PITTSBURGH, Pa. ( WKBN )- A baseball card of a Pittsburgh Pirates legend has just been bought for millions.
According to him Pittsburgh Post GazetteHonus Wagner’s 1909-1911 card T206 sold for $7.25 million as part of Goldin Auctions. Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions oversaw the purchase of what is now the most expensive card ever purchased and says there are fewer than 50 authenticated T-206 Wagner cards.
USA Today reports that the buyer and seller chose to remain anonymous and that the card is considered the rarest baseball card in the world.
Goldin Auctions said the previous record for Wagner’s T206 was $6.6 million and the card sold in August 2021.
According to him National Baseball Hall of FameWagner spent all of his 21 seasons (1897-1917) with the Pirates, his hometown team. The shortstop won the National League batting title eight times and won a World Series title with Pittsburgh in 1909.
Wagner was one of the first five players elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.
Collectors also have their eyes on another ultra-rare baseball card that’s on sale until the auction ends on August 27: a mint condition Mickey Mantle card from 1952.
The Associated Press describes the owner, Anthony Giordano, as a New Jersey waste management businessman. Giordano paid $50,000 for the card at a card show in New York City in 1991.
As for the card itself, the condition is near mint and Heritage Auctions, which is handling the bidding, estimates it could fetch more than $10 million by the end of the auction.
“The quality of the card is the key,” Derek Grady, executive vice president of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, told the Associated Press. “Four sharp corners, the brightness and color jump off the card.”
