1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner

PSA's CardFacts calls the T206 Honus Wagner the Holy Grail of all trading cards, and it holds the public price record for a baseball card: a $7.25 million private sale of a copy graded SGC 2, announced through Goldin in August 2022 (Sports Collectors Digest; Beckett). This file covers why so few exist, how many have been graded and the sales on the public record.

The card

The card belongs to the American Tobacco Company's “White Border” series, catalogued as T206. The Met dates its copy 1909–11; the journalist Dave Jamieson, in a 2022 Met Spotlight, says the Wagner was issued in 1909. Per the Met, the “T” stands for twentieth-century tobacco and 206 marks the 206th set in Jefferson Burdick's catalog. The front is a lithograph based on a photograph — a Carl Horner photograph of about 1902, per SCP Auctions. The back advertises the cigarette brand it was packed with: most surviving copies have Sweet Caporal backs (PSA), and Heritage calls its 2026 Piedmont-back copy “one of just three Piedmonts known to exist.”

Honus Wagner

Wagner (February 24, 1874 – December 6, 1955) played shortstop for Louisville and Pittsburgh, won eight batting titles and stole 723 bases (PSA). He passed 3,000 hits — a record at the time — and helped Pittsburgh win the 1909 World Series (the Met). He was one of the five original Hall of Fame inductees, elected in 1936 (Baseball Hall of Fame).

Why so few exist

The American Tobacco Company started production, then pulled the card early (PSA; SCP Auctions; Hall of Fame). Why is disputed; the Met's curator Allison Rudnick and Jamieson both say the exact reason is unknown.

The Hall of Fame notes that hundreds, possibly thousands, of baseball cards are rarer, many with a single known copy. The Wagner was a premium card early on: Burdick's American Card Catalog listed it at $50 when most T206 cards were valued under a quarter, and by the 1970s a collectors' advertisement suggested a copy could be worth up to $1,500 (Hall of Fame).

How many exist

No one knows. These figures count different things — survivors, “known” copies or slabs — so they are not directly comparable.

REA's 2021 catalog warns that combined reports may overstate the count because some cards have crossed between companies (see crossover grading), and T206cards says its PSA figures leave out qualified slabs. Some copies sit in institutions: the Met holds one in the Burdick collection (63.350.246.206.378), the Hall of Fame two — one (B-1984-0211) has a thumbtack hole above the head — and Wikipedia lists one at the New York Public Library.

Card outline (circled numbers):

1. Picture area: a lithographed portrait on a monochrome background — yellow per the Met, orange per SCP Auctions (left blank here; no card art is drawn).
2. Caption strip: the name line at the bottom of the front (on the Hall of Fame’s copy, the name there has been inked over).
3. White border: the Met catalogs the issue as the “White Border” series (T206).
4. Side borders (red dashes): the edges Bill Mastro admitted cutting on the PSA 8 copy, per the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
5. Back: a cigarette advertisement — Sweet Caporal on most copies, Piedmont on three known (Heritage).

Estimates chart (numbered rows):

1. Hall of Fame (Tim Wiles): estimates run from 25 to 200.
2. The Met: 50 to 100 survive.
3. PSA CardFacts: about 60–75 known.
4. SCP Auctions (2022): common estimate about 60 (red dot), range 50 to “upwards of 75” (arrow).
5. REA (2021): 50 on the combined PSA and SGC reports, which may overstate.
6. T206cards (June 2026): about 53 graded slabs, PSA 35 + SGC 18.
7. SCD and Beckett (2022): fewer than 50 authenticated (open circle).

Population snapshot

PSA's CardFacts (read October 17, 2026, undated) shows only an “Unknown back” listing of 12 copies — one NM-MT 8, four GOOD 2, six PR 1, one Authentic; its census on the same page says “GOOD 2 (8).” REA's 2021 lot description says only four Wagners grade higher than its SGC 3, all at PSA: an NM-MT 8, an EX 5, an EX 5 with the MC qualifier and a VG-EX 4. See the population report guide.

The finest copy, and its trimming

The PSA NM-MT 8 is the copy once owned by Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall; Beckett says PSA graded it in 1991. In 2013 the dealer Bill Mastro pleaded guilty to mail fraud and admitted trimming it (Beckett). At his August 2015 sentencing (20 months in prison), the U.S. Attorney's Office said he admitted cutting the side borders, hiding it when he sold the card in 1987, and cutting it again in 1992 knowing it had been submitted for grading. PSA still lists the 8 as the finest known copy.

Notable public sales

Heritage's lot page says the SGC Authentic grade on its Piedmont copy reflects evidence of trimming, and lists a buyer's premium of 22% of the winning bid without saying whether the $5,856,000 includes it; SCD called it a record for a Wagner graded Authentic. The same restored copy listed above was back at Heritage in October 2026, at a current bid of $1,025,000 with 11 days to go when SI reported it on October 13 — a bid, not a result. cllct reported that no T206 Wagner sold publicly in 2024, the first such year since 1994. On premiums, see how card auctions work.

Where the sources disagree

Buyer's checklist

• Verify the cert on the grader's own site (how) and check the holder against our fake-slab guide.
• “Authentic” means genuine but not numerically graded; Wagner lots so labeled have been described as trimmed (Heritage) or restored (SI).
• Check the back: Heritage counts only three Piedmonts.
• Compare grader, grade, back, date and premium, not just price.
• Distrust automated feeds: PSA's CardFacts sales table, read October 17, 2026, listed eBay rows from $19 to $4,819 under cert 00000001.