Posted on 02/27/2007 2:38:46 AM PST by nickcarraway
The "Holy Grail of baseball cards," the famous 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card once owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky, has sold for a record-setting $2,350,000, the seller of the card said Monday.
The anonymous buyer has only been identified as a Southern California collector. SCP Auctions Inc., a company that holds sports memorabilia auctions, said it bought a small share of the card. It is scheduled to be shown at a news conference at Dodger Stadium Tuesday.
There are about 60 of the tobacco cards in existence featuring the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop, one of the first five players to be inducted in Baseball's Hall of Fame.
The seller, Brian Seigel, paid a then-record $1,265,000 in 2000 for the prize card, which is in much better shape than the others.
"This particular one was preserved in spectacular condition," said Joe Orlando, president of Professional Sports Authenticator of Newport Beach -- the company that certified the authenticity of the card. "It's the Holy Grail of baseball cards."
Still, the Wagner cards are so rare that even tattered ones will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Seigel said.
The others "you could stick in the middle of the street and let cars drive over it through the day, take it in your hand and crumple it up, and it still would be a $100,000 card," said Seigel, CEO of Emerald Capital LLC, an asset management company, who lives in Las Vegas.
Gretzky and Bruce McNall, former owner of the Los Angeles Kings, bought the card for $451,000 in 1991.
During his ownership of the card, Seigel displayed it at several sports collectible shows, showed it at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and brought it to opening bell ceremonies for the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York.
"The Wagner card gave me a tremendous amount of pride, excitement and pleasure," he said. "I hope the new owner will have the same satisfaction I enjoyed over the years."
The tobacco cards used to be included in packs of cigarettes. Collectors believe Wagner's cards are rare because he stopped allowing the American Tobacco Co. to use his image, fearing it would encourage children to smoke.
Nicknamed the "Flying Dutchman," Wagner was the National League batting champion in eight of his 21 seasons and finished his career with a lifetime .329 average. He retired in 1917 with more hits, runs, RBIs, doubles, triples and steals than any National League player.
I think this is the card that someone found in a couch about ten years ago.
Neat, putting the Mick in the dugout!
Wow, you're related to Carroll? For a time, he was arguably the best catcher in baseball. Carroll still holds the record for most hits in a doubleheader (with 9, tied with a few other players), and might hold others that I don't know of. Great player, but got hurt young.
Quite right. Plus your state. MA is 5.3%. Combined, then, for the long term gain, would be 20.3.
The Flying Dutchman was also a sailing ship found sailing with no one on board. Nothing was missing, so there were no pirates aboard. Weird, huh?
My buddy cringed as he looked over the trashcan and lamp shade. A couple of Nolan Ryan rookies, Tom Seaver rookies (2), Reggie Jackson rookie, Bench rookies (2) and a host of other stars were scattered among the commons from '67 through '70.
Not quite worth an island but still... ;-)
Nope. Thanks to the US Congress, when the capital gains rates were adjusted down, they specifically exempted collectibles. So, if you happen to be in a lower tax bracket, if you sell a collectible after holding it for less than a year, the profit is taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. If you hold it for a year or more, it is taxed at 28%. So, unless you are in the higher tax brackets, by holding a collectible long term, you actually pay at a higher rate. Thanks, Congress.
Wow, amazing! Exactly what I remember from 46 years ago.
It is a steal at 99 cents!
I wonder what my shoe box full of Mike Lum cards will be worth in the future? I think I got a Mike Lum and Nelson Briles in every pack.
I'll bet I've got every print they made.
Fred Carroll- Post 6.
I've seen pages of baseball stats on him- which are meaningless to me. Thanks for shedding some light on his career for me- it means a lot.
After he got out of baseball, he had a shipping business in San Francisco, until he passed away in 1904. He died of heart disease at about the same age that I had a bypass. Runs in the family, I guess.
Was he injured? Do you have any more info on this?
He had a hand injury in 1891, according to "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract" pg. 421, and because of it couldn't play catcher anymore. James doesn't specify how the injury occurred, or what exactly it was. He tried being an outfielder for a year, but had a bad season, and was dumped by his team. He played baseball in some California minor leagues for a few years after that though, until 1895.
update thread here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1892909/posts
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