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 $2.35 million, the seller of the card said Monday.
The 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 on 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, in 2000 paid a then-record $1,265,000 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.
It's no Honus Wagner card, but maybe there's still hope for my torn and tattered Tony Dorsett rookie card - then again, maybe not. Back in the day when my friend Ray and I collected football cards and hated the Dallas Cowboys, we took particular delight in defacing a TD rookie card, poking out his eyes and blackening his teeth. We might have even put the card in the spokes of our bikes. We had no idea he would be a hall of famer nor did we care. He was the enemy and we took it to his likeness. Besides, we had high discount rates.