The T206 set from 1909 to 1911 and the N172 set from 1887 to 1890 are the largest sets that vintage baseball players can chase. That does not mean, even with that ultra-rare and multi-million-dollar T206 Honus Wagner card, that their cards are the most scarce of all vintage baseball card sets. Many regional issues after the turn of the century are gems that were kept locally within tobacco, candy, food and other promotions.

One set that is extremely difficult to ever put together is the 1910 D322 Tip Top Bread set from Ward Bakery due to a low population of each card — and with a focus on Pittsburgh it has a rare Honus Wagner card that will lure many T206 buyers without having to pay the all-time record. Most vintage collectors would want to own cards from this set, but it is pricey and the reality is that there just aren’t that many cards to go around.

Jefferson Burdick’s code of D322 is a set issued by a bread maker (Ward) that highlighted the reigning World Series Champions. It was issued in 1910 and the 1-13/16″ by 2/3/8″ makes it much more of a square card issue than compared to the T206 and other tobacco and candy sets. At least some of the T206 art will look look familiar here in this set, and the Ward (and Ward_Mackey) issuances would resurface with other vintage card sets.

It has already been shown how the T206 cards don’t have to break the bank but the D322 cards are all expensive individually.

As for the 1910 issuance, the cards were meant to celebrate the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates for their season and World Series victory. The images are visually different in their presentation of vivid pastel colors of a player’s painting, with each card including their last name and “World Champions” on the front within the traditional while borders that were common to the era. The back of each card says “ROOT FOR TIP-Top BREAD”.. “”AND THE PIRATES” above the note that there are 25 of the most prominent members.

While most sets of the era featured players and a few managers, this set included Fred Clarke as manager and captain. It also included one card for Barney Dreyfuss (President) and William H. Locke (Sect.). Honus Wagner is by far the most sought after card of the 1910 D322 issue, and there are many other players whose last names will be recognized by T206 players — Leach, Miller, Camnitz, Leifield, Abbaticchio, and others. The 24th card of the set is the “Tip Top Boy” (mascot) card and the 25th card of the set was an aerial painting of Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field looking from beyond the outfield walls toward home plate. This last card was visually stunning and was not a common issue even for regional card sets.

The Ward-Mackey Company was the printed card issuer name on the bottom of the back, but what is interesting here is that there may at one point have been many of these sets in and around the Pittsburgh market. The back of the card says (after the checklist):

Save 50 labels from TIP-TOP BREAD and secure this entire series (25 cards) free.

Ward Bakery issued multiple sets of cards, but the issuance of the Honus Wagner card at a time that the T206 American Tobacco Company had to pull its issuance, helps to make this solidified in vintage card collecting history.

And despite the entire set being up for redemption with just 50 bread labels, the cards are quite rare considering that the set may have been relatively easy to acquire. After looking at the concentration of graded examples of each card there is one thing that stands out. These cards may have been kept in sets prior to the wheeling and dealing days of card shows, and then again with the rise of auction houses, eBay and the like.

SGC’s total graded population of Tip-Top baseball cards is just 603 cards in entirety, with 31 of those as Honus Wagner cards. The largest concentration of graded cards is about 25 on average per player. The two most rare cards are the boy mascot (7) and Ham Hyatt (19).

PSA’s total population report is even smaller at 427 graded card examples. The boy mascot is the most rare at only 11 graded examples, and Honus Wagner’s 32-count of graded examples is the largest population. Did recipients of this set discard the lesser known cards?

With 63 cards graded of Honus Wagner between SGC and PSA (assuming these figures are accurate (from cross-grading), this “Wagner” is a rarity similar to the T206 in total graded population. Still, the artwork of the Tip-Top Wagner is very similar (based on the same photo) to the T206 Wagner with a similar background and a very similar pose. The key difference is that the wider card base here allows for more of Honus’s arms to be seen. (Image provided by Heritage Auctions)

The PSA set registry showed that there was one complete set of the D322 Tip Top Bread issue. It sold back in 2010 (see below) and it has a twist. It looks as though that set has been dismantled (see below).

Heritage Auctions has a Honus Wagner SGC 3 up for auction starting October 28, 2021 and its auction estimate is $12,000 on up. Heritage sold a PSA 5 graded example of the Honus Wagner card on Feb. 27, 2021 for $75,000 after 39 bids. While other partial sets have sold on Heritage, the only complete set on the PSA registry that had sold in August of 2010 went for $71,700 even a decade ago.

Where the Honus Wagner card for this D322 gets real interesting is that the same PSA 5 (same grading serial number) that was housed within the set is that the same PSA 5 sold for $75,000 on Feb. 27, 2021 and then again for $85,200.00 via Goldin Auctions on Aug. 11, 2021.

That same exact graded example (PSA cert#16890381) is now coming up for fractional ownership with a $100,000 initial offering via Rally Rd. This is just one of 3 examples with that grade and there are none higher.

As for what other publishers have said about this set and the Wagner card in general, here are some:

• Pre-War Cards (Oct. 10, 2016)
• Sports Collectors Daily (May 11, 2017)

It should be noted that this same exact PSA 6 graded example has switched hands quite a few times. The same PSA certification number has sold more than once outside of the instances above. The PSA 5 sold for $40.590.00 via Goldin Auctions on December 13, 2020, after having sold for $27,000 via Robert Edward Auctions on May 6, 2018 — and previously out of Heritage for $23,900.00 back in August of 2011.

A competing PSA 5 (cert#16172097) sold for $84,998.40 via Memory Lane, Inc. on June 11, 2021 in that Newman Auction which had the record Babe Ruth sale.

It will be interesting to see how this card sale progresses at the $100,000 mark considering that no single D322 card has ever sold for $100,000. That set from a decade earlier appears to have been dismantled, and putting together a rekindled set of these cards is now going to be far more expensive and require far more patience than it did in the past. Many of these cards are locked up in private collections and may not come to light for years.

(D322 complete set image provided by Heritage Auctions)