualifiers with the “Q” designation.

This now alters the order of the 15 most expensive sports cards ever sold, and that shall be updated momentarily.

Sports cards have seen a surge in prices in recent years, but the surge from 2020 into 2021 has also been followed some softer prices. That general softness did not pertain to the T206 Honus Wagner.

Some of that recent price softness in the sports card industry can be attributed to the reopening of the economy. Other factors have also played a role — a surge of interest in new cards, a market flooded with cards set for grading, big backups at the grading companies and even the rise of non-fungible tokens.

Below is a list of prior milestone prices paid for the famed T206 Honus Wagner:

• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA 3 for $3.70 million in 2020 via Heritage Auctions.
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA 3 for $3.25 million in 2020 via Mile High Card Company.
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA EX 5 (MC) dubbed the “Jumbo Wagner” for $3.12 million in 2016 via Goldin Auctions.
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA NM/MT 8 dubbed the “McNall/Gretzky Wagner” for $2.80 million in 2007 via SCP Auctions.
• T206 Honus Wagner SGC graded “A – Authentic” (Joe Garagiola’s Wagner) for $2.52 million in 2021 via Heritage Auctions.
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA NM/MT 8 for $2.35 million in 2007 in a private sale (pre-Gretzky).
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA 1.5 for $2.28 million on May 8, 2021 via Heritage Auctions.
• T206 Honus Wagner Card PSA EX 5 (MC) dubbed the “Jumbo Wagner” for $2.11 million in 2013 via Goldin Auctions.

What buyers should already know is that it is not routine for a T206 Honus Wagner to come up for auction. When they come up for sale, records are broken and the sports collectibles industry gets another feather in its cap for collectors and investors alike.