Honus Wagner T206 Card (record example)

The card, and why there are so few

In 1909 the American Tobacco Company began packing small lithographed baseball cards into its cigarettes. The series collectors call T206, or the white-border set, pictured 524 players. Standard cards measure 1 7/16 by 2 5/8 inches. Wagner's card advertised Piedmont or Sweet Caporal cigarettes on the back and was produced at Factory 25 in Virginia.

Wagner's card was pulled early. The Sporting News reported on October 12, 1912, that Wagner 'did not care to have his picture in a package of cigarettes.' His granddaughter later said he did not want children to have to buy tobacco to get his card. The money theory has a problem: Wagner sent the sportswriter who had brokered the request, John Gruber, a $10 check as compensation for the declined deal.

Estimates of how many reached the public run from about 50 to 200. Sources disagree on how many survive: one count says fewer than 50 authenticated copies, another about 47, another 50 to 60. Collectors track the known copies one by one, by certificate number and nickname.

The Flying Dutchman at his peak

When the card was printed, Honus Wagner was 35 and the best player in the National League. In 1909 he hit .339 with a league-leading 39 doubles, 100 RBI and 35 stolen bases, led the league in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging, and helped the Pittsburgh Pirates beat Detroit in the World Series, decided on October 16.

He played 21 seasons, from 1897 to 1917, and finished with 3,420 hits, 252 triples, 1,732 RBI and a .328 average. He won eight batting titles, including 1909 and 1911, both years the T206 set was in production.

The record copy

The record holder is a Sweet Caporal-back Wagner graded SGC 2, Good, on the 1-to-10 scale of Sportscard Guaranty. On a Thursday in early August 2022, the broker announced it had sold privately for $7.25 million. Neither buyer nor seller was named. Most reports date the sale August 4, 2022; one sales list dates it August 3, and one hobby tracker records the figure as $7.5 million while noting that private-sale prices are unconfirmed.

That same tracker, which numbers every Wagner it can follow, links this copy to an earlier public sale: a copy then in a PSA 2 holder that sold at auction in December 2006 for $294,338 and was later moved into an SGC holder. If that link is right, the card rose roughly 25-fold in under 16 years. No other source we found confirms the chain, so treat it as the tracker's identification.

Announcing the sale, the broker's founder said no Wagner card had ever sold for less than its previous price. The claim fits the sales of this copy as recorded, but it was made by the party that facilitated the deal.

The record race of 2021 and 2022

For years a Wagner held the record for any sports card, until a one-of-one Mike Trout rookie card brought $3.9 million in August 2020. In early 2021 a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $5.2 million, a figure soon matched by a one-of-one LeBron James rookie card.

Then the Wagners came back. A PSA 2 copy sold for $3,751,500 in May 2021. On August 15, 2021, an SGC 3 copy brought $6,606,296 at auction, more than a million dollars above the old card record. That same SGC 3 had sold in 2012; reported prices for that earlier sale differ, at $1,232,466 in one sales list and $1.32 million in another account.

The SGC 2 sale, just under a year later, pushed the Wagner mark to $7.25 million and made it the most expensive trading card of any kind. It held that title for about three weeks. On August 28, 2022, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded SGC 9.5 sold for $12.6 million, more than doubling the old card record.

The Wagner record itself has held. In February 2026 a newly surfaced PSA 1 copy, kept by one family for 116 years, sold for $5.124 million with buyer's premium, which reports ranked as the third-highest Wagner price behind the SGC 2 and the SGC 3.

Grade is not the whole story

A grade of 2, 'Good,' sits near the bottom of the 1-to-10 scale. That a Good card holds the price record over higher-graded copies says something about the Wagner market. The most famous high-grade copy, the PSA 8 'Gretzky' Wagner, was admitted in a 2013 guilty plea to have been trimmed in the mid-1980s, and its last reported sale was a private one at $2.8 million in 2007.

Price has tracked both grade and the moment of sale. Among recent sales, a PSA 1 brought $3,136,500 in March 2022, a PSA 1.5 brought $3,720,000 in October 2022, and a PSA Authentic copy, the lowest tier, $1,968,000 in September 2023.

To identify this specific copy, the certificate matters: the hobby tracker lists it under SGC certificate 2183516, with a Sweet Caporal back. Anyone offered 'the record Wagner' should expect that certificate and the ownership record to match.

The numbers

1909 season

137 G, 495 AB, 92 R, 168 H, 39 2B, 10 3B, 5 HR, 100 RBI, 35 SB, .339/.420/.489. NL batting champion.

1910 season

150 G, 178 H, 34 2B, 8 3B, 4 HR, 81 RBI, 24 SB, .320

1911 season

130 G, 158 H, 23 2B, 16 3B, 9 HR, 89 RBI, 20 SB, .334/.423/.507. NL batting champion.

Career (1897-1917)

2,794 G, 3,420 H, 643 2B, 252 3B, 101 HR, 1,732 RBI, 723 SB, .328/.391/.467

Timeline

1. 1909

   The American Tobacco Company begins the T206 series; Wagner's card is withdrawn early.

2. Oct 16, 1909

   Wagner's Pirates win the World Series over Detroit.

3. Oct 12, 1912

   A published report quotes Wagner saying he did not want his picture in a package of cigarettes.

4. Mar 22, 1991

   Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall buy the PSA 8 copy at auction for $451,000.

5. Dec 14, 2006

   A copy in a PSA 2 holder, later tracked as this card, sells at auction for $294,338.

6. Sep 2007

   The Gretzky copy sells privately for $2.8 million.

7. Apr 19, 2012

   The SGC 3 copy that would later set a record sells at auction.

8. Aug 2020

   A Mike Trout one-of-one card at $3.9 million takes the sports-card record from the Wagner.

9. May 22, 2021

   A PSA 2 Wagner sells for $3,751,500.

10. Aug 15, 2021

    An SGC 3 Wagner sells at auction for $6,606,296, a record for any sports card.

11. Aug 4, 2022

    This SGC 2 copy sells privately for $7.25 million, a new record for any trading card.

12. Aug 28, 2022

    A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle SGC 9.5 sells for $12.6 million, taking the overall card record.

13. Oct 8, 2022

    A PSA 1.5 Wagner sells for $3,720,000.

14. Feb 2026

    A family-held PSA 1 Wagner sells for $5.124 million, third-highest for the card.

The world in 1909

• Feb 12, 1909

  The NAACP is founded.

• Mar 4, 1909

  William Howard Taft becomes president.

• Mar 30, 1909

  The Queensboro Bridge opens in New York.

• Aug 2, 1909

  The Army buys its first airplane from the Wright brothers, and the Lincoln cent debuts.

• Aug 12, 1909

  The Indianapolis Motor Speedway holds its first event.

• Dec 31, 1909

  The Manhattan Bridge opens to traffic.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Honus Wagner T206 Card (record example) is number 9 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (8 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The most expensive Wagner is graded only 2 out of 10.
• The $7.25 million sale was private, not an auction, and neither the buyer nor the seller was named.
• It was the most expensive trading card in the world for only about three weeks.
• Wagner sent the man who asked for his permission a $10 check to make up for the deal he refused.
• One tracker links this card to a 2006 sale at $294,338, roughly one twenty-fifth of its 2022 price.
• A Wagner that sat in one family for 116 years sold in 2026 for $5.124 million and still fell short of this copy.